April 3, 2017
Hi everyone,
I know it has been a bit since my last update, but we all get so much email, I didn’t want to send anything unless I actually had something to say.
The good news--the Shadow King manuscript and author questionnaire that Inkshares asked me to fill out have both been turned in to the Inkshares team. So, that is one step closer to getting production rolling. The "bad" news is that I’m still in the queue so production has not officially kicked-off yet (and I don’t have an anticipated kick-off date yet). I am keen to get going and as soon as I have any news on that front, I’ll be sure to let you know!
In the meantime, I’ve been trying to figure out some of this whole marketing thing which--I confess--is a bit alien to me. I have been invited to contribute to a couple blogs, and I’ll send those links when my posts are live. I’m also looking into starting my own. And my author pages on Amazon and Goodreads are set up, and I’ll share those links with all of you in an upcoming update.
My cover is nearly complete and I’m very happy with how it has turned out. Once we get the last few adjustments taken care of, I’ll be updating my Inkshares page and sharing it with all of you.
From a sales perspective I’ve leveled off a little, and I need to refocus on that. I’m within striking distance of 300 orders, and I’d love to hit that milestone in the near future and move on up from there!
That’s it for this update. I’ll send another soon when I have information on my author pages and new cover!
Have a great rest of the week!
Best,
Susan
Editing update!
I was thrilled to begin the editing portion of production, but I had no idea it would be this amazing. (I mean, I guess I did a little, because Inkshares posted their production process here.) I’m in the "story architecture" portion of the developmental edit. What this means is that my editor (the incredible Matt Harry, author of "Sorcery for Beginners," which you can check out here) started challenging me right off the bat. He threw great questions at me regarding what I want to say with my book and how I can make each character more meaningful in the story.
Long story short, I’m restructuring the story.
This is a GREAT thing, believe me. It does not offset the current release date aim of February/March of 2018, as long as I put in the work. And so far, I certainly have. In the two weeks since production has started, I redesigned the story into a four-page structure, and my editor, my beta readers, and I all see this becoming a story that is vastly improved and will be a fun read.
Personally, I’m over the moon.
At first, I’ll admit, being challenged on my own story and being presented with difficult questions was frustrating. Then I realized that pulling together a new and improved version is better for everything all around. This is a process I would not have gotten at a traditional publisher. Any other publisher would have simply helped me clean up the story I submitted. Working with Matt Harry makes me feel like I’m in a writer’s room and I’m the lead writer. It’s been an amazing couple of weeks working on the new and improved Mr. Butler, and I am sure that you all will enjoy the final product all the more.
What’s next? I’m expanding my story structure into individual chapters with summaries describing what will occur in each chapter. Then Matt will go over everything with me and help me tighten the story up.
After that, it’s rewriting time! I am excited to write this story. It’s going to flow quickly.
With the detailed treatment my little book is getting already, I truly feel like a contest winner. And I won thanks to all of your support. Thank you.
I will let you know when the chapter summaries are finished and I’m moving on to getting this adventure down onto pages. Until then, just know that I love you all.
And if you haven’t preordered, you can here. Thank you for your support everyone.
-Michael.
It is update time! Thank you to everyone that has followed and ordered so far. To the new followers and readers - welcome to the show!
The Walls are Closing In has presold 448 copies as of this morning, leaving just 302 to go, and 89 days left of the campaign. My calculator informs me that this leaves 3-4 copies per day. Considering that we are only 2 1/2 months in from the original start date, I am optimistic! But, the work is far from over and spreading the word is still greatly appreciated.
Now that the book is taking off, if you would like to reconsider ordering a few more copies and getting your name(or the name of your organization/business) displayed in the back of the book, far be it from me to try and stop you! The following is the acknowledgment page from a recently published Inkshares book (Tears of the Assassin by William Schiele) so that you can see what that would look like:
Currently, I am spending about 3 hours per day spreading the word. I will be beyond thankful to take a much-needed break from twitter and facebook come June, before jumping back in and keeping everyone updated with the production process.
As promised, I have added an audio version of Chapter 1 to the book’s main page. Check it out if you want, or you know, just go back to what you were doing before I interrupted you with this email.
A few other upcoming perks:
April 13th - Winner of Dystopian Book Bundle announced. If you have not entered yet, you can enter here.
500 Orders - Design revealed for signed postcard, bookmark, or bookplate that will be mailed to all backers (regardless of e-book or paperback purchase) as soon as the campaign ends!
600 Orders - Audio Version of Chapter 2
700 Orders - Audio Version of Chapter 3
750 Orders - Campaign ends, winner of $250 Airbnb gift card announced, and then I collapse into a heap for a day or two.
On the actual book front - in my spare moments I am perfecting the backstory (a never ending process as the news shifts from day to day), but the rest of the manuscript (all but approximately 10 pages) is finely tuned to my liking and ready to hand over to Inkshares for developmental editing as soon as the campaign portion of the programming is complete. I am eager to start the process that will get this book in your hands, so keep in mind that the sooner 750 is met, the sooner the making of the book can begin!
Until next time!
-Jacqui
Dear Readers,
Machiners,
My most ardent and unabashedly enthusiastic supporters! Good morning!
Uh oh, I hope none of you are malfunctioning today - do not close this email !!
Believe it or not, we are now less than two weeks away from publication of The Last Machine in the Solar System (April 11!!!). There’s been lots of exciting news lately, which I’ll mention in subsequent updates.
Here I want to hit a few critical points relevant to YOU, benefactors of Jonathan, The Last Machine:
1. If you bought a book during the CONTEST, you should have received it. Whether that is a hard copy paperback or an eBook. Didn’t receive your book? Don’t know what I’m talking about? Email me please and let me know what’s going on: matthew.sobin@gmail.com
Let’s make sure everyone who put up money a year ago when this was just an idea gets the final product! eBooks are available for download by logging into the Inkshares website and going to the webpage for The Last Machine.
2. If you have received your book, please read it! Seems obvious, right? In theory, one of our big advantages is that this is a 60 page illustrated novelette. It can be read in 1-2 hours. And that brings me to...
3. Leave a REVIEW! This is possibly the most critical thing you can do. Read the book? Great! Please go onto the book’s Amazon page and tell others why you LOVED it :-) Authors need 100 reviews before the Amazon algorithm takes them seriously and starts suggesting the book to random Amazon visitors. Here’s our Amazon page: Last Machine on Amazon
Also important: You can copy the same review over to Goodreads. So far we’re doing really well with Goodreads reviews. Check them out here and leave your own: Last Machine on Goodreads
4. eBook holders, grab a paperback! This can make a huge difference as we push The Last Machine to a wider audience. Go to your local independent bookstore and see if they have The Last Machine in the store! They don’t? They’ll order it for you! And this may bring about a larger wholesale order from that store. They’ll say to themselves, "Hey, what’s this cool looking book that brought this person in here with such enthusiasm??" That’s the idea!
Can’t make it to the store but still want a paperback? Purchasing on Amazon helps too. Then when you leave an Amazon review, it will be shown as a "Verified Purchase" review, which further helps the Amazon algorithm.
5. I’d love to know what you think of The Last Machine in the Solar System. You’ve now read the book, left your reviews, and have strong opinions about the story. Great! Shoot me an email. I’d love to hear your personal reactions to Nikolai and Jonathan’s journey to the ends of the solar system (and back)!
Email me here: matthew.sobin@gmail.com
Signing your books!
And for those who haven’t seen it yet, the final front and back cover!
Stunning work by artist Dan Stiles and the design team. Also, my sincerest thanks to authors Tal M. Klein (author of The Punch Escrow - check it out on Inkshares!) and Jacques Vallee for their wonderful back cover blurbs.
Expect some more frequent updates as we hit pub day and beyond! More to come!
-Matt
Yes !!!!
750 !!!!!!!!
We made it !!!!!
I wanted to sincerely thank each and every one of you for making it happen! Now it is going to be a real properly published book! For me, it has been an important a project of almost 5 years and it is hard to describe how happy and thankful I am!
The book is finished, so, hopefully, it will not take too long for Inkshares’ story editors, line editors, copy editors, designers and marketers to turn it into the final real deal. I will keep you updated.
Thank you very much again !
Good Morning, Good Day and how the heck are ya!?! It has been a whirlwind two weeks since I attended I-CON32, a scifi/anime/cosplay convention in Brentwood, NY. I met awesome people! Many of them would make McGyver look like he had 3 thumbs -- why? Because they made their own costumes!! One gentleman even BUILT a rolling chair with two turrets that emitted smoke! Yes!! It’s true.
I will put up a post with all of the pics for you to join in the fun vicariously. Some of you may have seen them on my Twitter timeline already as I was live tweeting! :-) Thanks for all of the shout-outs Jane-Holly!
But the really big news is through Cynthya BrianKate, a woman I met at the con, I will be a guest on the radio show, IN GOTH WE TRUST tonight! Thursday, March 30th at 10:30 pm Eastern. You can listen in on the web: http://wioxradio.org/index.html!
The hosts of the show tonight will be Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty. We will speak on many topics including the horror genre, my book Fury From Hell (of course!). And, since this show loves all things GOTH, the conversation may venture off into topics of the occult and spirituality -- all perfectly in line with my book which has Wiccans, demons, furies and the occasional divination reading...
I will be live tweeting during the show so if you have any questions feel free to tweet them to me on: @NoteBkBlogairy. Use the hashtag #InGothWT so everyone can see your tweets!
See you all at 10:30 pm EDT tonight!!
It has been a very interesting 7 weeks journey that took me from 0 orders to 750. I have learned a lot and here are my honest suggestions to people, who try to make it on Inkshares.
Inkshares community has been very helpful and supportive and I wanted to share a small piece of learning and advice.
Preparation stage:
· Though Inkshares allows you to write and post bits and pieces of your book as you write it, I would not recommend doing it. Inkshares is a platform to get published. Full stop. Your trial and error on the platform will just bring fatigue and lack of momentum and low expectation of success. Do not drag. Instead - shoot.
· Write 100% of the book to the level that you are totally happy with. Show it to people whom you trust, collect feedback and make changes. I highly recommend that you hire an editor, who could help you to make your book slick.
· Design an attractive cover. If you can spend some money, hire professional cover designer. (My cover was self-made and horribly boring. I should have hired a professional. But now it is too late :-( )
· Write a short and attractive synopsis. Make sure it is perfect. This is the most important piece of writing you need.
· Have your real picture posted in which you are really likeable. People like to support nice-looking people.
· Make a relevant book video. There are so many off-putting videos on Inkshares. People do watch them (I had over 1300 views). I used iMovies to make it, it is very simple.
· Only after all of this is done, go onto Inkshares platform with a bang.
Getting orders in:
· Build the marketing of your book on people, whom know you personally. If you are a lonely individual with no friends and no Facebook, I don’t think you should try to get published on Inkshares. Your pre-existing network is an absolute must. (I have 650 Facebook friends/followers, 850 LinkedIn connections and 870 Twitter followers. It was just about enough to get to where I wanted to get.)
· Realize that getting people to support you is called marketing. Treat the journey as a marketing project split into a number of marketing campaigns. (i.e. Campaign 1 – my Facebook friends; Campaign 2 – my wife’s work colleagues; Campaign 3 – my bookclub members, Campaign 4 – "Those who can order 10 books" etc)
· Develop Marketing plan: what campaigns starts when and in which order
· Mass emails to all contacts in your contact list or posts to all Facebook friends DO NOT WORK. (Well, they work, but very poorly.) Conversion rate is 4-7%. In other words, if you send an email with BCC to 100 people, you will get 4-7 of them support you.
· I do not suggest to post any messages "to all" at all. Instead, send people personalized messages. Not just changing the name after "Dear XXX", but really personalized ones. Yes, it takes time, but conversion rates are much higher – 20-25%. (I was spending 3-5 hours per day on it during the most active periods of my campaign)
· Make a list and work on a 1-2-1 basis with people who can order 10 books – those are usually your relatives or close wealthy friends. These champions will drive your momentum.
· Do not be shy to ask for help.
· Be prepared that many people whom you expect to help you will not help you at all. It is emotionally challenging. Ignore it.
· Be prepared that some random and unexpected people will become champions of your project and will help you and will make referrals.
· Do not be surprised that many people will tell you that they will place orders and then they will not. Some people will lie that they have already placed the order when actually they haven’t done so. Try to accept that people are different. For some it is embarrassing to admit that USD 20 or 10 is a lot or money.
· Ask people for suggestions how to increase your audience. Many people are happy to share with their friends. Again, sharing on Facebook or Twitter does not generate results, but personal 1-2-1 suggestion works well. So just sharing a post is useless (unless you can ask Beyoncé or Paris Hilton do it for you). Campions of your project need to write personal messages to their friends.
· I’ve written a few articles about the topic of the book and got them published in proper digital magazines. It brought some orders, but very few. The return on the effort was small.
· Book reviewers is another promotional avenue. Get a list of freelance reviewers, who can review your book and recommend it to their audience if they like it. I got 5 bloggers review the book. That brought a few (not many) orders. (Particularly, one reviewer in India, who liked the book and promoted it got some of his followers ordering it.)
· Facebook advertising worked a bit, but not too well. I spent about USD 160 on targeted Facebook advertising. It gave me 6 - 8 orders. Not a great conversion.
So be prepared to work hard for 2-3 months. I think, 4 hours per day is minimum.
Very good luck on your journey !!
Regards
Sergey