…a move apparently to rescue endangered sf, sort of a Project Gutenberg sort of thing. I approach such things with caution, but note that Project Gutenberg is far less likely to pick up something like Prince of Scorpio or many of the oddments of our field.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/singularityco/singularity-and-co
It’s and interesting project, I’d like to see it do well. Wish there was a better way to preserve really old books. Plastic bags help prevent more deterioration, but I have lots of old stuff that is too delicate to read.
That seems very very worthwhile. I think I’ll cross post it at Shejidan. There are those there who probably have the same kind of library Aja Jin mentions.
I’ve never had any problem supporting Kickstarter projects. They vet proposals very before giving them the go ahead. I know projects that were initially turned down because they were not clear or concise enough in their proposals.
P.S. Insert carefully after very
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll book mark it and contribute when I’m solvent again Thursday.
I will be looking into this. I remember at least a dozen books I read at one point or another that I thought were pretty good, but after the initial print run, apparently didn’t find their niche, and are hard to find even secondhand now. I’m sorry I didn’t keep them, but moving, available space, etc. took their toll on my collection over the years.
Thanks for pointing me to that.
Judith Tarr is doing a prefinancing of the revision of her YA novel Living in Threes via Kickstarter (linking to an excerpt readable for everyone here)! I also like that I can support the feed of 9 Lipizzans that way – and really a trusted and proven author with an e-book at the pledge level of $5 is a bargain.
Speaking of Judith Tarr and the Lipizzans, Sarah Monette has a funny riff on Diana Wynn Jones’ quote of horses in fantasy, which I think CJ and Jane will especially appreciate: http://truepenny.livejournal.com/
*Cloud pricks up his ears* *Feed? Bacon?*
And so does Judith Tarr herself ^^ – Writing Horses came out of her series of horse writing blog posts at BVC and she elaborated on that and added more links and pictures.
I’ve donated to the cause as well. I so enjoy her blog on BookView Cafe.
Good grief…I’m so out of it. I had no idea about this kickstarter page…What a great ideal. And here I’ve been giving all that stuff away for free on my blog! (About building covers, etc.) Sheesh…
Actually I think since C.J. has a large enough reader base and is known as someone who delivers on her promise, this wouldn’t be a bad idea to pre-finance particularly fiddly conversions of old titles or an idea for a book that isn’t popular at the big publishers (that’s what happened to Judith Tarr’s Living in Threes until she realised she needed a complete rewrite and won a critique letter from Sherwood Smith in one of these online charity auctions, I think probably in Con-Or-Bust on LJ).
As people have said, it’s not something you can do every five minutes and expect overwhelming support (JT said she had long discussions with C.E. Murphy about how to go about it), and most backers expect the finished product itself somewhere in the lower brackets – so basically it is like an advance at a publisher’s, I guess – but you don’t have to promise to never sell the end result, you simply integrate it into Closed Circle a bit later.
Your mention of Prince of Scorpio got me thinking about reading those books many years ago. One thing that is lost with ebooks (at least for now) is the cover art (and interior illustrations in older books). Here’s a picture of the stupendous cover for Warrior of Scorpio by Tim Kirk.
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9776/warriorofscorpio.jpg
A similar venture, coming out of the world of libraries, is Unglue.it ( http://unglue.it )
We’re using creative commons licenses, distribution through libraries, and unlike singularity &co, we’re getting rightsholder agreements BEFORE taking money.
Eric
Hey folks, I found this site from the “Singularity & Co. – Save the SciFi!” Kickstarter project. Someone was happy with your shoutout here, and posted the link in the comments. Anyway, as I’m reading the comments here, it seems I should mention that the Dray Prescot by Alan Burt Akers (aka Kenneth Bulmer) books (Transit to Scorpio, etc.) are already being published, as omnibus editions, in both e-book and trade paperback format, by Mushroom eBooks (http://www.mushroom-ebooks.com/authors/akers/akers.html). The books are also available on Amazon.com.
Sorry for taking so long to make it over here, but we just wanted to say thank you very much for the support. We are very open to suggestions, whether or not someone is a Kickstarter backer. Ideal books for the project are out of print, not available as ebooks, and either in or out of copyright. We don’t plan to tackle anything without engaging in an exhaustive effort to track down any rights holders that may be out there, and enjoy doing the detective work. Also, we need to be able to get our hands on at least one copy for non-destructive scanning.
Feel free to send suggestions to ash- (at) -singularityand.co, and thanks!