We’re nearly at the end of the first week of the Kickstarter campaign and, at the same time, the project is nearing its initial funding goal (not quite 95% of the way there at the time of this writing). That kind of blows my mind a little, but it certainly means that it’s time for an update . . . so here we go.
First of all, thank you to all of you! Getting The Littlest Shoggoth back into print has been a dream of mine for several years, and it’s amazing to me how many other people have been willing to join me in that dream. I feel grateful and honored beyond words that you have. Thank you.
Now on to business.
STRETCH GOALS
As I mentioned in the pitch video, I’ve been pricing out the cost of upgrading the book to being a hardcover and having color art throughout. I knew going in that it would be an expensive proposition, but I also had a pretty strong idea that those would be the things that you guys wanted (mostly because I knew they were the things _I_ wanted). We’ve gotten some price quotes back, so I’m ready to set some initial stretch goals (bearing in mind that I will lower them if I can, should better price quotes come in later).
$10,000 — Color Art/Larger Format
If the pledge total reaches $10,000, I’ll not only be able to print The Littlest Shoggoth in color, I’ll also be able to increase the page dimensions from 5.5″ x 8.5″ (as it is now) to the more standard picture book size of 6″ x 9″. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that we can do this by merely doubling the cost. In my experience, color books are often three or even four times more expensive than black & white ones. But I’ve got a top-notch team working on this with me (I’m looking at you, Larry Weiner), and so this little holiday miracle has occurred. Or maybe the stars are just right.
$13,000 — Hardcover
If we can reach the $13,000 level, we’ll have the ultimate version of The Littlest Shoggoth in color and a hardcover format! I’ll be honest, this is what I’ve always wanted the project to be. But it seemed smarter to build to this level in stages rather than starting out with such a large goal.
$7,500 — Post Card
Even with the reasonableness of those previous goals, it seemed to me that I ought to offer some sort of extra incentive before going all the way to double the initial goal. So if the pledges hit the $7,500 level I will send out a Littlest Shoggoth themed post card, hand signed by me, to everyone who pledges at the Cultist level ($25) and above. Given how close this end of the Kickstarter campaign is to the holidays, I can’t promise that these cards will arrive before the end of the year, but I do promise that I’ll try my hardest to make that happen.
It’s been an incredible week. We’ve accomplished so much, and there’s still 28 days remaining in the pledge drive. I can only imagine where we’ll be by the time it’s all over. But I look forward to finding out . . . together with all of you.
Thanks!