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| Two giraffes use peer pressure to try and convince The Boy to spend his lunch money on Warhammer 40K minis. |
For those who don't know, the project is an attempt to produce an 'Appendix N worthy' shared world anthology, set in a vast urban fantasy sprawl. More information about it can be found in this post. The deadline for submitting stories in December 31st, 2011. This is a non-profit project, with all proceeds going to a children's charity - most likely Bryan's House. If you are interested in contributing, shoot me an email and I'll send you the guidelines.
I've been poking around, getting a feel for the cost of art for the book cover, and it makes my wallet want to run and hide. Honestly, I'm not a great spender. But I'd like to have a nice, spiff-o-riffic cover that entices people to buy the book and raise money for kids in need. This has brought me to two different lines of thought. 1) Why not just ask people to donate art? or 2) Start up a Kickstarter project and raise any money I need that way.
So . . .
1) Probably wouldn't work. I'm looking for something pretty specific in the cover art - something that would not be amiss on bookshelves in the sci-fi\fantasy section of B. Daltons or Waldenbooks back in 1981. I'm not sure an artist donating their time and effort would put up with my picky-ness on the matter. (But if somewhere out there is a masochist artist willing to put up with me, feel free to reply below or send me an email.)
2) Kickstarter - hmm. Seems like a magical well where people go and scoop up money for free. I'm sure there is some catch, but I haven't looked very far into the process. I'm pretty sure that even a vague amount of interest could generate enough cash to pay for cover art - but do I have to sell my soul? Heck, it could potentially get enough cash to publish in some manner other than Lulu. If anyone has experience in using Kickstarter - let me know your experiences, good or bad.
The more I think about this project, the better I want it to do - I want excellent stories that people will love to read, an excellent framework that will showcase the author's work in the best possible light, a kicking cover that evokes exactly the right mood, and a final product that can go beyond the confines of the OSR and really make some money for the kiddos.
So, anyway, I'm scratching my head at logistics here. Thanks in advance for any advice.
- Ark















