Bodacious Creed

As a ranch brat that hid my fantasy novels behind my 4-H projects, I have a thing for fantasy and westerns.  I wanted to BE John Wayne, Sparhawk, a Rider of Rohan, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, occasional sex changes be damned.  It's not that crazy to me to mix genres up a little, so when I got a review request for a zombie steampunk western, let's just say it got my attention.  

The only thing is that it wasn't really a review request.  It was a preview request from Jonathan Fesmire for his upcoming novel Bodacious Creed.  Jonathan has decided to do things a little differently by using Kickstarter to fund his project before it has even begun.  (Basic details for his project and how Kickstarter works can be found here, in case you've never heard of Kickstarter.)  

After reviewing his plan, I had a few questions for Jonathan.

Pretend for a moment that my readers have no idea what Kickstarter is or how it works.  (I'd never heard of it until now.)  Explain how it works and why you chose to do your project through Kickstarter than through other outlets, like traditional publishing or self-publishing.  

Simply put, Kickstarter is a site that allows anyone with a project to share it with the world. People can then pledge money to get that project funded. This new model is called "crowdfunding," and it allows artists to fund movies, graphic novels, computer equipment, and more.

Each project has pledge levels, with rewards that get better and better with each level.  So, backing a Kickstarter project is often like shopping for new and cool products that are still being created.

Each project has a time limit and a goal amount.  For instance, I set my funding period for 31 days, and the funding goal for $2,000.  Using a spreadsheet, I determined that this was the minimum amount I would need to cover expenses, including sending out the backer rewards.

Getting published by a professional house is extremely difficult, and many amazing books get rejected every day.  That's why many writers have turned to self-publishing.  Many of the best books out there are self-published, as are many of the worst, and it's the writer's responsibility to make sure that his or her book is top quality.

So, print on demand publishing and the Internet have already made it possible for writers to reach their readers directly, upsetting the old paradigm where we wrote to please publishers and then hoped against hope that our work would get noticed.

However, marketing is still extremely difficult. So you can work for a year or more writing a book, and then have few sales.

Crowdfunding turns the whole thing on its head.  Not only can writers self-publish, we can share a project to see if it's something people would like to read.  This gets the word out and gets people excited before the book is finished.

Significant backers get to have input into your book.  How do you feel about giving up some of the control over your project?  Or, do you get a creative charge out of bouncing ideas around with others?  (I do.)

I'm excited about working with higher level backers!  I have two now, and one wants to have a character based on himself as a villain.  I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

I also come from an improv background.  I did drama way back in high school and college.  At my junior college, I took three semesters of improvisational acting, and was the formative member of an improv troupe that is still going strong.  A little like Saturday Night Live, none of the original members remain.

I love the process of making disparate parts fit together.

It will be a controlled collaboration experience, however.  I'll make sure that the characters and ideas fit into the milieu.  I hope that more people pledge in that range, so I can work in more ideas and characters!

It takes a lot of stones to put oneself out there on the internet, potentially inviting criticism before a project has really begun.  Have you had negative experiences with backers, or has it largely been a positive thing?

I've been a public figure on the Internet since the mid-90s, when I had a relatively popular site called "Introduction to Fantasy."  The entire process of creating my demo reel, which Bodacious Creed is based on, is documented in an extensive blog.

As for the Kickstarter project, most people have been very positive and excited about it.  I have had some criticism.  One person thought it was just plain wrong to ask for funding to help publish a novel.  Don't you know, writers have to write first, and then struggle to get a book published, and then hope that people read the book!  That's how it's always been done, so how dare I try something different.  In fact, even telling people about it is spamming!

Another person assumed the book would be about cowgirls riding around on horses, braining zombie hordes.  You know, the most cliché idea possible.

I question the rules, and think outside the box.  In fact, as far as I'm concerned, there is no box.

But as I said, most people have been very positive, and some have even asked how to go about creating their own Kickstarter projects for novels.

How will the books be sold once they've been printed?  Do you have contracts with book sellers lined up, or will it be mostly on sites like Amazon?

I'm going to self-publish directly through Lightning Source.  That's the company that Lulu and CreateSpace both use.  By publishing through Lightning Source directly, I will pay less for each copy, and can sell the book for less.

One person wants to carry the book overseas, and I'll contact various book stores to see if I can get them to carry it. It will definitely be available online through Amazon and other sources, however.

I recently bought a children's printed book that interacts with the camera on my laptop.  My son completely loses his shit when he uses it.  Have you toyed with the idea of making enhanced e-books or digitally enhanced printed books, considering your expertise with 3-D modeling? 

Excellent question!  I don't know about creating an interactive book, though I suppose it's possible through a program like Unity.

What I will probably do, though, as I write the book, is create 3D models of some of the items or characters, and share those on my website, and on the Bodacious Creed site (which I'm developing now).

With the end of his funding period coming fast, I wish Jonathan the best of luck.  Many of you know that I'm a music educator, but this year I'm actually teaching a course in creativity and integrated arts.  (I CAN'T EXPRESS HOW EXCITED I AM FOR THAT CLASS!)  Bodacious Creed is a creative and "novel" approach to writing a novel, and I'm very interested to see how it turns out.