Good morning, everyone! In the past 10 hours, we have shot past the 350 pre-order mark thanks to the support of old and new. A shout out to our new supporters: The TIE Ottawa crew (Bharat R., Sanjeev S., Kevin F. and Bernie F.), as well as Julian M., Greg M., Janet F., Jantine V., Cindy P., Ricky R., Samantha G. and Rosemary S.

This already-extended campaign is due to end this Friday evening -- the Ides of March, no less. Hopefully this date proves more auspicious for me than it did for Julius Caesar!

Achieving 356 pre-orders is an amazing milestone, but still not a guarantee that I will earn a contract offer from Inkshares. As I announced last week, Bane of All Things was Inkshares Staff Syndicate pick for February. I have also been asked about the state of my manuscript. These are both very good signs that have my fingers crossed.

Now more than ever I need your help to finish strong. Any and all last-minute support matters. I also want to give a shout out to existing supporters who have stepped up in recent days to pre-order additional copies or enlist others to the cause: Francis M., Ian G., Bryan Y., Howard C., Megan A., Yves B., Elle P. and Jacqui C.

If you haven’t already, please lend me your support with a pre-order. If you have a few dollars more to pre-order another ebook copy, please do. And if you have anyone in mind you could also recruit to the cause, now is the time. Those prize draws I promised last time are still pending!

This whole endeavour wouldn’t be anywhere without you. I am truly humbled by the support and encouragement you have all so graciously given.

Cheers

Leo Valiquette

Hey everyone!

We have officially reached a new milestone—200 pre-orders! Thank you, thank you to everyone who has ordered Showtime so far and taken the time to offer support, words of encouragement, spreading the word about the book, or telling me how much you enjoyed the sample chapters. It means a ton, guys and girls.

As we get ready to enter the final month of the pre-order campaign, I hope you’ll consider helping me with a couple more favors.

1. If you have ONE person who you KNOW you could get to pre-order (either through love, guilt, or blackmail), that would be fantastic. It could be a friend, a sibling, your parents, even Cousin Oliver or Great Aunt Suzy. If everyone who has already pre-ordered did that, we could get a huge bump in pre-orders in no time. We can party with donuts to celebrate. 

 2. Read Showtime’s sample chapters! Inkshares also tracks the amount of time spent reading them when considering books for publication, so I’d really appreciate you taking a look if you haven’t already. I just posted Chapters 3 & 4 to celebrate the new milestone!

 3. Lastly, if you have read the sample chapters (or if you’re one of my beta readers who’ve read the whole book), I would hugely appreciate it if you took a moment to post a review on Showtime’s page. It doesn’t have to be much—just a sentence or two saying what you thought about what you read. Reader engagement through reviews is a big way to show there’s excited, book-loving faces behind each pre-order tally!

It’s easy—just follow THIS LINK and click the “ADD REVIEW” button to the right.

Thanks for your continued support to keep the momentum going! Here’s to another 100!

Ricky

P.S. – Don’t forget to vote for Showtime as “Best Book” in The Baltimore Sun’s “Best of Baltimore” poll by 5:00pm tomorrow! It’s a great way to get Showtime some extra exposure! Remember, you can vote once every day BY CLICKING HERE.

Good morning, everyone. Happy Ides of March.

Today is supposed to be the day. The campaign for Bane of All Things is currently slated to end around 8 pm EDT tonight.

I could let it end. Or we could push on with the goal of passing 400 pre-orders.

Last Friday was supposed to be the end, too, but adding another week to the campaign paid off. Since Monday morning alone, 26 additional pre-orders! We currently stand at 359.

Is this total enough, when added to those other metrics besides pre-orders that Inkshares is also tracking against BoAT? I don’t know yet, nor can I say at this moment when I might. I had hoped to have something more substantial to tell you at this point, but patience is a virtue, in this world, and the world of BoAT, too.

On the firm belief that no news is good news, I am inclined to keep BoAT in the race. Today, I will have the campaign extended until April 1 (yes, I know what day that is). Fingers crossed that in that time, there will be a definitive determination made about BoAT’s fate.

I humbly ask for your continued patience and support.

As I have stressed in recent updates, keeping that pre-order total ticking up is the important thing we can all focus on to increase the odds of success. Please continue to spread the word to friends and family and consider ordering additional copies. If we cross 400, there will be a new prize added to that list of draws!

If you haven’t had a chance to read the four sample chapters up on the site, please do, and leave a Review/Recommendation – this activity also boosts BoAT’s standings.

It’s been a long ride and I thank you all for jumping onboard with me. When I have news to share, you will all be first to know. Regardless of what that news might be, it will then be time for those prize draws!

Happy reading.

Leo

Good morning, everyone. And welcome to those of you who just joined in the past few days.

Like I said on Friday, the campaign for Bane of All Things is now in bonus overtime. We have less than five days left. It’s a whole new spin on March Madness. I am asking you to dig deep and consider how you might bring in one or two additional pre-orders (or more if you can) for me over the next couple of days.

One way is to enlist a friend or family member. Another is to simply order an additional copy or two yourself. All it takes is an ebook purchase for US$10. Several existing supporters last week did just that -- Andrew. C., Andrew S., the team at HostedBizz.

"But, Leo," you might ask. "What am I going to do with another ebook copy?"

Fair question. Give it as a gift, share with friends and family. When BoAT publishes, you will be able to download your ebook copies in whatever file format you prefer, making it easy to email them on. And additional print copies of course make great gifts, especially when signed by the author :).

There will be prizes

Any existing supporters who this week order additional copies will have their names entered into a draw for a $50 Amazon gift card (or gift card of your choice). Those who already ordered additional copies last week will be entered into this draw as well.

And anyone who brings in/refers a new supporter this week will also have their names entered into a second draw for another gift card prize. But I am putting a caveat on this one -- at least five you must have brought me a new supporter before that draw will take place.

And there is still the draw for original signed artwork that I promised would happen once we passed 300 pre-orders. EVERYONE who has pre-ordered by the final deadline for this campaign will be in that draw.  

Together, we can make this happen!

Cheers

Leo