Raider’s Companion Friday Update

It has been a pretty great week all around in both guild and blog life. Iniquity defeated Lord Greenscale, Chris and I finished the latest episode of the Multiverse, and The Raider’s Companion Kickstarter project has gone off without a hitch. There are a lot of things to be happy about! I’m also profoundly glad that it is Friday. I need a big reduction in stress for a couple of days. It isn’t likely to happen, but I need it! At any rate I didn’t have anything overly clever to write today so I thought I would just do a project update.

Editors Marching

The big part of doing a self-published book is ensuring that you don’t have spelling, grammar, and sentence flow errors. It is extremely expensive to pay someone to do this kind of work! To offset this cost the idea is to have the manuscript proofread as many times as possible by slave labor (friends, loved ones, etc). The less simple errors your editor has to correct the more time they can spend looking at flow and organization. Currently we’re still in friends-and-family proofreading. Thus far that has gone well and the reviews are pretty great. Yes, I know they’re my friends and family but they’re also a bunch of honest people! I’m not sure we’ll be ready for Christmas but we should hit at least shortly after.

Revision Two

Part of my writing style involves doing a draft, setting it down for a week or two, and then reading it a second time. When I do that I normally expand, clarify, and correct. This usually grows the piece of writing I’m working on. With work covering me up and Iniquity being in a really successful swing I haven’t done this start to finish yet. I’ve spot checked but I just don’t feel like I’m where I should be! The manuscript is great as it is. I just feel it could be greater!

Art!

Amanda has been working overtime to finish the cover up so we can get it out on Kickstarter and show the world exactly what they’re getting for their money. Today she sent me an extremely polished draft that is probably 95% complete. I’m going to share that with you guys! This is the print that you’ll receive for your support and what the cover will eventually be created from.

I’m just so blown away at how epic the cover is going to be! Amanda did a great job on The Guild Leader’s Companion but this goes above and beyond. She’ll also be doing some highly detailed ink work for the inside! It should really add some great visual appeal.

Kickstarter

One of the things I feel like I did a poor job on is explaining how Kickstarter works. I realize the majority of the crowd that is going to support this project probably aren’t familiar with it. If the Massively.com comments were any indication most people have a very skewed image of how this works! Kickstarter is an “all or nothing” type of program. I set a goal and a timeline ($4000, 32 days). If I do not reach or exceed my goal by the end of the time line my project fails and I receive zero money. That is why it can be a really stressful thing as there is a psychology to it. People tend not to donate early on because they assume the project will fail. Once you cross 50% support goes up. When you hit 75% people assume you’ll succeed and start to push even harder. This can often mean projects go well beyond their goal.

A key element to understand is that until the project succeeds and passes the deadline a supporter will not be charged anything. Why do I bring that up? It is because as a guild leader I know people. I would say a good portion of us (me included) will say, “Oh yeah I’d like to do that. I’ll do it later though.” This is the reason why I have 1000+ collectors tokens from each Rift world event. I think “I’ll buy that later. I don’t want to spend now and find out it changed or something new was added.” The events end, the items move to a different merchant, and I never get around to it. I watch my guild members do similar things! What I’m getting at is this:  if you said “Oh yeah, I’ll do that,” please do it now! Whether you support on day one or day 30 you still won’t be charged until day 32. The difference is, if you support earlier it gives me a greater chance of success!

The final element of this is that you’re not really donating so much as supporting. A supporter is not like a stock holder. You don’t get a stake in the success of the book. What you get instead is unique and special items from the project. You get a signed copy of the book, bits of art, the chance to be immortal (in the pages of the book), and other things of that nature! I know I shouldn’t let forum-like posts get to me but I just didn’t feel great about being accused of taking money and giving nothing back. I just wanted to be sure everyone was aware of how this all works!

Have you seen our Kickstart Project? Ferrel is currently raising funds for his second book, The Raider’s Companion! Check it out and please consider supporting, sharing, or both!