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.

July 20, 2018

Hello, hello! Hope you’re all having a wonderful summer. I just wanted to share a few quick updates on "Shadow King."

The Manuscript
The book itself continues to move through the process. It is with the typesetter now and I should get my first look at the layout on or around July 30. From there we have a few more reviews as we close in on having a final book ready for physical production and release.

Cover
The cover has been proofread, and once we know the spine size, my cover designer (the wonderful Charlene Maguire!) will be able to complete the final template that Inkshares will need.

Important: Have you moved?
Everyone who has pre-ordered will get their copies of "Shadow King" in advance of the October 2 release date (yay!). If you ordered a hard copy, and have moved in the last 365 days, please contact Inkshares to update your shipping address! I’d hate to see your copy go to the wrong address!

Interview
I was interviewed by Writing Bloc about "Shadow King" and writing dark fantasy as a genre. Please check it out!

Spread the Word
Like all writers, I’m always interested in spreading the word about "Shadow King." Please share what you know about "Shadow King" with friends, family, your hair stylist, dog walker, and mailman (mailperson?). And if you’re following my adventures here but haven’t ordered yet, now would be a most auspicious time! 

Thanks again for all of your support, and I’ll update again in August!

Best,
Susan

Well, folks, we’re due for an update, and I have some good news.
We’ve passed the 500 pre-orders mark!
 

We’re at 510 right now, with 40 days left ‘til our goal. That means we only need to sell 240 more copies to get Proteus its publication deal. We are over two-thirds of the way there.
Unfortunately, this has been a much busier summer than I expected it to be, so progress has been slow the past couple of weeks. I’m gearing up for a super intense August, but it’s still going to take every scrap of support I can gather from now until the campaign’s end. We should be getting approximately 6 pre-orders a day to stay on target, which is no easy thing to do when I’ve already asked everyone I know for support. This is why now, more than ever, I’m dependent on you all to get the word out. If each of you could find just one person who’d be interested in supporting this book, we’d absolutely crush our goal I cannot stress enough how much I can’t do this without your help.
It may feel like we’ve been treading water this entire time, but we are truly making progress that we should all be proud of.

I’ll leave you this week with another lore update. In the spirit of the long and agonizing stasis this campaign has endured, let’s take a look at the technology the Somnambule uses to keep its 50,000 colonists safely preserved during her 150 year journey. Cold stasis is gruelling, painful, and invasive, but just like our campaign for Proteus, it’s a necessary hell with a paradise on the other side.

Hi Readers!

I come bearing some pretty great news. As of this week, The Phantom Forest is being moved from the Quill collection to the "full" Inkshares catalog. So, what does this mean? 

Well, first of all it’s an awesome opportunity! Quill is a limited release platform, in which I had to do a lot of the marketing/design legwork myself, or hire outside vendors. The bump up to the Inkshares catalog basically means the book will get greater marketing/publicity support, more reviews, updated artwork, and likely an additional pass with their fantastic in-house editor. The best news is that we are still shooting for the same release date - November 13th! There’s a lot to do before then, but the team is working hard and I’m hopeful we will pull it off. 

Now, how did this happen? Because wonderful people like YOU started telling everyone how much you loved this book, and the Inkshares team listened. The Phantom Forest will enjoy a wider release and become accessible to even more readers because you made your voices heard. I am SO thankful I can’t even think straight. 

This will likely be my last update on the Inkshares website, as I’m going to move everything over to an email listserv. Next time ya’ll hear from me, I’ll have many more details about this new and exciting process! 

Thanks again everyone - this is truly a reader-driven platform and it appears the readers have spoken. You’re truly the best!

Liz

“Most people are scared of those things that don’t sit still and pose for our official portrait of reality.”                                         -Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Aloha All,

Some great news to share that is tempered with a dose of reality and sprinkled with the dust of a hard drinking pixie.  After more than six months of working to improve the characters, story, and structure of Lost in the Fog, I finally finished the development edit.  Caroline Tolley, my editor, has helped make the book the best it can be.

The manuscript is now in the queue for publication with Inkshares!

The reality is the publisher is small and can only work on one to two books at a time, so I need to wait my turn.  Completely understandable (I took longer to finish the development edit so I’m to blame for being pushed back in the queue), but still a bit of a bummer.  I feel the book is ready to go (it’s been heavily edited), but the process is the process.  They are estimating it to start in September. 

The pixie dust is the sheer fact that Lost in the Fog is being published.  For something I started in 2004, finished the first draft in 2008, and then mostly abandoned until last year, I’m just happy to be at this point.  Making me smile even more, is that I’m not publishing my book on my own, I’m getting it in print because of all of you.  I needed at least 250 pre-orders for Inkshares to help me realize my dream, and I accomplished that with your awesome help.

If the publication process starts in September, there’s still a chance Lost in the Fog reaches your hands by the end of the year.  Though that might be too optimistic, and it’s never good to over promise and under deliver.   You’ve all been so amazingly patient, and we’re almost at the finish line.  Once I have more information on the publication date (or even a better estimate), I will share it with you immediately. 

But I hope you’ll raise a glass and toast with me that we’re one step closer.  Thank you and mahalo!

-Michael

It’s Pub Day!

I’ve been having a blast all day talking up the book, hosting games and giving out prizes, watching the reviews come trickling in. I almost forgot to ping you all and let you know the book is officially out there. Published. For reals. We actually ran OUT of books, if you can believe it. Multiple outlets are out of stock of the paperbacks, that’s how well today has gone. I am told that if you order them Ingram will print them to order, so if you’re looking to get a physical copy, ordering from Amazon or walking into a brick and mortar store will probably be your best bet.

And once you have read the book, please consider leaving a review. That would be super cool. So far readers are loving the book. It’s got five stars on Amazon and Goodreads, but the more the merrier, so please consider taking the time to toss a review up on your platform of choice.

I’m beat. It’s been a long, amazing day. I love you all.

May the Code replicate Eternal.

Happy summer Supporters of Crow’s Gambit!

After talking to several of you last week as the ASEE conference I know there is some confusion on the book. Never fear we did meet the required Pre-Orders for Quill publishing. However, actually getting a book from draft form to your hands takes some time. And given my schedule lately it is taking even more time.

Right now we are in the phase called Developmental Editing. That means I am rewriting some portions of the story to make it flow better…and hopefully make it super exciting and interesting! I will be working with a developmental editor who will help make the story even better by offering lots of suggestions for improvement.

After that we go to Copy Editing and Line Editing with Inkshares. This process will clean up the actual words; making sure names are consistent, punctuation is used correctly, words are spelled correctly…you get the picture.

So, please be patient. The book has not disappeared. It is alive and well but it will take some time to get it into your hands.

PT

It’s July! We’re moved into our new house and just in time. I received my developmental edit letter from my editor on Friday! If you haven’t heard of a developmental edit letter, you aren’t alone. I hadn’t either until I started this process. It’s basically a giant letter explaining eveything that needs to be changed in your book. 

I’ve been super nervous to receive mine since I’ve heard the editor is very thorough. Some of my Inkshares author friends have gone through 9 or 10 drafts! Sure enough, the letter suggests I restructure my whole story, take out some characters and plots, make some changes to focus on a different audience (young adult!), and work a lot on my descriptive prose and character arcs. 

The extent of the suggestions wasn’t a surprise, but my reaction was! I really expected to be very defensive and sad and overwhelmed. Instead I feel incredibly honored that someone as skilled as my editor gave such thoughtful and helpful comments and incredibly grateful that you all gave me the chance to work with him. This book is going to be so much better because of it.

I just submitted a revised (4000 word!) outline based on his suggestions and we’ll work on that until we agree it’s time to move forward to a rewrite. I’ll keep you all updated!

Thank you for following along with this journey and for giving me the opportunity to experience this process! It’s so exciting!

Hello everyone! No news to speak of regarding Tantalus Depths since my last update, and none expected for the next month or two, but I figured I’d drop a line and let you all know that an interview I did for Writing Bloc is up now. I announced it earlier in a reader update for Proteus, but since not all of you are supporting both books, some of you may not have seen it yet (although, really, you should have all jumped on Proteus by now. No time like the present!)

So here’s the interview. I discuss a little bit of everything, from crowdfunding, to world-building, to my atrocious writing process. We talk about both Tantalus Depths and Proteus, so jump on in and take a behind-the-scenes look at how these worlds came alive!