Hi! It’s just over a month away from launch! Eeeeeeeeee!
Inkshares has asked me to remind you all to update your addresses so that your books go to the right place. To do so, log into your Inkshares account and click on the little profile bubble on the top right side of the screen. There, you should see an option for "shipping address." Contact Inkshares support if you need any help!
I’m so excited that you’ll have books in hand soon!!! Thank you!
Hey all,
Today you should have received your In Beta ebook. Don’t strain those precious eyes, though, because a paperback is on its way. And be glad you preordered you preordered this thing 10 years ago because if you hadn’t, you would probably die of sticker shock at the $18.99 the paperback retailers for. I’m told the paper stock is to die for.
I hope you read it and thoroughly enjoy it. But even MORE than that, I hope write me a great review. If you want to leave a review without reading the book (like I would probably do), here’s what to praise:
—The plot twists (but you don’t want to give anything away!)
—The authentic small town setting.
—The 90s details that make you long for childhood.
—The banter.
—The author photo.
And here are two great places to leave those reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37493589-in-beta?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=AS66nnBzUC&rank=5
https://www.amazon.com/Beta-Prescott-Harvey/dp/194784850X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=9CR58WMS2GJU&dchild=1&keywords=in+beta+prescott+harvey&qid=1625881015&sprefix=in+beta%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-3
Remember to make them five stars. See you in the local lending library!
Hi friends!
Holy crap, y’all! I can officially say my first novel is coming out next month! So surreal and amazing. I cannot thank you enough for helping me get here.
I’ve been documenting the book launch process on YouTube, and if you don’t feel like watching the whole journey, you should at least watch me opening my box of print ARCs. Advanced Reader Copies go out to indie bookstores, reviewers, etc. to help build some excitement for the book. I didn’t cry, but I did get a little sappy, haha.
I’ve got a launch party planned for August 29 at the Frugal Frigate, an amazing indie bookstore here and I’ll be doing an Inlandia NaNoWriMo workshop and reading on October 7 for Riverside Arts Walk. Also planning some events for Chop Suey Bookstore in Richmond and Burdock Book Collective in Birmingham. If you can’t get to any of these, I’ll be doing some virtual events—one with Mesha Maren, author of Sugar Run and the upcoming Perpetual West, for Charis Books on September 3 and one with Alison Stine, author of Road Out of Winter and the upcoming Trashlands, for The Bureau of General Services-Queer Division on September 23 so mark your calendars! Mesha and Alison are both amazing queer Appalachian authors and I am so thrilled to get to speak with them! I’m also thinking of doing a virtual celebration on my actual launch day, August 24, so we can all say hi and maybe raise a glass together. Let me know if you’d be up for something like this!
Aside from book launch stuff, I’ve been working on my punk book, waiting patiently for the kiddos to be able to get their vaccines, and reading a ton. We’re trying to stay cool in the heat and not think about the fact that the world is handling global warming the same way it’s been handling covid and we’re probably all doomed. Anyway! Good thoughts! Books! Readings! Summer!
Thank you for everything,
Becca
I wanted to send an update on the status of Infodemic, one of three finalists in the 2020 Inkshares contest. I have now finished working on the manuscript with an outside editor, the talented and lovely Michele Abramowitz.
As of Friday, I have passed the manuscript onto the Inkshares team and am awaiting the next steps. Thanks again to everyone who has preordered a copy of the novel or otherwise supported this book throughout 2020/2021.
In the meantime, do check out my email newsletter, where I will soon be sharing a non-fiction investigative story that I’m currently writing for Slate.
https://stephenharrison.substack.com/
All the best,
Stephen
Hey, how’s it going! I am glad to report that the reveal of Bane of All Things’ cover last week met with widespread praise.
So, what’s next? Garnering advance reviews and buzz to make sure this book is a success … and there are things you can do to help with that.
First, if you are active on Goodreads.com, you can add BoAT to lists where it will gain more attention. There are literally thousands of existing lists, created by users like us.
Some of the lists that may be a fit for BoAT include:
I could go on, but you get the idea. You can add a book to as many lists as you want.
And you can of course add BoAT to your own Want to Read list or Fantasy or Epic Fantasy Shelf. (Creating your own Shelf for a specific genre like Fantasy or Epic Fantasy and adding a book there is also key to how Goodreads’ algorithm works to help other users find the kinds of books they want to read.)
Second, there is NetGalley.com. Publishers post their upcoming titles here. You can sign up for free as a reviewer to get an advance digital copy of a book for free in exchange for an honest review. BoAT is available there now. Of course, if you have pre-ordered BoAT, you have already paid for a copy or copies that you will receive this fall.
(If you do decide to sign up at NetGalley, you may want to use the NetGalley Shelf app on your mobile device for reading versus the Send to Kindle option. The Kindle-friendly file format isn’t available yet and the current PDF has some clunky formatting issues on a Kindle. You can read it on a Kindle, but it’s not pretty.)
That’s it for now. Your continued support is so very much appreciated. It seems like only yesterday that BoAT’s release date of Nov. 16 was eight months off. Now it’s only four and change!
Stay safe and keep reading.
Cheers
Leo
Hey folks,
Exciting times, IN BETA is finally coming your way. Please make sure your Inkshares profile has your correct, current address, as they will be sending them out to whatever’s on their site.
Excited to hear what you think, stay tuned!
Hi friends!
I hope you’re following my weekly book launch videos over on YouTube! If you are, most of this will be familiar to you!
I reviewed the final proofread, which was pretty stressful. I’m glad it’s done, but it’s also pretty terrifying, knowing it’s finalized. The full cover spread is really amazing and I’m so excited for you to see it soon!
If you ordered 3 or more copies, but did so in separate orders, please let me know ASAP so I can make sure your name is on the Super Readers list in the back of the book. The list I have through the site only tells me the folks who ordered the 3 pack.
I’ve been busy reading, writing, playing banjo, and slowly inching out into the new world. Hope you’re all taking good care!
Becca
Greetings, longsuffering friends. I have some news! It’s not THE news, but it is A news. Actually, it’s TWO news. But it’s definitely GOOD news!
The first news: my friend and fellow brilliant authorial mastermind, Kaytalin Platt, was gracious enough to interview me on her website about my most recent short story, Reliquary, which debuted in last year’s Writing Bloc anthology, Passageways. We get deep into my creative process and worldbuilding approach, not just for Reliquary, but for the entire Calling Void series as a whole. It’s a great interview, and I’m very excited to share it with all of you. Check it out here, and while you’re there, check out some of her other interviews from authors in the Passageways anthology, including her own!
And now, the second news, which I think will be even more relevant to your interests.
I can FINALLY proudly announce that Tantalus Depths is officially out of the development editing stage of production.
Those of you who have been following my updates for a long time might be having a “Wait, didn’t we already do that?” moment right now, and you’d be right. We officially finished development edits more than two years ago and were cleared to move on to the copy editing stage. BUT, what we did not expect or plan on at the time was that Adam Gomolin, the CEO of my publishing company, would take direct personal interest in my book and want to go through an additional round of development edits one-on-one with me. While it was definitely a bit frustrating to jump right back into development edits right after I thought we were done, that frustration was hugely outweighed by the opportunities that additional round of edits provided. Adam and I worked tirelessly together to transform Tantalus Depths into an absolutely brilliant book that I’ve never been prouder of, and even though the work was exhausting and the wait has been long, I think it will absolutely have been worth it.
For those of you who are not familiar with the publishing industry’s inner workings, a “development edit” is a round of edits that focuses on story-related things like plot development, character consistency, tone, pacing, and so on. Basically, the meat of a story. Development edits tend to involve significant rewrites; in my case, I’ve rewritten several chapters, added a few new ones, and reworked dialogue and narration to make the story sleeker, deeper, with a stronger core identity. The story and the characters are still absolutely true to my original vision, and the book overall is still the story I always wanted to tell. In fact, even though I’ve rewritten probably 80% of the words in the story at this point, I’m really just telling the exact same story I always have with much better words.
And so, after approximately 8 different drafts, I have finally gotten Tantalus Depths to a point that both Adam and I agree is ready to move on to the next step. The story is locked in now, and will change very little from now to publication day, but there are still a few steps to go in the process. The next big step will be the copy editing stage, which is another full round of edits that will, thankfully, take much less time. Copy editing focuses on simpler, more mechanical aspects of writing, such as grammar and word usage. This stage will not involve significant rewrites and should not require more than one or two drafts to resolve. I’m not going to throw out any time estimations, because I’m very, very bad at predicting things like that well, but where a draft of development editing could take me months, a draft of copy editing should take days.
Before we slide into copy edits, however, I have one special bonus surprise! Adam is hooking me up with an actual, honest-to God physicist to do a special “scientific accuracy pass” on the book. Tantalus Depths has always been designed with scientific accuracy in mind, but for all the hours of research I’ve put into it, I’m still just a layperson with a Bachelors’s in education. This special bonus round of edits will give us the chance to improve the accuracy of the science presented in this science-fiction book, and I couldn’t be more stoked about it.
So yeah, really big stuff is happening with Tantalus Depths! I wish I had a release date to give you all, but we aren’t quite there yet. I have been given a tenuous one, but Inkshares’ release schedule is still pretty flexible, and depending on how long the next phase of production takes, our actual release date could move forward or backwards, so I don’t want to announce anything until it’s more definite. Stay tuned, though! We are really making progress now.
