Friday, March 1, 2024

Drumindor's Kickstarter a big success!

 


The Drumindor Kickstarter is over, and Robin and I would like to thank all the amazing support you gave it. If you missed the Kickstarter, no worries. You can purchase the books from the pre-order store.

Some highlights of this project

  • Fully funded in under 16 minutes
  • Reached $100,000 in the first 12 hours
  • Became the #1 highest-funded live fiction project at the 3 hour mark, and it remained at the top spot for it's entire 2-week run.
  • One of only 61 projects to reach six-figures
  • Currently the 20th most-backed fiction Kickstarter of all time

And don't forget the Kickstarter for regular and deluxe editions of Books #1 - #4 will be launching on March 12th at 12:00 noon (EST). You can sign up to be notified from the pre-launch page (which will turn into the main product page when the Kickstarter begins). 


One last thing. During the run of these two Kickstarters we are selling hardcover and ebooks of my back list at substantial savings (up to 50% off).  Shop the sale from this link.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Ask Me Anything - today on reddit's /r/fantasy site.

Reddit can be a toxic environment, but the /r/fantasy site has always been a bastion of civility. With more than 3.6 million members, it's the biggest site I know about for people who love the fantasy genre.  Today I'll be holding a AMA (Ask Me Anything), whih will be my 8th in 12 years! So if you have questions, I'll try to provide answers. But if you are writing about any spoilers, please use the appropriate tags to hide them from people who haven't read the books.  Hope to see you there!



Saturday, February 24, 2024

Save 10% - 50% on my ebooks and hardcovers through May 31

 


During my two Kickstarters (Drumindor which is running now), and the Riyria Chronicle Hardcovers (running from March 12 - April 4th - no link yet), I'm also running a sale on my other books. Here are some examples of the savings:

  • 50% of ebooks ($5 rather than $10)
  • 50% off mildly hurt hardcovers ($14.50 - $16.50 rather than $28 - $33)
  • 25% off Legends of the First Empire Hardcover Boxset ($156 rather than $208)
  • 20% off Legends of the First Empire Hardcover Book Set ($134.40 rather than $168)
  • 21+% off Rise and Fall Hardcover Boxset ($99 rather than $126)
  • 15% off Rise and Fall Hardcover Book set ($7.35 rather than $91)
  • 10% off Del Rey Legends Hardcovers: #1 & #3 ($25 rather than $28)
  • 18% off Other Legends Hardcovers: #2, #4, #5, #6 ($23 rather than $28)
  • $5 off Rise and Fall Hardcovers (15%-17%): ($23- $28 rather than $28 - $33)
  • $10 off Rise and Fall Deluxe Editions (~13%): ($65 - $70 rather than $75 - $80)
We have already sold out of the Riyria Revelation slipcases and the Riyria Revelation Hardcovers are going fast - so don't wait too long to order!

Friday, February 9, 2024

Exciting times on Kickstarter

Hey all, Robin here. I'm taking over Michael's blog (as I sometimes do) because it's a pretty exciting time for Kickstarters. I'm a HUGE fan of this platform. We've backed hundreds of them and even run more than a dozen campaigns, and while each one is a lot of work, it's also a great deal of fun.

I've been shouting from the mountaintops that more authors should use Kickstarters, and I did get some traction, but even so the Fiction Category remained the sleepy little corner of the Kickstarter world (games being the hot spot). It was such a small pond that at one point Michael had 5 of the top 10 most-funded Kickstarters of all time (across the entire world!) 

But then Brandon Sanderson's record-breaking 47M campaign happened and that opened a lot of eyes. That project did more than all my evangelizing, and I'm thrilled that so many authors are now using this platform. In my pitch to other authors I told them, "I hope you knock my projects down a few pegs" — and they did!  I don't have any projects in the top 10 now (my highest is #12), and I couldn't be happier.

But there are a lot of misconceptions when I speak to people who aren't familiar with Kickstarters. The most common misconception is it's a form of charity, where you see a project you like and you give the creator some money.  There are crowd-funding campaigns like that on other platforms (GoFundMe being the most common). But Kickstarter isn't that. What's the difference? Well let me back up and tell you some of the major aspect of Kickstarters.

  1. The creator sets a goal, start date, and end date.  These parameters can't be changed once the Kickstarter is launched, and if the project fall short of its goal, no money is collected from the backers, and no money comes to the creator. In other words, it's an all-or-nothing proposal. This allows creators to test the waters as it were. For instance, at one point I wanted a slipcase for our hardcover set of Michael's Legends of the First Empire series. To create one just for us was REALLY expensive, but I thought others might be interested in such a thing so I ran a Kickstarter for it - turns out there were hundreds of people who wanted them, but I wouldn't have known that if it wasn't for Kickstarter.

  2. You don't "give money" to projects, you purchase something. It may be a physical item like a book or an event like a pre-screening of a movie, but you MUST receive something in exchange for the money you provide. In the case of fiction projects, you are basically pre-ordering just like you would on Amazon or other online stores.

  3. Generally there are multiple reward levels. For instance a single Kickstarter might offer a $10 ebook, a $15 audiobook, a $20 trade paperback, a $35 hardcover, and a $75 deluxe edition. That way there is generally something for people of all budget levels. 

  4. Backers have a better experience than when purchasing through stores. Kickstarters are interactive, and oftentimes the item being received gets better based on feedback of backers. For instance someone might say how much they like sprayed edges, so a stretch goal is created and if that new goal is reached all the books get this cool feature. Also you can give readers things that you can't normally do. For instance, books are usually signed, bookmarks are often included, and it's common to get extra "goodies" like stickers or postcards. 

  5. While not specific to Kickstarter, it should be noted that Kickstarters allow readers to buy direct from the author, which means a much higher percentage of the money you pay winds up in the creator's pocket. Why? Kickstarters fees are minor and all the "middlemen" - publishers, agents, distributors, retailers - are cut out of the process. So instead of the author getting 3% - 25% of your money, they generally keep 80% - 90% of what you pay.

  6. What you are receiving has to be something new. It's meant to provide funding to create something that might not otherwise be produced if the creator had to rely on their own funds. Because of this aspect products generally ship quite some time after the project ends because it has to be made and that can take months and in some cases years. 

  7. I should note that there is a bit of risk when backing a Kickstarter. Despite the creator's best intentions they may fail to produce the item they were trying to create. In that case, there are no refunds, your money is gone. But that is an uncommon occurrence. Generally creators set their goal high enough so a "failed project" is one that doesn't fund. But it can happen.  Generally if you are backing projects by people with a good track record, you won't hit that situation.
If you've never backed a Kickstarter, I encourage you to do so.  We've gotten all kinds of great things from the platform (mostly books but also things like the Ooni Wood-fired Pizza Oven, the Solo Stove, and a great portable desk I use when lying on the couch). All told we've backed 214 Kickstarters (173 of which reached their goal and 41 that didn't fund).  Here are the Kickstarters that are "Live" that we are currently backing (and I think all of them are funded already)


How do we find out about these projects? Well, I spend a fair amount of time just "hunting around" for things to support - and interestingly I'm not the only one who does that because many of the people who have backed our Kickstarters "stumbled upon" them and hadn't read any of Michael's books before.

I also find projects from others.  Kickstarter has a great feature where you can "follow" someone and when they back a project it shows up in your activity feed. So, I generally look at Michael's feed at least once a week and the vast majority of the projects I've backed have been discovered that way.  If you would like to do the same, you can follow Michael (use the "follow button" from this link) and Kickstarter will add a message in your activity log whenever he backs a project.  There are currently 1,841 people who follow him, and we often find comments in various projects that say something like, "I found out about this project because of Michael J. Sullivan."

There is another cool feature of Kickstarter where you can look at projects that haven't launched yet but will soon. Here is a link where you can see upcoming Fiction projects sorted by popularity. Right now there are 237 projects and there is also a "notify me on launch" button, and Kickstarter will let you know when it goes live. Currently Michael and I are setup to be notified about the following:
Okay, so all that is Kickstarter 101 stuff, but what's going on right now that makes it so exciting?  
  • Well there are three projects that launched on the same day from our "must back anything they put out" list:  Queen of Thieves | Dead Stars | The Demon Awakens)

  • For those that are living in a cave, Will Wight's Cradle Animation project ended up funding (it was looking kinda tight there for awhile, and has just 7 hours to go.

  • Our very own Drumindor project will launch in 3 days and 2 hours (noon on February 13th for those that don't want to do the math.

  • Our Riyria Chronicle #1 - #4 Hardcover project will launch on March 13th (sorry no link for it yet)

  • And the most exciting of all - Brandon Sanderson will be launching his next Kickstarter March 5th!!!
I'm sure it's that last item that will be making Kickstarter "blow up," but I'm hoping a few of you will be stoping by the Drumindor project as well.

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Only a few hours left to save big on audiobooks

 Ending today at midnight (PT) two full series (Riyria Revelations & The Rise and Fall) and the start of a third series in graphic audio version (Riyria Chronicles) are deeply discounted 72% - 86% off.  All titles are just $5.99 or $6.99 meaning you can get a full series for about the same cost of a single credit.

And don't forget.  Royce and Hadrian will be returning with Drumindor - the 5th Riyria Chronicle.  The Kickstarter for this will launch February 13th at 12:00 noon (EST).


Monday, January 22, 2024

Drumindor Kickstarter's pre-launch page is live

It's been more than five years since the last Royce and Hadrian adventure - but the Kickstarter launch is almost here. The Kickstarter will launch on March 13th at noon, and the pre-launch page is live.  Use the "notify me on launch" button to get a reminder email when the project is live.


The Kickstarter will be used to pre-order any of the following formats:
  • ebook - $10
  • regular hardcover - $28
  • deluxe limited edition hardcover - $75
Writing is completed, although we still need to put the book through beta, copyediting, and gamma reading. Hope to see you there!


Monday, December 11, 2023

A tiny baby crawls onto the front page of Royal Road

More than a decade ago, Robin started doing Kickstarters, and low and behold we found a whole new audience of readers that had never heard about my stories before, and we have been warmly welcomed, and eternally grateful for all the support.

Four months ago, she started a new experiment, to introduce my stories to the 401,000+ readers on Royal Road, a free serialized fiction site where people can read books for free.

Because the Riyria Chronicle books are largely standalone (and only the first two books are controlled by traditional publishers), she started there with these three stories:

Uptake has been slow. Many of the most popular books on the site have tens of thousands of followers and millions of views. In comparison, we have only 86,000 views and 758 followers. Even so we hit the coveted "Rising Stars" list for a short while, and that gave the books some exposure.

Now, I know what you may be thinking - Drumindor? That book hasn't been written yet - well, it has, but it's in its rough first-draft format, and the last chapter posted yesterday.  Now, as a rough draft it's riddled with typos and various grammar errors, but it will be on Royal Road and people can read it for free until the end of this month.

But the cool thing is, that with the posting of this last chapter, the 379,000+ words of these three books changed to "completed" other than "on-going," and because people have been rating the stories so highly it is now the #6 of the BEST COMPLETED list - and since the top 10 show up on Royal Road's Home Page, it may get some more attention now.  Here's hoping!

If you have the time, please stop by Royal Road and follow the book, it'll please Robin to no end to see the number of followers rise.