Last night, just before I went to bed, the Monster Academy Kickstarter drive cracked the $14k barrier. This unlocked Stretch Goal #2, which means that all backers at $75 or more now get a total of nine ebooks (the Brave New World trilogy, the Shotguns & Sorcery trilogy, and signed copies of the Monster Academy trilogy), plus a softcover copy of the Monster Academy omnibus. That’s a pretty stunning deal. Thanks to all of you who helped make that happen!
At the moment, we’re gunning hard for Stretch Goal #3 at $15k. Once we hit that, everyone getting a printed Monster Academy book ($35+ levels) gets a free Monster Academy ruler/bookmark stuffed into their book. Just beyond that, at $16k, we unlock Stretch Goal #4, which gives $100+ backers all 12 ebooks of the 12 for ’12 novels.
There’s more beyond that, of course, but I’ll be thrilled if we get that far. At the moment, Monster Academy has moved up the ranks of the best-funded 12 for ’12 drives to take the #2 spot. The #1 spot still goes to Dangerous Games, which hit $18,002. Topping that is a tall order, but we still have 11 hours left, so let’s push hard and see what happens.
A quick round-up of some of the press from this week:
- An interview with Christian Lindke and Shawna Benson for their Geekerati show on Blog Talk Radio.
- A post I wrote on BookSpotCentral.com about Kickstarting Novels.
- A post on my own blog about how and why I started the 12 for ’12 project.
- A Google Hangout I held on Thursday night, recorded for YouTube.
Probably the favorite thing I’ve done for all of this, though, is an essay I wrote for Jennifer Brozek’s blog about what I love about Monster Academy. It helped crystallize the story in my head and realize what the story’s really all about. Here’s the money quote:
It’s not a story of a chosen child who fulfills his destiny. It’s the tale of a bunch of kids who were supposed to grow up to be the bad guys teaming up to do the right thing in the end, despite all the odds arrayed against them.
That speaks to me. None of us are chosen ones, especially when we’re kids. We’re not fated to succeed. We have to work for it, often against people who don’t like us for reasons beyond our control.
To me, that’s a story worth telling. I hope you find it to be a story worth reading too.
Thanks for all your phenomenal and fantastic support. Here’s to a big finish!
