Back To Work

Yes I've been away for a few weeks.  I had a nice little vacation.  Well, I guess it was technically vacation in that I didn't have to go to work.  In reality it was much more exhausting than my real job.  I wouldn't trade it though.  I got to fly to Texas with my daughter to watch my baby sister get married. I was exhausted when I got home but I was so happy to see Rachel marry the man she's been waiting for.  Congrats Rachel and Ray.

But now I'm home, I've recovered from the obligatory travel cold (I think I may start flying in a HAZMAT suit) and it is time to get back to work.

While on the plane ride home I had a pretty cool idea for a short story.  I'm sure the lady behind me thought I was crazy when I started talking to my phone about aliens and nuclear war.  (By the way, how the heck did authors survive before iPhones with Voice Memo?)  Anyway, I put the story to the page when I got home and submitted it to an online magazine last week. That's two short story submissions this summer.  I'm still waiting for an answer.  I won't really feel like an author until I start getting rejected by publishers.

I've also been working a lot on the business end of things: figuring out my production costs, marketing strategy (don't forget to sign up for my email newsletter, top center tab, just below my face!) and the like.  I've had some great help from the folks at New Media Design on that front. I'm trying to treat this like a second job.  I'm working on getting my name out in the community so someone knows who I am when I'm ready to publish next summer so there has been a lot of research and planning lately.  It can't all be fun and games and aliens and toxic wastelands.

Anyway, I have the opening chapters for the book drafted and am working on revising and polishing them.  The plan is to use the opening hook as a preview when I launch my Kickstarter later this year so that should be ready to go soon.

Speaking of the Kickstarter I thought I would start spreading the word now and let everyone know what's going on with it.  The plan is to raise the money to cover my publication costs (Cover Art, Editing, a Print Run and initial marketing costs).  Including the cost of Kickstarter Rewards I'm looking to raise about $2500.  The rewards should be pretty cool too.  I'll be offering digital and print copies of the book as well as some cool thank you cards featuring the cover art.   I am lucky enough to be teaming up with Susan Van Sant on the cover art and she is going to be including signed prints of her final artwork. I'll also be offering signed copies of the book.  At the upper levels I'll also be offering a chance to work with me designing supporting characters.  I think this is one of the cooler reward types I've seen on Kickstarter.  It allows supporters to get involved in the project by naming a character after themselves or determining a character's appearance or personality.  I hope I get some takers on these rewards. I think it would be awesome to work with prospective readers this way.

Is there anything you would like to see as a reward if you were to back the project?  I'm open to suggestions.

Until next time!

Dwight

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