Tag: book report

Well, we’re up to Chapter 10 back from the editor, and she’s still laughing at the funny bits, so that’s good. The FROZEN DREAMS Kickstarter progresses as we get to single digits on the days left for it. I was supposed to do more work on the RPG supplement, but it was a day here at Chez Lane. I’m amazed that I was as productive as I was, honestly.

All in all, not a dramatic kind of day.

Moe Lane

Well, I’ve run out of FROZEN DREAMS physical book tiers again. I’m debating whether to do a third tier, only this time charging shipping*. I also had an idea of a limited $50 tier where you get a physical book and a sonnet, but that’s just me dredging up fundraising tricks from my SCA group back in grad school. I mean, I can do sonnets in my sleep, but that might be just a little too cute for words.

Moe Lane

*Admittedly, if I did that I could do international shipping, for those two or three people who showed an interest. It’s just that the shipping is so expensive. More to the point, it’s also potentially so very unreliable, these days. That second consideration weighs more on me than does the first.

Things progress apace. I’ve just gotten Chapter 5 back from the editor and will be making changes accordingly. I’m mildly surprised at how little I mind having my stuff edited, but it helps to have a good one. 9 times out of 10 I wince and go Yeah, I should have done it that way to begin with. It’s very humbling.

It was a good day on the Kickstarter, to start the second week. And the map’s done and paid for, which is nice. And, best of all: I got chapters of edits back! …And they were all sensible ones, dammit. If you want to learn a seemly humility, hand your work over to an editor. The experience is most instructive.

Today I started the map-purchasing process. I’ve commissioned Robert Altbauer of Fantasy Map to do the job; he comes well-recommended, and after seeing some of his work I was happy to hire him to do the work. One more possible add-on, I think. Speaking of which: I want to see how FROZEN DREAMS is doing at the midpoint level before I decide how to do add-ons. Backerkit will make it a lot easier, but also cost money to set up and run. If I don’t get very many more backers, it may make more sense for me to run things on my own*.

Today, I had discussions, or at least a discussion and maybe started another couple. The ‘maybe’ discussions involved inquiries into map prices, and I’ll know how they went in a few days. The full discussion involved the audiobook stretch goal; I sat down with my audiobook narrator and worked out what she would do and her rates, should it fund and/or I put the money together otherwise. She’ll also be hopefully recording a blurb/sample in the next few days, which I will absolutely use to try to entice more people to back the Kickstarter.

I’m not sure how well that will work out, assuming that it funds; but every time I’ve gone I don’t think people will pay good money for that about something in this Kickstarter I’ve turned out to be wrong. Besides, if it works it’s a revenue stream worth looking into. And, honestly: I kind of like the idea in general now. Pulp detective stories lend themselves well to dramatic readings, I think.

I spent the morning playing with spreadsheets and making suggested revisions to Chapter 1 to FROZEN DREAMS. The spreadsheets were mostly to make sure that I’m being reasonable in my stretch goals. I… seem to be? Where I’m getting hung up is that I don’t know how to budget for the city map that I’m likely going to need commissioning; I’ve been asking around about prices, but I get a lot of shrugs and ‘it depends.’ This industry needs some industry standards, tanjit.

In contrast, the revisions are straightforward: my copy-editor sent over suggested changes, I looked at them and pretty much said Yeah, and then I went and implemented them. Nice and simple and it didn’t take me long to do. I like this system.