Hey, what is up sports fans, it’s been a long time since I’ve given you all an update and I wanted to check in. Cute picture of ducks from family vacation over the summer unrelated, but still with intrinsic value.

I have learned so much about the publishing industry during this journey, but this last weekend we had our official kickoff meeting with the wonderful folks over at NDP. I really like them as a hybrid publisher, mostly because their community is really tight-knit and all of the other folks that are helping you along the way as an author have recently been through this process. I am meeting my managing editor this afternoon via zoom, and I honestly can’t wait. It’s going to be incredibly exciting working with somebody whose job it is to tell you how bad your writing is. I mean, normally I have to cook a pretty decent meal to get that kind of feedback from my usual editor. Who is my wife. Who I love very much, of you’re reading this.

So how’s this all going to work? Well man, I am so glad you asked. So nowadays, publishing a book is not something that happens before the book is sold. But presale isn’t really the right word for it either, as simply preselling a bunch of copies of the book is not actually going to get it across the finish line.

In my cohort, we have been discussing what it really means to contribute to a fundraising campaign for a book. Yes, everybody who contributes to the campaign will get a signed copy of the book. If we get enough money, it’ll be a signed hard copy of the book, but I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself there.

The campaign that I am designing to launch this book, which actually is next week and I’m totally not worried about it at all (haha), is a whole lot more than just buying a copy that I will sign and send to you in the mail. I’m going to have several tears in the campaign, but ultimately any money that I raised through this is going to go towards involving people in the experience of publishing this book. You don’t want to be involved and you just want a signed copy? Awesome there’s an option for that. But what I really want to do is build an awesome community of people who enjoy the idea of the book and want to help make it a reality.

And I’m not talking about a couple of little votes here and there on cover art or reading a prologue early, although those will definitely be in there. I’m talking about getting early access to the full manuscript as part of a beta readers initiative and getting to give feedback during the editing process about what works, what doesn’t, and where you want things to go. Now depending on who and how many dive on to this moving train, I’m only one person so I may not be able to get everybody’s feedback into the final novel, but I’m darn sure going to try.

The other side of this is that by signing up to support the campaign, everybody will get access to real-time updates about where the book is in the process, what I am doing, with the editors are doing, and really a good peak behind the curtain about what this process is anyway. How are books born? Is it as simple as one book loving another book very much, or is there a little more science to it? Heck, I don’t know, this is my first time too. Let’s go on this journey together.

I’ve put an announcement on the homepage of this website and I will update that as things continue to move forward. There will also be a Facebook live event to launch the official campaign we’ll get to see the initial trailer, and I will be on live to tell you more about the universe of the book, the characters, and answer any questions you might have. No, I’m not going to tell you the entire plot because that would probably ruin the reading experience and who wants that anyway? But there have been so many people that have helped me along the way so far building this awesome stone soup of ideas and concepts that have turned into what I think is a incredible universe and world. There’s a whole history that we could dive into as well, and all kinds of side rabbit holes to dive down. It’s going to be awesome!

If you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing you’re pretty interested in the whole publishing process, or you’re a close friend, or maybe both. But hey, maybe pre-ordering books and getting involved in this whole thing isn’t really for you, and that’s fine. Thank you for making it this far along in the post. What would be incredibly helpful to this initiative would be if you would share this with someone who you think might be interested. Fans of science fiction. Fans of geopolitics. People who think about strategy, artificial intelligence, advanced networks, high energy physics, all of these things that are themes and cornerstones in the book. A quick share on your social media of choice, or even word of mouth would be amazing. I want to fit as many people in the boat with me as possible, and you can be a part of that too.

I want to close with a big, giant, heartfelt thank you to everybody who has helped me along the to where I’m at today. Whether you’ve put up with me talking about folding space and Faustian robots, or if you’ve read a little bit of my work in the short story side and helped me to be a better writer, thank you. Let’s go be better together!