First, update on After Man.  I’ve finished rewriting act one and am digging in deep on act two.  Unfortunately, I’ve had a rough month or so as I’ve been working through some personal issues.  Some of these greatly affect the story that is Rise and her sequels.  Some also affect After Man’s narrative.  Either way, it’s drained all the creative out of me and I’m just starting to get that groove back.  So, stay tuned for more on that front.  I will upload a few more chapters in the coming weeks.

Now, on to something else you can help with.  Many of you also preordered Rise.  Some haven’t and are just getting introduced to it.  Here’s a copy of the update I sent there.

We are one month away from the release of Rise into the world wide wild!  And Rise needs your help yet again when this happens.  Well, really before it happens.  Here’s how.

Bookstores!  Go to them wherever you see them and request they stock the book.  All you need is the book title and my name and they will find it in their system to order.  Even if you have a copy coming, doing this helps tell bookstores there is interest in this product and gets them putting copies on their shelves for you to, I don’t know, take friends to get.

Amazon!  This is the big one.  The number of reviews a book gets is critical in getting it visibility on Amazon’s pages.  The magic number for this is 100.  Don’t assume everyone else will do this so you don’t have to.  Just go real quick and knock it out.  And your review does NOT have to be a work of literary note itself.  It can be something as simple as “I like this book” with a star rating to show how much.  Pro tip: in the subject line put “ARC review” or “Advance Reader Copy review”.  That tells people looking at the reviews who see you aren’t a “verified purchaser” because you didn’t buy it from Amazon that you did read it because you had special access early.  Second Pro tip: copy pasta!  Once you put one on Amazon, go to Goodreads, copy and pasteJ  And Bn.com.  And Indigo.  Anywhere you want.  You can reuse the same review on all of them.

Now for the big question.  When?  Well, with bookstores, now!  With the reviews, do them as soon as you can.  Amazon won’t open it up for reviews until about 2 weeks before or less.  I’ll be sure to send out a reminder once I notice it.

Now for the last big question.  The release party.  I’m still ironing out some details but Michelle and I will be at Dragoncon.  Don’t worry, it won’t happen at con so you don’t have to rush out and get a con badge.  When I know more details, I’ll let you know.  It’s only meant to be a little deal for all of you who supported this project in GA and who come to Dragoncon to come see me and chat about the book.  For those of you in Europe, I’ll have another in Frankfurt after I get back.

With the upcoming release of Rise next month, I just thought I’d give you some idea of what’s coming with Fall.

Fall will be released for pre-order Labor Day weekend.  That’s right, if you want to get the sequel to Rise sooner, make sure you preorder it and get others to do so as well.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.

We are one month away from the release of Rise into the world wide wild!  And Rise needs your help yet again when this happens.  Well, really before it happens.  Here’s how.

Bookstores!  Go to them wherever you see them and request they stock the book.  All you need is the book title and my name and they will find it in their system to order.  Even if you have a copy coming, doing this helps tell bookstores there is interest in this product and gets them putting copies on their shelves for you to, I don’t know, take friends to get.

Amazon!  This is the big one.  The number of reviews a book gets is critical in getting it visibility on Amazon’s pages.  The magic number for this is 100.  Don’t assume everyone else will do this so you don’t have to.  Just go real quick and knock it out.  And your review does NOT have to be a work of literary note itself.  It can be something as simple as “I like this book” with a star rating to show how much.  Pro tip: in the subject line put “ARC review” or “Advance Reader Copy review”.  That tells people looking at the reviews who see you aren’t a “verified purchaser” because you didn’t buy it from Amazon that you did read it because you had special access early.  Second Pro tip: copy pasta!  Once you put one on Amazon, go to Goodreads, copy and pasteJ  And Bn.com.  And Indigo.  Anywhere you want.  You can reuse the same review on all of them.

Now for the big question.  When?  Well, with bookstores, now!  With the reviews, do them as soon as you can.  Amazon won’t open it up for reviews until about 2 weeks before or less.  I’ll be sure to send out a reminder once I notice it.

Now for the last big question.  The release party.  I’m still ironing out some details but Michelle and I will be at Dragoncon.  Don’t worry, it won’t happen at con so you don’t have to rush out and get a con badge.  When I know more details, I’ll let you know.  It’s only meant to be a little deal for all of you who supported this project in GA and who come to Dragoncon to come see me and chat about the book.  For those of you in Europe, I’ll have another in Frankfurt after I get back.

Once more, my friends, I turn to you for help.

You... you did it. I mean, I never doubted your level of commitment but I thought the competition would be so fierce, so aggressive and overwhelming, that there really wasn’t any chance.

But you magnificent sentient organisms you... you fraking did it.

You got The Life Engineered nominated for a 2016 Dragon Award in the Science Fiction Category.

I don’t even know what to say about that. Thank you? Seems a bit weak, so I’ll go with the next best thing; go vote again. Click this link and go put in your vote for The Life Engineered. We’ve made it this far, let’s find out the distance we can push this crazy thing.

Simply magnificent...

NOTE: If you’re in the mood to encourage other fantastic Inkshares authors along with The Lie Engineered, may I suggest An Unattractive Vampire and Asteroid Made of Dragons. Two fine books also in the Sword & Laser Collection.

JF

 So huh... Remember when I asked all you beautiful people to help my first book, The Life Engineered, get nominated for a Dragon Award? Ha! Good times, gooooood times. What a laugh we had.

I didn’t think there was a tuna’s chance in a cattery of this happening but apparently I’m wrong. You guys did it. You got The Life Engineered nominated in the Science Fiction Category.

It would be a lie to pretend I’m not floored.

So I guess, the next logical step is to try to win? You’ve been kind enough to go vote for the nomination so perhaps I can impose upon you to follow this link and sign up to vote for The Life Engineered and perhaps, we can make some magic happen? It’s a long shot but so was getting nominated.

Wow, friend... you are amazing.

NOTE: My fellow Sword & Laser Collection authors are also nominated. So if you’re inclined to help push the Inkshares and Sword & Laser brands, give An Unattractive Vampire and Asteroid made of Dragons a bit of a vote? Thanks!

JF

With all the madness that’s been happening over the past few days, I’m beyond thrilled to deliver some unreservedly good news.
Heh...thrilled....
 

Tantalus Depths has been backed by its third syndicate! Today we received the distinct honor of being chosen as the August pick for the Thriller Night Syndicate. It’s awesome to be recognized by the community yet again for Tantalus Depths’ content: this time not for theme, but for tone. Tantalus Depths is all about mystery and foreboding, peril and the struggle for survival against extremely bad odds. It’s a thriller to its core, and I sincerely hope you all find it as nail-biting and knuckle-whitening as I intended it to be!

Righto! Sales have slowed. So much infact that no additional orders have been received in the 10 days since my last update. A worrying fact indeed and one that leads me to think that SQUIDS IN may not make it to publication.

What does this mean for you if you have supported this book? 

You will receive a full refund in 31 days and will have shown yourself to be a true friend, one who is willing to assist me in achieving a dream of getting a piece of work published. If SQUIDS IN fails to become my first published book, so be it. It will not stop me from writing.

108 orders in one month is certainly achievable, but I have run out of stream. Work and family life have come calling and I’ve been neglecting both for too long in order to chase selfish dreams. It’s time for me to return to the real world once more.

Once the Olympics have finished that is...

Matthew

I really enjoy sharing good news with you. When something happens in my campaign that gets me excited, like hitting a landmark number or getting a mention in some media source, I just want to gush about it to my supporters. You’re all like a family to me, and the roles you’ve all played in getting me this far will never be forgotten.
Unfortunately, not all news is good news. As much as I enjoy sharing the good news, these updates should be about transparency. You deserve to know the genuine state of things, whether the news is positive or negative. Today, the news is a mixture.
Let’s do the good news first:
 

In light of the recent setbacks to my campaign, Inkshares has granted me an at least 30-day extension. Overall they’ve been extremely understanding and reasonable, and I really want to thank Avalon, Thad, Elena, and all the rest of Inkshares staff for working so hard and diligently to handle this problem. They’ve all been very communicative, professional, and encouraging through this process, and I don’t want their hard work to go unthanked. They genuinely seem as determined as I am to see Tantalus Depths reach the levels of success it truly deserves, and I am extremely grateful for all the hard work they’ve done behind the scenes.

Now for the bad news.

Tantalus Depths lost a lot more pre-orders today. A lot. All told, it looks like almost a third of my pre-orders were illegitimate ones. That’s hard for me to stomach. It’s not just hard because I’m seeing my numbers drop and realizing just how much more work I have ahead of me, it’s hard to know that what I had thought to be all genuine community support was, in fact, largely counterfeit. Whoever’s been abusing the credit system to support my book probably thought they were doing me a favor. They probably believed that by artificially raising my pre-order count with false orders, they were helping me get to my goal. I can appreciate the intent, and I can admire the initiative, but I find the methods unconscionable.

Tantalus Depths is a fine book. I’m proud of my work, and I believe in it. I believe it to be a story worth sharing, something worthy of print on its own merits. I worked really hard to get it to the state it’s in. I’ve also worked really hard on bringing in the genuine, legitimate pre-orders that I have, and I’m proud of that hard work too. These false pre-orders, though...I’m not proud of those. I’m embarrassed to have had those in my campaign. I’m not sorry to see them gone. While it’s hard to see my pre-order count ticking backwards, I’m relieved to know that those orders I’m losing, I never really had. The ones I’ll have left at the end of the day will be the ones I worked hard for and genuinely earned. I’ve no need for manipulative tactics and exploitative methods: I have a good book to sell. When enough people have seen it, it will reach its goal, because it’s good enough to get there. I know this, my genuine supporters know this, and once this campaign is over, it’ll have been proven.

To the person or persons who have abused this system to support my book: thank you for your interest in Tantalus Depths. I hope you’ll show that interest by purchasing a pre-order with real money, and encouraging your friends to do the same. I also hope you will stop exploiting this site. Doing so harms every book you touch, and harms the company as a whole, which harms every author who’s published with it. Do not poison the well for this community for the sake of promoting a book you like. It helps no one in the end.

Meanwhile, I’m still plowing on with my campaign. I have no idea where I’m going to find all the rest of the pre-orders I need now, and I have no idea where I’m going to find the energy I’ll need to get through an extra 30-or-so days of this madness (I’d fully intended on going into a coma for about a week after my campaign ended), but I know I’m going to figure it out. This community is so supportive, and my friends and family have been just as supportive. One way or another, we will get there. I’m working on figuring out some more story updates I can send that won’t be spoilery so I can keep opening up the rich world of Tantalus Depths to you over the next few weeks of extra campaigning, and I’m hoping to come up with one or two more incentives. Since I have to climb back up to the 600 mark, I’m making that the goal we need to hit for me to release my video of me reading chapter 3. beyond that, who knows what’s ahead?

We’ll find out together. Come, let’s dive into those depths...