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Skullgate Newsletter - 8/31/2020
Christopher Van Dyke • Aug 31, 2020
Book signings, digital sales, and teasers for Volume 2!
Dear Skullgaters:
We’re in a liminal stage here at Skullgate--Achten Tan has been out for two weeks, and we’re not fully recruiting for Volume 2 quite yet. We’re sort of following sales, sort of brainstorming for a Kickstarter to fund the next book, and sort of spending time on other projects.
But before we get to Volume 2, Acthen Tan is still selling and getting great reviews! We just got a new five-star review on Amazon today that praises the “ingenuity and craftsmanship displayed by this team of writers that created thematically rich settings with engaging plotlines, as well as complex characters.” We’ve sold 161 copies, and while most of those were in the first week we’re still selling copies almost every day. If you’ve been getting this newsletter but not actually bought the book, for the next week all digital versions will be 25%-50% off for the next week! To celebrate a fortnight of Achten Tan and in anticipation of our September recruitment campaign, we’re holding our first-ever sale! Over at Amazon, the Kindle version price has been lowered to $2.99, and at Smashwords
and the Skullgate store
you can snatch them up for $1.99! Tell your friends!
Most of the author copies have finally arrived at their destinations! And while we’ve been thrilled to see smiling writers holding up their copy of the book, contributor Sarah Parker has blown us away by actually having a book signing! We’re still adjusting to the idea of being “real publishers” who made a “real book,” so those pictures were amazing!
We are starting to think more seriously about Volume 2, the as-of-yet untitled “Space!” book. It’s impossible to provide too many details, as the entire premise of “Tales From the Year Between” is that the contributors create the world together, but we’re shaking things up a bit by having a “prologue.” This is mostly to allow Aaron Hockett, the artist behind the stunning maps in Volume 1, to create a 12-page graphic novel! He’s outlined a script, complete with thumbnails, and I wrote the dialogue and narration. It sets up just enough of a premise to be exciting but leaves everything wide open for when the game starts. There’s a sentient, alien spaceship; a federation fighting off hostile invaders; and a group of space marines. If you like warp-drives, intergalactic adventure, and far-flung corners space, stay tuned! On September 15th we’ll be sending out details on how to apply to be a contributor...
In a bit of Skullgate-adjacent log rolling, myself and Chapel Orhamm (a fellow Skullgate Founder and contributor to Achten Tan) have pieces featured in a literary anthology that is being released today! Assembled and edited by the wonderful Renee Gendron, if you liked Achten Tan you should check out Beneath the Twin Suns. It is also a SFF anthology featuring short pieces set in a shared universe. It feels very different than Achten Tan--not only are the pieces less weird, but the stories are spread from the planet’s bronze-age all the way to the far future. Since I was focused on my own anthology I haven’t read many of the stories included alongside mine and Chapel’s, but the ones I have seen are great. Also, all proceeds are being donated to the Red Cross, so you can support a group of indie-authors AND donate to a good cause.
That’s it for this week. If you haven’t, go buy some merch at TeeSpring, and we’ll see you in 7 days!
Stay frosty (I’m practicing for helming an action-adventure SFF book),
-Chris, Editor-in-Chief and Grand Hierophant
Thrilling Debut Novel by Under New Suns Alumna!
The First Review of Under New Suns -- Rue Sparks
Zombie Anthology featuring multiple Friends of the Skullgate on Sale Now!
Volume 2 of Tales From the Year Between is prepped for Lift Off!
Loathsome Voyages is Out!
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM SKULLGATE MEDIA!
A new fantasy trilogy from Volume 2 contributor, A.R.K. Horton
Skullgate Media is excited to announce two new upcoming publishing projects! While it saddened us with the recent news that Kyanite Publishing is closing their doors—we are thrilled that we will see some of their existing projects through to fruition. The first project is Loathsome Voyages , a collection of fourteen tales of supernatural madness and creeping horror from some of the most talented writers in the field. Edited by CD Storiz and Chris Durston, this creative anthology of weird fiction will release in early January 2020. A cover reveal will be coming soon; so stay tuned! Contains stories by BK Bass, Chris Durston, Gary Fagan, Zach Friday, Anthony Harris, Christopher Harris, Mackenzie Littledale, Tim Mendess, Michael D. Nadeau, Michelle River, JL Royce, Mark J. Schultis, CD Storiz, and Chris Vandyke that will thrill and chill you! Secondly, we are pleased to announce that at the start of next year, Skullgate Media takes over the publication of Michael D. Nadeau’s Lythinall novels. Currently consisting of two books, The Darkness Returns and The Darkness Within (with more on the way!), the world of Lythinall is a world of sweeping fantasy, dark magic, and epic adventure. Ed Greenwood, the creator of The Forgotten Realms (yes, THAT Ed Greenwood!) describes Michael as “a writer to watch” and the Lythinall books as “a fantasy series to fall in love with.” We are excited to have Michael as Skullgate Media’s first signed author for publication. We are preparing a new edition of his books which will be released under the Skullgate name on January 1st, 2021. Shortly, we will have a link available to pre-order copies of his latest works. In the meantime, get to know him at his author website and his page at Goodreads .
Saturday our Kickstart for Volume 2 wrapped up, and we finished with JUST over $1,700! Since the day our campaign launched we've been blown away by how supportive our friends and fans have been. We can now confidently move forward knowing that we can pay our contributors, commission an amazing cover, and pay for everything associated with producing an awesome book. We've now entered the REAL work -- writing! Twenty-five writers from all around the world are now plotting and planning fantastic tales of sentient space ships, intrepid Space Marines, and deep-space cosmic sharks. How will it all end? Who knows? We don't! That's what makes this so exciting and fun. As the work progresses we'll share teasers, and in a few days we'll start sending out digital rewards to our backers. But for now we're just basking in the glow of a successful campaign. And saying thank you again. In fact, Chris Durston made a video of some of us saying just that.
Things have been busy at Skullgate Media! But ironically while the news has been coming fast and furious I haven't posted an update for those of you playing along at home. Here's the quick recap: Our Kickstarter is exceeding our wildest expectations! As of 10/22 we have raised $1,642, which is more than TWICE our initial goal! We've meet and exceeded BOTH our stretch goals, so we will be paying all contributors $20 for their stories. We're a paying market! It wraps up on November 1st, so there's still a chance to get in on the Kickstartery Action! Before we closed our submissions deadline, we received 3x more applications than we could accept! On the one hand, this was a problem, as we had to send out a lot of "Thanks for applying but..." emails. On the other hand, we got to be extremely selective and recruit an amazing group of writers. We have a team of 25 writers! We'll be sharing more about the team as the project unfolds, but in the mean time go check out the updated contributor page at YearBetween.com. Damn, thats a good looking group of writers! The (world-building) game is afoot! Even as I type this, our pre-writing game is underway. Using a heavily modified version of Avery Alder's indie game The Quiet Year , 25 writers from India to the West Coast of America are coming up with characters, star-systems, alien species, and more plot-twists than you can shake a stick at! So what's next? Well, the world-building wraps up this week. I and the team at Skullgate will then massage it all into something half-way presentable... then the writing will start on November 1st! Everyone has until December 1st to write a rough draft, then until January 1st to revise a final draft. During that time collaborators will work out canonical issues, Aaron Hockett will start drawing star maps and space-ship schematics, and we'll commission our cover art. After all the stories are finalized... okay, we're getting a head of ourselves. There's a lot to do before then, but we're on track for a mid February 2021 release date. Okay, I'm off to go see what's developed today. Check back here as Volume 2 unfolds, and make sure to stop by YearBetween.com from time to time, as that site will reflect the world as we get to now it. I'll try to update here, but the News From the Skullgate goes out every weekend, so make sure to sign up for the newsletter! In the meantime, Factum Est Bonum!