Greetings Supporters of Crow’s Gambit,
The Nerdist Contest is only a few hours away from ending. I’m sorry to say we will not be finishing in the top 3. With 123 unique orders we are securely in 5th place. However, don’t feel bad. This is still a great accomplishment. There are some strong books in the top ten and according to Inkshares there were over 180 submissions.
I cannot express my gratitude for all the support the story has received. Orders were placed by strangers, co-workers, high school friends, local supporters, and even several of the top ten authors in the contest. I thank you all.
The journey is not done for Crow’s Gambit. While winning the contest would have been GREAT there is another option. I can still try to sell enough Pre-Orders to secure publishing. A full publishing deal would require 750 Pre-Orders…that is a bunch and probably outside my time available at this point. So I have decided to try for the Quill level that requires 250 Pre-Orders. This deal would not get the book onto physical store shelves and would only involve light editing…but the story would get published and that’s a start.
This means we now shift to Plan B and spend the next couple months trying to sell more copies. With 136 copies already sold we only need 114 to get to the Quill level. There are two things to remember in this:
So stay with me. Keep spreading the word to your friends. Updates will come a little less frequently but hopefully will include more interesting tidbits.
PT
This will be the last update I post before the contest ends.
Proteus remains in fourth place. We’ve been absolutely tenacious in keeping up with the top three. We’ve more than doubled our overall orders over the course of this week, and I have it on good authority that we’ve scared the pants off the competition. We are the charging bull. They are fleeing us.
They’re still probably going to win, but at least we’ve given them a really, really good chase.
It’s not impossible to win from where we stand. The last day of my Tantalus Depths campaign I brought in something like 80 pre-orders, so I know that’s a thing that can happen. But I’m also not going to sweat it if we don’t. The top three books have earned their spots, and I won’t be sorry to see any of them win. In any case, I’m already looking forward past the end of this contest. I didn’t get as far as I’ve gotten by not thinking several steps ahead.
Win or lose, I’m enormously grateful for all of you. You really came through in a big way, and I’m proud to have friends and supporters as loyal and enthusiastic as you are.
A few more hours remain in this contest. We might win, we might lose, but either way, let’s make them work for it.
Just a quick note today to let you all know about a contest that is taking place over at Inkshares. If you are a fan of science fiction, you might want to scoot over and check it out.
It is called the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest, and there are currently 182 submissions that are competing for the top three positions. The prize? A full-fledged publishing contract, sans having to campaign to 750 preorders. For those of you who were along for the ride with me and The Walls are Closing In, you have an idea of what a big deal this is.
Today marks the very end of the contest - it wraps up at midnight tonight. I would like to draw your attention to one book in particular - Mission 51.
Author Ferd Crotte was a very early supporter of The Walls are Closing In, and I would be remiss if I didn’t do everything in my power to help him come out in the TOP 3. Right now he is holding on to 3rd place, but the competition in the top 4 is fierce.
Check out the contest, and consider throwing your support to one of the top contenders. If you referred someone to The Walls are Closing In at some point during the campaign, using a link from the website, then you may have some credits on your account to use.
After a tragic, fifty light-year voyage, sole survivor Mat crash lands on a beautiful, sometimes hostile alien world ... the planet Earth! Mission 51 is an immigrant story that is out of this world!
https://www.inkshares.com/books/mission-51
In other news, I have been in contact with the authors who met their publishing goal ahead of me, and many of them are starting the production process. It looks like The Walls are Closing In is moving up the queue and only has one or two books ahead of it that have not started production. I hope to be assigned a developmental editor soon, and along with that assignment should come an estimated release date. My best guess is still late spring/early summer 2018.
I have been racking my brain trying to think of something interactive to do with my marvelous followers here in the interim. And.... I think I have come up with a fun idea that will involve sneak peeks into the story and amusing prizes. Stay tuned!
-Jacqui
Dear Readers,
Thank you so much for your support over the last month. I am still sitting firmly in 8th place in the Nerdist contest, which, as you know, is out of the running. Mutants: Uprising will not be published through this contest - and you know what? That’s okay.
The story is in no way DEAD - it still exists and will be published at some point. However, you will be refunded your money for this campaign after the contest ends.
THANK YOU so much for following me on this journey! It means the world to me.
Jane-Holly
My friends, we’ve made another strong push for progress today. We’ve narrowed the gap between us and third place down to only 18, and I’m still pushing to reduce that further. As much progress as we’ve made today, though, a lot more remains. Our competition is still moving forward relentlessly, and I fully anticipate a last-minute surge. We are down to the last two days, so if anyone’s been holding out to the end, now is the time for reinforcements.
No long update today, because I’m honestly too busy trying to drag in pre-orders to write one, so here’s this instead. Share it with your friends! This is not a story about heroes. Nobody comes out of this one with clean hands. This is a story that deals in shades of monstrosity. If you’re ready to see some deeply messed-up characters deal with some even more messed-up situations, hop on board and pre-order this thing.