Top of the Evening to You, Space Crew!

First, a humungous congratulations to those who won the Nerdist contest. That would be Christopher Leone, Michael Haase, and Patrick Edwards. These guys not only have great-sounding stories, but they put in countless hours of marketing and pitching to get their books where they are today. Please consider supporting them if you haven’t already, because their books will definitely be released in the near future.

Where does that leave us? Let me break it down for you. 

First of all, thank you for being the most amazing space crew that’s ever existed. I hope to get around to thanking each of you personally once I’ve had a bit of time to recover from this chaos, but for every one of you who ordered, who pitched to your friends and family, who gave me encouragement along the way—thank you so much. You just may have been a glimmer of hope on a bad day or one of many reasons to smile on a great one. 

In the end we finished 6th. Which, out of  96 entries isn’t too shabby at all! I was extremely focused on the contest throughout this campaign, so I failed to explain the alternative routes. I’ll do that now. First, let’s feel good about how much we accomplished for a moment.

Now we go back to being regular Inkshares book-funders. Let me try to explain this as simply and eloquently as I can.

All the orders we’ve accumulated are going to stick around until May 5. On that date the total orders will be counted and one of three things will happen:

At 750 total orders (note: these do not have to be unique orders), the book will get the same fabulous treatment as the Nerdist contest would have provided. Full service editing, marketing, publishing, and distribution from Inkshares. This is the dream.

At 250 total orders (we’re extremely close already), we reach the "Quill goal". The book will be published via Inkshares with fewer of these fancy services. 

At less than 250 total orders we won’t be published on Inkshares and you’ll all be refunded. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road, but that we’ll need to look at alternate routes to get my writing into your hands. That said, I believe this to be a highly unlikely scenario. 

You can check the progress bar on the book page to see how we’re doing. This is us right now, at 199 total orders:

So what should you expect next? I’m gonna cut back on the daily spam until we get closer to the May deadline. It’s a bit much for me to keep up, and I have some "bigger picture" ideas of how to pull more people into the project. 

In the meantime you can definitely keep sharing The Traveller’s Cup with your friends, since reaching 750 won’t be easy. If you use the recommendation links on the book page you’ll earn Inkshares credits too, which will let you pick up other people’s books.

Our ship hasn’t quite reached its destination yet, but that’s okay. We’re still a crew. And thanks to your support in this contest, we’re several pixels closer to our goal. 

Heading into overdrive. Man your stations. And...we’re off!

Your-Inarticulately-Indebted-Space-Captain,
-AC

WE DID IT! We got the #1 spot in the Nerdist competition! 

Thank you all so much. The outpouring of support from you guys BLEW ME AWAY. To everyone who pre-ordered a copy (or three!), I just want to tell you again how much I truly appreciate it. If I had any human feelings left I might almost be moved, but as you know I got rid of those around 1998.

THANKS TO YOU, Champions of the Third Planet will be in your mailbox or your inbox or on Amazon or at your local bookstore later this year! I really can’t thank you guys enough.

Now everybody QUIET! I have to get back to writing...

--Chris