Poetry lovers, art lovers, good morning! 

I hope you’re all having a great Sunday. It’s been a long while since I’ve updated this project. I have a new poem, and I want to share. A Jack Katz illustration to follow in the next week or two. Enjoy!

And without further ado, here is the cover for Sunshine is Forever! I promise if you ordered a paperback you will be pleasantly surprised by how great this book will feel in your hands. Inkshares did an amazing job!Look for your copy on August 29, 2017! And don’t forget to follow my next book KARID on Inkshares so you can be the first to preorder a copy when it goes on sale.

FOLLOW KARID: https://www.inkshares.com/books/karid

Thanks again for all your support!

Kyle T. Cowan

Greetings all my wonderful followers, 

I apologise for the long radio silence, but I was working hard making Beyond the Code the best it can be. I’ll be it, it has been a long wait and life has gotten in the way alot more then I would’ve liked, but i finally have some news for you guys. With the help of my great and helpful beta readers and plenty of time slaving over my laptop, I have finished my manuscript and have sent it to Inkshares.   

That’s right.Now all i have to do is get some fancy new cover art made and wait for Inkshares to get back to me with the first round of the cover edit. Exciting! Although, I can’t give you all a timeline yet, I will send an update as soon as i hear news from Inkshares. 

Things are HAPPENING!! 

Kelsey Rae Barthel

Oh my goodness. I really don’t have words to express how grateful I am to all of you who have followed my journey with Curio Citizen from the beginning, or for those amazing supporters who got excited and jumped in last minute. I am truly amazed and humbled by your support and love.

And it paid off in more ways than just my eternal gratitude! Last night, Curio Citizen won 2nd place in the Nerdist Sci-fi Contest! We got 277 total pre-orders, and 270 of those were from separate readers who were enthused enough by Curio Citizen to pre-order! Back at the beginning of the contest, I repeated to many people, many times, that getting to 50 would be amazing to me. That number changed to 80, then 100, then I was SURE I would cap at 150 when I thought I had run out of people to ask. But you all rose to the occasion and showered me with pre-orders by spreading the word. I am FLOORED by the amount of support I have received in the past month.

I started writing Curio Citizen a year ago, and this summer, I was fully ready to begin the long submissions process to try to get it published. I am SO lucky to have had the opportunity this contest offered and all of you to rally and make it happen. I will now be a published author and can jump-start what will hopefully be a successful career. My head is full of stories to be told, and I cannot wait to share them all with you!

Many of you know the details of why being published is so important to me and my family, and what I have overcome in life to get to this point. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for giving me this chance towards an amazing future.

So, as of right now, Curio Citizen has won 2nd place, it is listed as #21 Best Seller in Science Fiction on Inkshares, and its status is officially "In Production". I am awaiting further instructions and information on the way forward, but I will continue to place updates here as I go!

I would like to also send congratulations to Ferd Crotte and Daniel Lee for their wins. It has been an amazing roller coaster of a competition, and I am glad the three of us succeeded. To all the other competitors, I have loved reading about your books, and I really hope you reach full funding through your continued Inkshares goals.

Thank you again, to every single person who pre-ordered my book. I am truly touched beyond words.

-Katherine

This is the best update of them all!

WE DID IT!!!

With the help of you who are receiving this email (the “follower” list,) we finished the contest in the top three and have won the publishing prize! That is the dream of every writer, to be published. I have ONLY YOU to thank for that. There are many excellent writers who never have this opportunity. The difference here was YOU!

Here are the numbers: Mission 51 has an awesome number of “Followers” on Inkshares: 419. Most of you helped with a pre-order. Mission 51 would not be getting published like this without those pre-orders! Pre-orders is what Inkshares uses to determine who merits publication. It can’t be done on Inkshares without your vote of confidence and crowdfunding support! - Many followers helped with public exposure and awareness by simply “liking,” and “sharing,” and “commenting” on the Inkshares site, facebook, twitter, and instagram. Even without purchasing a pre-order, drumming up support for Mission 51 like that was enormously helpful. The level of interest and enthusiasm for Mission 51 was phenomenal! I will point out proof of that in just a bit.

Of the 419 Followers, 246 of you purchased a pre-order. Wow!!! That’s the number that counted for the contest. That’s the number that was top three out more than 180 submissions.

Those 246 fabulous supporters purchased a total of 267 copies, as some people purchased multiple copies of the book. That’s the crowdfunding Inkshares is looking for to: 1. prove the project is worth it, and 2. provide funds so they can at least start the expensive process of pre-production and production.

Those 267 copies broke down like this: 63% ordered ebooks, and 37% ordered physical books. That amounts to over $3,600 worth of crowdfunding support!!! That’s HUGE!!! Inkshares will use all of that and more to provide world-class editing, layout, production, marketing, and distribution services. I will update you all later on the timeframe of this exhaustive and comprehensive process. 

So the Mission 51 project page on Inkshares suddenly changed at 3:00 AM EDT this morning as the contest ended. The part that said “Funding” now says “In Production.” I am so very, very happy and proud about that! The green funding bar has disappeared. But I’m happy that most of the content is still visible. 

There is now one new little badge which appeared under the title and description on the Mission 51 project page. It says, “#18 Community Interest in Science Fiction.” I am blown away by that!!! There are many Science Fiction projects on Inkshares. To be ranked as #18 in Community Interest is unbelievable! That’s the proof about "interest and enthusiasm" I was alluding to!

I am starting to receive emails from Inkshares about my next steps. I have a number of things to learn and to decide, as you might imagine. As I know more, I will continue to keep you all informed through this medium. I ask for your patience as Inkshares navigates Mission 51 through their pre-production process. The goal is to eventually have a professionally polished product in your hands as soon as humanly possible. It won’t be as soon as anyone of us would like, but I will do my part to make it happen as soon as possible. I’ll keep you informed.

Again, THANK YOU! From the bottom, middle, and top of my heart, THANK YOU!!!

Peace!

Ferd 👽

Thriller Fans, in two weeks, July 11th, I will be headed to NYC to attend ThrilerFest.  This genre’ specific conference brings together the biggest names writing thriller novels for four days of inspiration,
education and celebration.  I will take part in the Debut Authors Program.  Check out the link for a Q&A spotlight about Tears of the Assassin on Book Trib.    ThrillerFest Q&A

Drop me a reply if you’re in NYC, I’d love to meet more fans of Inkshares.

Also, today is your last chance to help Ferd Crotte in the Nerdist Contest. Mission 51 is an awesome book and he could use your help to get it published through this very tight contest. https://www.inkshares.com/books/mission-51

All the Best,

William Schiele