As we head towards the end of the campaign (don't forget: Printopia campaigns are a week shorter than the usual month's), I want to remind folks about a few things.
When we hit $2,000, everybody gets an extra story for the sampler.
The stretch goals after that spread the wealth around for a bit, before we go back to funding more stories for the sampler.
The first two books of the Tom Vargas series (Frozen Dreams and Tinsel Rain) are now available as digital add-ons.
There is a bookplate tier for foreign backers.
And everybody who has backed so far is awesome.
That's it! Be sure to check out add-ons to, well, add onto your pledge.
$5,000: the illustrated poetry collection! [NEW!] This is the new one, the swing for the fences one. Basically, the early reservation bonus is a collection of poetry set in the Fermi Resolution universe. If we hit this number, I spend money on getting art for it - and having that art properly laid out for publication. If we hit this stretch goal, anybody who backs at Ripper or above will get a digital copy of the illustrated collection (PDF and EPUB).
If we do hit this in the next week, I guess I'll come up with something else.
Please also remember that there is a bookplate add-on, for those of you who are from far foreign. Cheaper for everybody if I sign the bookplate, you buy the book locally, and then sneer at international postal rates.
The bookplate add-on should be of interest to my foreign readers: thanks to various events completely beyond my control, shipping books outside the USA is more or less off the table for me. However, I can still mail things. Like a bookplate!
Non-foreign backers can get it, too!
So go ahead and get the bookplate, then get the book off of Amazon when it's available so that I don't have to charge you more than the book itself for international shipping. And various fees. And paperwork.
Moving on, let me tell you my convention schedule, because at least one is going on during the Backerkit:
Risucon(September 26), Montgomery County Fairgrounds, MD. I will be advertising a last-hurrah of the Backerkit there, since Printopia isn't ending until October 1st.
Clarksville Commons Book Festival (October 4) Clarksville Commons, MD. New venue. I have no idea how it is going to go, but I live fifteen minutes from there so I'm sure I can adapt.
Fright Reads (October 24-25), Howard County Fairgrounds, MD. I am doing a Author 101 panel there! I'll be talking about, surprise surprise, crowdfunding.
Doxacon(November 6-7), Catholic University. This con is run by a local Orthodox Church, and I would honestly go for the panels even if I wasn't selling books there. Particularly Ken Hite's lectures: his topic this year is Algernon Blackwood, and I really need to get caught up on that author.
Nine days to go! Halfway to the second stretch goal (or seventy-five percent to it, depending on how we're scoring things)! Tell all your friends!
This morning I'm turning over the floor to Belanger Books, our cross-promotional partners for this year's Printopia. He's here to talk about his own project, Sherlock Holmes: Mistletoe Mysteries. As the saying goes: take it away, Derrick!
Hello everyone,
A huge thank you to Moe Lane for being my partner for this year’s Printopia. My name is Derrick Belanger and my project is Sherlock Holmes: Mistletoe Mysteries. My publishing company, Belanger Books, focuses on new Sherlock Holmes fiction. We publish everything from traditional Sherlock Holmes adventures to original crossovers in the realms of Steampunk, Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Sherlock Holmes: Mistletoe Mysteries came about from a collaboration with The Strand magazine. I was tasked with creating an annual story collection that is structured like an advent calendar. Thus, my first Backerkit collection, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes for Christmas was born! Aftet the success of the first collection came Sherlock Holmes: Holiday Whoddunits and now Sherlock Holmes: Mistletoe Mysteries. The stories in each book are divided into two sections. The first day provides the case to the reader. The second day provides the ending. You get to think like Sherlock Holmes and see if you can solve the case before reading the thrilling conclusion.
What makes Sherlock Holmes: Mistletoe Mysteries slightly different from the other two is that for each story in this anthology, Sherlock Holmes teams up with another great detective from the Victorian and Edwardian time period. There are so many other detectives such as Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, The Old Man in the Corner, Martin Hewitt, Lois Cayley, and Max Carrados that are largely forgotten. My goal with this anthology is to introduce these detectives to a new audience and hopefully, readers will seek out their original stories.
Lastly, I’m looking forward to reading my Printopia partner’s book Banshee Beach. The mystery genre stays fresh when authors approach it in new and exciting ways. Moe Vargas has done that by creating the fun and unique world of New California where Tom Vargas solves crimes while cracking jokes and making pop culture references. Fans of traditional detectives, noir, and cross-genre stories will love it!
Thank you again for allowing me to tell you a bit about Sherlock Holmes: Mistletoe Mysteries. I hope you’ll support it along with Banshee Beach, and the other exciting projects that are part of Printopia.
Basically, this is just feedback. The crowdfunding environment's not been great this year, and any data about what is and isn't working would be helpful. No judgement about the reasons, why. Even if it is, "I just don't wanna."
(Also, I put the first draft of a filk poem that's going into the reservationist reward in the exclusive content for backers section. You may or may not recognize the tune.)
