The Phantom of the Earth Series Update

by  on  in Publishing, Speculative Fiction, Synthetic Biology, Uncategorized

Hello All—

A lot has happened since my last update in August.

The Phantom of the Earth eBooks have all been formatted and proofread and are listed for pre-order on Amazon. I don’t know how many times I edited and rewrote parts or all of the series over the last 3-plus years. But after 5 rounds of professional editing and 4 beta reader rounds, I’m comfortable enough with the books to publish them and let the massive SFF reading audience decide if I made the right choice. I have no qualms with fixing minor issues prior to the release of the two mini omnibuses, discussed in more detail below, so feel free to send any suggestions to raedenzen@gmail.com as you make your way through the series.

I pulled forward the go-live date for The Song of the Jubilee and The Gambit with Perfection to October 2nd from October 10th. These are books 1 and 2. The remaining books, including the omnibus, which combines the 5 books, 5 character indexes, and 6 appendixes, will go live on October 10th on Amazon. Here are the links:

  • Book 1: The Song of the Jubilee — amazon.com/dp/B0140FWBDE
  • Book 2: The Gambit with Perfection — amazon.com/dp/B0140GF0AO
  • Book 3: The Synthesis and the Animus — amazon.com/dp/B0140HQ6M4
  • Book 4: The Descent into the Maelstrom — amazon.com/dp/B0140NPN1S
  • Book 5: The Restoration of Flaws — amazon.com/dp/B0140IYS1E
  • Omnibus Edition: The Phantom of the Earth — amazon.com/dp/B0140NPMZU

Jubilee and Gambit are presently available for free download on Lulu and the iBookstore. Very soon I hope they’ll be available for free everywhere, including Amazon. Here are the links:

  • iBooks – Jubilee – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-song-of-the-jubilee/id1043638737?mt=11
  • iBooks – Gambit – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-gambit-with-perfection/id1043678725?mt=11
  • Lulu – Jubilee – http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/raeden-zen/the-song-of-the-jubilee-the-phantom-of-the-earth-book-one/ebook/product-22371102.html
  • Lulu – Gambit – http://www.lulu.com/shop/raeden-zen/the-gambit-with-perfection-the-phantom-of-the-earth-book-two/ebook/product-22371096.html

I uploaded the books and descriptions to Goodreads. Please mark the books as “to-read” and/or post ratings and/or reviews if you can as it’ll help drive interest in the series. Here’s the series link:

I launched two campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund creation of the print omnibuses. As many of you know, I was very flexible with my budget for this project, investing in professional editing, concept artwork, and formatting, as well as expert and beta reader feedback. The result, I hope, is an intriguing experience for SFF readers around the world. The problem, however, is that I wrote too much! CreateSpace has a page limit for print books and at nearly 420,000 words of material I’m way over their limit. To resolve this, I’d like to create 2 “mini” omnibuses, which would exclude the character indexes (aka Marstone’s Database) and would be about 700-800 pages each. My goal would be to have them ready by early 2016. To fund the new cover art and formatting, I initiated campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo with the target on each for $2,500. I actually need $2,500 combined so any funds raised in excess of that figure will go toward either (1) creating the audio book on Audible or (2) additional concept artwork. I figured I’d ask subscribers to my newsletter what they’d prefer should that scenario arise. As of right now, at $80 combined, I’m well below the $2,500 threshold. I’m offering free copies of the omnibus edition (eBook format), as well as signed copies of the print omnibuses and of the posters. The posters are of Beimeni City from the Fountain of Youth and Livelle city-state during its downfall. They’re actually painted on canvas and are available with contributions of $100 or more.

Phantom Series Posters

 

I’m presently offering these two posters with “perks” but have recently obtained the high-res images for the other renders on my website, and so can offer those as well. I’m going to set up separate “perks” for those.

I secured a few blog listings to promote the books during the first few weeks. More importantly, The Phantom of the Earth goes live in its entirety in about 2 weeks, which after 3-plus years is very exciting!

Best wishes,

 

Raeden Zen