Happy New Year!

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

Happy New Year! You may have seen this in another email, but thanks to you, WE DID IT! We made our funding goal. Because of some last-minute pre-orders, we held on to third place and won The List contest! This means that SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS will be published later this year with FULL MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION SUPPORT. 

I’m over the moon, you guys. Four years ago, I pitched the concept for this book as a screenplay, but my agent said no one would buy it as a spec. If it was based on a book, he said it would be a slam-dunk sale. So I decided to write my first real novel, and nine drafts and several wrong turns later, here we are. In less than a year, SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS will be on the shelves of bookstores. 

And I owe it all to you. Your tweets, your shares, and most importantly, your pre-orders got us to this place. Thanks to you guys, we donated $560 to breast cancer research, we finished in the top ten of two separate contests, and SORCERY got a real publishing deal. There’s a lot of work still left to do -- I have to address notes from my editor, Juliane has to do the illustrations, plus layout and cover design and marketing one-sheets -- but for now, I simply want to say THANK YOU. Thank you to all who supported this project over last three months, and to everyone who has supported my writing in other ways over the years. I owe you all drinks. I’d also like to send a special shout-out to all the folks in the Inkshares community, especially Adam, who believed in this book. I look forward to working with you all in 2017.

For now, may you enjoy the rest of your holiday. I wish you all the best in 2017, and no matter what else happens, I hope this book will be a little bright spot in your year. It wouldn’t exist without you.

Thanks again. Onward!

mh

Dear friends and followers,

Happy new year! By now, you should all have gotten the news that we’ve made our goal, a month early. Or, more precisely, that we’ve made the top three on The List, which means the same result without having to actually hit the full 750 orders. This is pretty awesome, and it’s all thanks to you. Every one of you who pre-ordered, who spread the word, who got your friends to pre-order or even just to look at the book: thank you. Thank you so much.

So, now that we’re "in production", what does that mean? When will you get your books?

I know I’ve been saying that books will probably be out around November 2017, and that was a conservative estimate back in March when I started. But the volume of books going through Inkshares of late means that the production process is longer now than it used to be. Here is what Inkshares has to say about the production process. According to this, it could be twelve to eighteen months from the moment I submit my manuscript before the book comes out. In short: between January and June 2018.

I know. I’m a little dismayed too. But it’s still miles better than not getting it out at all, so it’s still a cause for celebration.

Again, thank you for everything. Let’s party like it’s 1925!

Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

I’ve been here before, sitting in the quiet before the end, wondering what lies on the other side of the storm. I am the crazy person who has entered four contests on Inkshares, one of which I won with a group of amazing talents much larger than mine.  Four contests in a year. I can mark them like seasons in my life on Inkshares.

The first contest was my introduction to Inkshares as a whole. The Nerdist contest came along at a time when I was waiting for my final edit to return on Shadow of the Owl, when I had already written a book, created a cover, bought my ISBNs and prepared to self-publish. I hit submit assuming many things, not the least of which was that it would easy (not unlike self-publishing on its own).

Next I tossed Deus Hex Machina into the Sword & Laser the Sequel contest, largely because I already had a funding campaign for Shadow of the Panther up on the site and didn’t want to resubmit. I’m glad I made that choice, because while I didn’t win that contest, I did get far enough to grab interest in the project from outside and even eventually get the book a light publishing contract. The outside interest ended up pushing me to write a book while I was funding it (something I highly suggest no one ever do), writing a book I originally thought would never see the light of day. It was at this point that I promised I would never do another contest, by the way.

When the Nerdist Video Game contest came along, I was at the right place at the right time with a group of writing colleagues who wanted to try something crazy -- submit an anthology. The result was a first place win for Too Many Controllers, to which I submitted a story I had been working on for years that is currently titled "Final Boss." I am incredibly proud of that story, mostly because it represents my overcoming a huge fear of short fiction that’s hounded me since I let fear push me out of the fiction side  of my creative writing degree at USC. 

And now, The List 2016 is drawing to a close. In little under six hours I will be ending my first year with Inkshares the way I began it: Watching a contest end. I  find myself introspective (obviously) rather than dejected at the results of this contest. Sitting seventh in a contest that I was invited into is a rather big honor. I have a finished manuscript waiting until the contest closes today, one that I firmly believe is the best writing I’ve ever done.  No matter what result happens from this contest, I will be able to look back at this year with Inkshares and smile. I have one book published, two more in production once I send in DHM, and many more projects. I have found a community of disparate writers from around the world, and a strange and wonderful company that links them all together in this crazy publishing fever dream. 

What’s next up for me in 2017? I am about to write another couple of short stories in the Shadow of the Owl universe. Once I have those done and published I’ll be planning out the sequel to DHM and then hammering out the next (and final) version of Shadow of the Panther. That book needs to be finished -- it’s been restarted so many times at this point that it must assume I don’t love it. Luckily I have the outline complete on what it’s going to look like, and I think I’ve settled on a premise that will fit the fantasy of the series while still innovating within it.

Two stories, two books, zero contests: that sounds like a great year to me. If 2016 was the year of funding books, I think 2017 will be the year of writing books, and maybe even publishing a couple too.  That sounds pretty great to me.

Greetings Jackolytes,

11 days ago I wrote to you about a January 17th publishing date for Sync City. Well, 11 days is not just a long time in politics, it’s also a long time in publishing. January 17th is now no longer the publishing date. Word is I’ll know the new date is in a couple of week’s time. I’ll then pass it on to you.

Cheers,

Peter

What’s up Pirates!!

First and foremost, a meme because today marks the last Wednesday of 2016:

It’s been a long time since my last update! To be honest, the last few months have been a whirlwind of working on the manuscript, various supporting documents, etc, to get this book into production. Every time I started to write an update, something amazing happened that made me think, "I’ll finish this later so I can tell them more." As a new novel writer, it’s something I’ve never experienced before, but I’m very thankful for the Inkshares team’s support and encouragement. The Pirates of Montana is going to be amazing, and I’m really excited for you to read it!

I submitted my second rewrite just a few days ago, and I’ll be working over next 6 to 8 weeks to really tighten the manuscript. It’s already much stronger than what I originally worked on last May, and I’m very excited for where its going. I’ll be posting my new 1st and 2nd chapters very soon, so stay tuned!

As it stood on Christmas Eve, when I emailed this monster to Inkshares (their request, they are a hardworking bunch!), this is what I submitted:

88,796 total words and (although you can’t see it on the above graphic) 23 total chapters. That means that when printed, I guesstimate the book will be around ~350 pages long. Writing this document was a mixture of stress, joy, and excitement. I’m happy that the next big step has been taken! So is my family, who got really used to tiptoeing around me after 7 pm when I’d finally have time to work.

As it stands, the book will be published by September 2017. Yay! I’ve been proofing my back copy and bio, and we should have those finished in early January.  

Inkshares wrote a wonderful blog post about crowdfunding books. Please read it, as it explains the writing/editing/publishing process, including their timelines for authors (a.k.a ’Why is it taking a year to get my book?’): 

http://blog.inkshares.com/post/154475375840/a-note-on-pub-dates-from-the-inkshares-production

2016 wasn’t easy for a lot of people, myself included, but I KNOW that 2017 will be AMAZING, and it’s all thanks to you: your support, your encouragement, and your indefatigable tolerance of my dinosaur memes. 

Cheers to a wonderful 2017!

Erin

Hey gang! Been a while...right to it then! But first, thanks for being the best! Seriously, I couldn’t do these awesome things without you.