It’s that time of year again...the mince pies have been scoffed and the brandy quaffed, now all that’s left to do is catch up on the backlog of goodwill for 2018.  

Hopefully by now all you lovely people that purchased LOUISIANA BLOOD will have received a digital or paperback.  If anybody has not, please let me know. 

In that vein, can I ask you all for a small favour?  REVIEWS. I’m starting to plan the marketing campaign and good reviews are one of the most important planks in the bridge from obscurity to notoriety.  

If you have read or are reading the book please take a few seconds to nip over to Amazon and post a review.  Hundreds of you were kind enough to launch the book into the ether, now I need some reviews to help land it in the press and boost it up the ranks of the mighty Amazon.  No algorithms were harmed in the construction of this update :) Thank you for all your support.

POST REVIEWS HERE

Greetings wonderful followers, 

I have some news. I have contracted Mickey Mikkelson with Creative Edge as my publicist. He will help me build a strong writer platform and get the word out about Beyond the Code. He’s already booked me to be a guest on the awesome writers video podcast, Spilling Ink, on Feb 17/18. Look out for it. 

With any luck, we’ll have plenty more events to announce in the future. I’ll keep you informed the best I can. 

Also, I’m being told that the email address confirmations have been going out to my wonderful readers. So if you have moved in the recent future, make sure to input your correct address. And don’t forget that once you have read Beyond the Code, make sure to give it a review. Reader reviews are a first time authors best friend. 

Thank you all for following me this far. It’s been a long road but pub day is fast approaching. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel  

Dear friends and followers,

Things continue apace, and I think we’re on track for publication before summer. It’s a lot more work than I bargained for! The big news, though, is that we’re changing the title of the book. The story will now be published as "A Gentleman’s Murder". Well, if a gentlemen’s club, then of course a gentleman’s murder, right? And one has to admit it rolls off the tongue more easily.

It does mean I’m going to need a new header for these news bulletins....

The other big news is that we’ve also got a new cover!

It’s not quite final yet, I’m told, but I gather that this is a pretty good taste of what’s in store.

And now, I had better get back to those edits. Before somebody murders me....

Here we go.

Blue Water has now reached the front of the line at Inkshares. I first want to thank you all for your patience with the lack of updates since we reached our funding goal two Novembers ago. I know that it can be frustrating not hearing any new information. Believe me, that won’t be a problem anymore. Inkshares has been in contact quite often now that it’s our turn.

Here’s a quick overview of how it’s going to go from here. Currently, the novel has gone through the preliminary copy edit. The changes have been sent to me, and I’ve gone through them all and am sending the book back with notes on the changes. After that, Blue Water’s final manuscript will be sent back to me in the first week of February. The book’s final cover for the eBooks will be done and sent to you all to check out first in March, the full cover in April.

And the big date, the day the book is available to the public: June 5, 2018. 

However, you guys are the backers. If it weren’t for each and every one of you (literally, we sold just barely over the goal to make Quill), none of this would be happening. So again, I have to thank you, not just for your patience, but for believing in a first time writer and a book you’ve never read. So, you guys won’t have to wait until the publish date, your copies will be mailed or available for download a few weeks early. The goal is that you guys all check it out first and tell your friends about it before release day. So I may have to call you you again to help spread the word again. We currently have sold 263 copies, and I’ve backed off selling during the information vacuum of 2017. My third thanks to all of you is to buy the book with no information on when you’d receive it. That is a hard sell, and you guys all came though. Now, I’m going to take the next six months and start the selling again. Luckily for you, you already bought it, so I won’t bug you (although it would make a great birthday gift for everyone you know.) 

So three thanks to you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We’ll be in touch.

Joseph Parcell

Storm of Fury eBook pre-orders are finally here!

While we’re still a week away from the official publication of SoF, and access to physical copies of the book, you can now download Storm of Fury from the email you received if you pre-ordered during the funding campaign two years ago. (Wow, two years? My, the time has flown by.) 

It’s staggering to be here, only a week away, and see these emails go out. Thank you for supporting me and my book; it’s been an incredible journey and it’s only just beginning. In the next few months, as I focus on marketing SoF, I’ll be working on the finishing touches for SoF’s second novel. (Technically, this trilogy was supposed to be one book, so the next two will come out pretty quickly.)

I’ll send out another message next week to celebrate the official publication! If you did not receive an email with the eBook, email me or dm me through Inkshares and I’ll see if we can fix the issue.

Thank you so much!

-Andrew Wood

Greetings wonderful followers, 

I just got some exciting news from Inkshares. According to them, Beyond the Code should be all printed up in about two weeks, then they’ll start sending out the purchased copies to my wonderful backers. Can’t wait. Be sure to keep an eye on your email if you have moved in the last while so they can get your new mailing address. Wouldn’t want some stranger enjoying your book. 

Thank you all for following me this far.

Kelsey Rae Barthel 

Aloha All,

I hope you are enjoying this holiday season, and are getting the chance to spend it with friends and family!  With one more day until 2018, this seemed a good opportunity to check in with a brief update on Lost in the Fog, my book you graciously pre-ordered/followed.

And I finally have some good news to share! 

For the last month I have been working with an editor, the extremely talented and sagacious Caroline Tolley.   Her resume is beyond impressive (please click on the link and check out all the great books she has edited), and I am very lucky to have her in my corner.  A few weeks ago she returned her first round edit of Lost in the Fog, which was filled with terrific advice to make it a better book.

Caroline’s development notes were overwhelmingly positive on the story, characters, pacing, and plot.  She said overall the book was in great shape.  Her feedback for improvement was mostly in the narration: specifically, the 3rd person narrator (while often humorous) impeded the reader from bonding with Camden and Veronica.  This also caused a ripple effect where these two main characters did not share enough internal thoughts.  I also have some tone ambiguity I need to work on.

I agree with my editor’s evaluation, and these necessary changes will be relatively minor in scope. 

I just need to find the time to do them. 

This month nearly every night has been a holiday party for work and friends, and I’ve also had visitors and long days spent in the office for my job that pays the bills.  No complaints at all, as I’ve been having a lot of fun and finding satisfaction in my work.  But I’ve been eager to dig into my rewrite based on Caroline’s notes, and I finally was able to make some progress this past week.

I plan to keep this momentum going, and mid-January should be a realistic timeline for me to finish my rewrite and submit it back to her. 

The next step in the process is for Caroline to do one more edit.  I’ll then take that, make the required adjustments, and Inkshares will do a final “line edit”.  This is exactly what the name implies- someone will go line-by-line to ensure everything is proper, perfect, and ready for publication.

I’ll keep everyone updated as I hit key milestones, and I hope to get Lost in the Fog to all of you by late summer/early fall of 2018.  But the date is unfortunately out of my control.  Whether you’re an established best-selling author or someone like me, unlike the instantaneous click/like/tweet of our culture, the publishing process is plodding and requires patience.  But I’m so glad to have you all with me on this.  

As the clock ticks down on 2017, I will humbly once again say thank you and mahalo for your support! Simply put, Lost in the Fog would not be getting published without your help.  I wish you all a Happy New Year, and success and happiness in 2018!! 

-Michael

Greetings, Adventurers!

It’s been awhile since you’ve heard from me, hasn’t it? Let’s recap:

- Sept. 9th we hit our funding goal and Mushroom and Anchovy was greenlit!

- You haven’t heard from me since (oops).

In the interest of transparency, I’ll be honest with you all: I have not yet submitted the manuscript to Inkshares as of yet, and there are a few reasons for this.

1. Mushroom and Anchovy needed a great deal more work than previously thought.

Especially part 3. My god. Obviously, I don’t want to sell you an awful book. While I’m sure the fine folks at Inkshares wouldn’t allow it to be delivered to you in such a state, I want to at least make their work a bit easier and give them something worth editing. Because... yikes. 

2. November was the hardest month this year for me.

I’m not going to lie: I had a pretty difficult autumn and it has taken its toll. The winter solstice yesterday left me with some hope for the next season, which is great, because from the fall equinox til just a couple weeks ago has been brutal. I also got another part-time job and have spent much of my time lately managing my family’s rapidly changing schedule. 

3. I’m still a bit burnt out from the campaign.

If you follow my social media accounts, particularly my Facebook page, you’ll likely notice some radio silence. I really haven’t been doing much. I haven’t even worked on my blog. It’s been a very introspective time for me, and outside of work, I haven’t been very social, either. The campaign was like a full-time job, and even though it ended three(?!) months ago already, it still feels like yesterday. 

I had hoped to have the manuscript sent in by October 31st, but that simply did not happen due to all the factors mentioned, and a few more. I am still actively working on it, day by day, and my new date for completion is January 31st. It is my hope that Mushroom and Anchovy will be under Christmas trees across North America for 2018, and while I have no way of guaranteeing that, I’ll do my utmost to make it so.

Also in the interest of transparency, I want to mention that I do not have your money. Unlike Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites, Inkshares does not send the money to the creators; the company uses it 100% for production. If you’re worried about my silence, please do not be. I am incapable of taking the money and running!

I do apologise for these delays, as I had hoped they wouldn’t happen. I am, however, only human. It is my sincere hope that the next time you hear from me, it will be to inform you all that the manuscript is in Inkshares’ hands.

Thank you for being patient with the process, and, as always, thank you for your unwavering support! The happiest of holidays to all of you, whatever you celebrate, and I will talk to you all in 2018.

If you have any questions or concerns at all about Mushroom and Anchovy or the campaign itself, please get in contact with me ASAP so I can put your mind at ease.

May your adventures be fraught with wonder and just enough peril to keep them interesting,

K. M. Cooper

Greetings wonderful followers, 

I have some good news. I have received the final approval for the full cover and now Beyond the Code is finally going to the printers. It’s been a long road and now we are closer then ever to making Beyond the Code a real book. Thank you all for sticking with me on the journey. I hope you all love the finished product. 

Kelsey Rae Barthel