First, the awesome bit, originally announced at the Alliteration Ink News Blog:
Alliteration Ink is proud to present the Kickstarter for WHAT FATES IMPOSE
Rather than hear me blather on about it, I can instead let Alasdair Stuart (host of Pseudopod) tell you what he thought about the book in this excerpt from “Reading From the Book of Holy Jagger” (the audio is a CC-licensed track “Anaerobica” by PerlssDj):
We’re raising the money to pay the authors what they deserve. Not just over time, but up-front.
And that’s why it’s interesting that this is (if everything works correctly) the first post from this blog to get mirrored to the @SFWAauthors twitter feed. (SFWA = Science fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)
Alliteration Ink is not a SFWA qualifying market. There’s some pretty strict qualifications you need in order to become one, and I’m not there yet. There’s some criticism – some very valid – about the way that SFWA awards “qualifying market” status… and that’s not counting the other (again, often very valid) complaints about other aspects of the organization.
But.
I was so proud when I made my first qualifying sale. I was thrilled when I made my third qualifying sale and became a full SFWA member.
It was something to strive for. Even though I sold other stories – even at qualifying pay levels, but to non-qualifying markets – I still strove for that third qualifying sale.
And now I’m going through the same leveling up experience as a publisher. I still think royalty models (if done properly) are relevant and valid ways of compensating authors. I will still be doing new projects under that model.
But at the same time, I have something to strive for. A level of professionalism and conduct – and pay – to reach for. I don’t have the luxury of being lazy or saying that it’s good enough – because I have a standard to live up to. And SFWA helps provide that standard by saying what a qualifying market consists of.
And this Kickstarter is a step along that path.
This is going to be a great book, folks – there’s award winning, talented, and award winning talented authors all through this book. Nayad’s done a great job selecting stories and weaving it together (and honestly, helping this project come together). And some of the rewards for backers make me want to claim them.
Go check out (and back) the project at https://bit.ly/kickfate today!
#SFWApro