My friends...our situation is grim. Our campaign has slowed to a crawl while our competition soars. We remain in fourth place, ten orders behind third, although by the end of the day that could turn into twenty orders if we can’t build up some momentum again.

Remember: the top three all win the full publishing deal. Fourth place gets nothing. 

On the plus side, we’ve gathered 120 people to support Proteus so far, and I am extremely thankful to each and every one of you. I hate to ask even more of you who have already done so much, but picture this: what if everyone who already ordered a copy managed to convince one person each to order a copy for themselves? We would soar to 240 orders, and all but guarantee our place in the number one spot for the duration of the contest.

So let me ask once again: please, try to find one person you know will help. Ask your spouse, your child or parent. Ask your best friend, or a good friend who loves science fiction. Ask anyone. I know each of you must know at least one person who would do this if you asked.

Remember I’m still offering a promotion for new referrals: a hand-drawn portrait, done by yours truly, for anyone who has bought a copy and is able to refer just one person to do the same.

We can still do this. We can do this together.

Apparently, it’s been a good four months since I gave an update about Tantalus Depths, which, frankly, is inexcusable. Particularly given that I’d said my next updates would have come by the end of the year. Turns out I am really bad at setting deadlines for myself, and this is something I am going to work on fixing going forward.

Fortunately, the update I have for you is a great one.

 

Yes, after far too much deliberation with my personal final round of edits, I have finally submitted my manuscript of Tantalus Depths to Inkshares, along with the various other paperwork necessary to get the production process going. My last round of feedback from my beta readers gave me a lot of ideas for things to work on, and I’ve incorporated lots of changes into the book that greatly improve the pacing and tension.

Technically, Tantalus Depths was more or less submission-ready as soon as the pre-order campaign ended, and I could have sent it in right then. I’ll be getting extensive help with editing as a part of the production process, with professional editors, so I could have thrown my manuscript to them right at the beginning for them to sort out. I could have done that…but I really couldn’t have done that. This story is too important to me, and I feel that you, as my supporters, deserve a book that is as good as it can possibly be. I’m confident that the extra time and effort put into the manuscript before submitting it to Inkshares will improve a story that I’m already proud of, and I think you’ll be really pleased with the result.

Now, because people are going to ask, submitting my manuscript does NOT mean it’s going to be published immediately. Technically, the production process hasn’t begun yet. It’s going to be a while before Inkshares has time to devote to Tantalus Depths; other excellent, well-deserving books are ahead of me in line, and Inkshares can only work on so many projects at once. What this DOES mean, though, is that the timer has officially started. I have personally done everything I have to do to get the production process started; the ball is in Inkshares’ court now, and they’ll get it rolling as soon as they can.

The production process for a book can take a year or longer, so realistically, don’t expect Tantalus Depths to come out until sometime in 2018. I can promise you, though, that I will update you on its progress in production as soon as I’m updated myself (realistically, there’s no possible way I’ll be able to keep quiet when I hear the news that they’ve launched production)

Do expect to see more other Tantalus Depths-related content in the future. I haven’t forgotten my campaign promise to release an Inkshares-exclusive prologue to the book (I temporarily tabled it to focus on the book people paid for), and I have many other irons in the fire. I look forward to bringing them all to you before too long.

Strap yourselves in, folks. Our voyage is just beginning. 

We’ve hit another milestone today! Can you guess what it is?
 

That’s right! Tantalus Depths has just passed 300 pre-orders! As promised, I’m going to be making my original short story, The Perspective Machine, available for free to everyone for a short time. From June 18 to June 22nd, anyone will be able to download it for free off Amazon, already formatted nicely for your e-reader. Click the pretty cover image below to go check it out!
 

I hope you enjoy it! If you do, please give it a nice little rating over there on Amazon, and feel free to tell your family and friends to pick up a copy for themselves. And definitely don’t stop sharing Tantalus Depths! We’re getting close to the halfway mark, but there are only two months left in Tantalus Depths’s campaign, so we need all the support we can get!

Don’t forget, if you use inkshares referral feature when sharing it on facebook, twitter, email, or on inkshares and someone ends up buying a copy from your referral, you get $10 of inkshares credit? You can use that free credit to support any number of other authors on inkshares.
Or you can use it to buy a second copy of Tantalus Depths. You know, whichever.

https://www.inkshares.com/books/tantalus-depths?referral_code=542666e5