Hello, 

As you all know the contest has come to an end and today my campaign ends. Although I didn’t get a lot of orders the support and encouragement that I got was amazing. Those of you who actually did order a copy I cant express what that means even though I didn’t make it. This contest was full of amazing stories and I was glad to be a part of it. Admittedly, I wasn’t ready for it but it was certainly a learning experience I will use in the future. So what does this mean for me and my book? Only that my dream will take a little longer. I’m going to keep writing this story and when I believe I’m ready I’ll try again. Shadow demons aren’t the only thing that can return with a vengeance. Sorry....lame joke  :P

So whats next then? I’m going to focus on finishing the book. Occasionally, I’ll still post here and give you all an update of what I’m doing (next week I’m thinking about making a post of the Qivar hierarchy). What a great month to make some progress too right? I didn’t know about NaNoWriMo but I’m doing my best to catch up for my late start. Also as my small social circle didn’t yield anything and my attempts of advertising outside of it didn’t do much, i’ll be trying to figure out a plan on how to spread the word better. If anyone has any options or advice on that they’d like to share please let me know. 

 Once again thank you everyone. I hope you’ll all continue to stay with me and we can rally again to make some magic happen in the future.
-jacob

Greetings Jackolytes,

Sync City continues to wend its way through the editorial process, and the spotlight of reality is becoming brighter and brighter. I just went through the proofread copy of the manuscript, and it’s looking squeaky clean. Next it’s off to the cold reader who checks for any glaring errors that may have been missed.

In the not too distant future, Jack and his ride are going to head off and get printed. If you want a first edition paperback copy, then time is running out. Follow this link and hit the pre-order button if you want to snare your chunk of Sync City history! You’ll be glad you did.

Cheers,

Peter

Hi all,

Some of you — those who follow me on Facebook — may already know this. Overnight Inkshares sent out an announcement to competitors in The Launchpad Manuscript Competition; they have extended the duration of the crowdfunding competition. Originally, this competition (one part of the overall competition process) was due to finish on 8 November (PST), just four short days away. It will now finish on 16 December — for those keeping track, that changes the duration from approx three weeks to eight. At the time I’m writing this, there has been no public announcement, but I’m assuming it isn’t far off. 

I’ve blogged about the date change on my website here: https://robertbatten.net/2016/11/05/the-launchpad-manuscript-competition-announcement-date-change/

TL;DR: I’m disappointed, as we were close to the finish line and in a good position. With an additional five weeks of campaigning, this becomes anyone’s game again.  

You have all been an important source of support through the campaign so far — and I don’t just mean pre-orders. The personal words of encouragement, the recommendations on Inkshares, and the wonderful posts on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you for that, it has been overwhelming. Now, I will soldier on, keep campaigning, and — with your help — prove to be the little Tasmanian who could.

If you can keep working with me to see Human Resources published, it would be fantastic. We need to keep spreading the word to find new supporters!

Note: I try to limit myself to weekly updates so as not to become a nuisance, but I felt this announcement deserved to be sent out immediately.

Cheers,

Robert

https://www.inkshares.com/books/human-resources

I am atwitter with excitement to be sharing the new cover of Overture!  In keeping with the crowdsourcing/crowdfunding tradition, I headed on out to designcrowd.com and ran a challenge for a new cover design.  The winner is this beautiful piece from freelance artist Diana Buidoso.  It captures the feel of the book so well, and I’m over the moon.  Thank you Diana and Designcrowd!

Happy Friday!!!

Congratulations to the winners of the Geek & Sundry Fantasy Contest: Helena Echlin and Malena Watrous with Sparked, Allison Griner with Storm Song, and Jeyna Grace with The Slave Prince. 

Also, congratulations to all those who participated in the contest! You took one giant leap towards achieving a dream. Even if you didn’t win or didn’t make Quill, you tried. I hope you keep trying and that you never give up. If you are passionate about something, if you love your story - tell it. There are a variety of ways you can do that if Inkshares doesn’t work out for you, and I’d be happy to share that knowledge with you. I know how hard it is to get people to invest in your book, and that the number of people you have in your network willing to invest in you can’t be the sole determining factor in the fate of a dream. If that were the case, there would be a lot of failed dreams in this world. Chin up. Keep moving forward. Never stop striving for what makes you happy. 

The Living God finished 9th and currently stands at 255 orders. We’ve made Quill. It’s getting published with limited release on Amazon. (YAY!) Slowly but surely I’m going to try to make it to the 750. However, I’m going to take a bit of time off from trying to get supporters and focus on finishing the covers for those who supported the book during the contest. 

AND! It is NaNoWriMo! I’ll be participating in NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month)... I don’t think it actually exists and is a thing, or perhaps it does and is just a different month, but this month is NaNoEdMo for me. I wish those who are participating all the luck and sanity during this insane and wonderous month.

Have a great weekend everyone!