Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

I hope this is an okay place to post this. Jonathan said to find a space somewhere in the group and this seemed like a good place to "recommend" something. I've got one of my own items (technically self-promotion I guess) and one of someone else's.

First, for those who don't know what a Kickstarter is it's a web site where people try to "crowdfund" a project. Any project, but mostly it's a way for people to literally become a patron of the arts. Most of the projects are not just creative but are visually artistic as well. The idea behind "crowdfunding" is simple (I'll pick round numbers for purposes of discussion).

Although it might be hard for one person to donate $1000 to a project, it's not all that hard for 10 to donate $100 each and it's even easier for 100 to donate $10 each. The larger the "crowd," the less of the funding burden each has to take on for the goal amount to be fulfilled.

So that brings us to a couple of Kickstarters I want to share with you. Some of you may or may not have heard that Michael Sullivan has a new book coming soon. Hollow World was rejected by his traditional publisher, so he decided to return to his Indie roots and try to crowdfund it via Kickstarter.

He only asked for a bare minimum amount of $3000 (enough to pay an editor basically, planning to do the rest of the work himself) so his project funded in the first 17 hours. The project was set up to run a month, though, and still has 7 days left to go. I made a wild guess he'd finish at $20,000 and in fact, his crowd has funded him up to $19,740 as of this moment. You can help him break through the $20k mark (if you have an Amazon account as that's how Kickstarter takes payments) by clicking this image (which will become a poster he's made a reward for backers:



Each time his Kickstarter breaks through an amount above and beyond his $3000 initial goal, he has offered "stretch goals" or special rewards he'll give to all backers--whether they paid $10 or $100 or some other amount. Stretch goals are great because the entire crowd gets something, even those who couldn't afford to pledge a lot. Michael's offering the high-res poster shown above and special signed bookmarks with cover art like he has on the placeholder page for the book here on Goodreads (click the Hollow World title to see the alternative cover art)

Okay second Kickstarter is my own. I'm trying to crowdfund the new novel in the Phoenician Series - the much-requested "Book 1." I have a title for it now (Man Made Man) and have now created a placeholder page here on Goodreads for it.

You can help me fund the $5500 goal I set to pay for editing, proofreading and formatting (so I can focus on writing and cartooning the artwork myself) by pledging support. Click the image below to get to my Kickstarter for http://kck.st/RaifStory:



Again you can only pledge support to a Kickstarter project if you have an Amazon account, as Jonathan was disappointed to discover today. I think it sucks that they don't take non-US credit card payments directly but they don't. They're a new(ish) company themselves and I guess they just haven't had the money or wherewithall to figure out how to take money from around the world yet. It's actually more complicated than it sounds from the web site's standpoint.

My Kickstarter ends on April 24 (1 min after midnight Apr 25) and I'll only be able to finish Raif's book and release it this year if I can get funding in the next 27 days. If I don't get this project funded, I just won't have the money to hire others to do the editing, proofreading and formatting work for me. Doing it myself will delay the new book's release at least another year or two. Yes, Nov 2013 with funding; Mar 2015 or later is likely without funding. So sad that it all comes down to money but "throwing money at a problem" is still a solution sometimes. This is one of those times.

To anyone who enjoyed my prior 2 releases (When Minds Collide and Conditioned Response) I hope you'll support Man Made Man . I'd love to see this book come out this year! I've already written quite a bit of it (about 75%) and it's turning out great! I've written a pre-release review (or "preview") talking about some of what happens in the book. Click here to read the "preview."

Thanks for listening.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Great work Marjorie. This is perfectly fine to put it in. And it's also great to see you supporting other sci-fi authors. I find it sad to hear that publishers won't take in traditional sci-fi because if it's good I'd still read it.

Once people pledge, how do you get the money from kickstarter?

how do you keep track of who donates and how much?

how do you give your donors something special to thank them (I know they do not get a return on investment)?

what are the financial and tax liabilities of this?

Wow, Mark, so many administrative questions! It sounds more like you want to do one yourself than understand it from a backer standpoint so I'll give you some short answers and advise you to read the "Kickstarter 101" or "Kickstarter School" as they call it where the Kickstarter people have explained at length the answers to all of your questions.

What is Kickstarter?

1) Kickstarter uses the Amazon Payments system which is a separate subsidiary company set up exclusively to process credit card payments. It does integrate with an existing Amazon account but can be set up separately from it if the person does not already have an Amazon customer account. It takes a MINIMUM of 14 days and up to SIX (6) WEEKS after the close date of the kickstarter to receive any payments at all - and no payments are made unless the entire goal (100%) is reached. It's all or nothing, as I said in the original post which you must have skimmed.

2) There is a count of backers and a running total published right on the Kickstarter project page (if you click through to mine you'd see it right there at the top of the screen in big letters so you cannot miss it)

3) you'll have to answer your own tax questions for yourself and your country as well as your personal tax situation. Your situation and mine are definitely not the same because we are not the same people and have totally different tax obligations.

If you look at a Kickstarter page (you know, like MINE?) you'll see the rewards offered to each of the various pledge tiers--and it's a pledge not a donation. There is no money changing hands unless 100% of the goal amount is achieved by the crowd.

Please check the Kickstarter FAQ and Kickstarter School for extensive explanations of how Kickstarter works and how you can set up your own Kickstarter project. It is incredibly simple, straightforward and easy to do. But it is tedious. YOu might not want to spend the 2 weeks worth of time setting it up. The average is 2 weeks. Some people can take months to get their project properly set up.

thank you marjorie. i have read a bit about it but was unsure how it worked. i will check out their site, but it is good to know someone who has actually used it and for the same thing i would be using it for .. to fund a self-publishing project (I used my own funds for my novel, Princess Ryan's Star Marines, but do not have the wherewithal to pay for promotions). good luck and thank you.

Be sure to read through Michael Sullivan's Kickstarter, Mark. What Michael's doing is HUGE in terms of laying down groundwork for how to use Kickstarter to crowdfund the publication of a book. He's doing a better job of setting a model example than I am (he's been at it longer too)

And you're welcome. Hope the links help.