News Blast: Shadow of an Empire, Colony, and Milestones · 7:27pm May 14th, 2018
Welcome to Monday, readers! I know the culture, at least here in the US with it’s workaholic pastimes, is to despise Mondays, but maybe I can make things a little shinier for you at the start of this week. After all, I’ve got a nice news post here for you to read (and then we’re gettingBeing a Better Writer), with lots of good news about the upcoming weeks that’s sure to excite a good number of you!
The first and most important bit of news? Shadow of an Empireis available for pre-order and releasing June 1st! That’s right, the Fantasy-Western Epic is sweeping onto e-readers and devices everywhere in just under three weeks!Swing by the Amazon pageand pre-order your copy now so it arrives ASAP! And share that link; the more people know about Shadow, the better. Redditor? Facebook user? Fanfic socializer? Let people know. Word of mouth is majorly helpful! Also, if you’re an Alpha or Beta Reader, feel free to talk about the book now and tell people all about it! I’d advise not dropping too many spoilers, but I’ve seen your enjoyment for months now, so go share it with others!
Second bit of news? Well, it’s related to that first one. In the coming weeks (date not officially set), I will be doing a Reddit AMA to promoteShadow of an Empire. Yup. For several hours I’ll be answering any and all (within reason) questions there, both to help spread writing knowledge and to talk about—of course—my newest release, as well as what else to expect from me in the coming year and whatever else people bring up. If you have a Reddit account, please come and participate. The more people show, the better off the AMA will be, and the more traction it’ll gather! Check back here for more details as I narrow the date down with Reddit mods!
Third bit of news: Shadow of an Empire‘s preview chapter will be getting updated to the final version tomorrow. There will be a notification of it, the cover art will be included, etc, etc. Following this, chapter two will go up the following Tuesday, and the Tuesday after that, chapter three. The final book, by the way, is thirty-one chapters, so you’re only getting the first little bit as a preview.
Okay, last bit of news (I promise!): Colonyis getting its first price-drop. As well as a text update. Okay, don’t go wild, it’s the standard “This book is now X months old” drop I’ve done for my other works. Colonywill soon be $5.99 instead of $7.99. In addition, the text will be updated with a number of small corrections and error fixes to promote a smoother reading experience. Those of you who already own Colonyshould see the update the next time you connect to the web, and those already connected will just, well, have it!
And, last but not least … I didn’t even realize it, but I’ve passed a review milestone! Specifically, an Amazon review milestone: 50 Five-Star reviews! To be more specific, 52 of them! Out of—get this—82 reviews total. That’s right, well over half of the reviews I’ve ever gathered are Five-Star reviews! Huzzah! Now just to keep getting those reviews out in front of readers! Oh, and to keep collecting them. The more reviews a product has, the more people trust what they say.
In any case, that’s the news update! Lots coming in the next few weeks as we move closer to the release of Shadow of an Empire. Don’t forget to pre-order your copy!
Funny, I was just talking to JawJoe yesterday about his views regarding Colony. Now I'm tempted to see how many of those 5-star reviews are for that story, just so I can point them out to him and say "Dude, I think you're in the minority here."
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Nah, that'd just provoke another rant.
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Of the 19 reviews Colony has, 15 of them are Five-Star. He was definitely in the minority (about as much as the guy who left the one-star review on Goodreads because 'this book has plot and exposition, and I don't enjoy that'). I would agree with him that his criticisms were overly pedantic, except in a lot of cases they personally were heavily running off of "reality is unrealistic" and Jawjoe just having real issues with that. One of his "hills to die on" regarding Colony was a belief that 'military dictatorships cannot have organized crime.'
I don't believe you can find evidence of one military dictatorship in history that hasn't had massive organized crime, because dictatorships are breeding grounds for corruption like that, let alone claim that military dictatorships don't have organized crime. Crud, they create the conditions for organized crime, and in many instances it starts with the dictatorship.
Anyway ... LoL. Speaking of Reviews though, would you like early access to Shadow of an Empire so that you can have more flexibility slotting it into your schedule after release (or at least get an early start on it)?
I could do it, but I gotta warn you my review blog schedule is booked up straight to August 2nd, so August 12th would be the earliest I could get to it. If you're fine with that, I have no problem adding it to my queue.
Grats on the huge pile of 5-star ratings!
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Would you want it in advance, or would you just be happy grabbing a copy when it comes out?
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Thanks!
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Eh, I'll grab a copy on my own this time. Getting it earlier isn't going to make the review come any faster, and it's about time I paid that tiny contribution to the Poor Starving Florschutz Fund. But when the time comes this weekend, it would help my scheduling immensely if I could maybe get a PM of chapter word lengths. Otherwise I'll be giving myself the nebulous scheduling method of "one chapter a day" and hoping that comes out to a reasonable daily word count.
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Don't judge my OCD!
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Oh I can easily do that. Sure! I'll get that out tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon.
Also, your contribution to the fund is appreciated!