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I’m sitting at my desk this lovely morning, watching the snow fall out the window of my mountainside home and feeling very grateful for all of you. This update is coming a little later than usual, and for that, I apologize. I was waiting to hear back on a few points so that this update could be a bit more substantial than the last few. And, it will be!
I have multiple exciting updates to share with you!
1) Developmental Edit Progress
Since my update at the end of October, I have concluded another round of developmental edit rewrites. The book is now back in the hands of my editor. He is going through one more time (he estimates this will take about two weeks), and then he plans to send the book to a beta-reader to get some third-party, objective feedback. We will then use that feedback to do one more pass before forwarding the book to a copy-editor.
2) Title change
While I like The Walls are Closing In (and we may still use it as a tagline for the book), we have decided that a different title is more marketable, provides a bit of mystery, and is catchier for the future selling of property rights (fingers crossed).
So, without further ado, the new title is:
The Seclusion
3) Genre Change
We are making a few changes to the plot and market the book as YA(Young Adult). This will only marginally change the story but will double the audience. It allows us to not only market the book to fans of books such as 1984, Fahrenheit 541, and The Handmaid’s Tale, but also to fans of books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent.
3) Release Date!
The book has been assigned a tentative release date and an ISBN number (this second part is probably not exciting to anyone but me).
The Seclusion is currently set to publish on:
October 2, 2018!
This is a bit later than I had hoped, but I am beyond thrilled that there is an official trajectory. Between now and then I will be doing everything in my power to ensure that the launch is a success.
One last note - the first two chapters on the book’s page have been updated to reflect the changes that we have been making. Feel free to check them out!
Until next time,
-Jacqui
Dear all,
This is a short update about the publication of "Everything is Normal."
The book is fully finished. At this stage the publisher is reaching out to relevant authors for "blurbs" – quotes about the book to be printed on the front and the back covers. Here are a couple examples received:
“Like walking through the looking-glass into 1970s-80s Leningrad... funny, shocking and occasionally even tender... prepare to be transported back to the CCCP.” —Lisa Dickey, author of Bears in the Streets
“A rare glimpse of life in Soviet Russia before and during perestroika. Everything is Normal is the tender and often funny story of a personal journey paralleled by seismic changes in the country itself. A captivating read.” —Elena Gorokhova, author of Russian Tattoo
In January, the publisher will be sending electronic and physical copies of the book (first off-set print run) to various media players in the book world (editors at the NYT, WSJ, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, etc.), as well as to top influencers, book reviewers, librarians, etc. Fingers crossed, it will generate good reviews and interest.
The book is already getting orders from small independent bookstores in the US almost every day. This is pleasing. It is also already available for pre-orders on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., and for reviews on Goodreads.
So, so far so good. It has been an interesting journey, which is now coming to its conclusion. Thank you very much again for your support, pre-orders and patience. As planned, you will be receiving the books in March.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy New Year, and Happy Festivus for the rest of us.
Cheers,
Sergey
Hey there, readers!
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Despite my battling the start of a nasty head cold, yesterday’s signing event at Barnes & Noble went pretty damn good! I sold a decent stack of books, chatted with some cool people, and probably drank an unsafe-for-humans amount of coffee. Special thanks to everyone who came by, and to the awesome BN staff that let me set up shop for the day.
And of 16 names in the hat, the winner of the poster giveaway is... MAY KAYYALI! Thank you so much May for grabbing a copy of the book! I’ll be in touch with you soon.
And now to San Diego, AWAYYYY!
This coming Saturday, December 9th, I’ll be at the Mysterious Galaxy BookStore (hopefully minus head cold). Starting at 2PM, a handful of authors (including yours truly) will take turns getting on the mic and chatting about their books. Then we will split off into individual signing tables. Come join the fun! See the links below for more info:
Mysterious Galaxy Holiday Party (Facebook Event Page)
Mysterious Galaxy Website
ONE LAST THING! If you wish to buy a signed copy of the book, but you can’t make it out to these events, send me an email at rockhollywood8@gmail.com. I have about 20 copies on-hand that I need to sell. If you order directly from me, not only will you get a PERSONALLY SIGNED copy, but I’ll also send it out ASAP in time for Christmas. Got a friend or family member who might like a silly space adventure? Drop me a line!
-Tony
I’m BACK!
It’s been a month and you probably enjoyed the quiet time, but wanted to let you know things are progressing well with Murder Happens. Gave myself a 4-month deadline, now one-month into it since the contest ended, and got a solid 40K done in that time. It’s all revisions, rewrites and new material. When draft two is done, will hand it off to Joan the Editor before putting it into the queue for the Inkshares dev/editing process.
Joan has another freebie for your kindle. The Dolls is my favorite horror short of hers. It’s really creepy. We tried to have it for Halloween, but some kind of crazy life thing happened.
Mike and I are still together, btw. It was tough, but he forgave me for that last minute pre-order that jumped MRDR HPPNS into 1st place…one ahead of The Vampire and the Dragon. He’s been sharing the plot premise of the trilogy which is a complete spoiler for me, but they’re going to be awesome for the rest of you. Guess that’s my payback.
Check out @deanfearce or my Facebook for the hell of it.
Quick update-
