Dear followers,

This is just to update you on the progress of "Everything is Normal." Last 2 months saw heavy developmental editing: the editor and I advanced the main themes and trough-lines of the book. That also included lots and lots of restructuring and writing 3 entirely new chapters.

But the most painful thing was cutting. We ended up decreasing the original manuscript by 25% or by 34,000 words. (This is more than the entire "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".) Ouch!

Now that this stage is over, copy editing will start. Also, designers have finalized the cover for the book (below). A lot of clever marketing has gone into it. Inkshares has set the official release date for the book for March 6.

I will keep you posted. And thank you all very much again for your support.

 Regards,

 Sergey

It’s been far too long since I’ve been able to deliver news of any significant amount of progress with Tantalus Depths. I’ve had quite a few people approach me asking when the book is coming out, and I’ve regrettably had nothing to offer in the way of a satisfactory answer. I’m not sure I made it clear enough during my campaign last year just how long it takes to get a book through this kind of production process, but it can take a very long time.

Fortunately, today I finally have some good news. Progress has at last been made! Last night I finally received my development letter from Matt Harry, my development editor. Matt is the Head of Story Development at Inkshares, and his work has helped books like the amazing Punch Escrow succeed brilliantly during their production processes.

For those unfamiliar with how the publishing process works, all Inkshares books receiving the full editing treatment (such as Tantalus Depths) go through several waves of editing, each one focusing on improving a separate aspect of the manuscript. The development edit is the first, and it focuses on big picture stuff, such as focusing the story’s overall tone, message, and style. Basically figuring out exactly what kind of story Tantalus Depths is and how to make it the best example of that kind of story it can be.

Tantalus Depths has been read by quite a few beta readers and has gone through at least four rounds of edits, but this is the first time it’s been seen by a professional editor. Matt sent me eleven pages of advice on what sort of things I should consider changing to improve the book, on top of dozens of margin notes in my original manuscript for specific lines and sections I should change.

There’s a lot to work on here. The overall story isn’t going to change from the one I set out to tell; in fact, Matt was very clear that they want to make sure I get to tell the story the way I want it. The primary point of these notes is to focus the story properly, to trim out anything that doesn’t work so I can make the stuff that does work even better. Most of the notes he gave me deal with things such as keeping a consistent tone, improving character development, and getting more into the worldbuilding. I was actually surprised by that last one, since I’ve done a tremendous amount of worldbuilding but was intentionally holding back on including a lot of it, lest I get too carried away. Now that I’ve been given a green light to add more, I’m going to be having a lot of fun with these edits.

So, long update short, the wheels are rolling on Tantalus Depths once more! There is still no release date nailed down (I’m afraid there’s still going to be a decent wait ahead), but finally we’re fully into production mode now. I have a lot of writing and re-writing to be doing in the next couple weeks, but I am looking forward to it. We’ve finally gotten to the point where Tantalus Depths is making the transition from a simple manuscript to a proper Novel.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!

Oh, by the way, my campaign for Proteus is still running, and I’m going to go back into campaigning mode as well within the next month or so. Stay tuned for that as well, and if you haven’t ordered a copy yet (or would like to help the campaign out even more by ordering a second one), please do so!

A postman knocks at your door. He asks too many personal questions, then hands you a package you didn’t order. Obviously, you shouldn’t open it.

After you open it, you find a yellowed letter inside, handwritten on paper that looks at least 100 years old. As you read it silently to yourself, a faint whispering voice reads it along with you. It seems to be intentionally mispronouncing some words.

"Dear Everyone:

I have a favor to ask that costs zero dollars, and you don’t even have to talk to anyone or put on a tie.

My follower count and my number-of-copies-sold count are pretty close, so most of the people reading this have already ordered The Wolf in the Woods. That’s great! But, right now I only have ONE review on the book’s page, and that’s hurting my ability to engage with other readers and writers.

If you’ve read at least one of the free stories from The Wolf in the Woods, please leave your honest opinion on the book’s Inkshares page, which should be linked below (it might be a pre-order button, go ahead and click that). I’m not even asking for people to necessarily recommend the book, or write good reviews. Any review will do. As a matter of fact, if they’re nothing but glowing, people might see that as disingenuous and untrustworthy.

Thank you for your time!

--Ben"

The letter crumbles to dust in your hands. This is very annoying to you, as it has made quite a mess.