Long-overdue update here, mostly regarding Game Over, the book to which Uncharted Territory is the sequel.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve added a number of character profiles to my blog: Dylan, Cora, Grishnag, Nishara, Syala, and Ayastal. I also put up an introduction and a snippet of a scene in a post titled, "Finding the Silver Lining," which shows Dylan’s sometimes peculiar way of looking at things.

The thing is ... none of it is working. Two months in, with only 30 days remaining till the deadline, Game Over is still sitting at zero preorders. Which isn’t the first time something like this has happened. If I remember correctly, Project Revenant reached its deadline with maybe two or three preorders. Before trying Inkshares, I put both books on Kindle Scout, and when it was over, both of them finished with exactly zero votes.

One of the issues I’ve had all along was my inability to advertise effectively due to having no money to spare for buying ads or traveling all over the country to promote my books. My income is barely enough to scrape by every month, so I have to make do with whatever I can get for free. Twitter and Facebook help draw attention to my work, but apparently not enough to compel new readers to sign up and preorder. I’ve spent entire days searching for places to promote the book without having to pay a fee, and half of them no longer exist by the time I find them. The rest only accept links to books already published on Amazon and other sites, aside from the occasional page that accepts other works, but so far none of them have responded to my queries.

The other issue is the job and other everyday-life stuff getting in the way. I envy writers who make a living with their writing or at least are able to keep a regular writing schedule. I’d be able to keep at it more regularly if I could ditch the job, but I can’t do that and keep a roof over my head. So it’s time I stop kidding myself. I’m not giving up just yet. I’ve put too many years into this -- 27, give or take, so far -- to admit defeat. I just need to acknowledge when something isn’t working and move on to something else. Maybe I’ll submit Game Over to a huge publisher and get lucky, or maybe I’ll find another approach that actually works. I haven’t exhausted all the possibilities yet.

I looked through the FAQ and didn’t find an option to end the campaign early, so I’ll just wait it out and take the book down after the deadline. I’ll keep Uncharted Territory up for the time being, and post the revised chapters and continue working on it until it’s finished, so the readers who have enjoyed the work in progress can see the rest of the story. After that ... well, it depends on what happens with Game Over.

For anyone who wants to keep updated on the book’s status and my other projects, I’ll pop in a link to my blog, which has links in a sidebar to all of my writing projects. 

Finally, I want to thank everyone who followed me and my books here. It’s very much appreciated, and I can’t help feeling like I’ve let everyone down. But it was a fun and interesting experiment while it lasted. It was definitely worth a shot. As Jack Burton once said, "Hey, ya never know till you try."

We are just shy of 60 days into the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller Contest and as much as I was looking forward to crossing this marathon finish line this week, the Inkshares organizers have decided to let us continue to run until mid-December. I’m currently in first place and hope that continues. To be on the safe side, there is still time to encourage others to order the book. Every order gets me closer to publication. As a reminder, during November, I am donating $5 of every order to the NaNoWriMo.org non-profit and I would like nothing more than to have to write a big check for a good charity. So please continue to spread the word. 

A few backers have asked when they can read the book. I’m currently working on the third draft, so the honest answer is I have no idea, but most likely in 2019. In the meantime, I’ve posted 10 revised chapters on the Inkshares site. If you want to take a look, you can do so by clicking on the READ tab below the cover art. (Or click here to go straight to the first of these, the Prologue.)    

It seems there are still a small number of orders that have not going through. If you have not received an email confirmation from hello@inskhares.com with the subject Gumshoe Rules Confirmation, then you’ll need to place your order again.  If you have any uncertainty, you can email hello@inskhares.com directly to check if your order was received.  Please go to https://www.inkshares.com/books/gumshoe-rules  to place your order. 

As this is Thanksgiving in the US, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how grateful I am to be able to write and publish a novel. Without your support the book would not get published. I am especially grateful to those who not only ordered a copy of the book, but also badgered, spammed or otherwise encouraged other people to do so.  And even though it is sometimes uncomfortable to ask for this favor, it has been nice to be in touch with so many people and hear what so many friends and colleagues are up to.

So thank you everyone for your help! As a reminder, if you can want to reach out to one more person and encourage them to order the book, that would be fantastic!  I’m excited to have everyone along this journey!
--Z.Z. Traver
PS. Back in the spring I attended a writing workshop and met local Detroit author Stephen Mack Jones, who wrote the highly acclaimed August Snow detective novel. I am grateful for his feedback and encouragement upon reading the early chapters of this manuscript.  

Hi, all. Thanks again to each of you for your support to get this ball rolling (hopefully it will start to roll faster :). If you enjoyed the first two chapters, I have just uploaded the next two. Chapter Four is notable because it introduces the heroine of the piece, Josalind. (Chapter Three is of course notable, too, for different reasons.)