Greetings all my wonderful followers,
I apologise for the long radio silence, but I was working hard making Beyond the Code the best it can be. I’ll be it, it has been a long wait and life has gotten in the way alot more then I would’ve liked, but i finally have some news for you guys. With the help of my great and helpful beta readers and plenty of time slaving over my laptop, I have finished my manuscript and have sent it to Inkshares.
That’s right.Now all i have to do is get some fancy new cover art made and wait for Inkshares to get back to me with the first round of the cover edit. Exciting! Although, I can’t give you all a timeline yet, I will send an update as soon as i hear news from Inkshares.
Things are HAPPENING!!
Kelsey Rae Barthel
Now is the winter of our campaigning
Made glorious summer by this contest’s end;
And all the stress that lour’d upon our heads
In the deep bosom of the internets hid.
Now are our books bound with the Nerdist imprint;
Our bruised keyboards hung up for gaming;
Our Facebook wall posts changed to memes and kittens,
Our begging pitches to delightful “thank yous.”
But I, that am not shaped for placing third,
Nor made to win at funding competitions;
I, that am bad at sales, and worse at strategy
To get people to want to buy this book;
I, that fell behind in this second contest,
Beaten by authors with prevailing campaigns,
Defeated, passed by, sent before my time
Out of these top three spots, scarce half caught up.
And therefore, since I cannot prove a winner,
To entertain these fair post-contest days,
I am determined to prove an author
And use the idle pleasures of these days.
Plans have I laid, ideas dangerous,
By half-mad ambitions, wishes and dreams,
To keep my book Proteus on the site
To fund the hard way like Tantalus Depths…
Well...we didn’t make it to the top three. I kind of knew that was going to be the outcome yesterday: all week, in spite of making significant gains in pre-orders, we simply could not close the gap with the competition. You might have noticed that we didn’t really move at all yesterday. I sensed the end, so I didn’t really try that hard to catch up.
Instead, I spent much of the day in thought about what to do next. I mentioned when I launched this campaign that my intention was to either win or let it end immediately after the contest. Even as of yesterday I still planned to let the campaign die after the contest’s end.
But I’ve thought better of that. As of right now, we have raised 224 pre-orders, in just three weeks. That’s crazy. When I entered the contest, I never thought I’d get that many; in fact, the only reason I entered at all is because it looked like the top three might not end up being more than a hundred orders. I thought it would be an easy win. Clearly, I was super wrong about that. But also, I was wrong about how well I could compete beyond the level I thought I’d have to. We got so much farther than I thought we would with our campaign, I had to re-evaluate my next step.
At 224 pre-orders, we could reach Inkshares’ Quill light publication deal with just 26 more pre-orders. I decided way back when I was campaigning Tantalus Depths that Quill wasn’t right for me, but the standard goal for full Inkshares publication (the goal we reached for Tantalus Depths) is 750. We are already almost a third of the way there! After just three weeks of campaigning, without any help from syndicates or people ordering extra copies.
So I’ve decided to extend my campaign. Heaven help me, I’m going to try and fund Proteus all the way to the 750 pre-orders mark, just like I did with Tantalus Depths.
I’m doing this very differently, though. I’ve extended my campaign enormously: the new deadline is now nine months from now. I have several reasons for this. The primary reason is because my last campaign nearly killed me. I found myself under so much stress towards the end it was seriously affecting my emotional, mental, and physical health. I sacrificed my entire social life and alienated myself from friends and family. So this time, in order to reduce the amount of pressure I’m under I’ve given myself a lot more time to gather the orders I’ll need. Whereas in my Tantalus Depths campaign my daily goal for pre-orders was seven a day, every day, this time it’s more like one or two. This will give me time to spend with family and friends and doing the things I enjoy without filling me with dread for falling behind in my campaign.
It will also give me time to focus on Tantalus Depths. Any time I have work that needs to be done during the production process for Tantalus Depths, that’s where my focus will be. I’m not going to let Proteus get in the way of the book I’ve already funded, and I intend to make as big of a splash with Tantalus Depths as I can. I am so excited to get into that process, I can’t even describe it. So do not worry, Tantalus Depths is going to be the number one priority until well after it’s come out.
Which, incidentally is another reason for the long Proteus campaign. Since I’ve set it for nine months, Proteus should still be funding by the time Tantalus Depths is released. That will give me a unique opportunity to cross promote the two. Any time I’m set up at a release event or book signing, I’ll have two books to offer instead of one. That was always the plan from the moment I decided to enter the contest, and by setting this campaign as long as I have, it’ll still be a possibility.
I realize that some of you may be frustrated that I’ve changed my mind about how I’ll conduct this campaign. I did say originally that if I did not win the contest, you would get your money back. If that is something you still wish to do, I entirely understand. If you would like to get a refund for Proteus, you can still get one. Simply send an email to the Inkshares staff at hello@inkshares.com asking to cancel your pre-order for Proteus. They are friendly and helpful people, and they will happily do that for you.
Otherwise, your support is still very useful! Keep telling your friends and family about Proteus. You can order another copy or two now, and it’ll help, if you’re so inclined. When we hit our ultimate goal, you will get the book you paid for; it’ll simply be a very long time in coming.
I’m not especially looking forward to the long road ahead, but I already know I can do it, so I might as well. Jacob Sicarius spent 75 years in stasis waiting for his time to come, so I figure I can handle nine months. If you choose to join me on this voyage, welcome. I promise you where we’re going, no one else has gone before...
This is the best update of them all!
WE DID IT!!!
With the help of you who are receiving this email (the “follower” list,) we finished the contest in the top three and have won the publishing prize! That is the dream of every writer, to be published. I have ONLY YOU to thank for that. There are many excellent writers who never have this opportunity. The difference here was YOU!
Here are the numbers: Mission 51 has an awesome number of “Followers” on Inkshares: 419. Most of you helped with a pre-order. Mission 51 would not be getting published like this without those pre-orders! Pre-orders is what Inkshares uses to determine who merits publication. It can’t be done on Inkshares without your vote of confidence and crowdfunding support! - Many followers helped with public exposure and awareness by simply “liking,” and “sharing,” and “commenting” on the Inkshares site, facebook, twitter, and instagram. Even without purchasing a pre-order, drumming up support for Mission 51 like that was enormously helpful. The level of interest and enthusiasm for Mission 51 was phenomenal! I will point out proof of that in just a bit.
Of the 419 Followers, 246 of you purchased a pre-order. Wow!!! That’s the number that counted for the contest. That’s the number that was top three out more than 180 submissions.
Those 246 fabulous supporters purchased a total of 267 copies, as some people purchased multiple copies of the book. That’s the crowdfunding Inkshares is looking for to: 1. prove the project is worth it, and 2. provide funds so they can at least start the expensive process of pre-production and production.
Those 267 copies broke down like this: 63% ordered ebooks, and 37% ordered physical books. That amounts to over $3,600 worth of crowdfunding support!!! That’s HUGE!!! Inkshares will use all of that and more to provide world-class editing, layout, production, marketing, and distribution services. I will update you all later on the timeframe of this exhaustive and comprehensive process.
So the Mission 51 project page on Inkshares suddenly changed at 3:00 AM EDT this morning as the contest ended. The part that said “Funding” now says “In Production.” I am so very, very happy and proud about that! The green funding bar has disappeared. But I’m happy that most of the content is still visible.
There is now one new little badge which appeared under the title and description on the Mission 51 project page. It says, “#18 Community Interest in Science Fiction.” I am blown away by that!!! There are many Science Fiction projects on Inkshares. To be ranked as #18 in Community Interest is unbelievable! That’s the proof about "interest and enthusiasm" I was alluding to!
I am starting to receive emails from Inkshares about my next steps. I have a number of things to learn and to decide, as you might imagine. As I know more, I will continue to keep you all informed through this medium. I ask for your patience as Inkshares navigates Mission 51 through their pre-production process. The goal is to eventually have a professionally polished product in your hands as soon as humanly possible. It won’t be as soon as anyone of us would like, but I will do my part to make it happen as soon as possible. I’ll keep you informed.
Again, THANK YOU! From the bottom, middle, and top of my heart, THANK YOU!!!
Peace!
Ferd 👽
Greetings Supporters of Crow’s Gambit,
The Nerdist Contest is only a few hours away from ending. I’m sorry to say we will not be finishing in the top 3. With 123 unique orders we are securely in 5th place. However, don’t feel bad. This is still a great accomplishment. There are some strong books in the top ten and according to Inkshares there were over 180 submissions.
I cannot express my gratitude for all the support the story has received. Orders were placed by strangers, co-workers, high school friends, local supporters, and even several of the top ten authors in the contest. I thank you all.
The journey is not done for Crow’s Gambit. While winning the contest would have been GREAT there is another option. I can still try to sell enough Pre-Orders to secure publishing. A full publishing deal would require 750 Pre-Orders…that is a bunch and probably outside my time available at this point. So I have decided to try for the Quill level that requires 250 Pre-Orders. This deal would not get the book onto physical store shelves and would only involve light editing…but the story would get published and that’s a start.
This means we now shift to Plan B and spend the next couple months trying to sell more copies. With 136 copies already sold we only need 114 to get to the Quill level. There are two things to remember in this:
So stay with me. Keep spreading the word to your friends. Updates will come a little less frequently but hopefully will include more interesting tidbits.
PT
This will be the last update I post before the contest ends.
Proteus remains in fourth place. We’ve been absolutely tenacious in keeping up with the top three. We’ve more than doubled our overall orders over the course of this week, and I have it on good authority that we’ve scared the pants off the competition. We are the charging bull. They are fleeing us.
They’re still probably going to win, but at least we’ve given them a really, really good chase.
It’s not impossible to win from where we stand. The last day of my Tantalus Depths campaign I brought in something like 80 pre-orders, so I know that’s a thing that can happen. But I’m also not going to sweat it if we don’t. The top three books have earned their spots, and I won’t be sorry to see any of them win. In any case, I’m already looking forward past the end of this contest. I didn’t get as far as I’ve gotten by not thinking several steps ahead.
Win or lose, I’m enormously grateful for all of you. You really came through in a big way, and I’m proud to have friends and supporters as loyal and enthusiastic as you are.
A few more hours remain in this contest. We might win, we might lose, but either way, let’s make them work for it.
