The LotFP Rules & Magic hardcover is funded, as is Kenneth Hite's adventure, with a grand total of $16,240.
Hite is at Origins so he may not even know he's funded yet. Somebody tell him. :D
The project was not the $150,000 dream, but we got two books funded. I'll take this as a solid, if not spectacular, success.
The Bad:
There was a "floating" goal of separate Rules and Magic hardcovers. We were $760 shy of reaching that. So close...
The Good:
Revised, cleaned up hardcovers with new Cynthia Sheppard cover art AND A BRAND NEW KENNETH HITE ADVENTURE! wooo!
Not reaching the separate hardcovers was a blessing in disguise. The concerns there:
Reaching the goal almost exactly would have made the whole campaign a big money loser. Printing and shipping two hardcover books costs a lot more than one book even with the same total page count. I'd have done it no problem, but if it's going to be one book, having this extra money buffer is a very good thing. A new layout means some of the art, which was custom-made for the current layout, won't fit. We will need some new art for sure. Absolutely no problem now.
And that color section in the middle... what would we have done with all those pics if the books were separated?
The Weird:
By my quick count, 480 hardcovers are reserved from the contributions. Everyone who was up for writing an adventure will get a copy as well, it's the least I can do for their lending their names. That's 14, for a total of 494. Plus the editor should get one, the layout designer should get one, I'd like to keep one, plus whatever new artists contribute to the new version should get one.
See a potential problem with a print run of 500?
It's pretty close to a sure thing that anyone who didn't sign up for the campaign and doesn't work on the new version of the book will not be able to get one.
Huge thanks everyone. It's just about time to get the head down and get things done.
Looking forward to the books and the new adventure!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you won't end up losing money just so we could have separate Rules and Magic books. As right as separate Rules and Magic books would be, it's not so right that you should pay for it yourself.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still think you shouldn't give free books to the so-called “team members” who didn’t do anything at all more than merely let you tell people that they'd agreed to work for you if you got enough money to pay them. Joining a team but then doing nothing at all for that team isn't cause for reward -- or even thanks. It's cause for scorn.
If we'd gotten to the $17,000, it would have pushed the number of reserved copies over 500, so I would have printed 600 books, so I would have had extras to sell to (hopefully) make up the difference.
ReplyDeleteThe project at all the funding levels was designed to be revenue-neutral, with profits coming from after-campaign sales of the funded items. I wasn't trying to extract profit from this campaign, especially since most of the people buying in I suspect are already Grindhouse owners buying in for extra copies of something they already have.
@Ed: There's also such a thing as "building goodwill among people whom you may wish to work for you in the future". Especially since it was an open-ended request (the most annoying one for an artist*) for a job that didn't materialize (so they have a niggling feeling that their time was wasted). Like it or not, each of those people committed to months of work provided we came through with the money to pay them. We didn't, they aren't. Save your bile for a worthy cause.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I know I'm one of the ones who doesn't own a boxed set yet (although it's on order, thanks to a lucky windfall) - but the hardcover was too good to pass up.
*Yes, I'm a freelancer and contractor, how did you know?
docschottslab -- Your reasoning would make perfect sense if one of the likely most significant reasons why the campaign didn't end up funding jobs for more writers & artists wasn't because those writers & artists didn't promote the campaign. In other words, it's significantly their own faults that their jobs "didn't materialize" and "their time was wasted". And, more importantly, by not promoting the campaign they signed on to, they wasted James' time & effort, too. So save your rationalizations & excuses for a worthy cause.
ReplyDelete