jackrollins

Recently, I successfully funded the launch of my next novella through crowd-funding. I wanted to write this blog post not only to thank my Kickstarter backers, but also to share my overall Kickstarter experience.

While publicising the campaign for the launch of The Séance, I discovered Kick It Forward, where you receive free publicity for your campaign if you agree to pledge to make other projects successful. I had already been bitten by the bug, pledging initially to get a better understanding of how the system worked and then really thinking about what I wanted to help develop. I thought I’d give a summary of the projects I supported while my own campaign was active.

The most unusual thing I’ve backed, I suppose, is a film. This one is close to my heart, being a short film on the life of Nikola Tesla (http://kck.st/1kYbfB8), great inventor of the Victorian era. When one or two of the other projects I was backing didn’t come off, I increased my pledge on this one, and my name will be in the film’s credits. How mad is that?

I looked for some indie authors in a similar situation to myself, and showed some solidarity with them and so I am waiting for a collection of Cyberpunk stories (http://kck.st/1mtiMvB) and the first in a new series of Steampunk tales (http://kck.st/1jZbw6C), which I am very keen to get into.

One or two of my backers invited me to look at their projects, which I did, and I pledged on them, using my own social networking efforts to increase their visibility, too. It worked for me, right? Well, sadly, for one or two of them it didn’t. A sci-fi thriller I had pledged on won’t be coming my way now, but the author generated enough interest that he is going to be able to put the book into print, so it was a happy ending for him. A book for children to help to educate them on loss was a project I was keen to see get off the ground, but unfortunately it didn’t make it. There was also a cool little book about hidden coffee shops and cool eateries in East London, which I was looking forward to receiving and working my way through; unfortunately they didn’t make it either.

On a more local level, I backed a comic book project (http://kck.st/1m2wL8c) launched by some guys in Newcastle. Comics? Newcastle! How could I resist? I didn’t resist, they got funded and I now have this excellent little comic with my name in the back credits.

I am really pleased to have backed and supported to completion, two children’s books. One of them is called “B is For Blobfish” (http://kck.st/1qGuaZ7) and is essentially an A to Z of weird animals. I’m so looking forward to going through these with my son Archie, as the A for Apple, B for Butterfly gets a bit stale after a while. The other project was “The Tale of The Greedy Fish” (http://kck.st/1pbnrCC), in which the author was raising funds to create enough copies of this beautifully illustrated children’s book, to donate to libraries, schools, children’s groups and literacy programmes, as well as fulfilling the backer rewards. So, my son has some pretty cool, unheard-of (hopefully soon to be Children’s bestsellers!) stories coming his way for his 2nd birthday.

Then my inner geek got the better of me. I backed and have enjoyed a card game called “Virus!” (http://kck.st/1o68kY2) and an entry level tabletop adventure game which looks perfect to play with my 4 year old nephew (not to mention my son and 2 year old nephew, when they’re ready in a couple of years), called “Pocket Dungeon Quest” (http://kck.st/1p9VVH0).

In terms of Kicking it Forward, I more than kept my commitment in the spirit of the generosity shown to me by my own backers.

So without further ado, I’d like to give a big thank you to all of those who backed my project. The list below is not an exhaustive list of the people who made The Séance possible - I mean through pledges and in the actual creation of the book - but it represents the backers who came in with the increased pledges where they covered their rewards and more, to enable me to reach further with The Séance and go beyond the original plan of launching an e-book.

Special thanks to:

LeeAnn Day

Heather Dodd

Robert Elliott

Trish Gordon

Ben Greener

Jim Hardison

Kevin McEwan

Robert W McEwan

Mick Rollins

Mark Tudor-Williams

Lisa Wood

Hope we get to do it again sometime…