I really enjoy sharing good news with you. When something happens in my campaign that gets me excited, like hitting a landmark number or getting a mention in some media source, I just want to gush about it to my supporters. You’re all like a family to me, and the roles you’ve all played in getting me this far will never be forgotten.
Unfortunately, not all news is good news. As much as I enjoy sharing the good news, these updates should be about transparency. You deserve to know the genuine state of things, whether the news is positive or negative. Today, the news is a mixture.
Let’s do the good news first:
In light of the recent setbacks to my campaign, Inkshares has granted me an at least 30-day extension. Overall they’ve been extremely understanding and reasonable, and I really want to thank Avalon, Thad, Elena, and all the rest of Inkshares staff for working so hard and diligently to handle this problem. They’ve all been very communicative, professional, and encouraging through this process, and I don’t want their hard work to go unthanked. They genuinely seem as determined as I am to see Tantalus Depths reach the levels of success it truly deserves, and I am extremely grateful for all the hard work they’ve done behind the scenes.
Now for the bad news.
Tantalus Depths lost a lot more pre-orders today. A lot. All told, it looks like almost a third of my pre-orders were illegitimate ones. That’s hard for me to stomach. It’s not just hard because I’m seeing my numbers drop and realizing just how much more work I have ahead of me, it’s hard to know that what I had thought to be all genuine community support was, in fact, largely counterfeit. Whoever’s been abusing the credit system to support my book probably thought they were doing me a favor. They probably believed that by artificially raising my pre-order count with false orders, they were helping me get to my goal. I can appreciate the intent, and I can admire the initiative, but I find the methods unconscionable.
Tantalus Depths is a fine book. I’m proud of my work, and I believe in it. I believe it to be a story worth sharing, something worthy of print on its own merits. I worked really hard to get it to the state it’s in. I’ve also worked really hard on bringing in the genuine, legitimate pre-orders that I have, and I’m proud of that hard work too. These false pre-orders, though...I’m not proud of those. I’m embarrassed to have had those in my campaign. I’m not sorry to see them gone. While it’s hard to see my pre-order count ticking backwards, I’m relieved to know that those orders I’m losing, I never really had. The ones I’ll have left at the end of the day will be the ones I worked hard for and genuinely earned. I’ve no need for manipulative tactics and exploitative methods: I have a good book to sell. When enough people have seen it, it will reach its goal, because it’s good enough to get there. I know this, my genuine supporters know this, and once this campaign is over, it’ll have been proven.
To the person or persons who have abused this system to support my book: thank you for your interest in Tantalus Depths. I hope you’ll show that interest by purchasing a pre-order with real money, and encouraging your friends to do the same. I also hope you will stop exploiting this site. Doing so harms every book you touch, and harms the company as a whole, which harms every author who’s published with it. Do not poison the well for this community for the sake of promoting a book you like. It helps no one in the end.
Meanwhile, I’m still plowing on with my campaign. I have no idea where I’m going to find all the rest of the pre-orders I need now, and I have no idea where I’m going to find the energy I’ll need to get through an extra 30-or-so days of this madness (I’d fully intended on going into a coma for about a week after my campaign ended), but I know I’m going to figure it out. This community is so supportive, and my friends and family have been just as supportive. One way or another, we will get there. I’m working on figuring out some more story updates I can send that won’t be spoilery so I can keep opening up the rich world of Tantalus Depths to you over the next few weeks of extra campaigning, and I’m hoping to come up with one or two more incentives. Since I have to climb back up to the 600 mark, I’m making that the goal we need to hit for me to release my video of me reading chapter 3. beyond that, who knows what’s ahead?
We’ll find out together. Come, let’s dive into those depths...
You have to push past the guilt and promote yourself constantly. Your friends will get sick of it, people will tune you out, but you have to push past that. We all want to win, and you’re going to get support from a lot of friends, but the biggest source of support you are going to get is the other writers here on Inkshares.
A failed campaign sucks. It’s a kick to the gut, and can rattle the faith you have in yourself as a writer. When I failed last time, I wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and ignore the world. I was broken, battered, and angry. I let the pressure get to me. I blamed myself for the failures. Now, a year later, I’m trying it again.
Do your best. Push yourself. Develop your pitch, and talk about your book constantly. This is going to be hard. You’re going to feel a hundred different emotions at once, but know you really are amazing. You’ve put the thing you love, your book, out into the world. Not everyone can say that.