Figuring Kickstarter Rewards

I’ve had a few requests from supporters of my current Shotguns & Sorcery Kickstarter to come up with a way for them to be able to get in on the original 12 for ’12 Kickstarter I ran for the Brave New World novels. On the face of it, that’s a great idea. I’d love to get more people to read the first trilogy, and I hate to penalize them for having missed word of it back when it was running. I want to encourage my readers to be enthusiastic, no matter when they jump on.

However, I want to make sure I remain fair to the people who did back the first project. They stepped up and backed those books, and I want to make sure they get everything they deserve for that. More to the point, I never want to make them feel like they should have waited for a better deal.

The best idea I have at the moment has its pros and cons. I call it “Respect the Streak.” It’s based around the idea of keeping the streak of funding all the books in each trilogy alive.

If we manage to unlock all three books for the Shotguns & Sorcery Kickstarter, which means raising $12k, then anyone who backs it at $50 or more would get the trilogy ebooks from the Brave New World Kickstarter added in for free. These ebooks will be the Kickstarter-backer editions, but they will not be autographed. That means you’d get those books earlier than the general public, and you’d get the limited editions, but you wouldn’t get my signature on them.

Does that seem cool? And more to the point, is it fair to earlier backers?

People who have pitched in $25 for each Kickstarter will get the autographed limited edition ebooks, so they have a bit of a bonus over the late-comers. They wouldn’t get the hardcopy book that comes at the $50+ levels that someone joining now gets, but if they pitch in $50 this time, they would not only get that but also a second set of ebooks they could give away.

Assuming I go with this, I’d probably do the same thing for the next two Kickstarters too, bumping the bonus level $25 each time.

So I’m turning to you. What should I do?

Six Days Left!

The second Kickstarter for my 12 for ’12 plan comes to a close this Sunday evening. That gives us only six days to raise the rest of the money needed to unlock the next two books in the Shotguns & Sorcery trilogy.

We shattered the goal for the first book in less than 32 hours. After that, the total climbed steadily for about a week. Then, like most Kickstarters, it leveled off. Now it’s started climbing back up again as people realize that time is running out.

We’re at over $5,300 at the moment, which puts us less than $2,700 from unlocking Book 2. I’m fairly confident we’ll manage that. The trick will be adding another $4,000 on top of that to unlock Book 3 too.

In the last Kickstarter, we managed to add on over $7,000 in the last week, and I’m hoping we can repeat that this time around. To do that, though, I’ll need your help.

First, tell people about the project. Twitter and Facebook are great venues. If you have a blog you can post on, better yet. If you’d like to interview me about the project, I’d love to help with that too.

If you have other ideas for promotion, don’t be shy about letting me know. I’m happy to do whatever I can to make this project a success.

Second, if you haven’t backed the Kickstarter project yet, please consider joining us! The project has gone fantastic so far. I wrapped the first drafts of both of the first two books on schedule, and I’m hoping to get the first book revised and into backers’ hands as soon as possible. With your help, this should prove to be one amazing year, and I’d love for you to be a part of it.

In any case, though, thanks to all of my backers for everything you’ve done so far. This literally would be impossible for me to pull off without you. I hope you’ll all stick around and keep tuned in for this final week. I’m thrilled to see how it all winds up!

New Magic: The Gathering Miniseries

Sharp-eyed fans have noticed that IDW has announced a second miniseries of the Magic: The Gathering comics I write for IDW, subtitled The Spell Thief. It features the exact same team that brought you the first miniseries, and it’s due out later this year. As the solicitation text says:

Planeswalker Dack Fayden has followed Sifa Grent into a mysterious plane, where a Titan’s castle looms invitingly in the distance. Entering the castle in search of Sifa,  Dack is soon imprisoned by the Titan and added to his vast collection. Dack must find a way out before the trail to Sifa runs cold and he remains the Titan’s prisoner forever! Special playable Magic: The Gathering card polybagged in each issue!

And click on that cover for a look at series artist Martin Cóccolo’s variant cover for the first issue too.

Streams Crossed!

The Crossing the Streams contest came to an end last night, and today we have winners! First, we have Chris Bauer, whose Hollywood-style mash-up tickled my fancy the most:

Rotten Sweet Tooth
Imagine Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory meets Dawn of the Dead, okay? Starring Vin Diesel or John Cena (whoever is available) as the fearless, chainsaw-wielding candymaster who must use his wits, brawn and knowledge of confectionery delights to defend hapless tourists from the purple horde of rampaging, flesh-eating Oompa Loompas!

The random winner was Jim Auwaerter. I’ll send autographed ARCs of Carpathia out to both Chris and Jim next week. Meanwhile, stay tuned to learn who won the grand prize of a book from every one of the authors involved in the contest.

I had many, many excellent entries, and they gave me more than a few laughs and shivers. I’m happy to see so many creative people out there getting into the spirit of the game. Thanks to every one of them for joining in!

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Magic: The Gathering Signing

I’ll be in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this Sunday around 1 PM to sign Magic: The Gathering comics (and anything else I’ve worked not) at the GrandLAN Gaming Center. This is the first time I’ve done a signing for this series, so stop on by and say hi if you’re around!

Carpathia Out Everywhere Today

Carpathia, my latest novel from Angry Robot, came out in North America on Tuesday. Today it hits shelves in the rest of the world and is available as an ebook in all major formats worldwide. To mark the event, I’ve rounded up a number of the latest reviews and interviews about it.

At Falcata Times, Gareth Wilson loved the book and writes:

It’s gripping, exciting, and imaginative. It could make a great film, but it’s a great book anyway so read it, whether you like sci-fi or not.

Sean Young (a.k.a. Voxael) also enjoyed the book and says:

As with his previous novels, Matt brings his talent for creating great, relatable, characters and then building a compelling story around them (I finished reading Carpathia in three sittings, I couldn’t put it down).

Matt Staggs also asked me to tell him Five Things about Carpathia for Suvudu.com. As part of that, I mentioned:

1) I once designed a board game called Dracula’s Revenge – and also wrote a two-issue comic book miniseries for IDW based on it. (I’m also writing a Magic: The Gathering comic for IDW these days, which features vampires too.) The research for that fed directly into writing Carpathia.

Meanwhile, Jim Ryan interviewed me about Carpathia, 12 for ’12, the Magic: The Gathering comic and many other things.

Oh! And there’s this interview with Paul Simpson of Sci-Fi Bulletin about Carpathia too.

So, go grab yourself a copy of Carpathia. And let me know what you think. Thanks!

Carpathia Preview and Reviews

Angry Robot has posted a preview of Carpathia, which hits stores in the US today. Check it out below and read the first seven chapters for free!

 

If that’s not enough to convince you, here’s another review that showed up this morning from Paul Simpson at SciFiBulletin, who gives the book an 8 out of 10:

There’s plenty of gore and horrifying incidents for those who like their vampire fiction to reflect the ’reality’ of the situation, rather than the sparkly Twilight variety, and Forbeck uses the social mores of the time to good effect (a kiss on the lips is infinitely more startling than the presence of vampires, for example!)

Verdict: A fast-paced, thoroughly enjoyable historical horror novel. 

Carpathia is on sale now in US stores and will be available in the UK and for ebook worldwide on March 1.

Carpathia in the USA Today!

My latest novel from Angry Robot – Carpathia – hits stores in the US today, and is also available as an ebook directly from Angry Robot and for the Kindle in the UK. It should be on shelves in the UK on March 1, and in the Kindle and Nook (and hopefully iBooks and Kobo) in the US that day too.

In a nutshell, the RMS Carpathia is the name of the ship that picked up the survivors of the Titanic disaster on April 15, 1912, nearly 100 years ago. Carpathia is also the name of the Transylvanian mountain range in which sits Castle Dracula. The novel proposes that this is no coincidence, and things get bloody from there.

To mark the day, I wrote a Take Five about the book for Matt Staggs over at Suvudu. That’s five behind-the-scenes facts about the book that you might not know.

The book has been getting great reviews so far. I’ve listed a number of them on the book’s page, but here are some of the better ones I haven’t mentioned here yet.

At Adventures Fantastic, Keith raves about it:

The dialogue is sharp and crisp, witty and fast paced… The imagery is often creepy… [A] highly enjoyable vampire novel, enough so that I’d be willing to read more of Forbeck’s work, and one I recommend if you like traditional vampires.

At Lightsaber Rattling, Pete Morrison writes:

This book is just like Titanic and Twilight combined, if both had been cool and not totally lame… Forbeck has a terrific way of taking the modern mythology that has developed around vampires and taking that myth back to its roots and then spinning it off in a wonderful new direction… There is no way that this book doesn’t become a movie.

At Starburst Magazine, Ed Fortune loves it too:

The first few chapters read as a thrilling tale of survival over impossible odds, which is a good a start, but thankfully, it gets much, much better… Forbeck tells the tale in a tight, character driven way, and doesn’t spare any punches. This is a rapidly moving thriller, with plenty of twists and turns along the way, and is one of the most entertaining horror stories I’ve read in a good long while… Fans of Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula will find a lot to love here, as will anyone who prefers their horror with a hint of claustrophobia.

So, go out and grab the book today if you can, or on March 1 if you must wait. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

Meeting in the World of Warcraft

Next Thursday, March 1, I’m going to hold an author talk in the most unusual venue I’ve seen yet. I’m slated to speak with a group of librarians, using World of Warcraft as the medium. It starts at 4 PM Central Time on the Saurfang (Pacific) realm, in the Ironforge Library. You can find details and directions here.

Many thanks to my friend Liz Danforth, who suggested me for this, and to Ellen Forsyth, who set the whole thing up. I believe it’s open to the public, so if you play World of Warcraft and have time to stop on by, please do. I’d love to chat with you.