The Books of Apep Kickstarter Is Live!

 It's Alive!

How Kickstarter Works

For those of you who have never backed a campaign on Kickstarter, here's a brief description of how is works:

1) The customers are called backers.

2) A project creator (like me) puts something new they've created into a campaign on  Kickstarter. The created object can be just about anything. Mainly, I support books, comics, and Tarot cards, but I've also supported low-flow shower heads and wearable flash drives shaped like Star Trek comm badges. The point of the campaign is to solicit funds to bring their product to wider markets.

3) In return for supporting the campaign, the backers get some really cool merchandise! 

4) The campaign is open for a set number of days (in my case, from July 21^st through midnight PDT July 30^th).

5) During the time the campaign is live, the backer can pledge for a certain reward package. For example, the backer can get all e-books or all paperbacks. In my current campaign, I set up a ‘Make Your Own’ package option where you can mix and match the items in a campaign via the 'Add-ons' feature.

6) A lot of creators also have 'Add-on' merchandise where backers can get extras of campaign items or special merchandise that's not part of the main campaign. You can select ‘Add-ons’ in my campaign if you want an extra paperback for your favorite niece, for example.

7)  Yes, backers will need a credit or debit card to make their pledge. However, Kickstarter WILL NOT charge you yet.

8) The creator's have a funding goal. If there's enough pledges to meet or exceed that goal when the campaign's time is up, then the campaign is successfully funded!

9) If the campaign fails to fund when its time is up, The backers won’t be charged at all, but they also won’t get any merchandise.

10) If the campaign successfully funds, the backer's credit/debit card will be charged shortly after the end of the campaign.

11) If there is a problem with the backer's credit/debit card (hey, life happens), Kickstarter will contact the backer and give them a chance to rectify the problem. If they cannot fix the issue within 7 days, Kickstarter will cancel the backer's pledge.

12) Approximately, two weeks after the end of the campaign, Kickstarter deposits the funds from the campaign (minus Kickstarter's fees and any card processing fees) to the creator.

13) The creator then arranges for the merchandise to be made (if they haven't done so already) and delivers/ships the merchandise to the backers. In my case, physical books will be drop-shipped from the printer/distributor Ingram. The e-books will be downloaded via Book Funnel. And the extra merch will be mailed from me to you!

14) There's a very low incidence of scamming on Kickstarter. The company runs a pretty tight ship. However, once in a while someone slips through. So screen any creators! Hopefully, after writing and publishing for the last 15 years, you find me trustworthy! 

 

I've successfully run two campaigns so far. The Books of Apep series is my third one, but my first under my company name, Angry Sheep Publishing LLC. I'm truly excited about this campaign because I had a ton of fun writing the books!

If everything goes smoothly, my backers will have their books a minimum of six weeks before the first book in the series launches at the regular retail sites.

If you have any additional questions about Kickstarter, take a look at their FAQ section.

Hopefully, you'll check out my campaign when it launches tomorrow! Thanks! 

The Books of Apep

I finished the final touches on the Kickstarter campaign for The Books of Apep series in the wee hours of this morning. To my shock, Kickstarter approved the campaign less than eight hours later.

Woo-hoo!

The campaign goes live on July 21st!

If you want to a notice so you don't miss this opportunity,  click this link to go to the Pre-Launch Page and click the 'Notifiy Me On Launch' button!

Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale!

In my efforts to edit and write yesterday, I totally forgot to post this announcement!

Yes, I'm participating in this year's Smashwords July sale! Every novel and novella are half-price! All short stories are free!

This will probably be the last time I do a sale on Smashwords, so grab what you want while you can. Especially if you're inside during this magnificent heat dome covering the eastern side of the North American continent.

(Not even our dogs want to go outside in this Mad Max hellscape!)

Here's the link to my books! 

It's a Monday

I did not get all the proofing and editing done over the weekend that I'd planned. But I made DH happy by taking him to Dietsch's, a hometown shop where the ice cream is made on the premises! It's amazing what a caramel cashew sundae do for a man's mood. I also made scallops and spaghetti in a lemon garlic cream sauce for Father's Day/Litha.

Today, I'm trying to finish the final proofing for the paperback version of A Barrel of Vintner. I thought I had a fairly clean manuscript when the ebook was published in April. Alas, I was wrong! But I'm trying to make things right!

Unfortunately, today was also the semi-annual dental exam. I'm always paranoid that the dentist will find something expensively wrong. But it was an observation that I had a LOT of caffeine staining on my teeth.

Hey, I admit I have addiction, but sometimes, I also need something to sip on when I'm going through a manuscript for the umpteenth time. Not even my own action-adventure stories can keep the eyelids open when the entire text is nearly memorized. And there in lies the reason for the caffeine. I need to be awake to smash the typos with my shoe!

(Not literally, but I view them as the spiders I do not want crawling into my mouth while I'm sound asleep.)

At least, I don't have to cook tonight since there's plenty of leftover scallops and spaghetti for dinner tonight.

Now, back to the proofing!

I'm Still Alive!

Hello, All You Glorious Readers!

Yes, I'm still alive! Since DH and I returned from our trip to Georgia to see Genius Kid's promotion ceremony, I've been essentially glued to my laptop. So, here are the updates!

1) My lovely formatter is currently back to work, and she delivered the proof copy of A Barrel of Vintner (Justice #11)! I'm slowly going through it, but hopefully, the trade paperback version will be available at the end of June.

2) Death Goddess Fighting (The Books of Apep #2) is finished and sitting in the proverbial drawer. After its cooling-off period, I plan to start edits a week from today.

3) I'm currently writing Death Goddess Redeeming (The  Books of Apep #3), and it's currently at the 20% mark.

4) As a palate cleanser, I work on A Sprout of Wild (Justice #12) in the evening. It is also closing in on the 20% mark.

I hope to give you more frequent updates as the summer rolls on!

Rise in Prices

The current economic chaos is gouging everyone these days. Shelter, food, and gasoline are necessities. Without those, people cannot obtain work and travel to their jobs in a large part of the U.S.

Unfortunately, I'm in the same position as everyone else in the country. I find it necessary to raise prices on e-books. I've been resisting it for the last ten years.

Any e-books currently released will remain at their current prices. Any unfinished series, like Justice and Millersburg Magick Mysteries, will remain at their current price levels.

Any NEW novels or series, i.e.  any work where Book #1 or a new single title, is released on retailers after May 15, 2026, will be priced at $5.99. Novellas will be priced at $3.99.

It sucks to raise prices when we're all just trying to get by.