novel

Project Updates for February 2015

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I recently finished a short story that will be released later this year in both text and audio book format. This was a commissioned project, so I don’t have any release dates yet. I can’t really give any details either, but I will make an announcement once I have information to offer. I’m really anxious to share this new story with you all.

I’m currently working on final revisions for the Bloodlines sequel before I put the novel in the hands of the editor. I’m feeling hopeful for a November or December release date. I’m working on some concept sketches for possible cover designs, and I’m researching possible artists to work with. I’ll be releasing a second edition of Bloodlines featuring a new cover design to offer cohesion with the sequel.

I’m still submitting Sacrifice to literary agents and publishers, but self-publishing is my back up plan.

As if I haven’t been busy enough, I decided to work on another story to release chapters online. I’m going to adapt my unpublished comic, Extinction, into to an ongoing series. I haven’t worked out all the details, but I’m thinking of maybe doing a weekly or bi-weekly release. I’m working on a draft for the project, so it might be a few weeks before I have some worthy content.

Stay tuned for upcoming fiction.

Back to Blogging

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Hey everyone, I want to apologize for the unannounced hiatus on my site. I had some issues with the website, the holidays happened and suddenly it was mid-January of the new year. Where did the time go? I’ll try to announce any breaks in the future, but for now I’ll be updating content weekly.

So what have I been up to?

I’ve sent Sacrifice to literary agents, I’m working on a short story for an anthology, and a few other projects. I’ve seriously been debating a way to distribute a horror fantasy story for free. I’m still working on the details, but considering releasing the story by chapters on a weekly schedule. I’ll announce more on that when I have a set plan. I’m also selling some of my art to try to cover the self-publishing costs for The Alliance: Bloodlines sequel. I’m trying to be hopeful for a December release, but I still have a lot of saving to do.

I recently tried out the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13.0 software, and I’ll be blogging my opinions on that in the next few days. If you have any other blog suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

How to Plan a Successful Kickstarter Part 1of 2

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So what is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a reward based crowdfunding platform that helps you obtain the funds needed to bring your creative project to life. You present your project with a set time and goal, and backers can pledge money for one of your reward tiers. Kickstarter is all-or-nothing funding which means that if you don’t reach your goal in the set time, you will get nothing and the backers don’t lose anything.

When I first decided to use Kickstarter for one of my projects, I knew that I would have to do my homework if I wanted to be successful. My project hasn’t launched yet, but I feel I’ve done my best to help the Kickstarter succeed.

So what do you do if you feel that you have a project which might benefit from crowdfunding? Three Ps: Passion, patience, and a ton of planning.

I’m just going to assume if you’re interested in creating your own crowdfunding project that the passion is already there. Let’s hope so because the planning portion can be stressful and time consuming.

I haven’t discouraged you yet? Good!

The hardest part of this entire experience has been my lack of patience. I’ve never been a patient person, but this anxious need to launch the project NOW has really been a test of my willpower. So many times I’ve wanted to hurry and just launch my campaign. Bad idea. Hasty decisions and rushed work will only work against you. A sloppy job on your Kickstarter proposal just discredits everything that you’ve worked so hard on, so take your time and only launch the project once everything is in place. Accept now that there may be delays and bumps in the road.

My original launch date for my Sacrifice Kickstarter was sometime in May, and then delays pushed me back to June. It’s now July and I still don’t have a date. If I had said forget the extra work and just launched using what I had on hand, I’m pretty sure that my project would have failed already. The wait will be worth it.

Remember these are people coming to your page as potential backers. It’s your job to convince them why they should.

Like what you’ve read so far?

Subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss part two where I give an in depth explanation of all the planning details.