My Debut Novel: Perfect Pawn - Kickstarter Campaign

Welcome, I’d like to take a moment to thank you for reading this. I hope that when you are done you will consider helping to fund my Kickstarter campaign to self-publish my debut suspense / thriller novel Perfect Pawn.

As many of you know, I completed the manuscript for Perfect Pawn awhile back. However, it was not until after the actual writing was completed that I began to see how much work actually was ahead of me. After much consideration and research, I have decided to self-publish the book. I have taken the time to outline the reasons below.

I have decided to utilize a  Kickstarter campaign. Kickstarter is a crowd-funding campaign. What this does is allow you to pull together a diverse group of individuals who invest in your project. That investment can be as little as $1.00 or as much as you care to give. There are two things to Kickstarter that I thought were unique. One is you can provided rewards to your investors based on their financial support. The other is that Kickstarter is all or nothing, meaning that if I don’t get to the goal I set for the campaign, no one gets charged.

Right now you might be asking why I am choosing to do this campaign. In fact, this was not an easy decision to reach. So I’d like to take a moment to explain the reasons for this choice.

If you had asked me a year ago what I thought was the hardest thing about writing I probably would have told you that it was the writing. As the months rolled along what I found was that the writing part actually came quite easy to me. I could close my eyes and watch the scene play out in my head and it was just a matter of putting what I saw onto the paper, or in this case typing them onto the computer screen.

What I didn’t know was that the hard work would only begin when the manuscript was completed. It was then that I began to do my research into agents, querying, publishing houses, etc. I spoke to a number of my fellow writers, soliciting their advice based on their experiences. While many were happy to sing the praises of going the traditional publishing route, a growing number seemed to be decidedly against. Here is a breakdown of what I learned.

On average the time it takes for a perfect book to go from manuscript to published is 18-24 months. Mind you that is the perfect book and the perfect scenario. Meaning the stars aligned and you immediately found an agent who loved you, dropped most of their other projects to shop yours, and then found the perfect publishing house that green lighted your project and put it on the fast track. So what are the actual odds of this happening? Well, let’s just say that you might want to go grab one of those lotto tickets.

Consider that Stephen King’s Carrie was rejected 30 times and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind was rejected 38 times.

So what does self-publishing entail? Well, a lot more work then the actual writing.

I take on the roll of editor, graphic designer, formatter, agent, advertising, and publisher.

Does that seem like a lot of work to you? It does to me. However, there is a benefit as well. For me, self-publishing gives me something that the traditional road doesn’t:  Autonomy.

What does that mean to the reader? Well, they get an authors story the way it was intended to be. Right now, Perfect Pawn is almost 117k words. If I had opted to go the traditional publishing route it is entirely possible that at least 17k words would need to be removed. Why you ask, because paper is money and those extra words take up a whole lot of paper in a book. Traditional publishers are less likely to take a risk with a debut author and the cutoff is generally 100K words. In my book, 17k words are equal to about three whole chapters. I can’t imagine removing even one chapter let alone three. I personally think that I would be cheating my readers if I did this. I’m a story teller and I have had a number of people beta read this manuscript. Not one time did someone say “you put too much information in it.” Quite the contrary, most were beating down my inbox to get the next chapters to read.

So now I have the responsibility of making my book the very best it can be, which is why I need your help. Here are the things that your funding will help me accomplish:

• Editing: The book has already gone through a half dozen edits, but now it needs to be done by a professional copy editor.
• Graphics: I have done the conceptual graphic artwork for the cover, but now I need to have a professional graphics artist refine it and format it for both the paperback as well as the hardcover jacket.
• Formatting: One of the most important things, aside from having a great story, is to ensure that the reader has an enjoyable experience. That means that the book is formatted correctly. Ever read a book that had bad indentations, line spacing, etc? It’s horrible. In the age of self-publishing, it is important not to over look this, especially since each format: e-book, paperback, hard cover, etc., uses different formatting.
• Production: Physical creation of the actual books. Despite what many people think, authors, at least not those just starting out, don’t get heaps of books thrown on them. Remember, paper is money. This is especially true for self-publishing. You have to pay to get them printed.
• Advertising: This is one of the biggest factors. I don’t care how great your book is, if you don’t advertise your book, you don’t stand a chance. Not only do I want your help financially, but I hope that after reading the excerpt (see the link below), that you will forward it to all your friends on Facebook, Twitter and E-Mail.

Perfect Pawn is the perfect debut novel. It has a bit of everything, for almost every reader. It mingles traditional Police / Crime with some Mystery, Suspense & Thriller elements, with a dash of Romance, and a splash of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

With a readers background I knew what I liked and I wanted my readers to feel the same enjoyment I got when I read what I liked to call “roller coaster” books. Those are the ones that you kick yourself for starting in the evening because at 3 a.m. you’re still turning pages.

So that’s why I am self-publishing, to give you the full story and character development as I intended them to be.

Remember, this is only the first book in a series. I’m already about 1/3 of the way through on the sequel. If I can get this project funded, I can concentrate on writing more.

I have posted a portion of the books Prologue for you to read: Perfect Pawn – Prologue (Partial)

If you like what you read, I would really appreciate your support by visiting by Kickstarter campaign site: Perfect Pawn - Kickstarter Campaign

If you can’t financially support me would you please consider sharing this with your friends and family through E-mail, Facebook or on Twitter.

Thank you for your support and God Bless,

Andrew