Kickstarter. All the cool kids are doing it. Now, I’m doing it too.
I’ve backed other people’s projects before, but this is the first time I’m trying it myself. Being an old fart like I am, I’m amazed at the profound changes to what it means to be working writer . A lot of other writers my age are crying apocalypse, and they’re not entirely wrong. But I figure you can board up your windows and sit in your basement bitching about the changes or you can rivet some steel plates, saw-blades and rocket launchers onto your mini-van and drive off in search of adventure.
You want to ride shotgun?
So yeah, Kickstarter. It’s really different than anything I’ve done before, but I’ve been blown away by the positive response so far. We’ve already hit nearly 60% of our goal in the first few days. Because of Kickstarter, I’m able (I hope!) to fund a project that doesn’t hold much in the way of mainstream appeal and offer it directly to people who want to read it. Also, it’ s allowing me to produce a special “Ace Double” style back to back paper edition that few traditional publishers would be willing to do. Because corporate bean-counters don’t see the value in something so esoteric, expensive and impractical. But I do, and clearly you do too.
So keep reposting, sharing and retweeting. Keep the pledges coming. Force me to come up with stretch goals to add after we hit the initial goal. I have no idea where this armor plated minivan is headed, but it’s gonna be a helluva ride.