Sorry for the radio silence, but I recently discovered a fairly large issue that required my immediate attention - the copy of the Kanimbla that was pasted on the Inkshares site was not the finished manuscript.  I have spent the last few days searching for the final copy, but have so far not been able to find it.  It would seem that somewhere along the line, there must have been a mix up between the final and beta reader copies, leaving me with about a dozen copies of the wrong version of the manuscript saved on various hard drives and data clouds.  I have finally bitten the bullet and re-written the prologue, which you can now find on the Inkshares page.  

As you can imagine, this discovery has caused a few delays with the campaign.  In addition, I’m finding the horrendous international postage fee is deterring many potential buyers, the majority of which live in Australia.  

This means two things.  

First, I just want to reassure everyone that I will return Kanimbla to all its final manuscript glory.  I am hoping to have the re-written first chapter up by the end of the weekend, and then I’ll go on to re-write and post the second chapter, and then painstakingly work my way through the rest of the book.  

I also want to reassure everyone that the campaign will continue, and buyer numbers should hopefully start increasing as I actually start advertising the book again.  In light of the issue created by the postage costs, which I had not factored in, I will now be aiming at the 250 Quill goal rather than the 750 goal.  However, I am not happy with the thought of publishing a second-rate book, so I will be paying additional money out of my own pocket to ensure the book goes through the rigorous design and editing processes expected of a traditionally published book.  

The second thing is that I must ask for everyone’s assistance in helping me to spread the word about Kanimbla.  I imagine there may have been some early potential readers that witnessed the book in its early-version state and that were turned away because of it.  If you are aware of any of these people, can you please advise them of the issue, and advise them that it is being rectified and to please give it a second look.  Furthermore, if you are a local, can you please get in touch with me as the professionally made flyers and business cards have now arrived, and I would like them to be disseminated to as many workplaces as possible.  If you are not local, particularly those in North America where the impact of the postage fees will be the least felt, can you please help me spread the word in your localities.  I am happy to send you digital copies of the flyer if that will help.

Now for some good news!  Kanimbla is currently ranked #4 on the Launchpad Contest leaderboard, and #3 is well within reach.  If Kanimbla can make it into the top 3, it will receive the same publishing treatment as if it had reached the 750 goal.  So please, please, please, spread the word.  I can’t do this on my own but together we can!

Thank you all for being so supportive!

Cheers,

Chris Picone