Next Noble Pen Meeting
October 4th, 2012 at 7 pm
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids
News
The University of Arizona has initiated a program of bringing together scientists and SF writers. Some of them bemoan a lack of optimistic visions for the future, and hope that these meetings may encourage optimism.
Victories
Dylan’s submission to an anthology was accepted. He tracks his career writing total and has now exceeded two million words.
Ciuin got an A on her first class paper of the semester.
Education
At the last meeting a discussion mentioned Kickstarter (site)(Details)(Wikipedia), a mechanism for “crowd funding” or collecting money from a wide audience to fund a creative project. It is one of a number of similar operations (comparison).
The total overhead cost is 8 to 10%. Project creators choose a deadline and a goal minimum of funds to raise. If the chosen goal is not gathered by the deadline, no funds are collected.
To encourage donations, the creator can offer rewards at various levels of donation, and might be a copy of the work produced (e.g., ebook at one level, print book at another, cover art poster, meeting the project creator, or a professional service like editing). It can be thought of as a promise by the contributor to buy the end product, but there is no guarantee that the project will be completed, or completed to any standard of quality.
A large number of projects have been funded and some have won awards. Top projects have had tens of thousands of donors and raised millions of dollars.
A book project with interviews of SF writers about how they work is an example of a project successfully funded, and illustrates various levels of reward.
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“Don’t buy a pig in a poke.” Traditional saying
“It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to contribute.” William Pollard
Upcoming Schedule
Oct 4th
Nick
Mark
Ciuin
Oct 11th
Tyree
Dylan
Mark
Oct 18th
Dylan
Shannon
Open slot
Oct 25th
Open slots
Keep Writing,
Bill