Monday, May 7, 2012

Chapter sponsorships: my own personal invention

I just ran a Kickstarter campaign for my next novel, Baby, a psychological horror comedy involving the creeping paranoia caused by a seemingly demonic infant.
The campaign went well; I reached my funding goal, and the road is clear for me to begin the hard work of writing the thing. But one of the incentives I offered to entice people into pledging their support, was chapter sponsorships. For $100, a supporter would be acknowledged as the official sponsor of one of the story's chapters. It will look like this:
I offered other incentives as well, for lower price points; but the chapter sponsorships were by far the biggest draw. Almost half of my funding came from that level alone. I was surprised, because I'd only included it on a whim; I'd gotten the idea at the theater one night, sitting behind a seat bearing a brass plaque proclaiming its proud sponsorship by a Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so. It occurred to me I might try something similar in the literary arena; what the hell, no harm, no foul.


As I said, I was surprised by the response. But I've been even more surprised in the weeks since the campaign ended, by people writing to ask if chapter sponsorships are still available. What, I'm gonna say no...?


So I'm going widescreen with it: Let it hereby be proclaimed that anyone would would like to sponsor a chapter in Baby (and watch the pledge video to make sure that's you), may do so by sending $100 to that purpose via PayPal to robertrodi@mac.com 


And keep your eyes peeled: I'm betting other authors pick up on this gamut. But remember, you saw it here first. Yeah, thassright, you gotcherself an innovator, here.