Hi, readers! We did it!! 260 copies as of today. I’m so excited. We’ve raised $32 for Babywearing International of Akron Youngstown, and this book is going to happen!
I’m taking a break from campaigning - once I know more details, I’ll continue to update. I’m putting together a marketing plan, and I need to revise the book when it comes back from its manuscript review. I will also be posting companion short stories on the Lost Memories Inkshares page. I have some blog posts set up for my website. Finally, I’m drafting a new novel, which is not part of the MindTech world, but I hope you’ll love it too.
I don’t want to overwhelm your inboxes, so please follow me on social media for all the good stuff :-)
FB: https://www.facebook.com/caridubielauthor/
Twitter: @caridubiel
Instagram: @cb1281
Website: www.caridubiel.com
And, if you didn’t already know, I’m the cohost of a book review podcast, and Beth and I have just begun recording again. The ABC Book Reviews is on Soundcloud, and our RSS goes out to Stitcher and iTunes as well. We just posted an interview with fellow Inkshares author Becca Spence Dobias, author of Rock of Ages. Check it out!!
THE MANUSCRIPT IS IN!!!
After two months of rewriting and revising, with the help of my friends Peter Ryan and Cari Dubiel, and. of course, my wife, I’ve turned in a fine tuned 76,900-word manuscript after the first round of developmental editing. That’s nearly 10,000 darlings killed. It was probably closer to 15,000 of the original words that suffered their terrible fate, but I changed a couple of scenes and added about 5,000 words back in. It was all for the better, and I’m proud of what this book has become.
I know I promised mid-January for turning in this manuscript, but I’m going to play the sympathy card, because I was hospitalized in January for acute abdominal pain and had my gallbladder removed and subsequently stolen. They wouldn’t bronze it and let me keep it, the jerks, they just took it God only knows where. But, I’m glad it’s out. The good news is that I got my author bio picture in the process:
That’ll sell a lot of books on its own. Might even make it the cover of the book. Not sure my publisher would go for that, though.
Speaking about the cover, design will start happening in a few months, but I already know one thing will be remarkably different when it’s done: the title.
Yup, I am almost sure I’m changing the title. The book is in two parts now, and I’ve named part one "The Madness of Mr. Butler," while part two is "The Courage of Mr. Butler." As much as I love the title as it has been, it doesn’t really sound like a science fiction book, which it mostly is. I’m changing the title of the book to "The Man Who Stole the World," which, for those of you who are in need of improving your musical tastes, is a play on the title of a David Bowie song. (And David Bowie might have a cameo in the story, but I’m not at liberty to say at this point).
wink
So, what’s next?
Right now, we wait. Matt Harry, my editor, already got back to me that he’s currently working on a few manuscripts and plans on starting on mine in a few weeks. So, it’s probably going to be a while before I can report on further progress. But, this means that this year will begin the next levels of edits on a manuscript that is actively in production. I feel great about it all. I’ve had a wonderful experience with Inkshares.
Thank you all for your support. Your investment in me is something I think about and appreciate daily. I’m working my tail off to get you the best version of the book. Thank you for the opportunity. This is all because of you. I hug you.
In the meantime, if you wanna interact outside of email, you can find me on Twitter and Facebook, and fairly soon I’m getting my blog back up after some reconstruction.
Hang in there, it’s all coming together!
Love always,
-Michael
Hey, kids.
Hello, everyone! This has been a fabulous week. Thank you all for your enthusiastic support. I went from 188 copies on Monday to nearly 250 today. I am confident we are going to sell those last two books today!
Don’t forget to join me on Facebook for my Day of Reckoning event - the last day of the campaign, February 9. 7pm EST. https://www.facebook.com/events/1033802110094056/
I’ll be doing random giveaways all night, including copies of the book. I’ll give updates on where we’re going next, too. Finally, I’m giving $1/copy sold from Feb 1 - Feb 9 to Babywearing International of Akron Youngstown, so I’ll announce that total. I just realized it’s right before the opening ceremony for the Olympics, so we’ll probably wrap up a little early so everyone can watch that.
I am so excited to bring you this book!!
Hello everyone, welcome to 2018!
Work on Blood Capital has been progressing at pace since NYE and we are now close to completing the developmental edits (at last!). Check the progress chart below and you can see I’ve almost completed the rewrite, and that all of Acts One and Two have had my second pass. Once this is complete, it should just be a matter of getting the final development notes from my editors and incorporating them, then we move into copy editing (grammar and spelling).
Everyone has been wonderfully patient with me over the past year, and that has made this process so much easier. Thank you. I’m aware the journey has been long — I had no idea how long it would be when I entered the competition back in 2016. To provide an idea of the work behind the scenes, I’ve been averaging almost 18 hours a week on the novel, which multiplied out over nine months (roughly how long I’ve been working on edits), adds up to more than six hundred hours so far. 
We are now on the home straight, and Blood Capital is set for release at the end of July. A marketing plan is coming together to support the launch, and I’ve now seen an early version of the cover art. As soon as the cover art is finalized, I’ll send out a special update, but for now I can tell you it’s going to stand out on shelves.
Cheers,
Robert
https://robertbatten.net
Today’s the day!!
Yes, today is PUBLICATION DAY!!
That’s right. Now you can go into most major book stores and ask for Beyond the Code. You can go to Amazon and order it right now. It’s AVAILABLE!!!! The long wait it finally over!
I am officially a published author and it feels amazing, but I’m not done yet. Now I have the task of making Beyond the Code a success and you can help. If you haven’t pre-ordered Beyond the Code, you can go to any major book like Indigo, Chapters, or Coles, and ask for Beyond the Code. If enough people show interest, they might think that Beyond the Code deserves a place on their shelves. Not only would that make it more accessible to people out of the loop, it would make a dream of mine a reality.
If you already have a copy and you still want to help out in building the books success. You can go to Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or Goodreads and leave a review or rating to let me know what you thought. The more reviews Beyond the Code gets, especially through Amazon, the more exposure it will receive. Reviews are an authors best friend.
Thank you all for following me clear to the finish line and I hope you love this little slice of my imagination.
Kelsey Rae Barthel
