So Underdogs: Acceleration is moving ahead, and the structural edit phase is about to begin. By mid-April that'll be done and it'll be time for copyediting. But the most relevant point for all of you being this:
Those who pre-order the book will receive it about six months before the rest of the world. (So thanks a lot to all of you who brought it to life- this in itself is a pretty amazing reward!)
Keeping it to a two-sentence explanation: basically the book will be ready for autumn, but releasing it just before Christmas is a death sentence for sales (because regular novels get shoved aside by the celebrity big-sellers). So it’ll be released to the public in February 2022, but pre-orderers will get it once it’s ready in the autumn.
Anyway, I mentioned stretch goals. Well, in an effort to get as many people reading it in the autumn as possible, Unbound have come up with these lovely ideas:
You may be wondering why I'm bothering to share this information with a 281-strong group of people who have already pre-ordered, bringing it to 108% so far.
Well, firstly it's to keep you in the loop. Since, of course, you'd be the beneficiaries of any new rewards. Secondly, because upgrades also count towards increasing the percentage. So if you've ordered a digital copy, upgrading to a physical copy would push the counter upwards. If you've ordered a physical copy, ordering a mug would push it up. And so on.
So at time of writing, we’re only 7% away from me writing you another short story. We’ve done...
Ewan West Goes to Oakenfold
Jack Hopper Talks to Dad
Joseph McCormick Fights Alone
Oliver Roth Comes to Power
And even Christmas Day at Spitfire's Rise
...and another one will be waiting once Underdogs: Acceleration hits 115%. (There’ll also be a vote on Underdogs’ Facebook page about who stars in it… Kate? Simon? Even Charlie?)
For those reading this in an email, the Unbound link to the project page is here. Huge thanks to everyone who’s brought the Underdogs series to where it is so far, and I look forward to bringing you further news!
United by our differences,
Chris Bonnello