Ma readers:

It’s a year and a half later, and IN BETA is done. Not finished, mind you. It still has to go through production, editing, design, etc. But I turned in the manuscript to Inkshares today. So the ball is, for the moment, out of my court.

I’ll hit you up again when we get a production schedule laid out and I know when it’s gonna come out. But get excited. It’s a fun read.

Once again, thank you for your patience.

Hello dear readers!

I come to you with a humble request. My horror novel, A God in the Shed, has the honour of being a semi-finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards 2017. This is a big deal. What would make it an even bigger deal is making it to the next round as a finalist. A huge deal. Gargantuan really.

All I as of you, is a few clicks.

First, click here to get to the voting page. Then, while logged into Goodreads, click on the red VOTE button under A God in the Shed.

There you go. With that simple gesture, you participate in what can be a huge step in my writing career and that makes you awesome. Hurry! You only have up to November 12, 2017 to vote!

Thanks for the support!

You’re the best.

JF

Good morning everyone! 

I know it hasn’t been long since my last supporter email, but this one is a special announcement. You all know my novel by its name Human Resources. What I haven’t told you previously is that the title is changing. There are various reasons for needing to change the title. Human Resources was a great title in some respects: it was understated and linked back to the corporate dystopia, as well as the way humans are treated in the novel. However, despite that, there were signs it would make the book harder to sell. Some of the issues were:

• Human Resources is not a unique title. There weren’t any other science-fiction books I could find with that title, but hundreds of business books. That meant searching for the book could be difficult.
• It confused people. Right throughout my campaign I encountered people who thought I’d written a non-fiction business manual. This can be addressed to an extent with a good cover, but I still had people misunderstand after I started including a cover image of a person with a big sword.
• It’s out of genre. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but by switching it to a title that is more recognizably from the genre of the book, it makes it stand out to people who read that genre.

So, without further ado, the new title is Blood Capital. This title isn’t as subtle, but ties it firmly in the genre. It also links back to the corporate dystopia, the treatment of humans in the world, and (bonus) the city the novel is set in. Work is underway on the final cover image, and I can’t wait to share the outcome of that. In the meantime, Inkshares have posted a (short) video of Matt Harry (Head of Story Development at Inkshares) talking about Blood Capital.

Matt Harry of Inkshares Discussing Blood Capital (July 2018) by Robbie Batten: https://vimeo.com/240758751

Robert Batten.

Greetings, Faoii!

Did you notice the date? The Last Faoii came out one month ago today! Raise your mugs, Faoii. We’ve create something amazing together!

We’re still sitting pretty at 20 reviews on Amazon. This is good, Faoii. This is very good for a debut novel that didn’t even qualify for full funding. However, I want to look forward to the holidays that are coming up in a few months. The Last Faoii would make a great gift for people of various ages and backgrounds, and I want it to be available to those who might want to give it. But that will only happen if we can trigger the Amazon algorithm and thus get it to show up when people browse. So I’m beseeching you again, Faoii, to leave a review. It takes a few seconds. You can leave a one-word review if that’s what you want. But please help me. The army can only grow if everyone helps to push the line.

Shields up

Faoii-Tahani

Good morning everyone! 

I know it hasn’t been long since my last supporter email, but this one is a special announcement. You all know my novel by its name Human Resources. What I haven’t told you previously is that the title is changing. There are various reasons for needing to change the title. Human Resources was a great title in some respects: it was understated and linked back to the corporate dystopia, as well as the way humans are treated in the novel. However, despite that, there were signs it would make the book harder to sell. Some of the issues were:

• Human Resources is not a unique title. There weren’t any other science-fiction books I could find with that title, but hundreds of business books. That meant searching for the book could be difficult.
• It confused people. Right throughout my campaign I encountered people who thought I’d written a non-fiction business manual. This can be addressed to an extent with a good cover, but I still had people misunderstand after I started including a cover image of a person with a big sword.
• It’s out of genre. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but by switching it to a title that is more recognizably from the genre of the book, it makes it stand out to people who read that genre.

So, without further ado, the new title is Blood Capital. This title isn’t as subtle, but ties it firmly in the genre. It also links back to the corporate dystopia, the treatment of humans in the world, and (bonus) the city the novel is set in. Work is underway on the final cover image, and I can’t wait to share the outcome of that. In the meantime, Inkshares have posted a (short) video of Matt Harry (Head of Story Development at Inkshares) talking about Blood Capital.

Matt Harry of Inkshares Discussing Blood Capital (July 2018) by Robbie Batten: https://vimeo.com/240758751

Robert Batten.

Good morning everyone! 

I know it hasn’t been long since my last supporter email, but this one is a special announcement. You all know my novel by its name Human Resources. What I haven’t told you previously is that the title is changing. There are various reasons for needing to change the title. Human Resources was a great title in some respects: it was understated and linked back to the corporate dystopia, as well as the way humans are treated in the novel. However, despite that, there were signs it would make the book harder to sell. Some of the issues were:

• Human Resources is not a unique title. There weren’t any other science-fiction books I could find with that title, but hundreds of business books. That meant searching for the book could be difficult.
• It confused people. Right throughout my campaign I encountered people who thought I’d written a non-fiction business manual. This can be addressed to an extent with a good cover, but I still had people misunderstand after I started including a cover image of a person with a big sword.
• It’s out of genre. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but by switching it to a title that is more recognizably from the genre of the book, it makes it stand out to people who read that genre.

So, without further ado, the new title is Blood Capital. This title isn’t as subtle, but ties it firmly in the genre. It also links back to the corporate dystopia, the treatment of humans in the world, and (bonus) the city the novel is set in. Work is underway on the final cover image, and I can’t wait to share the outcome of that. In the meantime, Inkshares have posted a (short) video of Matt Harry (Head of Story Development at Inkshares) talking about Blood Capital.

Matt Harry of Inkshares Discussing Blood Capital (July 2018) by Robbie Batten: https://vimeo.com/240758751

Robert Batten.

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

It has been a busy month here at the Codex Arcanum! We had five book events in the last three weeks, and so many people came out to show their support. We sold out at several events, and recently passed over 2000 copies sold! Not bad for less than a month in release. 

But the best part of all has been seeing everyone post pictures of their books, and watching young readers enjoy them. It really does make it all worth it. 

But we have another favor to ask. The Goodreads Choice Awards are currently accepting submissions for 2017. SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS wasn’t an official selection (boo), but they accept write-in candidates (yay!). So if you could go to the link below, scroll down to the bottom, type in SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS in the write-in box, and hit VOTE, then we can magic our way into the running!

2017 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS - BEST MIDDLE GRADE

As an indie book, we need all the visibility we can get. It takes less than 10 seconds and we really, really appreciate it! Thanks for all the support --

mh