Launched. After a tremendous amount of time and effort.
Future updates include:
Showcasing all the artists and their work.
Cookies!
Readings from the book.
Yay!
I sleep now. Thank you, but I'll be answering questions tomorrow.
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Launched. After a tremendous amount of time and effort.
Future updates include:
Showcasing all the artists and their work.
Cookies!
Readings from the book.
Yay!
I sleep now. Thank you, but I'll be answering questions tomorrow.
Fixed the link for you.
Edited I see you went back and fixed the link in your post.
A question though, what else have you written?
Alright, one question.
"What else have you written?"
Nothing you've read. This will be my first published work. I've been writing on and off my entire life, but never had an idea I truly loved.
Until now.
I see these things in my sleep. They haunt me and I MUST make them real.
Hopefully with a little help from the lot of you.
Now, G'night
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Hmm if you have no body of work you are asking people to put a lot of faith in you. Not saying you are not a good writer but we have no way to know that and there is a lot of competition for our gaming dollars out there. I honestly would table the kickstart idea right now and instead do the following.
1) Make a small free product that show cases how well you can write and design. You can use stock art to keep you cost down, but think of it as a lose leader or advertisement. Or if you don't want to invest in a capital lose, then write something for Wayfinder or Kobold Quarterly and get published. Something to show people what to expect for their investment.
2) Follow step one up with 1-3 small pay projects, keep them cheap in the impulse buy range to help pay for things but again this is more to showcase your talent and get your name out there.
3) After step two you are now established showed people what to expect out of a product from you, then do your kick start project.
I just think you would have a LOT more success doing it that way. Just friendly advice. :)
Just took a look at the details for this Kickstarter, and am hoping that there is going to be some form of preview made available at some point, as Dark Mistress is correct in that where as you and your friends know your ability as a writer, the rest of the gaming community do not, and it is that market that you are asking to trust you enough to put up funds blindly. Perhaps a sample creature to determine your design capacity, some preview artwork, anything would help.
Not discounting your idea entirely, just looking for something solid before I commit funding to it.
I'll second D_M and KTFish7 - horror more so than other genres requires some serious capabilities from a writer and design-wise, the same holds true. IM intrigued by the idea, but it's questionable you'll see any money from me until you've proven yourself. Just as a piece of advice! :)
Welcome to the world of 3PP. It's a lot tougher than it looks...
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Unfortunately this next month is a bad time for me to commit any money to anything, or otherwise I might have taken a chance on your project. I like what I see, though if you had a sample page of one of your monsters, it would be better.
I must also admit that you admitting up front that the amount you are asking for is not enough to actually publish the book makes me a little skeptical. Its too easy for a publisher to over-commit from his personal finances and then the money is gone but the book does not get done. There have been other instances of pre-buyers getting burned in this sort of thing and, for myself, having seen other people get burned, I'm a little slow to offer up money if I'm not 90%+ sure the book will actually get made.
Still, I like the concept, and, like I said, if I did not have other obligations this month, I might have decided to take the risk.
Good luck with it!
Thanks for the well wishing and advise!
The $6000 is enough to pay artist and publish all books. I would be ponying up the remaining money out of pocket. I don't mind. I really just want to publish my book.
Of course I would love to make this a career, but I'm no fool. I have no background and with a full time job, hosting game nights with friends and just trying to stay sane I had to decide.
Do I go for broke to make my dream happen or do I play it safe?
Playing it safe means releasing small amounts of work and trying to establish myself. Going for it means I take this book I've been working on since April (and tweaking everyday since) all the way.
The beauty is, as a Kickstarter, I'm the only person taking a risk. The artist have been paid for the black and white versions of the work, so they lose nothing since they won't make the color versions until success of the KS and payment is made to them.
This is not a project a third party developer would take a risk on. I don't blame them. There's a reason something like this hasn't been done before. It's the kind of book I've always wanted to see and even if it fails I'll have BW versions of the monsters in my head.
Well worth the money, and sanity, I'm paying.
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Well if you want to do it, best of luck. Though I would suggest extending your kickstart 1 more month. The last two months and next month August has been BRUTAL on us Pathfinder subscribers. Come September you might find people with more expandable cash, something else to consider.
Either way I wish you the best and will be keeping a eye on your project.
Yeah, I got to go with D_M there, August is a horrible month for expendable cash, between Paizo pummeling us with new material, and GenCon quickly approaching...extending your time frame out another month would seriously help you in regards to getting folks on board who have money to spare.
Excellent advise. Under normal circumstances I would take it, but the release needs to be before Halloween or it just doesn't make sense.
Being thematic and all that.
Excellent advise. Under normal circumstances I would take it, but the release needs to be before Halloween or it just doesn't make sense.
Being thematic and all that.
Reading the description, it sounds like you've got a lot of great ideas there, but between Rappan Athuk, Bleeding Hollow and Companions of the Firmament, not to mention a ton of upcoming Paizo goodies for July and August, there's no way I've got the finance or inclination to take a plunge on an unknown quantity. It's also six times the funding level of Bleeding Hollow and Companions as well, which is a BIG ask when you're not willing to demo any of your material or writing chops up front.
I urge you to reconsider, and take all the excellent advice offered above. Put out a pdf of some of the monsters you say you've been working on since April, or a couple of the locations in Restingdale. Anything to demonstrate that you've got what it takes to justify $6000. And, I'm going to have to say it, the word is 'advice', not 'advise'. That's a different word. Normally, I wouldn't be crass enough to point that out, but you're asking the market to take your ability to write on faith, so you need to make sure spelling and grammar is of a professional standard.
Excellent advise. Under normal circumstances I would take it, but the release needs to be before Halloween or it just doesn't make sense.
Being thematic and all that.
Hi my name is Louis Porter Jr. and I am the owner of LPJ Design. I am not sure if we have meet before but I am hoping I could provide you some advice on have a successful kickstarter, since I have had two successful ones, two failed ones, did a seminar about kickstarting a project at PaizoCon and we are about to start our fifth called Obsidian Apocaylpse. It is a Post-Apocalyptic Survival Horror template setting for Pathfinder. With you asking for $6,000 and with nothing to show people what you are or have been capable of, this makes it very difficult to give for us to give you money. If the places where reversed, would you give money to your project?
We have been blogging about Obsidian Apocalypse for months, provided free art previews, and given away a bit of the setting info for free. We are basically competing in the same genre area to raise funds from the same "fanbase" for our kickstarter projects. As a 3PP of Pathfinder material, I want all other 3PP to do well since the more successfully 3PP, the more successful Pathfinder and Paizo will be. I hope you understand everyone that is saying something here is looking to help you make your project a success. But with no previous writing experience that people have seen, no samples of what you are doing so people can review it and no artwork for people to evaluate you have made it very difficult on yourself to be successful. Plus sticking to the date of Halloween means you have only 3 months to get the money AND make the project ready for release. Now I don't know your experience at publishing, but for a first time publisher this time might be a little tight.
I hope you take a second a possible rethink some of your decisions. As I stated before, we all want 3PP for Pathfinderfinder to do well and that includes you. Good Luck.
All LPJr said +1.
To give you an idea, here's my current list of currently supported kickstarter projects that have not yet been completed:
LPJr Design - Origins of Man
GiC - Companions of the Firmament
OD -Journey to the West
OD - Midgard Anthology
RiP - Martial Arts Guidebook
FGG - Rappan Athuk
TPK Games - Bleeding Hallow
Sneak Attack Press - Advanced Encounters
Gaming Paper - Fractured Phylactery
Pure Steam (this one also asked for a lot - over 10K, in fact, but they delivered original artworks, soundtrack etc. in their video...)
Fat Goblin Games - Steampunk Musha
Clockwork Gnome Publishing - Sailing the Starlit Seas
Zombie Sky Press - It came from the Stars
Alluria Publishing - Cerulean Seas/getting Alluria back up
Now, I'm going to support the Kaidan kickstarter as soon as it goes online and I'm thinking about Obsidian Apocalypse, since I liked the idea, but had massive issues with the predecessor.
All of the projects have in common that they have shown samples of their work and quality and most of them belong to companies with proven ztrack records of delivering content. We don't know about your capabilities as a writer, your artwork and your ability to deliver a book. Give us some incentive to trust you. Provide some free samples, like LPJr did. Generate some buzz. Show us your passion not only by words, but by deeds.
All the best.
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Plus sticking to the date of Halloween means you have only 3 months to get the money AND make the project ready for release. Now I don't know your experience at publishing, but for a first time publisher this time might be a little tight.
This is very true. Unless you have the book already fully written, edited, laid out and are just waiting on the art, I would be incredibly surprised to see it pulled off well. (And if you do have it already done sans art, I would again urge you to release a page or two as advised.) You could pull it off, but doing it fast often precludes doing it as well as possible, especially for a 1st time project.
There are too many variables in publishing to expect such a tight schedule to be a good idea. Your variables are going to include having a lot of art turned in on time. That can happen but it doesnt't happen often enough that you should be aware of the possibility that your artists might run into difficulty and be behind schedule.
There is also this - a halloween book, released directly on Halloween is useless for a year. Its a nice idea but in practice you are not going to use it right away. Its much more practical for me as a GM to have the book earlier in October so I can be planning on how to use it.
If I did support the project (which won't happen without a longer buy in period - as noted, August is going to be tight) I would personally not mind if you were aiming for a 2013 October release. I would find one year a perfectly reasonable time to work on a book. 6 months would be closer to what I would think is a normal wait, but 1 year is acceptable and it is a halloween book, so an october release is desireable. In point of fact a 2-3 month production period is almost unreasonable in my estimation to expect or to promise.
"knuckles cracking"
And here, we, go.
You may not realize it, but you're all doing a wonderful job keeping me motivated and on the right track. Before I address some perfectly legitimate concerns I offer you this thrilling tale I call, The Truth!
Reality and Time came to thwart me.
Crisis's at work halted me taking time off. I could call out, but then I'd be leaving a series of messes in another persons hands. Didn't feel right so I went in and did the best I could to not be distracted. It's a nice job and I like the folks I work with. Leaving them all high and dry isn't even an option to me.
I also didn't want the artists working on anything until launch was a certainty. It pained me to think they'd deny my submission or ask questions I wasn't ready for. Waiting by the computer throughout the weekend asussring artists that all would be well was my brave face. I'm rather proud of this face. I wear it well. Hence the overload of responsibilities at work. Double edged sword and all that.
So now I've lost a weekend and the weekdays are less productive than I like. Tonight I'll be rewarding myself with 4 hours of sleep instead of the 3 I've been getting. Instead of seeing the Dark Knight Rises tomorrow night I'll be finally shooting the cookie update video, posting it and getting nearly a full nights rest. 5 hours of sleep here I come!
I also understand that some people would kill to have my problems. These are not complaints. I was raised to tell the truth even, especially, if it made me look bad. If I have to lie to earn your trust, then I don't deserve it.
Theneofish: You got me there. I blurted that out early this morning just before work and missed the "s" in my post.
I do apologize if it seems I'm holding out on all of you. Coordinating everything against a back drop of unanticipated delays is the meat and drink of this business. So I just have to adapt. I don't expect anyone to take my word on faith and those of you with reluctance I applaud your reserve. At least some of you, like Theneofish took the time to say something. For that I thank you.
LMPjr007: No, we have not met, but I've always enjoyed your blogs (especially that off color April Fools that got you in so much trouble, very bold of you sir) and I've purchased a few things of yours as well. Previews are forthcoming and when they come it'll be a flood gate.
One thing I will not preview are the stats for the monsters. This is the only thing I won't have hosted on d20pfsrd.com. The full color art, however, will be along with a link to the artists portfolios, but game master info will only be out of the book.
The thematic element of surprise and how we've lost much of it as GM's is a plan for a video update.
To the rest of you and those watching with a leery eye. If this succeeds it'll be spectacular, and if it fails it will be equally so.
There is no good time to release any product, since Paizo is always releasing great things. There is no good time to do a Kickstarter, since wonderful new projects crop up everyday. I do have my work cut out for me and I thank you for your attention.
Until next time ;)
Thanks for the response Shane, that's gone some way to alleviating my concerns - I'm glad to hear we will get to see some previews. I tend to agree with your last statement - now that Kickstarter has been demonstrated to be such an effective tool for getting RPG products into the marketplace, I think the number of Pathfinder items is only going to increase, so I guess now is as good a time as any.
I still think it's a big ask, but you are aware of that, and on the plus side it looks like an innovative product, which isn't something that's easy to achieve these days. Best of luck with it.
One thing I will not preview are the stats for the monsters. This is the only thing I won't have hosted on d20pfsrd.com. The full color art, however, will be along with a link to the artists portfolios, but game master info will only be out of the book.
You realize that once you publish there is nothing stopping your monster statistics from appearing on the d20pfsrd, right?
They are open game content be default because they are based on existing content. (see open-game-license) So even if you want you product to be secret mechanically only in book for there is nothing to guarantee that will happen.
One thing I will not preview are the stats for the monsters. This is the only thing I won't have hosted on d20pfsrd.com. The full color art, however, will be along with a link to the artists portfolios, but game master info will only be out of the book.You realize that once you publish there is nothing stopping your monster statistics from appearing on the d20pfsrd, right?
They are open game content be default because they are based on existing content. (see open-game-license) So even if you want you product to be secret mechanically only in book for there is nothing to guarantee that will happen.
Nothing stops it, except the guy who runs the site!
Ultimately I just won't post the material myself and I've asked it stay off for the time being. He's cool with it.
Sometimes, you just have to ask.