Between followers of the book versus followers of me, we have over 250 followers. That means if everyone gets one, I will be a published author. That fact alone is astounding, but it’s the support of you which has made it possible and I can’t thank you enough. Also, if anyone pre-orders more than one paperback, I will custom write a limerick for you.
One thing I realized is that in my rush to send out the update yesterday, I neglected to thank my parents, who have watched me sweating bullets since this contest began and were quick with encouragement. During one especially stressful morning, my dad, Avi, took me aside, and with his heavy Hebrew accent said, "Tal. What are you worried about? You are my son. You will win." And my mom, Yona, who has the superpower of overhearing anything my dad says regardless of where he is, said, "Avi, you don’t know that he will win." To which my dad responded sternly, "Yes, Yona, I know." And that was it. The universe was compelled to act.
Since yesterday, I’ve received lots of emails, tweets, and messages from supporters and friends. This update will address the two most common questions:
1. When do I get my book?
The first draft of the manuscript was submitted to my developmental editor, Robert Kroese, before the contest began. He delivered a very thorough developmental edit from which I am now doing a COMPLETE rewrite of the book. In fact, I’ll be removing most of the chapters I posted to the Inkshares page because they are all very, very different now. So if you want to feel like a beta reader, get to it now because the MASS DELETION event happens soon. I’ll leave The Big Mac of Theseus chapter as-is, spelling and grammar errors and all as a memento of this campaign for the time being. I will deliver Inkshares a final draft by August 1. After that they’ll let me know more about the publication date, and rest assured I will share with you whatever information is at my disposal.
2. What about the MAJOR PRIZE raffle?
There were over 30 entries to our MAJOR PRIZE raffle, however, of those, only 8 got the International Transport slogan *exactly* right: "Departure, Journey, Arrival... Delight!" Yesterday, when the contest ended, I asked my daughter, Iris, to assist me in drawing the winner. We used Randompicker.com for the drawing. It’s a very cool site that uses hardware based randomization to ensure drawings are completely, well, random. Here we go:
Michael Haase (whose last name I butcher in the video) was the big winner! The universe decided another publishing contest winner should receive the box. I conducted this brief interview with Michael following Iris’ drawing:
TK: I think it’s very interesting that a fellow Inkshares author won this contest. I’d say the process of entering the contest was prohibitively semi-involved, but we still managed to get 34 entries. Of those, 8 were correct, and several were fellow Inkshares authors. I think that speaks well for the community, I’ve noticed that although Inkshares is a small ecosystem, it’s a very active one. How did you discover Inkshares, and what made you want to take the leap?
MH: My sister discovered Inkshares for me. I had no idea such a wonderful playground for authors existed. I have always been a writer in some form or another, and I certainly have forced plenty a story or poem upon friends and family. When my sister heard about the Nerdist Space Opera contest, she told me that I should enter because she thought I could win, even though I had not yet written a Space Opera. With that kind of endorsement in hand, I worked all day on February first and had a rough outline for Mr. Butler by the end of the day. I entered the story immediately, and have fallen head over heels over the Inkshares concept and community of authors ever since.
TK: Adding to the kismet of your win, you, yourself are also a contest winner. I know this contest was completely exhausting for me, could you share a bit about your publishing contest experience? What were the ups and downs, surprises, and so on?
MH: I think no one was happier that it was over than my wife. Participating in a contest requires a ton of dedication and time. From February 1st through March 15th I was networking, marketing, contacting every person I know and ever knew, learning how to market, trying not to back away slowly from marketing, checking my phone like a fiend, tearing up my workspace in my basement, outlining, writing, planning, scheming, making new author friends, reading other authors’ work, working full-time in an ER, raising a toddler, trying to the the best I could for my pregnant wife, and generally burning the candle at both ends until I dropped the candle on a powder keg. I’m surprised anyone still likes me after that contest. But if I had to do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat. I’ve made amazing friends with other authors all over the world, sold copies of my book on all continents except Antarctica (stupid penguins don’t read...), and renewed my confidence as an author. Probably the greatest surprise was the outpouring of support I received. Pat Edwards, who is an amazing author and another Nerdist winner with his book "Space Tripping," convinced me to literally contact every single person I knew. I decided to just go ahead and write every single friend I had on Facebook and Twitter to ask for their support. Almost every time I sent someone a message and thought to myself "Oh, they couldn’t possibly be interested in buying my book," I was wrong.
TK: Do you think the protagonist of your book, Mr. Butler would be up for teleporting somewhere if he knew that to teleport he’d have to be destroyed in one place while simultaneously being replicated in another? What would go through his mind in making that decision?
MH: Absolutely. He is a man desperate for science and fact beyond what is readily observable. On his planet, he is nearly alone in thinking that the universe is a puzzle to be solved. If he were approached with such an offer, he might question the implications of being destroyed and replicated somewhere else, but the need to embrace the science behind the travel, experience it for himself, and, ultimately, leave the wretched planet on which he lives would drive him to accept the offer to teleport with enthusiastic nods. He wouldn’t even care where he went, as long as it wasn’t to another place on his planet. Only in that scenario would he think twice.
TK: You are the winner of the MAJOR AWARD raffle. A mysterious box which I claim is from the future, which I also state is scientifically impossible. If you were creating a thematic mystery box for the Madness of Mr. Butler, what would be in it?
MH: A flask of hallucinogenic serum, an astronaut’s helmet, a journal, an 8-track player with several cassettes of rock music from the late 60’s and early 70’s, a noose, a large stick, a quill made from a fishbone, and a ghost.
Here are the complete results of the MAJOR PRIZE raffle:
Michael Haase - WINNER
Phillip Rendely, Sarra Lord, and Nicolas Coombs - 2nd prize: "TELEPORTING" PUNCH ESCROW COFFEE MUGS
At your service,
Tal
What’s up fishes!
I literally had to pinch myself at 12:01 pm today. I’m so pleased to announce that Pirates of Montana placed 3rd in the Inkshares/Geek & Sundry contest, and will be fully published!!
On January 1st, 2016, after I kissed my family in celebration of the New Year, I turned to my husband and said that my New Years resolution for 2016 would be to write and publish my book. I’d been talking about it for several years, and knew that I’d probably go the self-publishing route. And when I saw Geek & Sundry’s post in early April, I knew I had to enter.
Crash forward to today, and its actually happening! By 12:30 pm today, I was banging my head with a book in disbelief (mostly due to my toddler’s antics, but events were coinciding).
Congratulations to Tal Klein (The Punch Escrow) and Brian Guthrie (After Man)!! You both ran fantastic campaigns!! I cannot wait to read your books!
A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that pre-ordered the book. I am so fortunate, and it’s entirely because of you. Your support, your encouragement, your help, your tolerance with my dinosaur meme obsession -- you are my cheering squad, and I’m grateful for it.
A enormous THANK YOU to the Break the Bechdel of Strong Female Characters Syndicate. I was shocked to be nominated and felt exhilarated to win for the Month of May!!! Your support means the world, and I will do you proud! Molly Tanner will do you proud!
Words cannot express how thankful I am to find the community of Inkshares. Several of you have reached out to me for support and advice, and I’m grateful for it. I look forward to many more discussions!!
Thank you Mark Nassi, Tom Steele, Bryan Steele (my Quill purchaser!!), the Evan family, and my wonderful husband Adam. You are my biggest supporters, and I love you all.
I will be keeping you all posted on the book’s progress weekly, so stay tuned!!
Now, all we have to do is wait for Geek & Sundry’s decision on May 25!
It’s the final countdown!
Hello friend,
Sorry for the radio silence. I had forgotten how much work preparing a manuscript, even a fully written one, for the editorial process could be. The good news is; I’m but a few days away from handing in my manuscript for A God in the Shed. Even more good news is that once that’s done, I’ll be getting back to finishing off the first draft of Arch-Android, the sequel to The Life Engineered. In fact, you should probably follow the page for Arch-Android on Inkshares immediately as things will start happening there soon (like beta reader selection).
As things are progressing on my side that doesn’t mean I still don’t need your help. I’ve recently been able to witness first hand the impact getting to 100 reviews on Amazon does for a book and it’s impressive. As of this writing, we have 83 reviews. There is no rational reason we couldn’t get to 100 in a very short amount of time. So if you’ve read The Life Engineered, don’t waste another minute; go write a review. Doesn’t even need to be long or complex. "I liked it." is enough.
I’m also hoping for a nomination at the Dragon Awards, so if you haven’t done so yet, consider nominating The Life Engineered for Science Fiction Novel and perhaps some of my friends from Inkshares in some of the other categories (Ageless, Asteroid Made of Dragons, An Unattractive Vampire).
Finally, I want to share with you my updated writing schedule. What you see on the graphic above is the estimated release dates of my books. These only show books that I plan to fund on Inkshares along with the two books I’ll be writing for the Ed Greenwood Group. Obviously, this is subject to change. If books fund faster or slower than anticipated, or the production schedules don’t line up with my estimates, etc. However it gives you, and especially me, an idea of what I have to look forward to. Immediately when I look at it, I want to get a better distribution of publishing, but that’s something I can course correct on the way there.
I’m especially looking forward to some of the plans and ideas I have in store right now. A God in the Shed is planned as a trilogy so that will end with the third book, but The Life Engineered is more of an anthology format with recurring characters and an overarching story to tell, so I’m less sure how many books will be in that series. I have other ideas but they’re in the pre-planning stage so it’s hard to tell if they’ll be Inkshares projects or not.
As you can tell, I plan on this journey I’m taking with you to last for quite a while and I hope I’ll have your support for the duration. So far, it’s been a pleasure to travel with you and I see rough but exciting seas ahead of us. Stick around and gather your friends; the next leg of the odyssey begins soon.
Extra notes:
Thanks again,
JF
Greetings again sentients!
Sorry for the radio silence. I don’t want to brag but I’ve been busy. I don’t know why that would qualify as bragging but it certainly has been taking away from my slumber. The good news, if you’re into the Horror/Fantasy genre, is that I’m but a few days away from handing in my manuscript for A God in the Shed. Even if you’re not into that genre and you’re right this moment screaming into your monitor "Make with the robots Dubeau!" then you’ll be happy to know that as soon as A God in the Shed is in the magical hands of editors I will be going back to finishing the first draft of Arch-Android. In fact, you should probably follow the page for Arch-Android on Inkshares immediately as things will start happening there soon (like beta reader selection).
As things are progressing on my side that doesn’t mean I still don’t need your help. I’ve recently been able to witness first hand the impact getting to 100 reviews on Amazon does for a book and it’s impressive. As of this writing, we have 83 reviews. There is no rational reason we couldn’t get to 100 in a very short amount of time. So if you’ve read The Life Engineered, don’t waste another minute; go write a review. Doesn’t even need to be long or complex. "I liked it." is enough.
I’m also hoping for a nomination at the Dragon Awards, so if you haven’t done so yet, consider nominating The Life Engineered for Science Fiction Novel and perhaps some of my friends from Inkshares in some of the other categories (Ageless, Asteroid Made of Dragons, An Unattractive Vampire).
Finally, I want to share with you my updated writing schedule. What you see on the graphic above is the estimated release dates of my books. These only show books that I plan to fund on Inkshares along with the two books I’ll be writing for the Ed Greenwood Group. Obviously, this is subject to change. If books fund faster or slower than anticipated, or the production schedules don’t line up with my estimates, etc. However it gives you, and especially me, an idea of what I have to look forward to. Immediately when I look at it, I want to get a better distribution of publishing, but that’s something I can course correct on the way there.
I’m especially looking forward to some of the plans and ideas I have in store right now. A God in the Shed is planned as a trilogy so that will end with the third book, but The Life Engineered is more of an anthology format with recurring characters and an overarching story to tell, so I’m less sure how many books will be in that series. I have other ideas but they’re in the pre-planning stage so it’s hard to tell if they’ll be Inkshares projects or not.
As you can tell, I plan on this journey I’m taking with you to last for quite a while and I hope I’ll have your support for the duration. So far, it’s been a pleasure to travel with you and I see rough but exciting seas ahead of us. Stick around and gather your friends; the next leg of the odyssey begins soon.
Extra notes:
Thanks again,
JF
WE’RE ONLY 4 PRE-ORDERS AWAY!!! :D :D :D
Here is the concept art for our characters "Cade" and "Torque". They were both Lambda operatives stationed aboard the evil United Planets of Earth ship - Enigma.
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The Geek and Sundry Hard Science Contest is over and I want to send HIGH FIVES and "YEAH MAN!s" to winners Tal Klein for The Punch Escrow, Brian Guthrie for After Man, and Erin S. Evan for The Pirates of Montana. Each of you offered beautiful, polished work. You set a fine example and a high bar for the rest of us. A big congratulations from the bottom of my heart!
I also want to thank Jeremy Thomas and the Inkshares team for organizing these contests. I see them as a win-win-win all the way around! We are truly fortunate to share this space with the likes of Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist and Felicia Day’s Geek and Sundry. These awesome people help open this platform to the movers and shakers of popular culture. I’m impressed!
Peace to all!
Ferd. :-)
