Crowdfunding via Pubslush���

So, I'm trying out this Pubslush idea. 

If you aren't familiar yet then here's the rundown: You're familiar with KickStarter, IndieGoGo, CrowdFunder and RocketHub, and the differences don't amount to much in operation but there is one particular twist to Pubslush--they handle specifically crowdfunding for literary projects. 

I'm about to re-publish Rune & Claw under a different pen name, one devoted to fantasy and science fiction, and one of the most difficult things about launching a novel is funding the marketing. It takes a lot of constant work and marketing can rack up quite a cost, not to mention the multiple revisions and rounds of editing needed for a full length novel. As I've managed to connect with an editor who believes in the project and is a wonderful human being, what's left is the long marketing campaign ahead to get this book in front of readers.

Why crowdfund it? Imagine that if 5,000 folks contributed $1 to get a digital copy of the book. That's 5,000 readers and enough money to employ real talent to the task of getting the book on the right blogs, in newsletters, even a print ad in LGBT magazines and newspapers.

Wait, why those places?

Here's something you may not know and it's the main reason that I'm working on this project in the first place. In Fantasy and Science Fiction, LGBTQ main characters are unheard of as main, POV characters. I wrote a previous post about this some time ago in April when I first announced that I was moving Adam Saint into mainstream fantasy. I have a fifteen book series planned now, after months of outlining and research, brainstorming, and writing. I wrote a 97k word full length novel that is already going to be, I think, awesome--with an editor it's going to be just fantastic. With money to pay my editor for another round of editing after the next revisions? Adam Saint will be a name that's mentioned in lists that include Harry Dresden and Kate Daniels. 

This is important because to date there are almost no mainstream fantasy and science fiction series that feature an LGBTQ main character, especially those published by the big houses. There are some indie series of varying quality, but they are normally more in the vein of paranormal romance than hard genre fiction, and the short novel length is the king of these books. If you're wondering when the last time is that you picked up a book from the shelf from the Barnes and Noble fantasy/scifi section that had a gay protagonist in it, the answer is once, and only if you read the Last Herald Mage series by Mercedes Lackey. Otherwise the answer is never. We are woefully under represented in fantasy and science fiction, to the point of being nearly non-existent. 

Launching a series in a mainstream genre, especially fantasy and science fiction, could lead to a more open policy on accepting manuscripts with gay leads in them. Right now, it is not an exaggeration to say that agents and editors often will simply refuse to put a book out there with a gay main character (and often even supporting characters). That's slowly changing, but one or two book won't do it, and just writing them isn't enough.

Writing a novel is where the work begins for indie authors, and the work itself is never ending. I will be marketing and promoting Adam Saint for the foreseeable future. If I do it right, and have the resources to do it well, then there is a possibility of proving to agents and editors the value of an LGBT main character in a Fantasy series. 

Pubslush is great for just this kind of thing. you get to gauge interest, raise money for the project, and ideally give a complex project a great leg up in being seen and heard. In my case, just a Dollar gets you a copy of Rune & Claw. If you share, like, retweet the campaign, it'd only take 5,000 $1 contributions to help launch this book series in a big way that may well help see other big series releases into mainstream genre fiction featuring LGBT heroes.