Ooh! I should make an update! That should happen!
A lot of you already know this, but in my excitement, I neglected to make an official update about it, so here I am, finally doing that.
WE MADE IT!
Proteus is now completely funded! We reached our goal of 750 pre-orders, and the whole project has shifted into production mode. I’ve already been congratulated by Inkshares staff, and they’ve sent me some of the paperwork I’ll need to do in order to launch the book into the production process. It’s really happening!
So what happens next, in terms of Proteus? Well, as any of you who have ordered Tantalus Depths are already painfully aware, the production process takes a very long time. Also, since Tantalus Depths was my first project and people have been waiting the longest for it, it is still going to take most of my attention from now until it launches, so Proteus is something I will have to be working on in the background as I prioritize Tantalus Depths.
My plan is to get Proteus into the editing process shortly before Tantalus Depths is released. The whole intent behind launching my Proteus campaign when I did was to ensure that my second published novel came out no more than a year or two after my first, and my goal is to try and release new books on a yearly or bi-yearly schedule, consistently. Inkshares has finally given me a tentative release date of winter 2019 for Tantalus Depths. It’s much later than I thought it would be, but the delay is necessary to accommodate some new ideas that Inkshares’ CEO has in mind for it. It should be a particularly strong release next year, and Inkshares is showing a lot of confidence in it, so the delay will be worth it.
In the meantime, I’m not going to be idle. I have a surprise project I’m working on that should come out later this fall, to tide everyone over as we wait for Tantalus Depths. I also plan on building myself a proper website, which I’ll be loading with all manner of content related to the universe I’ve created, the art of writing, and the community we’ve formed. Now that the burden of campaigning is over, hopefully for good, I finally feel free to devote more of my time and energy into the parts of this process I actually enjoy: the writing, the creativity, and sharing my work to the world.
For now, I’m taking a week off, ‘cause by golly, I’ve earned it. But after that, work starts anew. We’re going to do great things together.
Hey everyone. Its been a while hasn’t it? We’re so excited to announce our audiobook narrator; Emily Smith. A voice actress and internet marketer, this will be Emily’s first Sci-fi narration. We can’t wait for you to hear her stuff! Stay tuned for more announcements!
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Fifty-six pre-orders! FIFTY-SIX! That’s all we need now for Proteus to receive its full publication deal.
Fifty-six is nothing. We can absolutely get fifty-six. I’m incredibly confident in this.
Not so confident that I’m going to get complacent, mind you. It’s not time to celebrate yet, not by a longshot. But we could absolutely get that many orders in the next day. It’s not even an unrealistic goal, at this point.
Let’s go for one more big push. I would love nothing more than to have my very next update be the big “we did it!” update. We are so, so incredibly close.
So let’s have at it!
If you haven’t yet pre-ordered your copy of Proteus, now is absolutely the time to do it. You could be one of the last 56 people it takes to see this book become a published reality. If you have already ordered a copy, please consider picking up a second, or even better, grab a friend or family member and get them to order one. It only takes 56 more, which is a paltry number compared to the 694 orders we’ve already brought in.
Either way, I’m intensely grateful for all the support that’s already come in for this book. Your generosity and dedication to the success of my work is the greatest honor I could ever hope for. I literally couldn’t have gotten this far without all your help. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t even “my” book. I’m just writing it. It belongs to “us.” You’re all as integral to the process as I am.
Anyway. Enough rambling from me for a bit. I’ve decided to treat you to another lore update, ‘cause why the heck not?
If I hadn’t made it abundantly clear already, Proteus is a war story. But how does warfare actually work when the “battlefield” is a city-sized starship? To partially answer that question, let’s take a look at one of the main weapons being used to fight this war: the Rivali V-780 submachine gun.
It’s almost disgusting how close we are to being done with this campaign, you guys.
Seven days. That’s it. Not even seven full days, more like six and a half. That’s how long it is until the deadline for the full funding goal. We only need 65 more orders to get there. That’s ten a day, if we don’t mind cutting it reeeeeally close. This is getting intense. It’s like the end of a sports movie, where the end buzzer goes off just as the ball sinks into the hoop, or like an action movie, where they defuse the bomb with two seconds left on the countdown clock. We’re cutting this very, very close. But I’m supremely confident we can do it.
I would just as soon not cut it quite that close. There’s nothing stopping us from getting the remaining 65 pre-orders tonight, or tomorrow. I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: when we funded Tantalus Depths, we got more than 80 pre-orders that last day. We can do it again.
Whether we hit our goal tonight or at the last possible second, we WILL hit that goal. I’ve campaigned for more than a year on this project. I’ve had a passion for this story for almost a decade, and I won’t fall short of the opportunity to have it told now, not when I’m so close. I’ve sacrificed a lot in this past year to get to this point. We are finishing this.
I don’t like going too many updates in a row begging for help without actually giving something back, so here’s another little lore update. Jacob Sicarius is no stranger to sacrifice: his intense dedication to the mission has cost him dearly, but it was a price he too was more than willing to pay. Let’s have a look at the technology that not only put Jacob back into the fight, but made him an even more formidable soldier.
For more information on how the Expansionary Coalition views the subject of cybernetic enhancement, you can check out this previous update here:
Also, I feel I deserve some mad props for not making a single “cost him an arm and a leg” joke.
Great news, friends!
Proteus has had the honor of being supported by its third syndicate! Today, the Great SciFi for the 21st Century and Beyond Syndicate selected Proteus for their August pick. They previously supported Tantalus Depths as well, and it remains as big an honor now as it was then. They’ve supported many excellent books over the past few years, and it’s humbling to have two of my books on the list.
Thanks to them, and a large outpouring of support from many, many amazing people, Proteus has also achieved a second milestone today: we’ve passed 650 pre-orders! We now have less than a hundred orders remaining before reaching that coveted full publication goal. I have been waiting so eagerly to see those numbers go down to double digits for the past year. I can hardly believe we’ve made it this far.
But we haven’t made it all the way, yet. 100 pre-orders is still a lot, and we now have only 12 days to get them. Stay vigilant! Keep spreading the word! The finish line is in sight. We could hit our goal by the end of the week if we really push for it, and I, for one, am pushing as hard as I can.
Time to check in with an update, like it or not.
We’re down to the last 19 days in Proteus’s funding period, and we’re just shy of the 600 pre-order mark at 592. In the past ten days, we’ve brought in 34 pre-orders. Which is impressive, and I could not be thankful for every single one of them. You guys rock.
I have to be honest, though. At this rate, it won’t be enough.
We need to get 158 new pre-orders in the next 19 days, or Proteus won’t happen. Averaging that out, that’s a bit over eight pre-orders a day. That’s more than I can handle on my own. I’ve gone to everyone I know and explored as many other avenues as I’ve been able to find, but the well is running dry. This is where I start getting truly desperate for help.
If any of you are on the fence about ordering, or have friends or family who said they’d be interested but haven’t yet come through, now is absolutely the time. If any of you can manage to support Proteus directly with a second pre-order of your own, I’d be forever grateful.
We CAN do this. I know we can. We’ve done it before. But the key word there is “we.” Proteus will be written thanks to me, but it will only exist as a published novel thanks to you. It’s going to take an army to get this thing done. So it’s time to rally the troops.
Alright friends, the grand finale is approaching.
Technically, it’s more like 28.5, since the campaign actually ends in the afternoon on the 29th, but close enough.
We are now officially in the final month of the Proteus campaign: a campaign that has been running for well over a year now and gathered an astonishing 558 orders already. We have less than 200 left to acquire, then Proteus will receive the same full publication deal that Tantalus Depths has already earned.
Can we do it? 192 orders in one month is no small thing, after all. Even so, the answer is a firm yes. Not only can we do it in that time, but we can likely do it sooner. On Tantalus Depths’ last day campaigning, we gathered more than 80 orders. 80 orders in one day. Granted, two syndicates boosted us that day as well, but my point stands, we could hit that goal in just one or two days of real, solid support.
I don’t expect to reach our goal in two days, obviously. But my point is, we could. Our final goal is absolutely within our reach. My personal goal is to finish the Proteus campaign before Tantalus Depths goes into copy edits, which is likely to happen in the next two weeks. This is an extremely doable goal, provided we really rally for it.
Now more than ever, I need your support. If you haven’t yet ordered Proteus, order a copy. Order two copies. If you have ordered a copy, order a second copy. Get your friends to order a copy, get your family to order copies. Ask anyone you can think of to order a copy. If you can’t afford to buy a copy, please tell everyone you know about this book, share these posts on your social media platforms, be as obnoxious about it as I’ve been this entire past year.
It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be stressful and exhausting. But it will be so worth it.
Let’s do this thing.
Hi Folks!
Guess what? It’s been exactly one year today since The Punch Escrow was published and my life forever changed. The book has now been translated into several languages and I’ve been afforded the opportunity to travel around the world and meet with readers—something I would never have imagined. The process is still in effect! The Korean translation is being published next month.
My little passion project went on to get starred reviews on Kirkus, Library Journal, and Foreword Reviews—where it ultimately was awarded their Gold Award for best indie sci-fi book of 2017.
I wanted to take this time to thank you all, again. Thank you for making this possible. This adventure has been nothing short of amazing. I apologize for not personally replying to the many questions many of you have sent me about the film adaptation. It’s just that I don’t really have anything new to report. I’m in weekly communications with the film’s producers, but—as I’m discovering firsthand—it’s hard to make a movie. I promise to share movie updates as soon as anything solid happens on that front.
As for the sequel. Well, I have the whole thing pretty much outlined. I can tell you the working title is The Hash Collision. That’s news, I guess! I’m holding off putting pen to paper until Lionsgate finalizes the first book’s film adaptation so that I don’t risk breaking serious continuity with the sequel (some things will inevitably be different, but I don’t want to write major plot points in the sequel for characters that somehow end up dying in the film adaptation of The Punch Escrow).
Last: In case you missed it. I’ve had a short story published in the Hugo and Nebula award winning Apex Magazine. It’s called Kerouac’s Renascence, and I invite you to read it. You’ll find it’s a very different tale than Punch.
My deepest gratitude and well wishes,
Tal
Great news everyone!
First of all, the glitch that was making it appear that we had lost all our pre-orders seems to have been fixed. The number of pre-orders currently displaying on our Inkshares production page now seem to accurately reflect the number of pre-orders we’ve sold, which brings me to our other piece of good news:
Those numbers just got an unexpected boost!
The Staff Syndicate has chosen to support Proteus this month! I had honestly given up any hope of getting any more syndicate support for Proteus, so this came out of absolutely nowhere. Thanks to their sudden surge of support, we’ve gained more than a dozen brand new orders all in one day, and have been brought up to 537 preorders. That means only 213 more to go!
We’re getting so close to the final stretch, and I plan to ride the momentum from this unexpected windfall as far as it will go. The next couple weeks are going to be a wild ride.