Good morning from a snowy Boston!

There are JUST 11 DAYS LEFT in the 2016 Launchpad Competition. We’ve made some good progress and as of this morning, "Shadow King" is in 4th place on the leaderboard (about 30 readers behind the #3 spot).

I’ll continue to make my best efforts to reach the top three in the coming days, but my success really rests with all of you. I can’t make this goal alone.

As always, I wish all of my current readers could truly understand how appreciative I am for your support. You are all rock stars. If you’re still interested in helping move "Shadow King" higher in the rankings, get just one person that you know to pre-order a copy of "Shadow King" -- your brother, sister, best friend, college buddy, co-worker, Starbuck’s barista, hairdresser, anyone! Those readers alone would make a tremendous difference! (the link to order is: https://www.inkshares.com/books/shadow-king )

To all of the intrepid souls who are following my Launchpad adventures, please pre-order before the December 16 deadline. Your order could make ALL THE DIFFERENCE at the end of the competition.

I know many people in the Inkshares community have always dreamed of getting published -- some of you have realized that dream, others are still working towards it -- so I know it is a familiar story when I say publishing this book is a dearly-held dream of mine. I also know that many of you have more than one author asking for your support and that no one has a bottomless wallet -- but I hope that "Shadow King" will be one of the stories that catches your attention and earns your support. (BTW, the Launchpad judges praised it for  having a unique and original concept that they hadn’t really seen before!)

And don’t forget -- every new reader who pre-orders a copy between Dec. 1 and the Dec. 16 deadline will be put in a drawing to win a $25 Amazon gift card!

Which brings me to my final note before I sign off: Congratulations to DOUG WOODARD who was the winner of the November drawing. After contacting Doug, he was kind enough to tell me that he wanted to decline his win and donate the gift card back to the cause -- so thanks to Doug’s generosity, there will be two $25 Amazon gift cards raffled off a the end of the Launchpad effort.

Until next time -- have a wonderful week!

All the best,

Susan

I am sorry to write you, again, without being able to tell you how Illegal will go forward with Inkshares. I do, as always, want to be transparent with what’s been happening.

On October 14th, Illegal fully funded after selling over 750 copies. On October 24th, a computer glitch gave everyone a refund. I immediately reached out to Inkshares and they told me they were not sure what happened but they would be able to recharge credit cards. However, they would not honor orders that used credits. When the funding period began Inkshares issued credits to encourage participation. They have since discontinued that promotion in part because customers were using credits in ways they did not like. For most of the campaign when a customer made a purchase Inkshares gave a referral code on the site at time of purchase and again in the confirmation email with a message that told them they would receive credits when someone used their link. I believe this is the source of most credits used and sought to establish a baseline with Inkshares to determine what they found acceptable and what not. I’ve asked variations of this question many times over the past month and half and have never received a clear answer what the criteria would be and if the aforementioned example would be valid or not. From the start I told them I would be happy to work with them to resolve the situation but thought completely throwing away all credit orders regardless of criteria was unfair and unacceptable.

While this was going on I was reaching out to various funded authors on the Inkshares platform to try and make sense of this all. I was encouraged to hear that the issue was a big topic among authors who were curious to see how Inkshares would handle the situation. I assumed Inkshares would want to show they had their authors interests in mind. 

In the month and half since the bug that triggered the refund I have constantly been reaching out to Inkshares to try to determine what is happening and when I should expect everything to be resolved.  Not all my emails are answered and I have not been given few specific details, but in the last reply I did receive I was told that they will know more before the end of the year. At this point, I think too much time has elapsed to re-charge credit cards which may mean that ALL orders have been lost. I was cautiously optimistic in the immediate aftermath of the bug but as more time passes without resolution I’m beginning to lose that initial hope and patience. I never imagined that this would have dragged on into December.

I spent nearly a year fundraising for this--which is something I hated doing. So after reaching the goal and having all those efforts taken away stings. A LOT. But, there is a bright side. I have forged friendships with other authors and despite losing all the orders, to know that hundreds of people were willing to spend their money (and often their time) on Illegal is wonderful and validating. I do have the email of everyone who purchased a book and if anyone wants to get in touch with me they can reach me at: j.a.dennehy@gmail.com

I’ll update again when the situation is resolved.

Happy December Everyone!  I hope that as we move to the darkest time of the year you have your own lights to guide you through until spring.

I’ve got a few pieces of news I want to share with you all, now that November is all done.  Why November, you ask?  Because of NaNoWriMo, of course.  The genesis of these incredible Fun and Games was a month of throwing myself into “literary abandon,” and each year since 2007 (with the exception of last year’s editing frenzy) I have written a 50,000+ word first draft between November 1st and 30th.  For instance, the novel that you read was written in November, 2010, with the sequels written in 2011 and 2012 (yes, the series is complete(ish)).  After taking a year off into a different direction (don’t ask, it was awful), 2014’s novel was a standalone Chuck-centric story.  This year focused on Stu, and while I’m not done yet (about 53k words and counting), I can now take a breather without feeling guilty.

A couple exciting things happened during November.  First, we crossed the 2,000 sale threshold, which is absolutely amazing.  I sold just under 800 copies during the frantic funding phase, so that’s over a thousand copies purchased by readers through amazon and friendly local booksellers all across the country.  That’s super cool.  If you come across a free range novel, feel free to swing by Facebook and share it!

Second, the audio book was released, and is now available for download via audible.  You may remember that I shared the webpage of the supremely talented actor who performed it, Cassandra Lee Morris.  I’ve listened to a good chunk, and she really knows how to bring a story to life.  Sitting on some audible credits or just want to experience It’s All Fun and Games on your commute?  Swing on by and pick it up.

December is a season for giving, and my publisher, Inkshares, is giving everyone a great deal – you can order It’s All Fun and Games through my project page for only $4.99, and that includes free domestic shipping.  A great gift for all those cousins, nephews, nieces, and anyone else who would like a fun fantasy adventure to read this winter.  It’s not just my novel on sale, either – there’s a whole host of books all there for the grabbing.  Want a suggestion?  Shoot me an email, or check out my blog at authordavebarrett.com.  I’ve been away from it, but I think a nice book recommendation list would be a great addition, once I re-learn how to work the website.

On the review front, after my last email there was a flurry of posts on Amazon.  As a reminder, indie authors live and die by the review and the referral.  If you liked it (or your kid liked it, or your dog liked it) please pop over to your favorite ecommerce site (Amazon, B&N, BAM, or all of them!) and leave me a review!  And of course, if you’ve got a Goodreads account, that’s a great place to go too.  I’ve got 66 reviews at Amazon right now.  I’d love to hit 100 by Christmas!

Lastly, I’ve had a bunch of people asking me about when the sequel would come out.  At least three or four people, that is.  I’m not entirely sure if Inkshares is the place for book two (in a non-contest world I would need to sell 750 preorders at an increased price of $20 per book to fully fund), but I will probably be testing the waters along that front sometime in the near future.  Look for another update with a link to the new project page. 

As always, you can find It’s All Fun and Games on Facebook, and me on Twitter.

And as always, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support.

Today I have the most amazing news to share. Yesterday, The Launch Pad announced their final winners of the 2016 Manuscript Competition — I am thrilled by the revelation Human Resources has been picked by Scott Free as one of their winners. 

To discover that a production company with such an impeccable reputation liked my novel — that they believe it has what it takes to become a successful movie — is beyond my ability to describe. Here is the official description of what that this prize is:

Ridley Scott’s company Scott Free was one of the first major companies to take e-books into the spotlight when they found The Martian and developed it into what would become a Best Picture nominee starring Matt Damon. They were also the first company to buy a Launch Pad project, when they picked up Daniel Turkewitz’s Tranquility Base. Now they’re looking to do the same for you. Our exclusive partnership with Scott Free means not only are they represented on our judging panel, they have also committed to option at least 1 project with an eye towards discovering their next break out hit.

More than 24 hours later and I still can’t fully process what has happened. There are no details to report beyond the official announcement. The novel has not — yet — been optioned, but it seems that is likely. My dreams are coming true, and you have all played a key role in enabling that to happen.

Thank you.

Bonus Feature: Advanced Field Intelligence System. 

I’ve created the second of my planned bonus features for you. This time, I’ve unearthed the wiki page for AFIS, the system used by the Special Operations Group in the novel to give them an advantage of the field. If you’ve read all the excerpts on the site, you will have encountered this under the acronym COED — the product has undergone a re-branding.

If you would like to learn a little more about AFIS, follow this link.

Crowdfunding Competition Rolls On 

The crowdfunding competition has not finished! The announcement yesterday was for the formally judged portion of The Launch Pad for 2016. The crowdfunding competition — the part you have direct control over — continues until 16 December. If you haven’t pre-ordered a copy, now is an excellent time!

You can pre-order here.