It’s not often write-in votes amount to anything when it comes to awards and elections. The most popular victor of such an outcome is Boaty McBoatface, but maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. I was going to send a follow-on email thanking you all for your write-in efforts, except YOU TOTALLY DID IT! The Punch Escrow is now a semifinalist for the best science fiction book of the year in the Goodreads Choice awards. Thanks to each of you for donating 4.8 seconds of your time and writing in the name of my book. As you can see, we made it into the semi-finals. That means The Punch Escrow is already recognized as one of the 20 top sci-fi books of the year! 

Now, I have but one last favor to ask of you. As you can see, we’re in the semifinals, which means I need your vote again. BUT—I only need 1 second this time. You see that vote button under The Punch Escrow? Just click it, and you’ve done your part. It’s so easy to make such a big difference!

Thank you so much—this whole journey has surpassed my wildest dreams. I have no idea what happens next!

Hey guys not sure if the link I sent earlier to view the press release is working so here it is just in case: https://www.prlog.org/12674198-critically-acclaimed-ya-novel-rise-on-track-for-crowd-funded-publishing-contract-with-inkshares.html  

Please help me spread the word I’ve decided to partner up again with The Trevor Project and will donate 10% of net profits to the national association for teen suicide prevention and awareness. I hope you all have a safe and amazing weekend. 

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

Happy E-Day everyone! Delivery of the premium paperback edition of "Skavenger’s Hunt" is right on schedule for the middle of this month, but if you ordered an e-book edition, you probably have a nice little surprise in your email inbox right now. 

Yup, the first emails with the various e-book files went out just this morning, which means you can pop the story of Henry Babbitt, Hunter S. Skavenger, Mattie, Ernie and Jack (along with a handful of historical figures from the late 1800’s) into your e-reader right away. As you can tell, I already went ahead and did so this morning...

So many of you have said you’re looking forward to reading the book, but know that I’M looking forward to you reading it just as much!

Oh, and by the way, in case you have any problems with the files, here’s some helpful info:

The PDF is straight-forward and simple...just like any PDF. Same goes for the EPUB, which is the one you’ll want to use for your iPad or iPhone. Just follow the directions in the email you received and it’ll open up easy as can be.

The Kindle is the only that sometimes gives readers a slight problem. If you have issues, I found that a really easy thing to do is email the file to your Kindle. Yep, that’s right, every Kindle has an email address. Just download the file to the desktop of your home computer, and then do the following:

1) Go to amazon.com/myk and sign in to your Amazon account. This will be your "Manage your Content and Devices" page. You’ll see three tabs, the far right one being "Settings." Scroll down to "Personal Document Settings" and find your Kindle. Next to it, you’ll see an email address. That’s your Kindle email address.

2) Plop your Skavenger’s Hunt file you just saved to your desktop into an email (as an attachment) and send it to your Kindle’s email address.

Simple as that. After a few seconds, it’ll download to your Kindle just like any other Kindle purchase. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any problems. And if you enjoy the read as much as I hope you do, please go to the Skavenger’s Hunt Amazon webpage and leave a short review, even if it’s just a sentence or two. Amazon reviews are critically important to the success of any book.

Most importantly, though...I sincerely hope you enjoy the story! Drop me a note to let me know what you think!

Thanks, all...

Mike

All things literary have been a whirlwind. I’ve recently gotten notified that The Punch Escrow has been selected as one of Kirkus Reviews’ 100 Best Books of the 2017. That is great news! But on the same day I learned that Goodreads didn’t see The Punch Escrow fit to be listed among their selections for the Goodreads Choice Science Fiction awards. What adds insult to a bit of injury is that some of the books that they did nominate aren’t even published yet!

However, there is still some hope. YOU can alter reality! If you read and liked my book and have a Goodreads account, it takes about 4.8 seconds (I timed it) to write-in The Punch Escrow in the Best Science Fiction category. It would mean the world to me. The write-in field is at the bottom of the link above. It looks like this:

All you need to do is type in The Punch Escrow (it will auto-fill) and that’s it—you’ve altered reality! 

Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and this book. I’ll be writing a more comprehensive update on what’s going on with the film adaptation next year, there’s just a lot going on and I’m legally not allowed to discuss any of it. But it’s all *good* stuff!

-Tal