Hardbacks, Paperbacks, eBooks Out Now! (The Machine)
The final wave of The Machine Hardbacks has just gone out, which means all our Kickstarter backers will soon be delivered their copies of Jack’s Fiction debut…
The final wave of The Machine Hardbacks has just gone out, which means all our Kickstarter backers will soon be delivered their copies of Jack’s Fiction debut - 10 years in the making! To celebrate, Build a Rocket Books have launched pre-release eBook, Paperback and Hardback copies on the Lulu bookstore. Follow the links below to order your copies today.
Please email us directly if you would like signed Hardback copies or Alternate Artwork Hardbacks and we can arrange this too for a fee of £30 per book. Thanks again for making this adventure a reality and don’t forget to leave us a review and share your thought.
The Machine is an ambitious new dystopian adventure and Jack’s Fiction debut. First draft was finished in April, 2021. The book was fully funded on Kickstarter in less than three days.
New Alternate Cover Art! (The Machine)
Great news! Our final Kickstarter rewards have now been finished by my brother, Robbie - anyone whose pledge included Digital 'The Seven' Portrait artwork will be able to pick from one of 6 A4 original works once our campaign ends. I've included 3 examples of these below for you to check out. Each one depicts characters from the book and has been carefully rendered using a selection of descriptive excerpts.
Above you'll also see another exciting last-minute addition to our rewards list: Alternate Hardback Cover Art in graffiti-style, using Robbie's adapted works. There are 15 of these exciting new rewards available now with just a few weeks to go until our campaign ends!
Siegfried
The Sentinels
V.4 Salvador
I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign so far! Surveys to follow in the next 2 weeks to arrange your deliveries… :)
Support the Campaign
The Machine Hits 100% On Kickstarter
We did it! 100% funded in less than 3 days!
I’ve been totally blown away by the support for #TheMachine - I really can't wait to share this adventure with you in a few months! I want to say a massive thank you to all our awesome backers so far. We're absolutely still accepting pledges until the full 60 days is up. For now, let’s just say - today is a good day and this wild dystopian dream is now a reality thanks to you!
I've just had proofs delivered for the Paperback and will now be finalising the Hardback and eBook next week. Once the Kickstarter 60 days is up, I will get in touch with all my backers (I'll also still be sharing updates as we go) to arrange having all their rewards shipped out to them in a timely fashion.
Watch this space for plenty more exciting updates and exclusive material.
Let's See If This Machine Can Fly
“The shuttle slowed and banked towards the Argus Station. René leaned back and turned to his porthole. He peered outside as a wave of sunlight broke against the glass. For the first time he saw the station at a close distance, framed by the deep, cold void…”
Welcome!
This creepy character up top is the reason I’ve started blogging again. Meet Argus - a hyper-intelligent android, built to run a satellite swarm hooked up to a global network of unmanned weaponry. Argus floats strapped to the low-orbit Argus Station. He dangles over Earth, like a mechanical Christ, forced to spend his powerspan as the architect of global security and the enforced surveyor of a warful species, rooted to a dying planet…
The Machine is my second book, currently doing the rounds among publishers and agents (mostly London-based). Right now, there’s that usual pressure of marketing and sharing your idea with the world. It’s never an easy ride! You feel like you’re tucked into a rocket of your own design, blasting up towards the glorious ether, awaiting either the breach of stormy clouds, or the equally likely explosion of scattered wingnuts, debris and dreams.
There’s always hope though. And this particular book has seen a few incarnations and taken ten years to finally get it to this point. I’m proud of what I’ve got here. One thing I can say for sure is it is totally different to my first book (a travelogue called Swim Wild - released on paperback back in April, 2020).
The question is: how will it fare out there? Well, I’m prepared for the common avalanche of rejections and the grit required to thrust your hand up through the chalky rubble, again - to paw your way out for another attempt at the ascent. This book will be printed in some form or other (within a couple of years)! So, watch this space. Please do get in touch if you have any questions about this project, or anything to share yourself - I might be able to help with some promotion/a second opinion.
You can sign up to my mailing list for news, blogs, book updates and exclusive videos. Remember, you can also follow the mechanical journey of #TheMachine as it unfolds on Twitter too!
Thanks for reading :)
More news soon…
Jack