Alan R Marble

Well, not quite two weeks into the Kickstarter project and we've reached (and even started to exceed) our goal!  This means that the project will indeed fund come November 13 and we will proceed quickly with the necessary steps to publish.  Because the goal was met so quickly - and because we are now assured funding - we're comfortable spending a little money now to expedite the process and ensure that the hardcover edition goes out along with the paperback.  This should hopefully put the book into the hands of all our backers just in time for the holidays!

I've also gotten word from our cover artist, Maarta (http://mlaiho.daportfolio.com/), that the finished version of the cover art should be available tomorrow, and we'll get to make some font selections to get it all wrapped up.  We're also talking about some fun ideas for potential stretch goals for the Kickstarter project, and also to get the website rolling.  Blogspot has worked as a platform for the project thus far but we're soon to outgrow it and begin transitioning to a standalone website.

Things will begin moving quickly over the next few weeks.  I've been using the Kickstarter page as a sort of surrogate blog but I'll try to avoid that temptation and keep things more updated here in the meantime!

All right folks, the most crucial step in the pre-publishing process is upon us : our Kickstarter project is now up and running!  Here's the link : http://kck.st/RyMj4y

If you haven't been following along or just are not quite sure what Kickstarter is, let me take a moment to explain.  It's a service that allows people all over to generate some startup funds for creative projects - in my case, publishing a novel!  Anyone can peruse the project, learn more about it, and then make a financial pledge to get the project moving.  If the funding goals are met before the deadline, the project is funded and the backers get something in recompense for their pledge.  Everybody wins!

We are hoping to use the service to raise $1,500.  This money would be used to help pay for some of the initial costs of publication - the purchase of ISBNs, offset the cost of licensing artwork, some initial promotional/marketing costs, and the like.  Oh, and, of course, making sure that backers get the promised rewards for their contributions!

I'd like to take a moment to make something clear - if we fail to meet our funding goals, we aren't going to fail to publish the novel.  That is going to go forward no matter what.  The difference will be that in that case, we'll hold a private pre-sale to defray some of the more urgent costs, and have to put the other stuff, like marketing, off till I can handle the costs on my own.  Again, I will repeat - publishing the novel is not contingent upon funding, so don't worry about that!

All right, we've got that out of the way, so let's get down to specifics on what this means for you and how you can help!

First of all, every dollar counts.  If you'd like to contribute to the project but aren't really interested in the rewards, you can still pledge and opt to not receive the rewards (no idea why you'd want to skip out though!)  To that end, the project accepts pledges of as little as $1.  Even that's not a donation, and there's a reward for helping out no matter how much you can offer.

A lot of folks are looking for a way to pre-order the book, and this is how you do it.  There are a few different options available (paperback or hardcover, signed or not) as well as some nifty personalized rewards for more generous pledges.  Now, I understand that there might be some concern that the pricing here seems a little higher - that's sort of true, but not really.  Yes, the cost to pre-order a paperback copy is $15 while the list price is going to be $11.99.  But keep in mind that you get other rewards too, like the e-book copy, so it really evens out.  Plus the satisfaction of knowing you're helping out :)

If you can't help out with a pledge, that doesn't mean you can't help!  Exposure is just as important to the fundraising project as money.  Whether or not you make a pledge, the most important thing you can do is share the link to the Kickstarter page with as many people as you know, and ask them to do the same.  The more people who see it, the better chance of success.

If anyone has any questions about the fundraising, please ask and I won't  hesitate to answer!  Thank you, and wish us luck!

The Kickstarter project is soon to go live!  The page has been submitted for approval as of this morning; according to the FAQ on Kickstarter's page, they anticipate 1-2 days to review projects before they are approved to go live.  Since we aren't anticipating any issues - I'm quite certain that there's nothing about our project that violates the terms of service or is otherwise prohibited - we're looking at going live with the project no later than Wednesday.  Keep your eyes open for updates!

So obviously the Kickstarter project was not, well, kicked off over the weekend.  I still have to sit down and put the video together, something that's likely to come in stages over the week.  While it's no big deal that it didn't start this weekend, I do need to set a firm goal to have it in place and ready to go by next weekend, otherwise I run the risk of missing on some release goals and deadlines that I've set!

It was a fairly quiet weekend, and other than visiting family and participating in a 5K walk for the City of Hope, didn't get up to a whole lot.  Lazy weekends can be kind of nice.

I'm thinking it probably wouldn't hurt to do a little more with this blog than go on about the project and maybe put a bit more of a personal touch on it.  So tonight or tomorrow I'll be taking a little chance to discuss who some of my favorite authors are and how they have had an impact on me.

Well we have the first concept sketch in of the cover art!  It's all just an idea at this point, just to get a feel for direction and such but personally I rather like the composition!

Well, since it's now officially official, I'll go ahead and share that we've made a decision on our cover artist!

We're excited to have Maarta Laiho on board as our official cover illustrator!  You can check out her existing portfolio at http://mlaiho.daportfolio.com/, there's some neat stuff there.  We're looking forward to seeing what she comes up with for this project and will of course keep everyone in the loop.

Work on the interior layout is still under way.  I believe I've mentioned this before but I've settled on the 6" x 9" trade paperback with the white paper interior.  While I'm fond of the smaller, mass-market pocketbook size, the larger trade paperback is becoming a popular format and is printed on higher quality paper, so I think in the end it's definitely the way to go.

In addition to the paperback, a 6" x 9" hardcover is going to be published as a special edition for those who are looking to have something a little extra special.  This edition will be available only during the Kickstarter fundraising stage (or if that does not succeed a pre-sale event) and will not be going on sale afterward.  If the response to the paperback is good then I will offer up the hardcover for purchase, but it will be a second edition.  Only those lucky (and generous!) few who are willing to support me in the beginning will have access to this edition.

Stay tuned for exciting developments coming soon!

Not much to offer up in terms of  update on the project.  There will likely be a bit of a lull till this weekend, or whenever I get the preliminary sketches in.  I will need to start working on a video for the Kickstarter project though .. fun times ahead.

Been reading a few articles on promoting/marketing.  Whew.  There's a lot to it, and it's both exciting and daunting at the same time.  I suppose the relative success (or failure) of the Kickstarter attempt will dictate just how aggressive I can be with this angle.  I suppose in a way it's the hardest part for me - I've never been very keen on promoting myself - but that's the way it's got to be.  We'll get it figured out!

Not much more for now, so goodnight world!

I've had a chance to review some portfolios and think I've found a 'winner'.  I won't name names until everything is official, but hopefully we'll have some concept sketches or other such things to share in the near future.

So there's definitely some good artists who have stepped forward with some interest in the project, and I'm looking to make a decision here in the next day or two.  This is, of course, really good news; cover art is kind of the current sticking point, so once we get that moving, the other steps can start to fall in to place.

Here's a rough idea of the timetable we're now looking at :

Preliminary concept art should be ready by this weekend, and that should be enough to enable me to get the Kickstarter project up and running by the 6th or the 7th.

The project is slated to run for approximately 4 weeks, so should be wrapped up by November 3 or 4.  We're planning to set a relatively modest fundraising goal, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it's something we should be able to accomplish!

Cover art should be wrapped up about a week before that, so I'll have a chance to get the final design for the novel itself done by then.  We'd love to be able to show everyone what it'll look like in time for that.  From there, the plan diverges a little in terms of whether or not the Kickstarter attempt is successful.

Assuming all goes well with that, our funding would become available right about Thanksgiving. This means that the book should become available for purchase sometime in early to mid December.  With any luck the shipment of copies as rewards for backers in time for Christmas, but that's dependent upon any holiday shipping delays.

If the fundraising falls through, there will be a limited pre-sale event to allow friends, family and other supporters to pre-order the novel directly, but the ultimate release should wind up being about the same time.

Either way these are exciting times as we get closer to the inevitable release coming up at the end of the year!

I've had a little time to think about the self-publishing route, some time to sleep on it, and I've decided to make the plunge.  Steps are now being taken to that end, and with any luck we'll have the book ready to go in time for the holidays this year!  The manuscript is being adjusted and formatted for publication as a 6" x 9" paperback, a pretty standard size in the industry.  What's lacking (and what I don't have the capacity to do) is design and create cover art for the novel.  It seems likely that I'm going to have to commission an artist to do it for me, but hopefully that won't take too terribly long.

I've also decided to go ahead and give Kickstarter a go.  I believe that there's a good shot to get the initial funding we need to make the release go smoothly and, hopefully, give us a little boost in terms of attention and potential.

I am also going to start making better use of the Facebook and Twitter feeds.  I know that there aren't many followers just yet but since I'm going down this road of self-publishing I'm going to have to make the most of social networking.  Time to make the most of it!  So keep an eye out for more exciting news soon.

There are going to be some changes to the site in the near future, as we look to highlight The Silver Token a little more directly.  It will likely be moving to a permanent home on our own severs rather than hosted here at Blogspot.  We might also be moving over to Wordpress for a little more control, and while that might have an impact on some of the old comments not moving over, it shouldn't be a big deal.

All right, now on to some big changes with the novel.  Those of you who have been following on Facebook will have noticed a little talk about the possibility of going for a self-publishing route for the novel.  It's been three months since I started approaching agents about the manuscript and so far no bites, just a parade of polite, if impersonal, rejection letters.  I understand agents are busy and have a lot to wade through in terms of submissions, and as a result a lot of the success hinges on that query letter rather than the manuscript itself.
Perhaps I haven't written a good query letter.  Perhaps I've simply approached the wrong agents.

Whichever is the case, I am not really willing to let the manuscript linger due to query letter misfires or simply getting lost in the grind of the modern publishing world.  Self publishing is no walk in the park, to be sure, and there's certainly no guarantee of success (in fact most self-published authors will be lucky to sell more than a few dozen copies).  The onus is on me and my small network of friends and family to get the word out.  Still, it can be done.  It gives me more control over the process, and guarantees I don't simply lose interest and just never get started.

There are still a few considerations, of course, such as commissioning cover art for the published book.  I'm also strongly considering some kind of pre-order sale of signed copies to help generate a little seed revenue for the project; I'm also considering whether or not to take the plunge and give Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) a try to generate even more revenue for potential marketing and the like, but the jury is still out on that.

A final decision hasn't yet been made, but stay tuned!  I'm looking to get a little more use out of this site now, too.

So, I got back a polite response from one of the agencies I've queried letting me know it wasn't what they are looking for.  I'm not perturbed by this fact, though; I rather expected it.

I have been questioned, however, on whether I have been a bit 'negative' in expecting rejections.  Part of it I suppose is a sort of self-deprecating sense of humor, but more than that it's a sense of realism.  I understand that a rejection is not necessarily an indicator of failure, nor must it be construed as saying something negative about my work or writing style.  Agents are busy people; they receive a lot of queries from a lot of authors (hundreds a week) on top of their duties to their existing clients.  They have an idea of what sorts of things they are looking for, what sorts of things they are interested in.  It's a nature of the beast that you are going to get rejections.  I expect them not because I lack confidence in my own work, but because I understand that these things just happen.

No one gets accepted on their first try.  No one.

JK Rowling had to wade through 9 (or 12) rejections before she found someone who was interested in her new children's novels.  Who hasn't heard of "Chicken Soup for the Soul?"  Rejected 33 times.  The novel that would eventually become the popular series M*A*S*H was turned down 21 times.  Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times when he gave up and threw it in the trash; his wife dug it out and encouraged him to keep trying.

Like I said.  No one gets a "yes" on their first try.  So when I have said that I am preparing to get rejection letters, it's not out of a lack of confidence in my work, it's not out of a sense of negativity or giving up.  It's merely my way of acknowledging the realities of the industry, and preparing myself for the inevitable.  It's thanks to this knowledge that my first rejection letter does not strike me as a failure, does not discourage me from pressing onward.

It's just an important milestone on the path!

Well now that the final draft is complete, there's really only one step left to take : get the manuscript out there.

Been a while since I've updated here, much to the consternation of my loyal fans.  All, what, three of you?

Life has kept me busy the last few months but in spite of the lack of updates here, the writing hasn't come to a complete halt.  Right now the manuscript is going through another revision, this one to hopefully polish out a few rough spots, fill in a few holes, and basically get the manuscript into what I would consider a "submission-worthy" state.  Probably isn't going to take me all that long either, as I am not making any serious revisions.  No adding new characters, no new chapters, no new scenes.  I'm pretty satisfied that it should be good to go by the end of the month.

What then?  I've been doing a fair bit of thinking lately and I think the best bet for me will be to seek out an agent.  With everything else that is going on, all the other demands I have on my time, I'm just not sure I have either the time or the energy to devote to making the submissions to publishers myself, do all the follow up work, all of the stuff that agents know exactly how to do.  Granted, I'll still have to go through the trouble of finding and submitting to an agent, but at least there's a bit less of a labyrinth to navigate, there.  Perhaps there's even a bit of an opening there, too; a brother-in-law of a brother-in-law published a fantasy novel not too long ago, so maybe it's possible to make a bit of a connection.

That's about it for now.  Hopefully there will be some interesting and worthy news to share in the near future.

Well now that February is almost over, it's time to move on to the next phase of this thing.  I've gotten feedback from a good few of you, and it's all been encouraging, thank you all so much!  I haven't actually started my revision yet but that will change in March.  Originally I had planned on having the revision done sometime in that month but must be a little more conservative about that estimate now; we're looking at the revision to wrap up sometime in April.  In any case, I'm hopeful that I'll be ready to move on to the more frightening phase of submissions by May ...

One bit of feedback that was fairly consistent was a desire to see a sequel.  It's true that I left some things open-ended in the story but I was not, in fact, planning a sequel at that time. The idea has been bouncing around long enough in my head though that I'm ready to commit to the notion : once I'm completely done with The Silver Token, I'll be starting on a sequel!  Don't expect much in the way of details from me right now, of course, but it'll be an opportunity to explore a little more of the history of the dragons, build upon some existing relationships, and even see our protagonists caught up in adventure and intrigue in the far corners of the globe ...

Sorry, I couldn't help it :)

The last of the draft manuscripts are out to volunteer readers; I won't be entertaining more requests after this point, sorry!  The main reason is that I am looking to begin revising shortly.  I have gotten feedback from a number of you and am trying to hold off on my next rewrite as long as I can to get the most input possible but at the same time I don't want to wait too long.  Starting this week I will be re-reading the manuscript myself, and once I am done I will start on the next draft.

So where does it go from here?  Those of you who are still in the process of reading are more than welcome to continue offering input and thoughts even after I start my revision - even after it is done!  The current goal is to have a final revision done up sometime in March so that I can begin looking for places to submit the manuscript to and see what happens from there.

Once again a big thank you to everyone who has read it and given me some feedback to go on, your thoughts and opinions have been immeasurably helpful to me!

I've added a few short stories that I wrote a couple of years ago.  Some of you may have seen them, some of you may not.  Go ahead and take a look at the stories section (the link is at the top of the page) and take a look if you like!  I may update this section more in the future as I have the time and inspiration to pen a few more short stories, but for now my attentions are focused elsewhere.

I've decided to go ahead and cave in to the pressure and tone down the swearing in The Silver Token.


No, it's not going away.  I'm not going to clean it up to a "G" rated version, but after giving it some thought I have decided that it might not hurt to at least throttle back a bit on the language.  I still think that as it stands, the expletives used are valid for the setting and that the characters would likely be talking that way, however by taking it down a few notches I shouldn't really be detracting from the "authenticity" of the characters while hopefully making it a wee bit more palatable to my more sensitive readers.

So take heart, gentle readers; the next version will make your ears bleed a little less.

Now that I've been getting back a little feedback on my draft manuscript of The Silver Token, I've decided that it's time to go ahead and create a blog/website dedicated to my writing endeavors.  Over the next few days we'll be fleshing the site out with writing samples and the like, and I'll be keeping it current with updates on my current writing projects.  It is likely to be evolving a lot at first so if you happen to be one of my first readers then have a little patience while all of the kinks get worked out, so to speak.

Since currently I am only working on The Silver Token, it would make sense that any current updates be devoted to that particular work!  As many of you know I met my goal of completing the first draft of the manuscript by December 31, 2011, and it has since seen a first revision to help flesh out some of the more glaring holes.  The current revision is now in the hands of perhaps a dozen or so volunteer readers and reviewers, a few of which have gotten their input back to me, and I'm feeling encouraged by what some of you are saying.  I will continue to await feedback from those who are still in the process of finishing up the draft but I am looking to start the next revision sometime around the first of the month.

Let me offer a sincere thank you to those of you who have taken the time to review my work thus far, your support and feedback has been immensely valuable to me!  Stay tuned for more updates on the manuscript to come.  I'm sure I'll need your support when I take the plunge and start submitting the thing ...