Mystic Punk anthology seeks Subs [$100+]

[FoamyRules]

Well, I sent in a pitch. It's still a developing idea, but we'll wait and see

[enchantedsleeper]

After we write the story, do you want it polished as much as possible before we send it to you, or would you be interested in seeing more of a draft version so that you could guide the direction of the edits?

I'm excited for Monday ^^

[MysticPunk]

Originally Posted by enchantedsleeper

After we write the story, do you want it polished as much as possible before we send it to you, or would you be interested in seeing more of a draft version so that you could guide the direction of the edits?

I'm excited for Monday ^^

polish it up as much as possible.

[Debbie V]

Pitch sent here too. Crossing fingers for everyone that your work is accepted and that the funding goal is reached. Good luck.

[Bartholomew]

Nothing makes me hate one of my own stories like declaring it "done."

[MysticPunk]

We're a few days behind because of a death in my family but we're up on indiegogo now. I'll be posting a video later this week. Please help us spread the word! http://igg.me/p/86425?a=520944

[Debbie V]

Sorry for your loss. Good luck with the fundraising.

[FoamyRules]

Sorry for the loss as well and will be spreading the word. Going to twitter now.

[enchantedsleeper]

My condolences I've been plugging the campaign and the idea of Mystic Punk wherever I can think of.

By the way, are you planning to sell the anthology in either physical or ebook format on a site such as Amazon after the campaign ends? Only I came across this shopping site which is dedicated specifically to selling products that have seen success as a result of crowdfunding campaigns, and thought it might be of interest. http://www.tinylightbulbs.com/

[Bartholomew]

My condolences, Mystic. Losing someone sucks, every time.

#

I think the idea of creating a new genre is... unequivocally awesome, so I'm really happy to see my name on that Indiegogo page.

[Spy_on_the_Inside]

Oh, this looks great! I know there's a great story in my head, but I need to let it age in my head like a fine wine. But I do have a few questions on the themes of the genre.


Minorities - The religion aspect has me interested, as I've been wanting to play my hand at some writing that involves Neopaganism, and the whole spiritual aspect will play in great. But as far as asking about minorities, would the mentally ill count as a minority group?

Music - Exactly what do you mean by 'music'? We can't really include sound in the written word, so what is it you mean by music within the story?

[MysticPunk]

Originally Posted by enchantedsleeper

My condolences I've been plugging the campaign and the idea of Mystic Punk wherever I can think of.

By the way, are you planning to sell the anthology in either physical or ebook format on a site such as Amazon after the campaign ends? Only I came across this shopping site which is dedicated specifically to selling products that have seen success as a result of crowdfunding campaigns, and thought it might be of interest. http://www.tinylightbulbs.com/

I'm going to be selling it, yes. I'll check that site out.

Hopefully we get the money, no luck yet. I'm working on a video, which should help. I'm also planning on hitting up the rich old people at my church (of which there are many).

[MysticPunk]

Originally Posted by Spy_on_the_Inside

Oh, this looks great! I know there's a great story in my head, but I need to let it age in my head like a fine wine. But I do have a few questions on the themes of the genre.


Minorities - The religion aspect has me interested, as I've been wanting to play my hand at some writing that involves Neopaganism, and the whole spiritual aspect will play in great. But as far as asking about minorities, would the mentally ill count as a minority group?

Music - Exactly what do you mean by 'music'? We can't really include sound in the written word, so what is it you mean by music within the story?

Mentally Ill can be a minority, yes. Treat it right, though. I hate when I read stuff about mental illnesses I know first hand and they are dishonest or miss the pain behind the illness.

Handicaps are a minority too. I'd really like to see someone who is neurologically different (like, on the autism spectrum) who is not a super genius.

A few weeks back, I woke up with a song in my head that I had never heard before. It was a song that a character sang in a book. Use music how ever you want. If you can't figure it out, omit it. It's just an interesting tool. I think music, I think ART in general, is way more spiritual than anything else in the world so I figure it would be awesome to include it - even in a small way - in your writing. If you write like you're writing music, if you listen to music while you're writing, if you use the energy of music in the context of a story or if your character is a musician, it'll probably be enough.

In the crow, which I think is the best example of the genre outside of the genre, Eric Draven plays the guitar on the roof tops. He tells Sarah who he is by quoting his own song. My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and another band play music live at the club that Top Dollar owns.

[enchantedsleeper]

I can see that you've changed up the available perks and levels of donation a bit, but can I suggest something? Why not make a paperback copy of the book available to donors at a lower level than $100? At the moment you're effectively valuing the paperback copy of the book at $100. I know that it's a "donation" and what you receive from it is a "perk", but in my experience people's decisions to contribute at different levels of a crowdfunding campaign are based almost entirely on what they're going to get back from it. So often people will decide that they want a physical copy of the book that's on offer, and then they'll look for the donor level which will get them that reward. But if it's such a high amount, they're going to decide it's not worth it.

Why not make a physical copy of the book available at the $25 donor level instead? At the moment I can't see much else motivating people to donate $25 to the project rather than $15 (not to knock the value of a personalised email, but...) And I think a lot of people will want a physical copy. I'm planning to promote this project to my family and friends of the family, who will doubtless want a copy of the book, but very few of them would have any use for an eBook copy or even know what to do with it. When they hear "published" many people still think of a physical book and anything less than that will seem like a disappointment.

Since you said that there were almost no upfront printing costs for the book, surely there'd be very little to lose from it and a lot to potentially gain?

[veinglory]

I contribute to Kickstarter book all the time but in almost every case it is to get an ebook (up to $10) or paperback (up to $20).

[Spy_on_the_Inside]

That's sort of what I was thinking too, that $100 is a lot of money for a book. I think a book for a $25 donation will draw a lot more donors.

Once you do that, try posting in the Self-Promotion thread. Also, as a student of advertising and PR, might I suggest seeking out Urban Fantasy forums and maybe even writing groups for minorities to promote your book. Look at who the main characters are and seek out their democrafic. Lots of cultural subgroups are very enthused to have stories written about them.

[MysticPunk]

Originally Posted by enchantedsleeper

I can see that you've changed up the available perks and levels of donation a bit, but can I suggest something? Why not make a paperback copy of the book available to donors at a lower level than $100? At the moment you're effectively valuing the paperback copy of the book at $100. I know that it's a "donation" and what you receive from it is a "perk", but in my experience people's decisions to contribute at different levels of a crowdfunding campaign are based almost entirely on what they're going to get back from it. So often people will decide that they want a physical copy of the book that's on offer, and then they'll look for the donor level which will get them that reward. But if it's such a high amount, they're going to decide it's not worth it.

Why not make a physical copy of the book available at the $25 donor level instead? At the moment I can't see much else motivating people to donate $25 to the project rather than $15 (not to knock the value of a personalised email, but...) And I think a lot of people will want a physical copy. I'm planning to promote this project to my family and friends of the family, who will doubtless want a copy of the book, but very few of them would have any use for an eBook copy or even know what to do with it. When they hear "published" many people still think of a physical book and anything less than that will seem like a disappointment.

Since you said that there were almost no upfront printing costs for the book, surely there'd be very little to lose from it and a lot to potentially gain?

I initially planned on doing it at a value of the book instead of at a high perk but I don't want to have to fill physical books and not be able to pay everybody if I don't make the goal. If a paper back costs $10 and I sell it at $25, I'll needto sell 200, which will drive the total funds up another $2k. I won't be able to fill the orders and pay everybody. It's not an all or nothing campaign, which means that even if I don't reach the goal, I'm getting some of the money and have to fill orders. I was hoping the price disparity would draw more lower end donations but that doesn't seem to be working.

[Spy_on_the_Inside]

Maybe lower the e-books or offer art that can be sent digitally. Those would be free, and I bet some artist would be willing to contribute some free art. I study art at my school, and I might be able to convince some people to offer some quick pieces. It would get their names out there and most of them do internships for free anyway.

As long as you say what kind of thing you're looking for.

[enchantedsleeper]

Originally Posted by MysticPunk

I initially planned on doing it at a value of the book instead of at a high perk but I don't want to have to fill physical books and not be able to pay everybody if I don't make the goal. If a paper back costs $10 and I sell it at $25, I'll needto sell 200, which will drive the total funds up another $2k. I won't be able to fill the orders and pay everybody. It's not an all or nothing campaign, which means that even if I don't reach the goal, I'm getting some of the money and have to fill orders. I was hoping the price disparity would draw more lower end donations but that doesn't seem to be working.

I don't quite follow how that works. Why would you need to sell 200 copies?

I agree about lowering the price of the ebooks as well. $10 tends to be about average for an ebook in a crowdfunding campaign, and $20-25 for a physical copy. Spy_on_the_Inside's idea with the art is a good one, and offering signed copies of books for extra money is very common. It's a pretty easy way to raise extra cash, just by scrawling your name in the inside cover. Offering a handwritten personalised thank-you inside a physical copy of the book, rather than a thank-you email or typed letter, that would also carry a lot more weight.

Spy_on_the_Inside made some solid suggestions about places to promote Mystic Punk. The problem with crowdfunding campaigns is that they tend to work best if you have a ready-made audience in place, say from a regularly-updated webcomic or online fiction. If not, then you have to do some spectacular legwork in order to make up for it.

[Spy_on_the_Inside]

Another thing you could offer is a little ebook thing of interviews with all the authors. That's another thing that would be free. Maybe some of the more artistic authors would be willing to offer 'authentic' illistrations from their stories. It's always such a big deal when an author draws a map or a character themselves. The most authentic picture, after all.

[MysticPunk]

Originally Posted by enchantedsleeper

I don't quite follow how that works. Why would you need to sell 200 copies?

I agree about lowering the price of the ebooks as well. $10 tends to be about average for an ebook in a crowdfunding campaign, and $20-25 for a physical copy. Spy_on_the_Inside's idea with the art is a good one, and offering signed copies of books for extra money is very common. It's a pretty easy way to raise extra cash, just by scrawling your name in the inside cover. Offering a handwritten personalised thank-you inside a physical copy of the book, rather than a thank-you email or typed letter, that would also carry a lot more weight.

Spy_on_the_Inside made some solid suggestions about places to promote Mystic Punk. The problem with crowdfunding campaigns is that they tend to work best if you have a ready-made audience in place, say from a regularly-updated webcomic or online fiction. If not, then you have to do some spectacular legwork in order to make up for it.

200 copies at $15 profit ($10 would go to printing) = $3000, but, at the same time, $2000 of that would be the pressing, so I'd only have $1000 to pay the writers which isn't enough. If I need $3k for paying (I'm not quite there yet but we're very close to it), I'd need $2k for the books and my actual total would be $5k, which means I'd need to sell more, which would drive up the price / end goal.

And if I only sell say, 15 books, I wouldn't have enough to pay more than one or two of the lower paid writers, not to mention my co-editor, the website or promotion.

We're going to put the physical book down to $40, though, explain this on the page, and put the ebook down to $10 like suggested. If we sell 100 physical books with $30 profit, we'll only need to sell 100 to meet our goal, which will cost about $1000. Hopefully we'll also get more with the ebooks and other perks to cover the difference. But, even $40 is a lot so my partner and I are trying to come up with other stuff to add to the perk list.

[MysticPunk]

Originally Posted by Spy_on_the_Inside

Maybe lower the e-books or offer art that can be sent digitally. Those would be free, and I bet some artist would be willing to contribute some free art. I study art at my school, and I might be able to convince some people to offer some quick pieces. It would get their names out there and most of them do internships for free anyway.

As long as you say what kind of thing you're looking for.

If you could pass along the email address mysticpunkanthology@gmail.com that would be great. You've got a lot of good ideas. We're going to be using many of them. Thanks!

[Spy_on_the_Inside]

I could probably get a lot of people interested, but you should probably give me an idea of what kind of art you want; soecific subjects and styles. You don't want a bunch of still lifes of rabbits and violets, after all.

[MysticPunk]

Originally Posted by Spy_on_the_Inside

I could probably get a lot of people interested, but you should probably give me an idea of what kind of art you want; soecific subjects and styles. You don't want a bunch of still lifes of rabbits and violets, after all.

I would want it to be genre related, so the six specific elements I mentioned before would be the guidelines. Thanks!

What is Mystic Punk? It's a new subgenre of Urban Fantasy that rejects the Urban Fantasy cliches. There are six basic elements:

• Minorities - Urban Fantasy tends to be white and heteronormative. This isn't very true for anything else called Urban. There is no urban society in the world that is exclusively white and hetero. Your minorities can be ANY KIND OF MINORITY. They can be ethnic, gender, queer, religious, or disabled in some way. If you can think of a type of minority that isn't listed, imagine that they are. This is the most important point.
  
• Mysticism - instead of using vampires and werewolves, Mystic Punk uses supernatural elements that connect the protagonist or reader to the spiritual through fantastic elements. This isn't magic or super powers. This is spiritual, it requires some connection to the super natural, usually through metaphor or surrealist concepts but can be "magical".
  
• Punkness - A punk aesthetic and the punk audacity to challenge conventions, expectations and social constructs. Your story should be argumentative. It should challenge something. It should make the reader think.
  
• Ambiguity - There should be no clear right or wrong answer to the problem the protagonist faces.
  
• Music - This goes to an aesthetic trend and is less important than the others. This genre is musical in nature. It is inspired by music and often incorporates elements of music in the story telling.
  
• Face Masks - Much like Cyber Punk often uses gas masks, steam punk often uses goggles, mystic punk uses face masks, face paint or environmental elements that prevent faces from being seen, change their shape or make them otherwise unrecognizable. This too is an aesthetic trend and is secondary to the first four points.

[enchantedsleeper]

Originally Posted by MysticPunk

200 copies at $15 profit ($10 would go to printing) = $3000, but, at the same time, $2000 of that would be the pressing, so I'd only have $1000 to pay the writers which isn't enough. If I need $3k for paying (I'm not quite there yet but we're very close to it), I'd need $2k for the books and my actual total would be $5k, which means I'd need to sell more, which would drive up the price / end goal.

And if I only sell say, 15 books, I wouldn't have enough to pay more than one or two of the lower paid writers, not to mention my co-editor, the website or promotion.

We're going to put the physical book down to $40, though, explain this on the page, and put the ebook down to $10 like suggested. If we sell 100 physical books with $30 profit, we'll only need to sell 100 to meet our goal, which will cost about $1000. Hopefully we'll also get more with the ebooks and other perks to cover the difference. But, even $40 is a lot so my partner and I are trying to come up with other stuff to add to the perk list.

I see. But that's assuming that your entire profit were to come from the books, right? Which hopefully won't be the case. X3

Maybe you could bump the $15 level up to $20 or so (since it seems like there's a large gap at the moment between the $15 and $40 level) by offering some of Spy_on_the_Inside's digital artwork along with it.

eBook interviews with the writers is a brilliant idea! I'd do one! And story-related artwork and illustrations - I was actually planning to do a sketch of the Mirror World from my story anyway, to help me get a feel for the environment. I'm not the greatest artist but if you wanted to offer a compilation of such illustrations, I'd happily put mine forward.