Okay, well, the Kickstarter campaign was unsuccessful and the update for that has gone out. Plan B was a new, flex fund campaign is on Indiegogo. What does this mean? Well, if everyone who backed me on Kickstarter, backs me on Indiegogo instead, then I’ll actually get to keep what I raise. New information about all this is in the Cost Breakdown section.
Hopefully I can pull in most of my backers again.
Wait…not Doomsday, until the Demon Haunted Kickstarter campaign ends. And, wow, I’m up to 55% funding, $1112 of $2000. I was feeling rather pessimistic about the whole thing getting any higher a few days ago but between yesterday morning and this morning, I had a big surge in backers, including someone who backed me in the Demon Hunter tier (which means they get all the goodies you can get AND a demon hunter named after them). That would be awesome enough but they’re an Aussie, which means they also pledged the 26 bucks for shipping.
So now I’m sitting here wondering what will happen by 1pm on Tuesday when things end and hoping that I’ll catch interest in a few more heavy hitters like the aforementioned backer. I’m cautiously hopeful considering the flow over the past 24 hours but realistically, the campaign is probably going to fail. I have back-up plans. Several. Chiefly making a gofundme campaign with far less rewards. Cause I could get all the artwork and editing I want for $1000 but then I can’t offer anything other than digital rewards. Part of why the Kickstarter was $2000 was due to covering the base price of printing and shipping to ME to then get sign it and get it to the READER.
So we’ll see what happens.
For those curious, I’ve posted a second update on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ashearmstrong/demon-haunted/posts/1486428
And with that, we’re off and running. Grimluk 2’s official name is Demon Haunted. You can look at the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ashearmstrong/demon-haunted
Grimluk 2 is coming along. I finally finished the chapter 2 rewrite and started chapter 3. I had to do chapter 2 completely fresh, with only a few bits and pieces good for recycling into the second draft and it took me a bit longer to get it nailed down. Chapter 3 and onward will go much smoother once I get the beginning redone so it fits with chapter 2. I’m sure there’s stuff later on that I’ll have to scrap or rework but I doubt I’ll have to completely rewrite a chapter. I was pretty happy with the majority of what was in the first draft. We’ll see what happens as I get through it though.
Which brings me to the real news. I’ll be launching the Kickstarter campaign for Grimluk 2 on the 31st, which also includes revealing the title. This go round, I don’t have a cover yet, but I’ve tried to build a much more visually appealing campaign page and I feel pretty good about the reward tiers. I even made themes for them. So keep watch and stay sharp.
It is December 1st, which means Nanowrimo has come to an end. The goal was 50,000 words in a month. On that metric, I failed. I hit 37,000 words. I also started November with 30,000. So, while I failed at the 50K, I definitely succeeded elsewhere. I proved that I’m more than capable of working far harder than I had originally guessed. Going forward, I’ll be able to bust out a first draft within three months, hitting roughly 30,000 words each month. That feels awesome and will make this career that much more obtainable. The harder part will be doing a kickstarter for a new book once a year until I can pay for editing and art out of my own pocket. We’ll see how that goes.
Now, speaking of Kickstarter, I’ll be starting the campaign for Grimluk 2 in February. Before it goes live, I’ll reveal the name of the book, the (tentative) blurb, and anything else that comes up. Unlike the first book, I won’t have a cover to help sell this campaign with but I’ll have some other things. And also unlike the first book, I’m going in with a completed first draft. Grimluk 2 is already bigger and better than its predecessor and my efforts on Kickstarter will be as well.
For anyone else who’s completed Nano, keep going. Start your next draft or finish the first one and keep kicking ass.
I won’t bother posting through the screencaps of my word counter (via Scrivener’s wonderful project targets feature) for every day since the last time I posted. I will say that I have been kicking ass this month. I’m not as far as I could have been but that was from a conscious decision on day 12 that I needed my goddamn weekend. I usually take Fridays and Saturdays off. Run errands, clean, veg out, generally just do some of the things I don’t do during my work days. It’s helped me continue on, and last week, I finally had my first day where I hit 2000 words. A milestone for me.
After last night, my Nanowrimo word count is 34,237 with my project total sitting at 64,000 and just a touch over that last 237. I’m also nearly done with the first draft. Which may seem weird since my goal for Nanowrimo was to write 50,000 words in hopes of hitting an 80,000 word first draft. That hasn’t happened but that’s okay. I’ll be finishing up the final chapter this week and then beginning the second with a rewrite of the first four-ish chapters. Definitely the first two and probably the third as well. All of which will probably be condensed to one chapter. As I wrote on, the chapters started leveling out between 3400-4500 words.
Given I’m nearing 70,000, I’m confident that I’ll hit my 80,000 word goal in the second draft. On top of rewrites, I have a lot of additions and expansions to make, and lots of areas that need filling out (not to mention finishing out a whole section of the final battle). I’m pretty damn proud of how hard I’ve worked these past four months and it’s paid off big time. My plans for a February kickstarter look solid too and I hope that one succeeds as well as the previous book.
Bit of an update to go with these new stories as well. I’ve shut down my Patreon. After the security breech, and the fact that I’ve only had one patron, I figured I should just put it on the back burner for now. In the meantime, I’ll be uploading everything I posted there and then occasionally adding new pieces as well. The most important two, however, are the ones I’ll be linking below, as the first was going to be a part of this month’s postings, and was a request from said patron, and the second is the short story I had submitted for publication and was so excited for over the summer. Happy reading, y’all.
While I haven’t gotten tons of writing done this week, I did get more plotting done for the second Grimluk book, which will help. The book’s coming along at near 15,000 words, almost a fifth of the 80K goal. And in only a month a half, that beats the hell out of my pace for the first book.
In other news though, it’s Friday and September so it’s time for a new story. “From Tusk Til Dawn” is now up on Patreon. Part of me kind of hates doing this because I really really want folks to read this story and realistically, putting it as backers only means few people will, buuuuut I’m also trying to be a professional here. So, for those who haven’t heard, this story is about a lady orc wanderer who ends up having a close encounter of the fanged kind.
I’m so fuckin stoked about this still.
