New bonus story & Kickstarter news

Okay, it’s a Sunday, which isn’t a regular posting day for DGC, so here are news and notes about the Kickstarter which is ongoing and other cool site news!

Kickstarter
The Kickstarter stands as of this writing at 86% funded! $2,367 pledged, $383 to go.

Posting Schedule
Plesae note that as soon as the Kickstarter ends, we’re dropping back to Tuesday/Thursday posting, and I’m going to have to raise my rate for earning a Saturday post from $25 to $50. I’m just having trouble keeping up! Daron’s been extra chatty lately, which means longer posts, and they take longer to write. A usual post is a thousand words. Lately, he’s been going on for 2000 or more. I know, I know, he’s working out his stuff. But I only have so many hours in the day, and other deadlines are clamoring.

So: back to Tuesday/Thursday and the new post-trigger threshold is $50. Any week where donations go over $50 will still get a third post! But it’s only good that week. (So if we get $100 some week, for example, it doesn’t carry over to the next week.)

Bonus Erotic Story!!
The latest “bedroom scene” for Daron came after chapter 266, when he left the band for a night in LA, and then met back up with them in San Diego. Folks wanted to know what happened on “Daron’s Night Out.” So I wrote a story. Not just a scene, a full, five-thousand word short story of what Daron did that night. To get this bonus scene, though, you have to be a backer of the Kickstarter. Regular “tip jar” donations do not count for this one! You have to go and put at least a dollar into the Kickstarter and help us make that goal! The PDF is already done and available for Kickstarter backers, who should have gotten a nice notification email about it. If you didn’t get yours, ping me and I’ll send you the special link to the file!

Kickstarter Hangout
After a few days in a row where the Kickstarter seemed to have slacked off, I announced that on Tuesday I’ll be hosting a Google Hangout from 5pm to 7pm Eastern. Anyone with an Internet connection should be able to see the broadcast of the video chat here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106322465979385944906/posts. Go circle me on G+ though, if you’re on there!

Once I announced the chat, I made a Facebook “event” for it and invited about 75% of my Facebook friends to attend. About 25 said yes, which propogated the info to *their* FB friends, 25 said maybe, and many declined the invite, but then posted to their walls about the Kickstarter anyway. I had been posting to my own wall every day about the Kickstarter, but this really woke people up, I think.

Guest Blogs!
The other things I’ve been doing to try to spread the word about DGC and the Kickstarter is I have been guestblogging like a madwoman. Here’s a complete list of all the DGC guestblogs I’ve published since the KS began:

  • At Lambda Literary Foundation — on why crowdfunded self-publishing is a vital part of the ecology of queer/independent publishing now
  • At Beth Wylde’s Born 2 B Wylde blog — on how writing a piece set in the 1980s is historical fiction
  • At Ryan Field’s blog — on how the realism of homophobia and queer life in the 80s intensifies the emotional impact of DGC rather than making it “mere” escapism
  • At Kayelle Allen’s Romance Lives Forever blog — on the ways Daron’s Guitar Chronicles is a love story, ie. is and is not a “romance”. There’s also an interview with Daron there, too!
  • At Mary Anne Moharaj’s blog — a piece on how writing in the world of rock and roll is like writing science fiction

There should be two more forthcoming, I believe. One will be a piece at MeiLin Miranda’s blog, about how a long-term ongoing serial like DGC is like a long-term relationship. And also addictive. The other will be for Elizabeth Barrette, on my experience with crowdfunding.

Cover Art Search Begun
Since it looks very likely that we’ll meet our Kickstarter goal, I’m beginning to look for an artist to do the cover of the book. If you have suggestions for who, or samples to show, please don’t hesitate to ping me! ctan.writer @ gmail.com

$3,500 Incentive
Remember, if we pass the regular funding goal and make it all the way to $3,500, Daron will do an IM chat with all backers/donors! (At $4,000, Ziggy will do one…)

Okay, that is all for now. Next story post will be Tuesday like usual, and that night will be the online video chat! See you then!

–Cecilia

10 Comments

  • I think the $50 rate is perfectly reasonable, and I’m glad you raised the threshold. 🙂

    • Janie Friedman says:

      I think it’s reasonable, as well, although I really _like_getting three a week…

    • ctan says:

      I’ve been thinking about raising it for a while, but ultimately it’s that I’ve just got so much going on! My time is very much spoken for right now, so…

  • cyndilucky10 says:

    If I want the previous bonus stories. How do I go about doing that. I was reading this blog last year and somehow got sidetracked. I would like to get caught up after books 1 and 2.

    Thank you!

    • ctan says:

      Cyndi, glad you’re back! Make a donation anytime via paypay to “ctan.writer@gmail.com” and put in the note which bonus story you want (as well as please say you are over 18). Minimum donation is a dollar. The first one is Daron & Ziggy in Los Angeles, the second one follows not long after that.

  • s says:

    Two questions: 1. What about those of us that just found the story, several years too late?

    2. Are the bonuses in the paperback version? I’m considering buying them. I much prefer the feel of a book in my hands to an electronic device…

    • ctan says:

      I’ll try to keep it simple. 🙂

      Right now there are two kinds of bonuses, the adults-only ones and the “other” stuff (like stories from other characters’ points of view, articles, clippings, interviews with the band, etc). The “other” stuff is in the omnibus paperbacks, but the adults-only stuff is only available via email or Patreon.

      The adults-only stuff available to donors either one by one (i.e each time someone puts a dollar in the tip jar I send one out) or in one fell swoop by request (i.e. someone puts in more than a dollar and requests what they want–I don’t judge, if $2 is all someone can spare, that’s cool. I’d say the average to get all 11 bonuses these days is around $10, i.e. pretty close to a dollar per scene.) Anyone who joins my Patreon ranks (pledges to give $1 a week via Patreon, here: https://www.patreon.com/ceciliatan? gets access to the whole collection, too.

      Drop me email if you want more info — I can send you a list of the bonus scenes and you can pick the ones you want if you don’t want them all. (Or only the ones up to where you’ve read.) 🙂 ctan.writer at gmail dot com

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