Craig A. Munro liked an update for The Last Machine in the Solar System

Dear Machiners!

Time has come and gone since we last spoke. Much has happened and there are many things to update you on.

First, I want to begin with the Nerdist contest which is CONCLUDING tomorrow. This contest was hosted by Inkshares following the Sword & Laser: The Sequel contest (which we co-won, in case anybody forgot :-) and many thanks to you!).

This Nerdist contest’s theme is SPACE OPERA. So that’s really fun and there are many fantastic entries in the competition. I have backed about five or six myself.

I’m not going to pick favorites, especially at this late stage. But I will emphasize that as a past contest participant I very much appreciate the drive, love, dedication, passion, and ultimately sometimes, pain, that goes with these six week emotional sprints. I tip my cap to these authors, fighting for discovery because their words need to breath. The battle doesn’t end here. So even for those disappointed come tomorrow, it’s so critical to remember that if your words deserve to be heard you must never stop fighting for them. This is also part pep talk for myself - just because my story will be published, it remains difficult to stay focused on writing, and write on we must.

Remember, the contest is not over yet. So keep pushing authors! The last full day was the best day for us in the S&L - I think I had exactly 50 new readers.…

And to all my supporters: Some of you may even have stray Inkshares’ credits hanging around on your accounts. Go take a look at the entrants and pick a favorite to support:

https://www.inkshares.com/contests/nerdist-space-opera-contest

To update you on THE LAST MACHINE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM:

I really cannot tell you how excited I am for you to hold this story in your hands, to read the words and to enjoy the truly unbelievable illustrations by Jack Katz. I have completed the manuscript and it is ready to hand into Inkshares, and then all the real fun shall begin! I am wrapping up a few straggler pieces that Inkshares requires to begin the process and will be handing things over in the next couple of days. I am not sure yet of a publication date, but expect to know soon. Whether it is late this year or early next, I know that the wait will be worth the ultimate reward. Thanks again for being along for the ride!

At the bottom is a brand new illustration from the man himself, Jack Katz. I don’t know how he does it or where it comes from. He takes inspiration from my writing it seems. The value I draw in turn from him bringing my story to life is the best part of all.

As a fan of my story, I have an important favor to ask on behalf of Jack, the greatest creator I know. Jack is 88 years old and his vitality and creativity, as evidenced by his illustrations, has not waned. With that said, after a seven decades long career, illustrating such famed works as Popeye and Bulletman, money remains a hardship. In addition to working with me on The Last Machine, Jack is working diligently on the epic sequel to The First Kingdom, called Beyond the Beyond. Please consider supporting Jack, one of America’s great living artists from the gold and silver age of comics via Patreon. I very much appreciate your support for my friend!

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2830339&ty=c

This update is becoming long-winded, which probably shouldn’t be surprising as I took too long to update (nearly 2 months). However, I have a couple more quick hits which are important!

There is an absolutely spectacular epic fantasy project which everyone who supports me, Inkshares, and flat-out awesome writing, should back. The book is Blood Dawn by John Robin. I could write an elaborate explanation of why, but it’s actually not necessary because a number of John’s super fans (including yours truly) made a sweet video. Here’s the awesome fan video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdDc8B-dL7o

And here’s my uncut endorsement of Blood Dawn! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqLl2njZbTw

Last but certainly not least, I have started a syndicate on Inkshares! This is basically a monthly subscription book club. Inkshares is the real deal everybody and as one of their authors I want to support Inkshares and the wonderful projects that they help bring to light. The syndicate is called GREAT SCIFI for the 21st CENTURY and BEYOND SYNDICATE!

As indicated by the name, we are backing books that explore complex issues in the realm of SciFi. Books in the same genre as The Last Machine. So if you like my novella, you will hopefully enjoy the work we support. Feel free to check out our syndicate and sign-up today to support other authors. You can also read more about syndicates in general here.

Annnnd, drumroll, I’m thrilled to announce that The Inhabitants: An Unremembered Life is our first backed book! Congratulations to author Mike Sebby. His book is amazing and perfect for our syndicate. I love it as our first selection; it sets a great tone for us going forward. Check it out today as Mike is still funding his book and needs your support. Also, Mike sent out a hysterical video update today. I suggest you watch. You also may hear mention of a certain machine in said video!

I will do my best to update more frequently so I don’t have soooo much to mention per update. It’s all important, and I hope none of the individual items get overlooked because of the length of this message!

-Matthew

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Craig A. Munro liked the forum thread, In the morning I'm making waffles (with some rant on the side)

I’m with Julian 100% on the whole "credits should be for readers, not authors" thing.

I don’t think we can expect any other authors to go through the effort of scrutinizing a reader’s profile page before sending a pitch - people are just going to send a pitch. One reader who doesn’t like scifi getting a scifi pitch isn’t going to hurt Author A at all; they’re going to methodically send 100 pitches a day, hoping to gain some interest. It won’t matter if a reader’s profile says "Interested in: scifi" or not. No one is going to go to that level of effort before deciding to pitch.

(If you want a tip for who to pitch to, just go to a book that you think shares your target audience and pitch to all of its readers.)

It would be cool if Inkshares allowed readers to identify what genres they’re accepting pitches from for a given month, and then the system could automatically stop pitches from other genres from going through. Authors could just receive a "[Reader] is not accepting horror pitches at this time" message, and then maybe readers would actually READ THEIR PITCHES instead of disregarding them because there are sooo many.

The fact that readers can’t browse by genre needs to be fixed immediately. We as author should also be able to tag our projects with key words that readers can search by. These would improve the reader experience immensely.

(Now that I’m on a roll...) The fact that I can search for "Matt Sobin" and @Matthew Isaac Sobin doesn’t show up as a possible search result is frustrating. Same goes for searching for "A Life Engineered" when I really mean "The Life Engineered". These things need to be fixed.

I’m not a fan of requiring a fee to post a project; I don’t see the point of that. There’s already a limit to the number of pitches you can send to a given reader: one. I don’t see how asking an author to pay $15 would do anything to recruit readers.

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Craig A. Munro liked an update for The Inhabitants: An Unremembered Life

Ladies & Gents-

So I surpassed 100 unique readers! That’s splendid. I mean, seriously. Absolutely splendid.

This means it’s time to raffle off a $50 Amazon gift card! So I made a video. Or at least I thought I made a video.

Thanks to human error (in the IT biz, we refer to it as PEBKAC -- Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair), I kinda messed up my raffle video. Look, it’s been a very tiring week after moving to a new house, and I’m going to use Daylight Savings as a cop-out excuse like the rest of your co-workers inevitably will today, even though one hour shouldn’t make that big of a difference in our basic functioning. But hey, I’m not above playing that card if it gives me a pass for making fundamental technical mistakes.

Fear not, though. I still have something to present, and all prizes were still awarded!

If you want to know more about that and who won, you’ll just have to click this link to find out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoRvK8Pv0v4

Phew, okay. Congrats to the winners, and let’s hope the next one is less bungled.

Toodles.

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Craig A. Munro liked the forum thread, In the morning I'm making waffles (with some rant on the side)

I’m going to waffle on here about a few topics: writing a book, credit swapping, and Inkshares business model.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m not a natural author. I don’t consider myself a writer, but a storyteller. It comes from my gaming background. The ability to think quickly on the fly, the ability to plan and anticipate what the rats inside your maze might do. These are the things that make a good GM - but only some of those skills transfer over to being a writer and it’s been a steep learning curve.

To calm the voice in my head from a story that just wouldn’t shut up, I made the decision to tell this story to a significantly broader audience than just a few friends. I started not knowing what medium that was. Graphic novel? Write it as a script? Write it as a novel? I honestly had no idea, and someone said write it as a novel and then it can be anything. Enter Nanowrimo and a co-author - and now I have something, Something that really excites me. Something that I can see the shape and feel the texture. Something I think that will excite others.

So now I just need to find them and I chose Inkshares. Like many here, I’m not exactly flush with lots of friends and family that can financially support the project, certainly not enough to get it into production given the target.

So what to do?

I looked at novel swaps - and have done a few, but honestly, it feels icky. I can’t tell if people doing the swapping are genuinely interested in the project, or just doing it it to get one order closer to that magic threshold. The whole business of getting credits revolves around referrals. So, am I meant to spam the people who’ve been kind enough to follow the project with constant referrals? (Sure feels that way given the number of recommendation messages I get - 300 recommendations in a week?!?!). You know what? I don’t care about credits. When I get them, great, I’ll go look for something to support. Will I attempt to spam refer and novel swap? No, no I will not.

I’ve used my credits in the goodwill train on projects that I’m genuinely interested in. I’ve made rare referrals, on things I genuinely want to see made into a book, but I’m over credits.

As an author I don’t need credits, I don’t need to waste time jumping through hoops to try and get them so I can somehow game the system. I need access to an audience of people who will genuinely want to see my project come to fruition.

What would I like to see?

It’s harder than I thought to connect to readers on the Inkshares site. A big part of that is my fault. I need to write a synopsis that doesn’t give away the plot bunnies and sounds engaging enough to have someone plonk down some dollars on the hope that one day this will be an actual book. At the moment its a half-assed job, but I’ve been so busy in doing the edits and getting to that wow this is really exciting stage that its fallen by the wayside. It’s something I’ll work on shortly, but the crucial thing here is time. I don’t have enough of it. I imagine I’m not alone in this.

Part of this is Inkshares fault. The way the system is now, I don’t know if I am wasting what little precious time I have or not. I know they are a new startup and still figuring out this whole hybrid model of publishing, but the current model and process is making things harder.

I read some of the content in the recent Reddit Q&A and there was an interesting stat in there. At present there are about 10 readers for every author project (and they are working to increase this to 100:1 or 1000:1). Cool - that’s what this author needs, an audience, it’s what every author here is looking for.

So lets look at the readers, do an example, and click on Thaddeus Woodman. When I click on Thaddeus I’m looking for clues to whether or not Thad would like the project enough to plonk down some money. What clues have I got? He has some text under his name - Great! (many times it’s blank, or has a generic ’an avid reader’).

Cofounder of Inkshares; producer of code and books. Questions about Inkshares? Email me: thad@inkshares.com - Okay that doesn’t tell me whether he’d like my book, or whether I’d waste my time in pitching him. Ooh he has some circles on his picture indicating he’s supported other books - Great! Hovering over each of these tells me what these projects are.

Blasted by Adversity, Slim and the Beast, the cats Pyjama’s, Abomination, The future of men. Are any of those in my genre?

I go look at each one Memoir, fiction narrative, childrens book, historical fantasy, non-fiction book. Not looking good.

Then I can go through his recent history - Ooh he followed a sci-fi! and when I look on the right hand side, he’s recommended one as well.

So maybe he’d be interested in my project. Pitch.

How much time did that take?

Now let’s put on our time travelling hat and travel into the future where Inkshares is a thousand times bigger. While now there is likely to be far more people who will like my book, I still have to find them...somehow. I still have to laboriously pan for flecks of possible reader gold in the muddy water.

Suggestions

Credits

I don’t care about credits - it makes me wonder what your reasoning was in introducing them in the first place. It’s free money, and it just makes people nuts. What did you think would happen when you throw suitcases of filthy cash into the air in a crowded place?

As an Author I don’t want credits, give them to Readers, ONLY to readers. More cashed up readers = good. More cashed up authors desperate to get their novel published = ticket to crazy town.

Pay me when the book reaches target, and make that process as easy as possible.

If you HAVE to give me credits - give me something I can gift as a prize to my loyal followers. Have Author Credits - transferable and Readers Credits - purchasable.

Readers

It would be far more time efficient to find an audience if I knew what genre of books readers liked. Sure, can’t hold a gun to their head and force them to tell us, but Inkshares should make it easy for Readers to connect to Authors.

Send out a survey, (reward participation with Reader Credits), find out what genre they want to read and pass this info on to Authors. Feed us pitches, feed us leads, we are trying to SELL something after all.

A searchable option for authors to FIND those people would be amazing and save enormous time and effort...especially when Inkshares gets much bigger.

Okay - Waffles and rant over. Back to editing.

Julian

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Craig A. Munro liked an update for Suffrage - The First World Key

We hit 150 readers/supporters. 150 people of exquisite taste. Nice. I think that deserves a surprise.

Have some more story.

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Craig A. Munro liked an update for Lucky

Dear Readers,

Just time for a quick update before I have to go do my dishes (yay for responsibilities, am I right?).

FIRST: Chapter Seven has been uploaded! This is the last chapter I will be uploading before the end of the Nerdist contest so...ENJOY!

SECOND: I’m still waiting on a few more purchases before AC Weston and I raffle off ten FREE copies of her novel, She Is The End. Don’t hesitate if you want a copy of this wonderful novel!

THIRD AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: We are still 75 copies short of where we need to be to win the Nerdist Space Opera Contest! There is only the remainder of today, Monday and Tuesday to make your purchase count for the contest. I am the point of imploring each of you - $10 from each person receiving this update will push us over that ledge into success!

If you haven’t purchased yet, I want to know what I can do to help you make that decision, either to preorder or not. Let me know via email (adrian.babst@gmail.com - yes, it’s me. Webster is a pen name) or on Twitter (@RH_Webster) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/RHWebster.ScienceFiction). I am keeping a close eye on all of these and will be trying to respond to each of you as quickly as possible.

In return, I will tell you all the fun story about how where the name RH Webster came from. It’s a rip roaring tale about...a kid, a missed homework assignment, and a stairwell.

- Webster

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Craig A. Munro liked an update for Dax Harrison

Hello friends and readers!

Yes, I know, I know. It’s been a good long while since my last update. Rest assured, I have been hard at work on Dax Harrison. I did not meet my previously planned end-of-February completion goal, but I am steadily heading toward the finish line.

"Uh-oh. Tony, do you have... *dramatic gasp* ...writer’s block?"

No! Not at all! In fact, progress on the book has been happily moving along very steady! However, it is taking longer than I originally thought it would. First off, this is my first novel I’ve ever written, so I am most certainly learning and improving as I go. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, Dax was originally written as a screenplay. When I dove into this project of converting the story from script to novel, I thought, "Hey, I’m already ahead of the game! The story is already done. I’ll have this out in no time!"

Oh... silly me.

Interestingly enough, I think having written the story originally as a film script is part of what has made this a challenging journey. Scenes need restructuring and expanding, characters have inner-thoughts to be addressed, the world needs a bit more fleshing out, etc. It’s pretty much the exact opposite writing style of a screenplay, in which the only things on the page are quite literally what your audience will see and hear on screen. A bare-bones blueprint for the movie, if you will. Anyway, that mental gear-shift has taken some time and patience, but I believe I’m improving every step of the way. :)

It is also hard not to get excited about the sequel. Once book #1 is out, it won’t be long at all before I dive right into book #2. Dax’s world is going to get bigger, more fun, more dangerous, and might even make you shed a tear or two. I can’t wait!

Thank you again everyone for your support and patience in my journey to become a legitimate author. It has been an unbelievable gift and continues to fuel my creative fire every time I sit down to get some writing done.

Final thought: As of today, I have an editor lined up! Woo hoo! As soon as I’m done with the manuscript, I will pass it along and someone will be able to tell me how terrible it is! (This is actually, in fact, exciting news)

All right, gang. I will try to get these updates out a little more frequently, but for now, it’s back to the writing dungeon for me!

-Tony

OK, Final, FINAL note: I stumbled onto this beautiful digital artwork yesterday online and said, "Oh my God! It’s Logan!" I am not sure if this is a character from another already established sci-fi universe or just an original creation from the artist. Nevertheless, this is a perfect image of Lieutenant Logan Weaver in my mind, so I thought I’d share. Enjoy!

(Source)

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Craig A. Munro followed The Decaying Destiny of Rob the Zombie

The Decaying Destiny of Bobby the Zombie

What would life be like being dead and the unending pain from being alive once again be like to experience? Trapped in his undead body, Rob can only watch the horrors he creates as "the hunger" controls him, while wishing for his second death.

Craig A. Munro followed Matt Espinosa