The Story of Implants

Implants follows a diverse group of college students who travel to Sweden and shortly after begin facing inexplicable experiences that set them on a mission to make it back home. The four students accepted into The School of International Relations face unique challenges the week before their Fall semester, a semester that never begins.

In this futuristic society, everyone relies on hand microchips for basic activities such as opening doors and making purchases. At one point, the students suspect that their strange experiences are related to these microchips. However, their struggles began before they got implanted. After witnessing the loss of one of their fellow students, the remaining classmates are determined to escape from the experimental program they have become a part of, only to face increasingly precarious barriers as they discover their fate.

My name is Amari Rae Pulido (they/them/theirs), and I am the author of Implants. I wrote this book because I love reading, and it has been my dream to write a story that people enjoy since the age of six. I hope that this book will encourage readers to think critically about the consequences of technological advancements. Implants takes readers on a multi-perspective journey that questions the figures we trust and how we perceive our realities through an intersectional lens.

The main characters are four study abroad students who travel to attend The School of International Relations in Sweden. Within the first week leading up to the start of classes, they learn more about each other and their program directors through conversations and excursions in the country. During one of these excursions, a student tells his classmates something strange has happened to him that they don’t believe. That is, until strange things begin happening to them, too.

After losing a classmate, the students question who they can trust while struggling to control themselves against external and seemingly internal factors. They seek help to leave the experiment they have unwillingly joined, but not all of the students or their program directors turn out to be helpful.

You will love this book if you enjoy science fiction, dystopian stories, psychological thrillers, mysteries, Ray Bradbury, or series like Black Mirror and Stranger Things. Implants speaks to adults and students everywhere who want to grapple with futuristic technology and intersectional journeys in a new way.

What We Need & What You Get

This book will be published with New Degree Press. I set up the pre-order tiers to help cover the costs of publishing my book. Money raised will go towards the following:

• The Editor I will work with to revise and publish my manuscript in December 2021.
• The Cover Design of my book. (The mockups you see currently are a placeholder!)
• The Layout Design for the interior of my book (physical copy, ebook formats).
• The Copyediting for my book to polish the grammar and spelling before publication.
• The Launch & Promotion Efforts for my book when I ultimately publish this Winter.

• You will receive a personally signed copy of my book when I publish, and a handwritten thank-you note.
• Your name will appear in the Acknowledgments section of my book (“with Special Thanks to”).
• You will receive early access to the Introduction and some excerpts from my book, with the opportunity to review it and give me early feedback.
• You will have the opportunity to be involved in selecting my cover and title.
• You will be invited to join my Author Community and get behind-the-scenes sneak peeks into the publishing process.

About the Author

Amari Rae Pulido (they/them/theirs) is a Sakura Scholar at American University studying Global International Relations. They care deeply about creative expression, human rights, animal welfare, and international development. Amari wrote Implants after reading artificial intelligence articles on the current development of microchips in animals, including humans. This information ignited several imaginative scenarios that they found simultaneously admirable and frightening.

Implants is a warning of the dystopia we may be nearing, intertwined with underlying sociopolitical issues to resolve. They have been writing songs, poems, short stories, and mini screenplays since primary school. Besides writing, they are also passionate about fashion, travel, and intercultural communication.

For more information, you can connect with Amari

via email at amariraepulido@gmail.com

on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amariraepulido/

and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/amariraepulido/

Risks & Challenges

The biggest challenge with publishing a book is delivering the finished book to the backer, specifically my mailing of the book to you. I have eliminated this risk by building into the campaign the mailing and shipping costs of your signed copies to you within each pre-order tier.

The risk of delivering the pre-sale copies of my book is contingent on the publisher we use. I will be working closely with New Degree Press to make sure we get the earliest possible ship date of the signed book copy to you. We will keep all pre-sale backers up-to-date as my book hits each key milestone and publishes. You will know when the copies are expected to ship.

International Preorders

For international preorders, please do the following:

• Identify the perk that interests you, e.g. 1 or 2 paperbacks

• Select the pink "Back it" button to "Make a contribution" for the same amount (this choice bypasses the shipping address page)
• Use this form https://rb.gy/xl7mfj to share your mailing address, so I can calculate the international shipping costs and invoice you for that amount via PayPal/Venmo.

Other Ways You Can Help

Not everyone can support, but that doesn't mean you can't get something out of it!
I will reward the top 3 people who refer the most backers at the end of the campaign (30 days).

Here's how:

• At the top of the campaign page, you will see the "share" buttons. Click on the "chain" icon to get a custom link just for you. (Note: don't use the URL in the browser window as it won't work to track referrals and you won't get credit)
• Copy that link and paste it on your social media, email it to a friend, or text a fellow book lover.
• When someone clicks on that link and backs the book, you get 1 entry!