The Business: Post-Mortem on the Star Knight Campaign

This post is a follow-on from a post I did at the main blog as the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign approached its conclusion. Where that post is about what I'd expected to be my post-campaign timeline, this is me looking back over what went down.

• Constraints: I had nothing in terms of monetary capital. The campaign's purpose was to raise some. That I not only hit my initial goal, but--at the very end--managed to double it, is a fantastic success. In addition to having no money, I also came into this with little exposure to other campaigns and no experience of my own; I took what advice I found beforehand and followed it as well as I could. I attribute my success in large part to heeding that advice.
  
• Media: I made four podcast appearances over the course of the campaign, and on a few more I got the word out via chatroom participation, but of the four appearance the first--my Killstream appearance--had the strongest immediate impact. It was also my worst media appearance of the four. I had a similar impact just by participating in every World Class Bullshitters livestream I could, and both are equal to the support I got from the Twitch streamers I solicited for support.
  
• Personality vs. Product Appeal: Nick Cole is consistent in saying that readers are loyal first and foremost to genre, and I tried to emphasize in word and image whom I'm appealing to. The problem? A lot of the groups I'm friendly with were far more on board with "#StarWarsNotStarWars" than anything else. It didn't help that I hadn't bothered to break it down to something most folks could grok in a second. "Star Wars + Voltron + Robotech" (+ Deus Vult, for some segments) worked. My personality worked more to my benefit in the later podcast appearances, and that will become an asset going forward, but only if properly employed.
  
• Salesmanship: I suck at sales. I should not be surprised, as I have no experience as such. Advice proffered, publicly and privately, I've archived for later re-reading. Watching Nick Cole's recent video series shows that this writing business really is a business, and nothing was more obvious than how clear it was that Nick scripted and rehearsed each video he's done. I have to suck less at sales going forward until I get good at it, or I'll die of old age before I can buy my own mountain.
  

TLDR: I succeeded, despite the revelation of a significant lack of experience and gap in my skillset.

If I am to build on this success going forward, I must pay the price required to fill those gaps and learn as much as I can from my experiences here. I have things yet to learn about this entire scene, which means trying to learn from others' mistakes on a whole new set of things I need to do.

Some of this stuff I need to delegate to another, and at this stage that's purely due to time issues; I'm getting a good sense of what will require my focused attention and what won't (and when) now, so I'm getting an idea of what needs to be delegated and when- and what I can just rotate to the backburner while I put my energy on something else instead.

Which leads to a book/writing related thing: I'm a pantser by nature, heavily visual in my imagination (which is why my lack of drawing skill frustrates me at times; I'm think that this too is a skill I should just suck up and build up) with outlining usually me laying down waypoints to hit instead of a road to pave, and that worked this time. For Book Two forward, that needs to tighten up; I need to clearly mark out that plot before I fire up Scrivener to write that beast, especially if I hope to attain Pulp Speed and write as fast as the creator of The Shadow- Walter B. Gibson.

Right now, I'm aiming at manuscript sizes of 60K words; that's easily done in two weeks if I can reach Pulp Speed (about 6K words a day) (After listening to Nick's video on Audible and audiobooks, I'm wondering if I should bundle three of them together for the audiobook offerings if I stay at that manuscript size.)

Anyway, the money's making it's way to me now. Soon I'll cut Brian a check and give him the manuscript. At that time, I'll bring up two things: merchandise and a logo. The former I want to set up so I have additional revenue streams going. The latter I know I need for branding purposes, and I think that's where I can signal that--like Legend of the Galactic Heroes--this is a property with old-school sensibility (much like how Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark did 40ish years ago).

Excerpt From "Reavers of the Void": Aces Face Off

This is it! This is the final day for the Indiegogo campaign, and so here's the final manuscript excerpt. This is from Part 3, during the Battle of Hell's Heart, which is the climax of the novel's story. If this gets you moving, go here and push the project over the line for the Stretch Goal.

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Ramsey’s escape from Hell’s Heart quickly reached both sides. On MacBeth, Gabriela sighed with relief as she waited in Duke Ireton’s quarters. Sibley and Creton smiled at each other as they prepared to return to battle in Baden-Powell, and Ireton smiled at Captain Denten as he called for a rearrangement of the fleet’s battle line. On Revenge, Gori took a deep breath at this big change in the battle. Jack recognized the severity of the situation while fending off the four New Roman aces still out to get him, and Zuzu felt a sense of dread at the news.

“Gori!” Zuzu said, “I’m almost dry. I need to come in!”

“Get in if you can and make it fast.” Jack said, “You’re no good out here with just a sword.”

More missiles flew in from far away now, coming straight for the fortress. “They’re reorganizing their battle line.” Gori said, “Battleships, carriers, and heavy cruisers are standing off while their escorts are coming in to assist the mecha. They’re going for a partial englobement.”

“How many more carriers to go?” Jack said, slipping past the ace flight once more and dodging around a rock. Gori looked on the viewscreen. “Three sunk. Three away. That leaves four. We’re going to be pressed hard to hold this fleet back until everyone else is away.”

“We’ve got our ace in the hole.” Zuzu said, now approaching the ventral aft of Revenge as its hangar ramp extended, “He’s come out if it gets that bad.”

As Zuzu approached the battleship, Ramsey in Durendal marked the location of Anakim, Revenge, and Jack’s Black Knight in addition to the massive Goblin horde as well as Revenge’s Hobgoblin squadron. The remaining pirate escorts and carriers then got marked. Ramsey forwarded that data to Baden-Powell, which spread it to the rest of the allied fleet.

“Where’s that Solar Guardsman?” Jack said, finally getting one of those aces with a beam sword through the chest—and cockpit, and powerplant—and destroying it.

Zuzu, taking in some drinks while the technicians on Revenge’s flight deck hurry through rearming, “Gori?”

Gori looked at the viewscreen for a moment. “Oh no!”

Ramsey locked on to Jack’s Black Knight. “Coming to assist, New Romans.” He closed into range for his beam rifle, and quickly fell in for the fallen comrade, needing no time to adjust to the aces’ teamwork. Yet, having superior power, it became apparent to the three aces that Ramsey should take the lead and wordlessly let him assume the front position in their flight. “Skip the launchers!” Gori said, calling down to the bay, “Rockets and the long rifle. GO!”

Zuzu tossed her empties out and closed up the cockpit as the technicians strapped the rocket pods to Anakim’s legs. A few more attached spare magazines to Anakim’s hips, and Zuzu took the long rifle in hand as she again departed Revenge’s hangar.

“I’m on my way!”

“Good!” Jack said, dodging rifle fire from one direction while in hand-to-hand with another and Ramsey circling for another opening, “I’m also running low and need to fall back.”

Anakim’s thrusters went to full burn and rocketed Zuzu to Jack’s location. As she approached, she took aim with the long rifle and fired. One of the other Cataphracts flew behind a rock, but it wasn’t enough. The rifle’s slug penetrated the rock and lodged into the doomed pilot’s powerplant, causing to explode in a brilliant fireball.

“Stay on Black Knight!” Ramsey said, “I’ll take care of this one.”

Ramsey peeled off, beam rifle ready. Zuzu took aim with the rifle and fired, but Ramsey rolled away from the line of fire with aplomb. Zuzu countered by launching her pods at him, forcing Ramsey to shoot them down and giving Zuzu concealment for her next shot. Ramsey rolled away from that one also, and the next, until he got within range for his rifle. Zuzu swapped to Anakim’s beam rifle and the two began darting between rocks and wrecks, attempting to catch the other out of positions for a fatal shot.

Several rocks got blasted to pebbles, and several wrecks got blasted to pieces, as each scored near-hits that would have proven fatal had they come just a moment earlier or later than when they got under cover. Then Zuzu got an opening on Ramsey, but Ramsey rolled off the line and threw power into the thrusters to rush Zuzu; he swapped the rifle for the beam sword, and Zuzu had to toss her rifle away to get Anakim’s out to block in time.

“Not this time!” Ramsey said, grabbing Anakim’s main hand arm with his off-hand and shoving Anakim into a nearby rock. With his sword arm he reversed the blade and brought it down to thrust into Anakim’s neck. Zuzu saw the stroke coming and tried to block the stroke with her off-hand arm, but even with the beam sword’s blade going through that arm it was not enough. The beam burned through the off-hand forearm, through-and-through its armor and structure, and then pierced Anakim at the neck. Zuzu knew Anakim was now doomed and punched out.

“Damn you, Roland!” she yelled as she recovered her bearings. “I’m going in for our trump card. I’m tired of this.”

Ramsey didn’t hesitate to change targets once he saw Zuzu punch out. He grabbed the long rifle off Anakim’s back and took aim at Black Knight. “One shot left, but it’s all I need.”

Ramsey took aim, waited for the other two Cataphracts to get out of the line of fire, and then fired. Jack felt his mecha lurch with the impact, ripping through the back thrusters. That was enough. Unable to maneuver, Jack soon got overwhelmed and had his mecha’s limbs severed one-two, one-two. He took punched out, getting clear just before the New Roman aces finished Black Knight off.

“Withdraw to MacBeth.” Ramsey said to the New Roman aces, “You’ve gotten your revenge.”

“Almost. The battleship remains.”

Excerpt From "Reavers of the Void": A Suspect Sacrifice

This week's excerpt is from a chapter tenatively titled "Rhythm Emotion", and it occurs after Count Qis petitioned the Court of Stars to come to House Ireton's aide in enacting reprisal against Red Eyes while rescuing Countess Gabriela. If this is the Space Opera you want more of, then go here and back the campaign.

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Qis departed from Rome in a diplomatic skycar, flying North to the ancestral homeland of his family in Scandinavia. Landing in Oslo, Norway, he arrived at the family’s home on Earth. The servants welcomed him home. As the footman took his cloak, he addressed the majordomo. “All is as I specified, Robert?”

Robert, an old family retainer, smiled and nodded. “Your meal shall be delivered to your office presently, my lord.” Qis smiled and put a gloved hand on the old man. “Your timing remains impeccable. As soon as I am finished, I am not to be disturbed until I say otherwise.”

“Very good, my lord.” Robert said, and Qis took leave of him and the others. He walked up the stairs and into the secure wing of the house, where he kept his office on Earth, and as he entered the chambers he saw a boy about Creton’s age next to a delivery cart arranging his meal. Qis kept quiet, watching the boy a moment execute his duty, making note of the lad’s eagerness to ensure he did exactly as told. Only when the boy turned around to leave did he notice Qis standing there.

“My lord!” he said, quickly bowing as expected of a child of his station, “Your meal is ready.”

Qis smirked at him. “I see. Hold a moment, lad.”

Qis took his seat at the table prepared. He looked over the food and drink arrayed, a modest plate of fresh fruit next to a warm sandwich, a bowl of soup, and a cup of tea. He then waived the boy over.

“You’re far too nervous, my boy, and such nerves ruins a lad’s character quickly.” Qis said as he handed the boy the cup, “By my permission, have some tea. It will calm you.”

The boy bowed and took the cup. “Thank you, my lord.” he said, and took a long sip. The boy handed the cup back, and a moment passed.

“Better?” Qis looked on, as if expecting something.

The boy’s eyes went wide in surprise, and his chested seized up. Then he collapsed, looking upon Qis with an arm outstretched. Qis took it, and went down on one knee.

“I will punish those who did this, my boy.” Qis said as the boy shook, “Your death is not in vain.”

Moments later, the serving boy went limp and Qis keyed into the comlink. “Robert, another attempted averted. Arrange for the boy’s funeral. Pay out from the household budget.”

“Do we have a suspect, my lord?”

“There will be soon enough, Robert. I shall test the rest presently, just in case. For now, brew some coffee and bring it up. It’s going to be a long night.”

“Very good, my lord.”

Qis looked into the eyes of the murdered innocent serving boy. “You are one more sacrifice I make for what Mankind requires: the unity of a King of Kings, all speaking the same tongue that speaks the same creed- the creed of Babylon.”

Excerpt From "Reavers of the Void": An Unconvincing Argument

What follows is an excerpt from Chapter Two, "Just Communication", and it is shortly after Lord Roland and Countess Robin meet. If you like what you see here, head over to Indiegogo and pledge your support.

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Ramsey escorted Gabriela into the Grand Hall, her entourage following behind them. Duchess Ireton called Gabreila over.

“Countess,” Duchess Ireton smiled at her, “everything will be ready for your performance after dinner tonight.”

“My company and I are grateful for your hospitality, Your Grace.” Gabriela said with a curtsy.

Duchess Ireton turned to Ramsey. “Will my noble lord be her escort tonight?”

“Of course!” Gabreila said, “He came all the way from Earth just to see to my security. How more able can a fighting man be than to be beside the lady he is to protect?”

Ramsey bowed. “My lady believes she will perform at her best if she feels secure by my presence.”

“And Count Qis has no objection?”

Gabriela again spoke quickly. “If so, he has not spoken of it, and since unspoken is undone then there is none.”

“Well, then, I shall leave this place to see to the feast’s final preparations before evening prayers. Until then.”

“Until then.” Gabriela curtsied again as the Duchess left.

“Until then.” Ramsey said, bowing, and he turned to Gabriela, “My lady is too eager to speak when it favors her.”

“My lord, you truly think that I am the target of a pirate raid? Here? Even if this is a frontier world, it is still the seat of the Dire March. Our hosts are not fools who use their men at arms as players’ props. Even if such a raid were to come, what it would take to reach this castle—much less take this prize—is beyond the reckoning of the most fevered authors’ imaginations.”

“That, my lady, are the famous last words of many who would ends their lives in thrall to some tyrant- or worse. Read less of those fevered authors and more of those revered chroniclers. Truth is far stranger than fiction, for fiction follows the form that men will find soothing, while truth takes whatever form Our Heavenly Lord commands of it, and the truth is that such raids have happened before—many times over the many years of Man’s existence—and to steal away a desired woman is the reason most before now have happened at all. Why would you not take this seriously?”

“Because, most noble lord, there is no pirate able to do such a deed. Even if he was mad for desire of me, he would surely perish for trying.”

Ramsey pulled a palm-sized projector from a pocket. He projected an image of Duke Kawamori. “This is from the Court of Stars, just before Christmas.”

“The fact that the Red Eyes pirates are now manufacturing mecha of their own design, and in massive numbers, means that the size of the pirate group is far larger than we previously believed. They possess an industrial capacity, and that means both a warfighting logistical network- both of men and material. My noble lords, this is no mere cunning company of cutthroats. This is a hostile alien empire, and we underestimate what Red Eyes can do at our peril.”

Ramsey put away the projector. “We do not know the details of what Red Eyes can do. We know only that they can reach farther, and with greater strength, than any other pirate band today. We’ve seen nothing like it for nearly a century, and we have reason to believe that you—specifically—are central to Red Eyes’ ambitions. Why is not known, yet, only that when he comes for you is a matter of time.”

“You would do what with me then?”

“Secure you far from his reach. You can play to your adoring fans remotely, and if you persist in this girlish defiance I need only make one call do just that.”

Gabriela felt an anger swell up inside her, and she fixed her eyes upon him to let loose that anger, but found his face a stone wall of duty and her glare soon faded as the flash of furious feeling fell away from her. Only then did she notice his hand upon her cheek, lifting her eyes back up to his.

“Go to Chapel and say your prayers, my lady. Pour your passion into your performance, and pray for serenity tonight instead of excitement. Tomorrow, you’re going to Earth, and thereafter you stay until your noble father comes to collect you.”

Excerpt From "Reavers of the Void": Come, Durendal!

Author's Note: What you are about to read is from a Work In Progress. The final version may be different, significantly different, from this draft excerpt. This is taken from a chapter tentatively titled "The Taking of Gabriela Robin", at the climax of Part One of the book. If you want to see this finished, and get more like it, back the Indiegogo campaign here. As of this post, we're 83% of the way towards the initial goal of $1000, so your support now is likely to ensure this project happens.

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Ramsey ran out of the Grand Hall, down a corridor and out into a pathway that lead to a stairway up the curtain wall. He paused to see the Ireton Gallowglass mecha struggling against the unknown mecha that launched from Dashing Jack’s battleship- itself clearing the skies of Ireton fighters and holding descending cruisers at bay with its guns and missiles. Sweeping across the spaceport below was the tall manlike model, moving with aplomb among the buildings on the surface. It looks like a statue in the image of an armored warrior of antiquity.

Ramsey backed up a space, drew a baton from its boot sheathe, then turned about and ran for the wall’s edge. He jumped over the edge, took the baton in both hands, and bellowed “Roland, draw your sword!”

The baton separated in the middle, as if held together by magnetism. Ramsey held each half as if were a joystick controller. From those halves golden lights appeared and drew into place about him a giant-sized armored frame. Then each core subsystem in turn drew into place, followed by the cockpit interior, and finally the lights filled the frame-drawing in. It became a solid manlike mecha, shaped as a living suit of full plate armor, gleaming royal blue and trimmed in gold, bearing the crest of Roland on its chest, and standing 12 meters tall. The cockpit within lit up, giving Ramsey a 360 degree view about him as the unit’s legs kicked forward to fire the thrusters in its feet while the thrusters in its back synced to fire with them. Ramsey landed with a resounding thud, but he landed on both feet and ready for action.

“Behold!” Ramsey yelled, “Durendal has arrived!”

The Gallowglass units within range of his voice, boosted by the speakers in Durendal’s head, took heart at Ramsey’s appearance. “We’re saved!” one pilot said, “The Solar Guard stands with us!”

Zuzu cracked a wicked grin within the cockpit of Anakim. “There you are!” she said, and she turned her mecha to face Ramsey. “I can stop playing with these fools now.”

Ramsey looked on as he saw Anakim level a long rifle at him. Reading the mech’s movements as if he would a living man, Ramsey ran behind an empty mech hangar just as Zuzu fired upon him. He quickly shifted direction once he passed the hangar doors, ducking out of sight, as the follow-up shots drew closer and closer to him.

As he drew his battle rifle, Ramsey noticed the lack of ordinance meant to flush him out of the hangar. He lurched forward and rolled away from the corner he took, taking a hunch as to his enemy’s intention, and when he saw the long rifle’s barrel break through the wall he got Durendal to its feet and returned fire. Then he aimed up and fired through the hangar roof, where he heard something explode.

“Got one of the smaller ones, my lord!” a Gallowglass pilot said, “But their leader’s moving to flank you again.”

“My thanks.” Ramsey said, intuiting where Zuzu moved and firing another shot that way.

Zuzu hustled around the hangar, trying to out-think her target, only to find him shooting from within the hangar at her as she brought the long rifle up to fire. She reflexively threw the rifle in the way, blasting it in half. She discarded the ruined rifle, tossing it aside, in the few moments she had before it exploded and unintentionally destroying the spaceport’s barracks. More rifle fire came from within the hangar, blowing holes in the wall and forcing Zuzu to dodge. She found a half-wrecked truck, dashed behind it as Ramsey blind-fired at her, picked up the flaming wreckage and then ran for the hangar.

“We bring the pain to you!” Zuzu cried as she crashed through the wall. Ramsey shifted Durendal's feet, stepping out of the line of attack, and fired upon the wreckage. The shot blew a hole through what substance remained, making the rest fall apart in Anakim’s hands. Ramsey fired again, but Zuzu dodged it and pulled a lance from Anakim’s back. The end ignited, and Ramsey jumped away through the roof to get clear as Zuzu went on the attack. As he descended, he put the rifle away; he thought Zuzu would immediately pursue with a charge.

Zuzu did not disappoint. Ramsey drew his beam sword and met Zuzu’s charge with a forceful parry. He spun to one side, off the lance’s line, and tried to get inside Zuzu’s reach- but she did not allow it, reversing the spin to catch Ramsey open with a kick, a kick she delivered and sent Ramsey spiraling through another building as he hurried to reclaim his balance.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught Zuzu launching Anakim into the air to attempt a Death From Above attack with her beam lance. He got Durendal’s feet right and launched into the attack, coming just off her line sweeping up with his beam sword.

Zuzu tried to correct her descent, but didn’t have enough time. All she could do was watch as Ramsey scored Anakim’s breastplate with the tip of his beam sword and then cut her lance in half- but better that then loose an arm or get sliced lengthwise through her cockpit. Now having reversed the attack, Ramsey turned to descend upon Zuzu, only to find her already moving out of the way and igniting a beam sword of her own.

“Zuzu, stop playing with him!” Gori said as he appeared in a window on her viewscreen, “Move to back up Jack in the castle.”

At the same time, Ramsey saw Sibley pop up in a side window. “My lord, Jack’s here with us! We need your arm!”

“Roland to Ireton militia. Report!”

“We’re holding here, my lord. The enemy’s air support thins, and our ships are coming to our aide.”

Ramsey now fixed his eyes upon Anakim. “I see what your game is.”

Then Ramsey saw Zuzu break off and go to the castle.