Moe Lane's Blog, page 86
February 13, 2025
Technical thoughts on the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit, 02/13/2025.
Short version: things are going extremely well for the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit. Sufficiently so that I am wondering whether Kickstarter is a cost-effective move. It’s not that Kickstarter is bad. It’s just never given me these kinds of numbers.
To unpack a little: at the moment, I am at 83 backers, and $2,020 on a $500 goal. The ratio is 37/63 returning/new backers, and I am at a 13% returning backer rate. My average pledge is just under $25. Let me put up some numbers on how that compares to previous projects:
ProjectBackersAmountBacker %Avg PledgeR B ROldNewFermi Res WB83$2,02037%63%$24.3413%TFR 262$2,13480%20%$34.4224%Tinsel Rain83$2,58965%35%$31.1933%Pickman23$36290%10%$15.7411%TFR 157$1,09185%15%$19.1433%Frozen Dreams149$5,238N/AN/A$35.16N/AAs you can see, we’re ten days into the Worldbook Backerkit and already it’s tied for second in backers, fourth in total money gathered, and leading in new backer percentage (technically Frozen Dreams had 100%, but that’s not really meaningful, since it’s the baseline). What’s not visible from this is that the current project isn’t as front-loaded as the other ones were, with the sort-of exception of Frozen Dreams; crowdfunding projects traditionally have doldrums in the middle, and I’m having them with the worldbook, but I’m still seeing daily churn for right now.
I should also note that obviously the numbers for the worldbook don’t take into account the boost in backers that traditionally comes in the last two days of a campaign, either. I don’t think I have enough data yet to even make a guess, but I should get some. A significant amount? Maybe. The Old Backer and Return Backer Rate percentages suggest that my usual audience hasn’t fully engaged yet, and those people generally like me.
All in all, it’s hard to argue that Backerkit isn’t doing a better job for me than Kickstarter did. I’ve been heeding their suggestions pretty closely on this project, from building interest beforehand to growing my mailing list to blindly following their instructions on advertising, and so far it’s been working – actually, no. If it all shuts down today I would score this as ‘it worked,’ and everything after this is pretty much gravy. Their customer service is also spot-on, although I have some thoughts about handling smaller projects that I’ll save for my after-project discussions with them.
So that’s that. Oh: back my project, if you haven’t yet. You deserve a bit of fun.
Moe Lane
PS: Kickstarter is not bad now. Their system works perfectly fine, and may indeed work better for other projects. I’m just favorably impressed by how much better Backerkit is working for me.
February 12, 2025
02/12/2025 Snippet, JUDITH AND THE FLIM-FLAM MAN.
Working title. Judith is not exactly horrible, by the way. It’ll hopefully become clearer later.
Judith Stormcrow peered at her client, silently cursing the way he had hired her in public two days before. Thanks to that, she couldn’t just kill him. People would talk.
If this ‘Gregor of Lostvale’ had noticed her newly-discovered murderous intent, he was showing no sign of it as the expedition set up camp for the night. Then again, Judith thought, how smart would it be to show he knew? Nextworld, what could he do about it, even if he does? Nobody in camp would defend him if I just cut his throat right now.
But. Again, people would talk.
Patreon!
My stuff on DriveThruRPG!
A reminder: I have a few 99 cent tabletop RPG supplements available on DriveThruRPG. They’re system-generic, and very eclectic. Check them out here!
02/12/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.
Back to this, yes.
The cleaver-man looked fuller when he and Reithner returned, an hour later. His face was distinctly ruddier, and his blue eyes glittered in a way that Tobias found bizarrely reassuring. You didn’t want to get too dead inside, because these days that was a great way to get dead outside, too. Reithner looked somehow off, and it took Tobias a moment to realize why. She was still wearing her helmet, but the faceplate was now retracted.
His captor clearly saw the anger flickering across Tobias’s face. “She took it off of her own desire, American,” he sneered. “You can stay sealed up, if you’re so afraid of a little fresh air.”
“Fresh air? This entire complex has been thoroughly contaminated with Red Imperial materials,” Tobias snapped. “Of course I’m afraid of it.”
“Your loss,” the cleaver-man told him, with what sounded like real cheerfulness. “Takes all kinds to make some worlds, doesn’t it? You don’t want to taste some different thinking in the breeze, that’s on you. The Lieutenant here is not so fussy.”
Patreon!
Reminder: the SPSFC Autopsy is tonight at 7 PM.
It’ll be broadcast on Twitter at 7 PM Eastern Time, so tune in. I’m still finding out how I join a Twitter Space, so that’ll be interesting. I dunno how long I’ll be on, either. Might be five minutes. Might be the whole thing. Heck, I might get bumped at the last minute.
theSPSFC AUTOPSY: The once great Self Publishing Science Fiction Competition publicly immolated themselves by politically persecuting authors they have different opinions from, so let's join @Devon_Eriksen_, @_GregoryMichael, @SFbookclub & others as they dissect their remains.… pic.twitter.com/20mHRL4IxC
— Science Fiction Book Club.org (@SFbookclub) February 10, 2025
PS: This is all about GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND, or at least it should be. I’m kind of grumbly about that…
#commissionearned
Awkward Question of the Day, I Honestly Am Not Sure How That Plays Out edition.
I mean, ten grand is ten grand. For a self-published author, that’s something like two books! With editing! And bespoke cover art! We are probably very easy to bribe.
All of which begs the question: what would have happened if the AI people had simply handed out 10K checks to genre authors like it was the end of SMALL SOLDIERS? https://t.co/SbW3cdgMjx
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) February 12, 2025
#commissionearned
February 11, 2025
‘Sundown.’
Sundown, Gordon Lightfoot[image error]
#commissionearned
The CAPTAIN AMERICA 1979 Honest Trailer.
You will not be surprised to hear that CAPTAIN AMERICA 1979 was bad, and so was its sequel. You may be surprised to see who the villain in the second film was, though. I was. I was also mortified on his behalf. I know that sometimes you have to take a paycheck where you can get it, but still…
More on Milken Forts.
Not going to end up in the Fermi Resolution Worldbook. It’s for something else.
Colonel Valdarr Milken
Strictly speaking, Colonel Valdarr Milken (2413-2485) did not invent the style of fortification that bears his name. He was an engineering officer in the Kentucky Free State’s National Guard who abruptly resigned his commission in 2445 in order to become a ‘mercenary’ in Hershey’s service. Oddly, the Kentuckian military never held a grudge over this. Nor did they stop Milken from enthusiastically recruiting from Kentucky for his regiments. Milken’s Hershey service was exclusively in the Ohio Marcher country, where he made a name for himself as a clever, dogged siege-breaker.
His regiment was the first over the wall during the capture of Unholy Toledo in 2470 AD; Milken lost an eye in that battle, and retired soon after. He spent the next decade visiting the various fortresses and castles captured during the liberation of the Marcher country, with a special emphasis on his own campaigns. In 2481 the colonel published his life’s work Keeps on the Borderlands, widely considered to be the definitive contemporary treatise on the topic of repurposed fortifications. It’s even shown up in captured Dominion War Mage libraries. It’s hardly surprising that later generations would end up naming the forts he studied after him, although it probably would have annoyed the man. Colonel Milken was not someone who liked sloppy nomenclature.
