Inkshares Community discussion
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(ended, but regrouping) Let's get EXILE, MAGUS into Quill!
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Thank you for starting this thread Tony. Yeah, I've had plenty of luck in getting people to follow, but just how to close the deal by turning those follows into orders is apparently something I have no skill at.I'm going to look at changing up the main page a bit, but aside from the suggestions made on Writebrain I don't have many ideas. Hopefully I'll have come up with something by the time I send out my Saturday update in about 1.5-2 hours. All suggestions are appreciated.
I'm not sure who else is checking this thread, but I have finally come up with a reader update template for anyone who wants to help out. I actually have you again to thank for this template Tony, since I used Andrew Wood's as a guideline and he used yours as a guideline. If anyone wants to suggest changes feel free, and my thanks to everyone who helps and has already helped.Anyway, here it is:
Calling all fantasy fans out there! With only 12 days remaining and 177 copies left to order, this book needs your help!
Exile, Magus by Thomas J. Arnold is a fantasy novel set in a land of empires and city-states still haunted by the ancient past. After breaking his people's greatest taboo by practicing magic, a young dwarf must abandon what is left of his family and flee into a world he has only heard of in stories.
To find out more about this project, visit Exile, Magus’ homepage here: https:/www.inkshares.com/projects/exile-magu...
OR, read more about it now:
Pentaz has lived a relatively comfortable life in the reclusive island nation of Thierdenvolgenlund. His father had won wealth and questionable fame as an engineer, problem solver, and even a one-time dragon slayer. Still the family's peculiar nature ensures that most view them as oddities, but when Pentaz' study of magic the people turn fully against them.
Fleeing home after both a great tragedy and victory, Pentaz enters a world he has only heard of in stories and legends. Now, he must struggle to learn the ways of this strange, new world in order to survive. The dangers of his new life on the road are many though, and they cannot be overcome alone.
Along the way he finds new friends and allies, fellow students of magic, a money-grubbing caravan master, a dwarf of the mainlands whose culture is perhaps most alien to Pentaz, and even an eccentric king overly fascinated by gnomes and their workings. Most importantly he finds Buscidia, a half-dwarven warrior and vagabond, and in her he finds love and hope for a new family to replace the one he had lost. But can Pentaz overcome his own insecurities and pain in order to build the life with her which he desperately desires?
His home has not forgotten Pentaz or his crime however, and unbeknownst to the exile his brother Palkaz has made his way to the mainland as well. As his hunt for the young magus comes to a close, the two find their charged reunion interrupted.
Thrust against a danger the two brothers never imagined, can they overcome their differences long enough to survive?
Want to hear more? Check out the homepage and read the first five chapters for free!
And take a look at what a couple of other authors had to say about Exile, Magus:
John Robin, author of Blood Dawn says "Exile, Magus brings out the grand voice of high fantasy. Thomas Arnold brings together echos of Gulliver's Travels, Terry Pratchet, and Tolkien with his witty, scholarly narrative voice, strange races with strange names, and sense of a rigorously-thought-out world. I excpect from what I read to enter something amusing, thoughtful, and intriguing all at once!"
Tabi Card, author of says "Exile, Magus is a unique fantasy tale, giving new maenaing to the world 'Epic'. As you follow the life of Pentaz, you will be treated to an intricate blend of myth and magic, sit on the edge of your seat through intense battles, and chuckle at the witty banter of the characters as they face a variety of threats. If you read fantasy, read this - I promise it will not disappoint!"
Go ahead, take a look and buy a book!
BUT HURRY! The book’s campaign ends on JANUARY 22nd ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!
https:/www.inkshares.com/projects/exile-magu...
Tomas! put your referral code down here so we can get you some credits! I'm only holding off on buying so I can give you a little extra!
Craig wrote: "Tomas! put your referral code down here so we can get you some credits! I'm only holding off on buying so I can give you a little extra!"Effectively working two full time jobs has fried my brain. https:/www.inkshares.com/projects/exile-magu...
Well, as I'm sure you're all aware, I didn't make it into Quill, sadface. I just sent out my end of campaign update, but I'll go ahead and paste it here as well. Feel free to chime in on anything mentioned in it, or with any other ideas you may have. As for me, I'm gonna spend the rest of the day consoling myself by being a lazy gamer.***
Well, as I'm sure you've all seen by now the campaign is over and Exile, Magus did not meet its goal. At the end there were 93 orders between 83 readers, and 291 followers. This was actually far better than I expected when I first started this campaign. As mentioned before I've had this book finished for years now, and going through a cycle of writing query letters then scrapping them before sending any out. When I jumped into my Inkshares funding attempt I did so on a whim, and mainly as a way to knock myself out of that cycle which had been preventing me from truly trying to get this story out there. Jumping in like that with no plan, not enough money to pay for any of the promotional efforts I wanted to, and a very small support base, I never expected to get more than a dozen orders and perhaps twice that in followers. I certainly didn't expect to inspire 83 people to place orders, some of them even for multiple copies, and I'm still blown away by the number of followers. That is why despite not achieving the funding goal I still consider this endeavor a success – it did not me out of the cycle which kept me from really trying to do anything with this story and it finally gave me confidence that there is an audience for this weird tale though it may take a bit longer(and more than a bit of additional effort) for me to bring together enough members of said audience to make a real go of this.
Enough talk of the past though, now on to the future of this book, a future which I am dedicated to it having. First step in my new plan – rest my brain a bit. Combining what is often more than a full time job with also trying to keep the funding campaign moving has kept me in a state of exhaustion, especially in these last couple of months. So for at least a couple of weeks I plan to try and recover from that, catching up with friends and family while I'm at it. My players have likely come to hate me for suspending a long running Dragonlance game(we're up to the 2nd generation of player characters at this point), so I'll try to appease them by returning to my DM duties during that time as well.
I've got a number of thoughts on how to proceed with the book, and I'll be letting those percolate in my mind while resting. Just so I'm not keeping everyone in the dark I suppose I'll share some of those ideas, and I'll also invite anyone who has their own ideas to share them with me(the best places would be on my Facebook page linked here or via Twitter @ Thoasoold). The most obvious idea is to return to the query letters and actually send them this time. With what I've learned of pitching through this campaign I may finally be able to craft a letter I'm satisfied with.
When I was originally writing Exile, Magus it was with the intent of trying to serialize it, an idea I abandoned around Chapter 4. With that in mind I found it odd/amusing when I was contacted towards the end of the campaign asking if I would be interested in contributing some serialized fiction to a website. This caused me to look around and discover what I'm sure I'm that last to find out, that being that there's a few options for releasing serialized fiction online now. With that knowledge the serialization becomes an option, though it is one I ultimately view more as a way to raise the money I would need to pay for the various artwork as well as a development edit in order to get this book looking the way I've always dreamed of it looking.
That leads me in to the next potential plan – self publishing. If I did so my budget would demand that it only be print on demand, a thing I've researched for years now so I've pretty much already picked out which services I would use. This plan will take longer than the others though, because I would not take this step until I have gotten a developmental edit, and gotten all of the artwork. The current cover art would be moved to the front piece of Part 4-Llanchland since that is the scene I always intended to proceed that part. Then I would need to commission art for the other 12 parts, as well as a new cover. I have no ideas(that I'm happy with anyway) for what that cover would look like.
I'll take a break from my potential plans here to briefly cover something else I'd not mentioned before. That being the restructuring of parts. Some of you may have noted that the currently layout has Llanchland as part 3, but I just noted it as part 4. That's because for some time I've been meaning to split the current part 2 into parts 2 and 3. The new layout would be as follows: Part 1 (Thierdenvolgenlund); Part 2 (Exile); Part 3 (Warrior); Part 4 (Llanchland); Part 5 (Cruise); Part 6 (Academy); Part 7 (Graduation); Part 8 (Hunter); Part 9 (Proposal); Part 10 (Rescue); Part 11 (Ansvari); Part 12 (Reunion); Part 13 (Ascension). I'd actually already made these changes to the structure over at my Wattpad page some months back.
Enough of the break from potential plans. The most obvious remaining plan is to try to fund through Inkshares again. Before I do so I would have to make sure I'm ready next time. This would involve both getting the new artwork mentioned above, and coming up with a real plan. Also looking at my order statistics I would also not move forward with a new campaign before hitting at least 500 followers, with a preference for 750 followers. In the meantime I will be keeping the draft page active with all of the Parts and their composite chapters(yeah, I'm just going to start calling the “sections” chapters from now on, whereas the former “chapters” are now parts) uploaded remaining in place. In addition, at every 50th follower I will upload a new chapter, or 2 new chapters when one chapter is particularly short. We're now at 293 followers, and at 300 followers I'll upload the final 2 chapters of Part 6(soon to be renumbered Part 7).
Beyond all of these plans though, I intend to stay active on Inkshares. Every other Sunday starting with tomorrow I will still be sending out updates to recommend currently funding projects to you all. Now that I have a bit of free time I'm also going to start completing several side projects such as the short story detailing a bit about the ancient civilizations of Melexi and Thirosia or at least the legends concerning them, a narrative gazetteer detailing the continent on which Exile, Magus takes place, and the maps of said continent. I'll be posting these on my blog, or if I can find a home for them in other, higher traffic venues I 'll do so there instead. Either way, I will let you all know when such things are posted.
That's about all I have for today. Thank you all for the support you showed during the campaign, and I hope you'll continue following. Now that the campaign is over and I can get my brain to focus on things other than getting more preorders, I also hope that you all will feel free to communicate more directly with me. I'm always up for a good conversation, even those which have nothing whatsoever to do with my own book. I linked my Facebook and Twitter above, and they are still the best ways to reach me. You can also find me on Goodreads, and as mentioned and linked above on Wattpad. If you're feeling particularly nosy and of a mind to see what kind of pictures I take you can also check out my Instagram, though I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to. The point however, is that you should feel free to both follow and contact me at any of these places.
Hi Thomas, so glad to hear you're thinking ahead and not seeing this as failure. As you point out, 83 readers is no insignificant milestone, and I'm sure you are in contact with many of them and can reach out when you do launch again. I'm also glad you're thinking of launching this again and that you're thinking even further to self-publishing -- you've got the spirit. More than anything, I'm glad you're planning to stick around! I'm going to change the title of this post so that it's clear this is a place where supporters can work with you to make a strategy thinking ahead.
Enjoy your rest and time with friends, and your Dragonlance campaign!
I'd actually been eying both self publishing and traditional publishing for a number of years, I just kept putting any attempts at both off out of a combination of perfectionism and self doubt. Really though that was redundant, perfectionism really is the truest form of self doubt. Anyway, when I stumbled on Inkshares (through Instagram actually) and saw that it combined the things that most attracted me to both self and traditional publishing I couldn't talk myself out of trying so in I hopped with reckless abandon.And yeah, quitting is never really an option in my mind no matter how much I delay myself at times. This failure has taught me lessons that I should have already known from extensive reading and research, but my brain is a stubborn one about these sort of things and this such lessons tend only stick when I put myself through the meat grinder if personal experience.
Whatever you do, Thomas, keep us informed. Happy to pre-order again once the opportunity avails itself, and any other help I can be useful with, just let me know.
I will definitely keep everyone updated.Honestly I'm wanting some opinions on what would make a good final cover since I want to eventually move the current cover to the interior as the frontpiece for the Llanchland chapter. I want something that can sort of encapsulate the entire book, not just 1 part but I have only very vague ideas.
Ultimately though none of you have read the full book yet, so you're without the information necessary I don't expect you to be able to chime in with much. That brings me to the real request I wanted to make for the time being. I could really use more beta readers. At most I've only ever had 5, and I may as well have only had 1 since she was the only one who bothered with a true critical analysis and was willing to tear scenes apart to me when it was needed. As fellow writers you can all understand that just reading and offering encouraging praise isn't the most helpful in the long run.
So yeah, anyone who wants to read the entirety of Exile, Magus just message me and I can either open it up to you via google docs or send a pdf. For now I'll probably limit it to a maximum of 10 beta readers chosen from interested authors just so I don't get too much of a deluge of comments to sift through.
Anyone who takes me up on it is also welcome to the same offer for the sequel Exile, Hunted. It is also fully written though its only gone through 4 edits by my as opposed to the "oh my god I've lost count of how many times I've gone back over this" edits which Exile, Magus has gone through.
Mod
Honestly I'm wanting some opinions on what would make a good final cover since I want to eventually move the current cover to the interior as the frontpiece..."
Yay, you're open to a new cover! I think it's worth remembering that your print cover can look different from your online cover, and that this point in your author career requires a cover that works well online.
I tried and tried, and after staring for a while I got a sense of a big creature made of gears on your cover - but it's nearly impossible to tell what, if any, figure is standing in the foreground on the bottom right. I can't tell what I'm looking at. Actually, I just saw the massive image in your book synopsis on your project page, and apparently there's someone in the bottom left, too??? I literally never noticed that before. I had no idea.
I really like the font of your title, though - it is unique and interesting and I think it should be much bigger. So should your author name, which is impossible to read at the bottom.
If you have some sort of emblem that could go on the front cover, you could do the thing that's pretty prevalent these days in fantasy and just have one central object plus a massive title. Your title font could totally carry most of the weight.
Examples:
http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Crows-Son...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440...
http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Tr...
http://www.amazon.com/Wheel-Time-Comp...
I hope this doesn't come across as too harsh. I really think your book looks good and I want you to succeed!
Cara wrote: "Yay, you're open to a new cover! I think it's worth remembering that your print cover can look different from your online cover, and that this point in your author career requires a cover that works well online."You definitely didn't sound too harsh, just direct and to the point which is exactly what I need.
Yeah, I love the current cover image because but I have since realized that it probably is too hard to make out what's going on. Ultimately that's entirely my fault because the artist made the scene exactly as I asked for it, but I failed to realize that having a monster made of bronze cogs facing off a woman in bronze armor would fail to contrast with each other enough and also that Pentaz pushed back and to the ground in the very bottom there would not show up to well in his dark clothes with his dark hair in the dark basement type area that they're in. I'm not much of a designer.
I still love the art and want to use it for as one of the interior pieces, but I've come to accept that the sort of thing I love seeing as cover art when out of style about 20 years ago and I should cave to the market on this one.
I'd already considered the central emblem approach since that seems to be very nearly the only type of cover I see in sci-fi/fantasy anymore, so you're actually reassuring me that I was on the right line of thought even though I've resisted taking that step yet.
I've got a few vague ideas such as a stylized boar's head encircled by serpents (Calden family crest whose importance only becomes obvious about 2 chapters after what I'd gotten around to posting on Inkshares), but that's connected to Pentaz only through his connection to another character. Since he is technically the main character, or at least the primary main character, I would like to come up with something that ties into him. He doesn't really have any emblem associated with him, so I'd thought of perhaps incorporating the Muix family sword as a tie to him. I'd also considered a different central image such as a troll skull, but ultimately the trolls only serve as a catalyst to force Pentaz to reveal his magic and leave home whereas the Calden family is hugely central to the main plot of Exile, Magus as well as Exile, Hunted actually.
I've had pretty much no free time lately due to entering the big overtime portion of the season at work, so I've not been able to research artists like I'd wanted to. I have however been letting images freely float through my mind during most of my waking hours since I last posted here, and I've come to really love the idea of the Calden crest as Exile, Magus' cover art. I was still undecided until I realized that each of the 3 books already written work perfectly with a different crest on each. The Calden family crest on book 1, the Sorashe crest in book 2, and a return to the troll skull banner crest for book 3. For that matter book 4 could work well with a crest cover as well, though I have only the most basic mental outline and a few key scenes in mind for it with nothing written yet, so I have no clue just which of 2 or 3 possible crests would be used.Now that I've unloaded a list of names from portions of my stories which you've never seen without any context or explanation, I'm going to try to focus my brain to be coherent for you guys. I like the artist who did the current cover art, but I'd prefer just getting character/scene art from her. That combined with my lack of time to research artists before now leaves me a bit clueless as far as who might be a good artist to contact. I'd obviously want someone with skill at logo design since that's all a crest really is, but also someone who works relatively cheap. While I'm bringing in better money now that I'm on the long overtime hours, my employment is also seasonal meaning that I have to very carefully budget my money so that I can make it through the 4-6 months of the off season in summer and/or fall in case I can't find other employment to tide me over in that period. So yeah, while I'd love to commission some artists I'd seen in months past I can't afford the $400-600 price tag I've seen from most of them. If anyone knows more affordable but still skilled logo artists, then please drop some names here. I'll compile all suggestions into a list to research and decide.
Also if anyone has any ideas on how to improve my blurb and the longer about section of Exile, Magus, I'd be very open to suggestions. Keeping my wording both short and effective is something I've always been horrible at. I'm sure you've already figured that out from how overly wordy I've been on my posts here.
Finally, I keep looking at the forums on Inkshares and thinking of moving the discussion of Exile, Magus' future over there, but I keep waffling. So, thoughts on that are also welcome.
Mod
I have no idea what this guy charges, but I feel like he'd be worth looking into at least. http://www.redbubble.com/people/again...
Christine wrote: "Thomas wrote: "I've had pretty much no free time lately due to entering the big overtime portion of the season at work, so I've not been able to research artists like I'd wanted to. I have however ..."Yeah, definitely some good stuff there. Of course it helps that he and I seem to have similar geek backgrounds judging by the content of his pieces.
Quick update. Christine, I'm now addicted to redbubble. I somehow never knew of its existence before, but now I don't know whether to thank or curse you. Currently page hopping and compiling a list of artists I hope to be able to work with to create a new cover as well as the interior art for frontpieces to each of the 13 parts. I'm still hoping to use the current cover art as a frontpiece for the Llanchland part, I just need to stop being lazy and get around to contacting the artist about that.
Mod
haha, I will gladly take the curse if it comes to it XD
If you want to browse through some of the other Redbubble artists I like, you can see my favorites here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/cbren...
(apologies? in advance)
I'll definitely be combing through your favorites. The more I've pondered it the more I've become attached to the idea of having a different style for each Part frontpiece and the cover. I just hope I can end up affording it.Also, if anyone has advice on better blurbs I'm all ears. I've gotten small bits of advice in the past, and I plan to compile all the tips I have(or will receive) into one handy list to have on hand when I set about trying to revise my blurbs.
I just realized its been over a month since I last commented here. I know most of the other people who've posted here I have contact with outside this forum, but for anyone who may have viewed but never commented I figured I should give an update.I am still working towards the future of Exile, Magus, but over this past month I've had a total of 4 or 5 days off work(exhaustion does strange things to my memory at this point) so my progress towards that future is going far more slowly than I would like. This is the busiest time of year at my job, but its also near to the point where it starts slowing down so I should be able to return to devoting more time to the book again within the next few weeks.
One thing I've been doing is building a list of email addresses of supporters to contact in regards to joining my as yet nonexistent newsletter. The main goal of the newsletter will be to keep everyone directly updated on where Exile, Magus, but I also want to share other sneak peeks when I have them ready - things such as maps, short stories set in the world, bits of pieces on the history of the world and the different nations/cultures/races of the world. Basically anything I post about the world of Exile, Magus I want newsletter subscribers to see at least 2 weeks to a month ahead of anyone else.
If you'd previously ordered Exile, Magus, then I should still have your email address from the thank you message I sent out. I'll be contacting everyone who had ordered when I'm closer to starting the newsletter to make sure you all actually want to receive it. If you hadn't ordered during the campaign but still want to get the newsletter when it starts, then go ahead and email me at redtom.mythmaker@gmail.com with and let me know. Subject line - Exile newsletter, and a quick message such as "I want to subscribe" will be plenty but feel free to send a longer message if you want to. I'm always willing to chat a bit.
That's all I've got for now. Thanks for your time.
So, anyone up for figuring out how to kick these lagging followers into gear? Perhaps a reader update template (like John spearheaded for Dax) might be a good place to start...
What say you?