We hit our funding goal last night after 1 week! Yaaay! (Kermit arm flail)
But we've still got several weeks to go in this campaign, and some great stretch goals to hit!
At $6,500 We will pay for a new cover for the Quirk&Moth collection of three books and 3 short stories and all backers get an eBook copy. Over 1000 pages!
At $7,500 We will pay for a new cover for the Space Wizard novella collection of five novellas and all backers get an eBook copy! Over 650 pages!
Let's get some amazing covers for these two books!
And speaking of covers, I just got the final for Lucianus yesterday from Spoon, and it looks better than ever. Feast your eyes on this!
I'm very much looking forward to getting this book, and the other seven in this campaign, out to you very soon!
We're also so close to hitting our first achievement for the collaboration. Only $790 away! Make sure to back 5 or more of our amazing indie projects to get your own sticker sheet!
Tell your friends, family, and random passersby about the campaign, and let's get all these projects funded!
PROMETHEUS has reached its first big goal: The base funding goal!
Within a little over a week, you showed up and supported our very first publication, raising 1,300€ already! Thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts! Preston is a very happy snake currently (if you're not familiar with Preston yet, they're the Snakeskin Press mascot!)
There's more than 3 weeks left in the campaign, so if you haven't backed yet, now's the time! We have several stretch goals we'd love to crack:
1,800€: Paying our authors double the amount
2,300€: An even more special edition of the hardcover
3,300€: German translation of eBook and paperback
While the BackerKit campaign is running, we're preparing the final files in the background - there's only formatting and a final proofread left!
A big Happy Pride Month to all of my fellow queers!
We had a tremendous start of the campaign in those last few days of May, crossing the 50% mark over the weekend. Which means we have a whole month--the best, queerest of months--to raise the rest of it! And we're making good headway on it!
As of right now, we are sitting just shy of $7000! I thought I would leave you with this meme that so deeply encompass what this anthology is.
Thank you for helping us come up with all kinds of platonic explanations :D
I was at ConCarolinas all weekend, which is one of my favorite conventions of the year. It's a 3-day literary event in Charlotte, NC, and I love getting to talk to readers, old and new friends, and fellow writers. I usually come home with some goodies and maybe even new projects! (I might have picked up three new Space Wizard side projects this year...but that's still under wraps. Details later!)
This time we got some cool swag, Thanks to Dino, the "Book Santa" and some unnamed passersby in the night:
Two pieces of labradorite, one round and one in the shape of a heart, a coprolite (fossilized turtle poop), and cute cat figures someone dropped off at our booth overnight!
But while I was there, we blazed through another $1000 in funding! We're less than $800 from funding right now! And hey, if someone wanted a copy of All Space Wizard eBooks, for example, or a Copy or Developmental Edit , That would take us most of the way there!
We've also got cheevos! There are now two achievements for The Summer Bonanza as a whole. Help us hit them!
The first is to reach $23,000. This is the amount it takes to fully fund all 11 projects. We're most of the way there already, at almost $19,500! When we reach this achievement, anyone who backed 5 projects or more will not only get a sticker sheet with all the book covers, we'll also add more fun stickers to it, like top hats, monocles, and whatever else we dream up.
The second achievement is to double everything at $45,000! When we hit this one, the creators are going to do an "exquisite corpse" story for you. That means one of us will write the first part, pass it to the next creator, they write something and pass it on, and so on. We have no idea what the final will be, but it will be fun, and chaos incarnate!
If we hit both of these...there will be more! Let your friends, family, and enemies know about the campaigns!
But there are more queer projects that need your support this month, including the awesome Space Wizard Fantasy. I have nearly all books published by them because they're awesome.
With the state of the world currently, queer folks and other marginalised creators need their voices heard more than ever, and Space Wizard Science Fantasy is one avenue for them. They're so close to funding already, so just need a little push!
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/space-wizard-science-fantasy/space-wizard-science-fantasy-year-5-part-1
We also have Prometheus, a Queer Futuristic Horror Anthology featuring stories with a diversity of representation from 16 authors who all come under the LGNTQIA+ umbrella.
Common Bonds 3 is an anthology of aromantic stories. Aro people and stories often get lost in the void, and this anthology is an attempt to bring those voices to the fore.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/claudie-arseneault/common-bonds-3-an-anthology-of-aromantic-sff
Black Hole Guns for Hire is bringing out a special edition of a a queer military sci fi novel, with an audiobook voiced by various queer artists, and a hard cover with sprayed edges and a paperback.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/is-friday-productions/black-hole-guns-for-hire
Aloe is Book 2 in the Tales From The Night Garden series, an LGBTQIA+ contemporary dark fantasy following two ace-spectrum, nonbinary leads.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/artemis-quinn-and-auden-eris-everen/aloe-tales-from-the-night-garden-vol-2
As a queer person of colour, representation has been hard to come by while I was growing up, so much so that, I came to terms with my sexuality and gender in my forties. I remember bursting into tears after a friend told me about certain gender identities which I realised was what I was.
I come from a country where being queer was a crime till very recently. Even though that is no longer the case, there is still a stigma against queer people by a large part of the population. I remember even my mom was unhappy with The Elite and the Rogues because it is queer, even though she loved the story.
Representation is life. To every queer child, adult, and young adult, we need these stories in the mainstream. This pride month, remember all we have gained and the attempt to destroy our hard won rights. Supporting queer and marginalised creators and stories is also a way of protesting against an establishment that wants to sweep us under the rug.
We are officially over $1000, which means we are 4/5ths funded and less than $200 away from goal! Let's also congratulate the other Book Bazaar participants that have reached funded!
We're close enough, and with enough time left to the campaign, that I've started to compile the information for the first stretch goal!
Six different salts, four rocks, a cinnamon stick, and an empty jar.
As a fun little project, my husband compiled a jar for himself and took pictures as he went.
A compiled spell jar with a cinnamon stick.
His is different than the ones I'll be making if we hit this stretch goal, but I wanted to share!
Also, it's time for another poll! If you want to have a bit of fun, let me know -- what do you prefer in supernatural stories?
And, thank you for being awesome! Thank you for backing the book and finding my characters interesting enough to read! Please, if you haven't yet, share the campaign around and let's get this thing into your hands. ♥
Thank you again! With love and brightness, Artemis Quinn
The first day of any crowdfunding is always a blur of warmth and hype.
In the 24 hours since launching Common Bonds 3, we've gathered a third of the funds across over 100 people. It remains kind of stunning to cross that first 100, to think of how many very real people that is, and how the number keeps growing!
But we have a long way to go still to bring this beautiful anthology into reality. We'll be taking most of the campaign to introduce the incredibly cool add ons we have as well as the full set of stories and poems included within. If you see us out and about posting throughout the month, please consider boosting! Word of mouth is our one true weapon, and these anthologies would not be possible without community support.
Thank you all, for everything you've done so far, and everything I know you will be doing in the coming month. Long way or not, I know we can do this.
Happy Pride month, everyone! Just wanted to pop in with a few updates.
The first -- We are officially over 2/3rds of the way to funded! Please keep sharing the campaign, keep recommending, keep spreading the word! Also be sure to check out the other projects that are part of The Book Bazaar! Half of the projects have hit funded; that is amazing! ♥
Second -- my pins are officially here! Here's some pictures -- my phone camera doesn't do them justice, but they're exactly what I hoped for!
My camera doesn't capture the black glass one as well, but I love how both of these came out. I hope you're excited for them, too!
Third -- It's been a few days since I asked about everyone's favorite vampire tropes, and the poll closed today! I figured it was time for another something fun! Check out the poll below, I'm curious -- What rep are you yearning for in your reading?
By the way, it looks like y'all love the Blade vampires and the Vampire Chronicles vampires equally. Extremely monstrous, or extremely flawed and human-ish despite being monsters. I love that split.
Wow! We're on our way to one of the best starts for a Space Wizard campaign! The Space Wizard campaign is already over 65% funded, The Book Bazaar Summer Bonanza has 4 out of 11 projects already funded, and the collection has passed $14,000 already! You all are amazing!
So since we're looking pretty good on funding so far, I wanted to tease a little with our first two stretch goals to watch out for. Both are new Omnibuses (always popular in our campaigns), and these stretch goals will help us pay for some amazing cover art!
At $6,500 We will pay for a new cover for the Quirk&Moth collection of three books and 3 short stories and all backers get an eBook copy. Over 1000 pages!
At $7,500 We will pay for a new cover for the Space Wizard novella collection of five novellas and all backers get an eBook copy! Over 650 pages!
The Quirk & Moth omnibus will be created by MoorBooks, the same ones who did the great covers for the series, and the Space Wizard novellas will have a cover from the incredible Spoon of Spoonwood studios. If you need any proof of their ability, look no farther than the Lucianus cover!
Spoon and I have some fun ideas for the Novella Omnibus cover already, and I'll looking forward to sharing them with you!
If you're in Charlotte for ConCarolinas this weekend, come say hi! Heather and I will be on 8 panels total, and if we're not in one of them, we'll be behind the table in Author's Alley!
Friday: - Yes, Your Fantasy Needs Science, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Saturday: - What Makes a Good Alien in a Science Fiction Story? 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Let's Get Down to Business...to Defeat the High Cholesterol, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM - Publisher Spotlight, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM - Geeky Travel Guide (Heather Tracy), 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Sunday: - Queer Representation in Fantasy, 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM - Steeped in Fandom, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - From Idea to Finished Thing, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
That's all for now, I'll be back (probably soon) when we hit the next goal!
