KickstarterForum.org

Hello, I'm Dylan Madeley. This will be my crowd funding thread. I will begin with a Prefundia link that gives you a preview of my campaign, which will launch in September in support of self-publishing my very first novel.

Enclosed on that Prefundia page is a two and a half minute video that will show you who I am and what I intend to do. The writeup, which is pretty close to the final version that will appear on the Kickstarter page, explains some more details.

http://prefundia.com/projects/view/the-gift-knights-quest/2297/

My early impression of Prefundia: glad if it gets me more attention, but the stats widget doesn't seem so brilliant. On the good side, they didn't make me pay for those stats, I just had to drive over 100 views.

I am set to appear on a podcast with Pam Mertz, the face of "We Stutter". It will be available on iTunes and elsewhere.

What have you done for pre-campaign publicity? Any publicity at all?

My eventual publisher has offered to help, too. After all, he gets pretty much all of what I take (after-fees).

Hope you make it it looks nice !

Thanks! Definitely a dream, and trying to make it come true.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1306119626/the-gift-knights-quest

That's the Kickstarter project launched early. I am 29% funded with 35 days to go. You might notice that the write-up now includes a link to the Stutter Rock Star blog post where I was interviewed for a podcast about my personal struggles, my writing, and this campaign.

So far so good! Who wants a paperback?

55% funded with 25 days to go! Come one, come all, and order yourself books.

Synopsis:

My first novel is going to be self-published via Kickstarter, and it's 55% of the way there with 25 days to go, doing excellent. It's what some people call a low/no-magic fantasy, but I prefer to call it ambiguous magic. More details and excerpts available on this page where pre-orders are also available. I'm excited to be bringing sketch art into the fold very soon for backers to enjoy. Synopsis babble pulled from the page:

"The Gift-Knight's Quest is an ambiguous-magic fantasy set on a large continent with a massive inland sea. This novel concerns the youngest descendants of two families which have traditionally been enemies: the Kenderleys, who now rule the world's largest empire, and the Wancyeks, who have been reduced to common status and have lived quietly in a chunk of their former empire for over a century.

Soon, Chandra Kenderley will find herself overwhelmed trying to cope with an empire of responsibilities. After suspicious tragedies leave her sitting on a throne she never expected would be hers, she must struggle to spare the lives of countless subjects from violent political unrest and the threat of war. But when she finds herself trapped in a room where she was brought for safety, accosted by the worst threat of all, her own life might be the most challenging to save.

Derek will find himself being called away on a journey through loneliness, madness, and a tragic family history he once hoped to leave behind. He will question everything, and life's certainties will seem as easy to grasp as the winds worshipped by his ancestors. He is the Gift-Knight, sent by his homeland to protect one who might kill him; he struggles to discover his true Quest, even if it costs him everything.

I invite you into this vibrant world of intrigue and strategy, the power people create through belief, love and loss, beauty and tragedy. I have put the words together, friends, but only together can we bring this to life."

I like the trend, but realistically this started off with family and friends coming through for me in a big way. Nice to have my base, but really working hard at this mid-campaign plateau to get some strangers involved. My plans can still have family and friends getting me most of the way there, but I always counted on getting wider interest somehow. Hopefully some of the marketing I have just started to pay for will help with that.

Strangers are starting to back me which is so encouraging! Family isn't done helping me out but it's so great to see that people I don't know at all can look at what I've put there and decide I'm for real.

In the meantime, here's my adventure with MS Paint. It happened because I decided to run a marketing event with admissions sold through the campaign. See what I mean:

My first video update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mjpU8-zQC4

I also set up a quid pro quo where I'll review someone's music video if they promote my campaign. We'll see what happens, because I have no idea what appeal I have in this musician's audience.