Hello Rebels!
Sword and Laser - Well, what an interesting last 24 hours. After managing a very small amount of pomp and ceremony I pressed the accept pre-orders button on the project, because I am a man of my word and the draft has been completed. I then watched a movie and went to sleep. When I woke I decided to check my e-mails and see if anyone had actually ordered the book. To my utter delight two people had, including Thaddeus Woodman the co-founder of Inkshares. With a very warm fuzzy feeling inside, I started reading the rest of the emails from Inkshares and just about fell off my chair. "Sword and Laser competition! What are you doing? Not now, I'm not ready yet." I said to the only person who could hear me...our cat Kisa, who merely wondered if this was going to interfere with her jam-packed day of staring at birds and napping.
I spent several hours on tenterhooks waiting for Finn to stop sleeping, during which time I pressed the button to follow a whole bunch of people and pitched the book like a madman, and finally managed to contact him. Well, we're on the leaderboard...do we do this? Do we take the challenge offered by Sword and Laser and start up a social media campaign, cover art, rapid editing process, alpha and beta readers, prizes, marketing, and telling everyone we've ever met about our book?
YES WE SHALL
Price. - apparently Suffrage is 30 dollars for a hard copy and 15 for an e-book...and everyone else in the competition is 20 and 10. Wha? That's not right surely? Okay how do I change that? WHA? I can't change that? Urgent desperate e-mail sent to the helpful Inkshares staff...check. Shortly (hopefully very shortly) you'll be able to support the book at the same price as everyone else in the competition. If you've already ordered the book at the exorbitant price of 30 dollars...I am humbled and I salute you, but don't worry you'll be able to get it at the cheaper price. If you ordered the e-book at 15, yeah, you'll get that cheaper too. This horse doesn't need to run in the race with that kind of handicap.
Prizes and rewards. - So of course we are going to release more chapters as we hit follower and pre-order milestones, but that means we need to revise and edit and have beta readers and we need it now. Finn and I started revising last night and knocked off the Prologue and first two chapters. We'll be putting out the improved version of the prologue and chapter One...in the next couple of days. We have also managed to convince a couple of mates to be Alpha readers and have shared the first ten chapters with them. There will be more awesome prizes coming out...we just haven't decided on what they will be because we've been a little busy.
Stay tuned Rebels for more exciting developments as they occur.
Hey all. I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time and pre-ordering Dracula Vs Hitler. It really means a lot to see all the orders, we are so close to our e-book goal of 250, and then onto print goals beyond that. Very exciting.
If you've read my bio, you know this is a project that I've put a lot of effort and research into. My home has been filled with World War II books for years trying to make this the most accurate but fun novel I could write. There's romance and big war battles, vampire fights and everything in between. It's taken almost two years to get it to this point and I'm confident everyone will enjoy it, as soon as I can get it out into the world and in your hands.
I'll be sharing more excerpts after we hit that 250 goal, so look for those, and thank you again for your support. For a luddie person with very nice friends (thank you Felicia Day) it is heartwarming to experience this online community and see the support around my work.
Thanks.
Patrick
Pardon the second update, but Inkshares and Girl Friday pointed out to me I loaded two of the wrong covers when I posted my update earlier. So here are the correct three. Again, not just a vote, but some qualitative feedback about your choice is the most helpful. Those of you that already responded, I appreciate your help.
Cover 1
Cover 2
Cover 3
I’m alive!
NaNoWriMo season is over, so it’s time for a much-belated update. There’s much to say, so sit back with your favorite cuppa while I run down all-the-things!
Beta Reading has commenced!
The first sixty pages of Seven Shards: The Colors of Wine is now with my fabulous and fantastic beta readers, and more are on the way!
I’ve started a Syndicate!
Speaking of betas, Inkshares is testing out a new idea called Syndicates. It’s basically a way to contribute to Inkshares projects on a monthly basis, but without having to peruse the ever-changing selection throughout the year. Instead, you simply sign up and trust your Syndicate leader to choose the books for you.
My Syndicate is for snarky dark fantasy books, hence its name: SnarkyDarkSy - check it out here: https://www.inkshares.com/syndicates/snarkydarksy-the-snarky-dark-fantasy-syndicate
Review-a-Thon Pending!
There's a Review-a-Thon (with prizes!) coming up on December 19th. I'll send the details in a separate update since this one is already getting long. But if you're near your calendar, be sure to make a note of it now.
New blog posts!
While I may have fallen off the face of the earth for some things during the month of October, I’ve actually done a semi-decent job of posting fresh content on my blog. Most of it is NaNoWriMo related, but there’s also a new author interview with Byron Gillan (author of Children of the Forest).
Be sure to check it all out here: http://www.mythsmistsmusings.com/#!blog/cygw
Pre-Order Madness!
Since my last update, the pre-order count has climbed past 200! The deadline has been extended to January 23rd, so Seven Shards is still right on-target to hit the light publishing goal. Much excitement!!!
Shout Outs!