To Fund or Not to Fund

This summer has been crazy. We are renovating our home. I removed some crap DIY shelving in the basement the previous owner left, repaired and painted the walls, and laid some vinyl tile. I’ve finished the kitchen cabinets, including a new sink and faucet. In the coming weeks, I’ll be replacing our dining and living rooms with hardwood flooring, and our kitchen, landing, second bathroom and entry hall with tile. There’s a tile backsplash for the kitchen that is on the schedule as well. Just last weekend, we helped friends move and I helped install a hardwood floor in their upstairs.

Word to the wise: if you are installing hardwood flooring, avoid Dubeau like the plague. Total crap.

It’s been a hell of a summer, and I will be damn glad when it is over.

Anyway, once all this is done (September should be the absolute latest the house is back in order) I have some projects I want to get moving on. That action story I mentioned here is coming along, though slowly. I still want to move forward with the RPG Centurions. I am also thinking about another short story collection. But, really, do I want to do these things? I mean, Sword Noir hasn’t even made back its money yet.

Well, maybe I can just jump on a bandwagon.

I can’t use Kickstarter because I am in Canada (stupid Amazon Payments), but I would like to try crowdfunding. Right now, that would mean Indiegogo. It’s something I need to research more, but I think it’s the route I’ll take with at least one of my projects. The thing is, I would like the project done before I even start the campaign. The story might be done by September, and it would be the lowest threshold for success (some back of the envelope calculations put it at around $500), though the short story collection is pretty much ready (the stories are done, I would just need to do layout and commission a cover, but this one would be around $2,500). Centurion would both take the longest to complete and be the most expensive (I would need to actually write the damn thing from the notes I’ve got, and it would likely need about $8,000 to be successful).

The biggest impediment for me against doing this would be failing. I mean, frankly, the sales for Kiss My Axe and Sword Noir are lower than I would like, though in the ballpark of what I projected. I’m trying to decide on perks that might actually be of interest, but in order for anything I can offer to be attractive, one has to be interested in my stuff.

At best that means 337 people (the number that have purchased Sword Noir). At worst, this means around 5 (the number of people I believe will drop money in the hat just so I don’t cry).

I’m being facetious, yes, but really I can’t expect too much. I’m thinking for success, I need at least 200 people at various levels, at least a few of those at higher levels (like $75 to $200). To be honest, Centurion has the highest chance of being successful, given that it is an RPG and I could reasonably offer a perk of a softcover at around $25 and hardcover at around $50, and that’s a good price point for most gamers.

Could I get 320 people to plop down $25 for a softcover? Would they be willing to wait six months for it?

These questions may never be asked if I don’t grow a backbone and put something out there to test the waters.

If I do, I expect you to be dropping your cash to help a brother out.

And that’s only half joking.

You can find Indiegogo here.