I hope everyone is entering 2026 happy, healthy, wealthy, and full of joy. Since it's a holiday, I'll keep this super short: I need your help to choose a new voice actor for Dmitri!
Long story short, Prince Bolton will no longer be starring as Dmitri due to dereliction of duty. So, I've been holding auditions to recast the role. Now, I won't lie to you, finding a new voice actor on such short notice has been difficult, but I've narrowed it down to two individuals, and I'd love to have your input on who it should go to.
All you have to do is heart your favorite by 12:01 AM Sunday, 4 January and I'll send out the invitation and get the next section of the audiobook completed. Here's the link to vote:
I hope you're happy, healthy, wealthy, and enjoying time with your families!
Today I wanted to take a moment to thank you again for your support of the Blood Ties Audiobook. I'm a bit late on sending this update because during the campaign, I caught the flu, and then it took two weeks after that to completely heal up. Couple that with work, family obligations, and indie author stuff, and you have a recipe for disaster.
All that to say, thanks for your patience!
Going forward, I'll keep you updated at least once a month about what's going on with this campaign. In that regard, here's a quick update of where I'm at on with this project:
One of the narrators has not replied to any of my emails or messages, so I'm on the hunt for a new one. But, that's why the production date was pushed out to April. I wanted to have a buffer in case this happened.
Related to number one, I'm on the hunt for a new narrator that fits the bill. I've put out some feelers, and hopefully someone sticks. I'll keep you updated on how that goes.
The postcards are coming along nicely. I'm excited about them.
I haven't set up the pre-order store for this campaign yet. I've found that my audience doesn't order additional things from it. If you all would like me to set up the pre-order store (also known as late pledges), let me know!
I'm partially through with the full version of the pre-launch reward. I'm really happy about how it's turning out and can't wait to share more about that next month!
Surveys will go out closer to February/March, so don't panic that you haven't seen any. I want to make sure the project is completed before I set up fulfilment and shipping. I'll keep you all aprised of when that's going to happen.
Thanks again for your patience! The next update for this campaign probably won't be until January. Expect them to ramp up closer to completion of the project. In the mean time, happy holidays!
XOXO
J.S. Living
P.S. I'm participating in the 2025 Holiday Mega Salehosted by Space Wizard on r/Fantasy for the benefit of the Mary Cariola Center. Over 300 authors are participating, and over 650 books will be free or $0.99. If you missed out on my books during my last two campaigns and the pre-order store, this is the perfect time to grab a copy! In addition, I'm also offering 15% off all items in my online store! Use code CHEER to take advantage. This offer is only open to those on my email lists and those who followed or backed my campaigns, so you don't want to miss it.
P.S.S. Apologies if you're getting this email again! I know some of you backed both projects.
I hope you're happy, healthy, and wealthy! Since today is a celebration for some, I wanted to start the morning with some good news:
It looks like this project funded! The Blood Ties audiobook is going to happen! I'm so grateful for this turn of events.
So, next up is our stretch goals! Let's see if we can reach one or two before this campaign closes out. First up, is three additional art prints for everyone. If you love character art, this is a perfect way to broaden your choices on which ones you get.
Last, don't forget that new polls posted today! There's two days left for Dmitri's polls, and the rest close out on 3 December!
TLDR: Thank you for pledging to my campaign. We're almost at the halfway mark, and I'm hoping we can fund when the campaign ends in seven days. ICYMI: Tiers 1, 2, and 4 are perfect for those who want to support, but want ebooks or physical books. New polls dropped this week. I'm going to post a video explaining how audibooks are made either later today or later this week. I hope you're feeling happy, healthy, and wealthy and are in good spirits. The Thanksgiving holiday will be upon us tomorrow and, regardless of how you spend the day, I hope you're able to make some time for you. In addition, I wanted to go ahead and thank those of you who have already pledged, and those who plan to pledge to this campaign. It's people like you who make indie author dreams come true.
As for me, I had a few questions I wanted to ask you:
Did you know that this campaign ends in about seven days?
Did you know that we're $52 from the halfway funded mark? And $552 from completely funding?
Did you know that just because this is an audiobook campaign doesn't mean you have to purchase the audiobook?
This last one is important because I realize many of you see audiobook campaign and don't realize that ebooks and physical rewards are available too. Tiers 1 (The Dreamer), 2 (The Investigator), and 4 (The Ruler) are set up for you to get ebooks and/or build your own tiers using add-ons, which include all of my books up to date.
Something else I realized after posting a rant on Threads is that some individuals might not understand how audiobooks get made and why I'd need a campaign to make one. So, sometime this week (maybe even tonight as I drive to meet my family for Thanksgiving), I'll be posting a video on Instagram to explain this a bit better. So watch out for that video if you want to understand the inner workings of audiobook production from an indie author standpoint.
[I'll add video here once it's posted!]
Last, did you know that new polls were posted this week? It's not too late for you to be part of the winnning team! Just answer the polls on the Trivia Challenge page correctly and you could win a prize! You might want to hurry though, there's only three days left for the current set of questions, and new polls will be posted later tonight or tomorrow!
What else would you like to know about this campaign? What kinds of things get you excited about supporting indie authors? Tell me in the comments!
