Kickstarter campaign for Clockwork Phoenix 4 - Edit 1
Before modification by Aeryn at 02/08/2012 02:13:35 PM
So, Clockwork Phoenix is an anthology of short stories, edited by Mike Allen, both fantasy and science fiction, from new and established authors, with the theme being "Tales of beauty and strangeness." And that is an excellent description; it's weird stuff that I like a lot. I am not generally a fan of short stories, I find them unsatisfying, confusing, abrupt, and they don't sustain my attention from story to story. Notable exceptions are:
- Future on Fire - old collection ed. Orson Scott Card
- Stories of Your Life - Ted Chiang (because come on, Ted Chiang)
- Women as Demons - Tanith Lee (some of her best stories, and still I couldn't read the book in one go, but I kept coming back to it, because its so good)
- Tales of the Apocalypse - Maureen F. McHugh (came out recently, widely praised, and it's all that and more; read it like a novel, in one day all the way through)
and
- Clockwork Phoenix (1,2, and 3) - the 3rd volume was my favorite, then 1st and 2nd.
A few days ago I was thinking again, "wouldn't it be nice if they did a volume 4 sometime... " and then came across a link on SfSignal that indeed they are! Their publisher is having difficulties so they are crowd funding it. They are almost up to the point ($8k) where they can pay professional rates of 5 cents per word to the authors, and the book is definitely a good. So why should you contribute?
1. Help them get to the $8,000 goal. Any money above that are used directly for the project, and for the next anthology.
2. The rewards are awesome - for a $5 pledge, you get a free ebook (could be PDF) of any of the first 3 editions (and scaled up until $20 for 4 ebooks). For $25, you get a trade paperback of the book (signed by the editor), and 4 ebooks, and 3 bonus stories.
That's pretty much the clincher that makes it into a good sale rather than a charitable endeavor. Can't pass that up. (You can also pledge more than $25 and still get the 25 level reward, which is the best IMO). This isn't a scam, btw. Involved are established, published, award winning authors. One of the stories in volume 2 even won the Nebula award. And the people involved are very passionate about the project.
3. If you missed it before, this is your chance to read these books!
- Future on Fire - old collection ed. Orson Scott Card
- Stories of Your Life - Ted Chiang (because come on, Ted Chiang)
- Women as Demons - Tanith Lee (some of her best stories, and still I couldn't read the book in one go, but I kept coming back to it, because its so good)
- Tales of the Apocalypse - Maureen F. McHugh (came out recently, widely praised, and it's all that and more; read it like a novel, in one day all the way through)
and
- Clockwork Phoenix (1,2, and 3) - the 3rd volume was my favorite, then 1st and 2nd.
A few days ago I was thinking again, "wouldn't it be nice if they did a volume 4 sometime... " and then came across a link on SfSignal that indeed they are! Their publisher is having difficulties so they are crowd funding it. They are almost up to the point ($8k) where they can pay professional rates of 5 cents per word to the authors, and the book is definitely a good. So why should you contribute?
1. Help them get to the $8,000 goal. Any money above that are used directly for the project, and for the next anthology.
2. The rewards are awesome - for a $5 pledge, you get a free ebook (could be PDF) of any of the first 3 editions (and scaled up until $20 for 4 ebooks). For $25, you get a trade paperback of the book (signed by the editor), and 4 ebooks, and 3 bonus stories.
That's pretty much the clincher that makes it into a good sale rather than a charitable endeavor. Can't pass that up. (You can also pledge more than $25 and still get the 25 level reward, which is the best IMO). This isn't a scam, btw. Involved are established, published, award winning authors. One of the stories in volume 2 even won the Nebula award. And the people involved are very passionate about the project.
3. If you missed it before, this is your chance to read these books!