System Apocalypse Anthology 2 (Patreon)

I know there's a few people wanting to know about / write for it / read the next SA Anthology.

I'd love to do it, but there's an issue.

The Short Story Anthology 1 is still running at a loss. At the current rate of return, I expect to make back my outlay (since I paid my contributors for their shorts and paid for editing) in about another 14-15 months. That's assuming sales don't drop further (it will). Audiobook shouldn't be that much faster at current sales rate. Maybe even slower, frankly.

So. Around 1 1/2 to 2 years for the money to be made back. At the earliest. 

Which means that we're looking at either:

- not doing it

- paying contributors a significantly reduced amount. At current rates and earnings, I'm looking at about... $0.01 a word. Which is ridiculous, considering I'm asking people to give up at least a day and more likely 2-3 days.

So.

I've got a plan.

The updated Anthology

Firstly, one thing I realised that asking people for 10,000-20,000 words was a mistake. That's just too long for a short story. That's basically a novella. The new anthology is going to ask for shorter stories - ranging from 3,000 - 8,000 words for each short. I expect that most people will fall in the 6k range. 

I intend to pay ONLY to 8k words. If you write more but I like the work, I'll probably make the offer at the max pay rate and anything after that is not going to get paid. In most cases, if you go over by that much; it's probably the wrong kind of story anyway.

In addition, instead of planning for a 100k word anthology, I'm going to plan for a 60k word anthology. That means I'm looking at around 10 stories. 

More contributors, less time requirement on their part.

And a lower pay rate (probably) at $0.04 cents.

Why the probably?

Financing through Kickstarter

I'm going to finance the anthology via Kickstarter. This way, I don't have to worry about whether it'll pay out, etc. 

In this case, I'm aiming to have it start at around US$2,500 or US$3,500 (basically, am I including editing and my potential income from publishing or not). 

Stretch goals will:

- increase word count

- increase payout

- add audiobook

On the point about the audiobook. While I loved the fact that I've got so many narrators, the time and effort involved means that I'm unlikely to do it again. Especially when I have so many more stories this time. 6 stories and 6 narrators was viable. 10 stories and 10 narrators? Nope!

If I can get a Kickstarter going, then the only thing that isn't counted is my time (which, frankly, is significant). So, that's one negative.

Pay Rates & Word Count

See, if I stretch the anthology to its max size in my view of 100k paid words, that means I have space for about 15 shorts. Which is great... but I don't know if I'll get 15 GOOD quality submissions. Which is concerning. 

I could just adjust the pay rate to go higher than - pay everyone who did submit a good story more. But that's not really nice and might be breaking my 'promise' to the backers who are expecting to get 15 shorts.

I could write my own shorts to fill the space. But that's a LOT of shorts to write about, especially when you realise that I might only get like... 6 or 7 good stories.

And, here's the thing - do people care about pay rates. $0.06 a word is my goal because that is the 'pro rate' for SFWA. But, that's $0.06 for first publication rights for ebook only. Not audio. So I already paid a little under pro rates.

Then again, many (almost all) the writers weren't 'pros'. It's why I had to pay for editing, why I spent time fixing stuff with people one-on-one in some cases or answering questions. So, I'm entirely unsure of how to do that or what is 'good'. I'd LOVE to pay people more; but maybe it's worth taking a step back and consider what the backers want to see. And what, I myself should plan for.

Maybe I keep it to 60k words stretch, have one pay raise bump and then go audio. And that's it. Because I don't want to overpromise in terms of shorts if I can't get them.

Kickstarter Rewards

And, of course, there's the question of rewards.

Current plans include:

- everyone gets a short story (either Roxley's or the most recent one you guys received. :) )

- taking the anthology off Kindle Unlimited, making it available for me to distribute as a reward to everyone who contributes.

- people backing at the 'audiobook reward level' can get coupon codes from ACX without an issue, so that will be simple enough. It might be a problem if they are NOT on ACX US & UK, so I'd have to be careful there. Since I'm stuck on exclusivity, I can't even say 'I'll give it to you later' unless they want to wait a year.

On the other hand, those people will get the 2nd audiobook free if we hit that stretch goal. Which might make putting that stretch goal higher more viable and sensible.

- everyone who backs off minimum amount ($5) gets the anthology in ebook format of course.

- I could add rewards for my other wide books (AoB & Hidden Wishes), but I'm not sure that helps with this anthology. Still... better than nothing as an option

- for rather obvious (Yukon) reasons, I'm considering not offering signed copies. Those are just expensive to send out.

- do I want to offer other things? Personal Skype meeting? Consultation of your writing or business plan? 

Any other suggestions?

Conclusion

Anyway, that's the basic plan. Kate and I are busy playing with this entire idea and I need to work on some graphics (anyone of you a graphic artist? I've got a paying job! :P) but the general plan is to have it ready around mid-to-late April. And run it for around 21 days.

Thoughts? Recommendations? Suggestions?