Gaming and writing home for Dave Sokolowski
As I prep the hard- and soft-cover books for shipment, I ran across a review of He Who Laughs Last that I’d like to share.
The review is here. My favorite part is, of course, the sentence: “Well presented, well laid out, well written, I put this one in the heavy yes column.”
I will have more posts and thoughts coming up shortly, as I begin the final stage of my Kickstarter project. In the meantime, enjoy your summer gaming!
The PDF for He Who Laughs Last is now available on DriveThruRPG.com, for the amazing low price of $8!
You can purchase it here. Over the next few months, the same product page will be updated with the ability to purchase not only soft AND hardcovers, but a whole host of digital clues and supplements for the scenario.
I’ll also be updating the project page here with the list of Kickstarter backers. It’s been an amazing journey and I would not trade the experience for the world. Many thanks to all involved.
I got another chance to talk to Richard Bliss on Funding the Dream about Kickstarter, finding and building tribes, and why you maybe start with a smaller funding goal. You can listen to it here.
Just before both our Kickstarter projects went live (and were quickly funded, I must say), I got a chance to chat with Oscar Rios, President of Golden Goblin Press about Kickstarters, RPGs and how much coffee you’ll need when you’re running a project.
Posting this now, after Oscar’s project has been incredibly successful, almost seems quaint. But the information he imparts is critical for anyone looking to run a RPG Kickstarter. I took his advice to heart and look where I ended up.
This is the first of what should be many audio interviews here on Weird 8. I think we’re off to a good start. Enjoy!
“You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” ―Obi-Wan Kenobi
Today, six months after making a specific decision to launch today, I pushed Launch for my first Kickstarter project. You may read about it the Kickstarter project page.
It’s been nearly a year since I first ran this game at a convention, when I first considered the whole Kickstarter thing. I’m now sitting here, two beers and a bourbon in, just hours after launching the campaign.
Back in 1999, I was wandering around New Chinatown in San Francisco, which is located on Clement Street between 3rd and 8th avenue. I loved it! The streets were teeming with life and you knew you were in a true city. I heard Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese and even Irish brogue before I heard American English. So many cultures all mashed up. I was single and unemployed, wandering those streets, looking at the sidewalk bins and dodging all the small, old Chinese women. I loved it – I felt home in San Francisco.
Three years later I was living with my wife, right at 5th Ave and Clement. The HUGE fish market was basically in my back yard, and every day I walked past the vendors dumping fish straight from the tanks on the back of the truck right onto the street. It’s how they do it on Clement.
And so I always look back at that moment where I innocently wandered just 20 feet from the apartment I would share with a woman who I had not even met yet, let alone spend the rest of my life with. I see that moment of not knowing — but still understanding — that my life would be impacted by that neighborhood. My wife and I would wander those streets every day, sucking in the life and craziness that is cosmopolitan San Francisco. We would visit the bookstore, the ice cream shop, the Japanese home goods store, and of course the Chinese market. We became part of the life that I had sensed all those years ago.
Right now, I have 18 backers and am nearing $800 on my first night of my first project. Just two hours in, I’m at 26% funding. My mind boggles. Yes, I have some good friends, but some other folks are starting to creep in, and the next week will be a test of my ability to create some buzz around the project.
What will happen? Will I fund? Will I double my goal? Will I skate by on the skin of my teeth? How will this project reflect on my writing abilities? Will people be interested in this project? Will my $1800 level fund (which would be so awesome) and send me to meet some new cool gamers?
It’s all on the horizon, just past where I can see it. But I have a feeling — a warm feeling that’s not just the bourbon — that I will meet lots of cool people through this project, learn a lot about myself and publishing, and then just have a good time sharing my story with the world.
I hope you can come along.
One week from today I will launch my first Kickstarter for my scenario He Who Laughs Last, for which I have written about 20,000 words. Writing the scenario, which I did in three waves, was mostly enjoyable grunt work. Thinking of fun, crazy horror scenarios is the easy part – the challenge is finding the discipline to get on the computer to write 5 days a week. But once I’m in the groove, scenario writing is really just about putting word after word. Hard work, but very straight-forward.
Last August, right before BigBadCon in Oakland, CA, I made the decision that I would launch my Kickstarter around the beginning of February, to time it with my annual attendance of DunDraCon in San Ramon, which I have been attending since 1984 or so. My reasons for this were two-fold:
So that’s what I did — I started to build my online presence right after BigBadCon, and now that I’m here in February, I wanted to take a look back at all the work I’ve done, to savor the moment before the madness truly begins. I’m not saying I’ve done everything needed, some of which just takes ongoing contributions and writing. But I know that I’ve done the hard work — the real work, not the fake work of just sitting around and writing a scenario — necessary to make my project a success.
Since the beginning of September, I have taken the following actions in preparation for my Kickstarter:
Right now, I’m pretty confident that my Kickstarter will be successful – it’s just a matter of how much money and interest I will raise. I’m only interested in the money so much as I want to produce quality materials that everyone is happy with. I’m really interested in meeting people who find my scenario interesting and want to share this gaming experience with me.
But I feel like I’ve done just about everything I can for someone who is kicking off their writing career with a first KS project. When the project ends, we can look back and see how much impact all these items had on my project’s success. And as they say, nothing good comes easy…
As He Who Laughs Last careens wildly to its 2014 Kickstarter and publication, I could not be happier to announce the addition of Mike Dubisch to the project.
Mike’s art covers the ground from the weird and spooky to superheros and creepy comics. I will provide more art as it starts to roll in, but for now, here is a look at his portfolio.
For the past year, I have been focusing on writing and developing ‘He Who Laughs Last,’ a Cthulhu Dark scenario that I plan to release via Kickstarter in early 2014.
I have created a page for the whole project and updates will be forthcoming. I am planning for a Kickstarter in early 2014 and am in the process of recruiting a top-notch list of contributors. I cannot wait to show you what we have in store.
I spent some time talking with Richard Bliss about Cthulhu, Lovecraft, and why they’re so damn popular on Kickstarter for Funding the Dream, Episode 168.
Early in 2014 (in February if all goes well), I will launch my first Kickstarter to help me publish my Cthulhu Dark scenario He Who Laughs Last. Over the past few months, I have been doing a ton of research on running a successful Kickstarter campaign, and while success is by no means guaranteed, I think I do have a handle on what is needed to help make it as successful as possible.
First has been the research itself. Hoo boy, have I done a bunch of research. It’s tough to find time for writing when I’ve been doing so much research. But so much has already been written on what makes a successful KS campaign, I think it’s better to share some of the resources than reiterate everything they’ve said. So here are the steps I’m taking to build a successful KS campaign. You can check in with me after my campaign is done and see whether it worked:
So those are all resources on running a successful campaign, but then there’s a whole other thing: social media. You need a social media strategy. Actually, *I* need a social media strategy. Or at least did need one. I like Facebook fine, but so much of my effort is taken up in life (work, family, health), with some drumming and gaming with friends thrown in, that there’s no way I could decide on a social media strategy on my own. Know what I did? I found someone to help me.
Gregory Geiger is a friend, yes, but he’s also a nerd and a photographer and web designer and social media knowitall. You need to find someone like Gregory to help you figure this shit out. He has helped me figure out how to manage both a personal and public FB profile (which I’m still working on), as well as how to build a sympathetic relationship between my blog, my public FB persona, and my Twitter feed. Fortunately, I just have to pay Gregory in lunches, which is a super cheap way to get great info from someone who is focused on these sorts of things. If social media ain’t your thing, then go find yourself a Gregory.
Finally, as most importantly, you need to produce. This is the most important lesson that seems lost on most of us when we look at cool internet people like Wil Weaton, Scott Sigler and Chris Hardwick and wonder how we can get there. You know the one thing these guys do really, really well? They produce shit ALL THE TIME. Have you seen their Twitter feeds? Their FB posts? Their podcasts? They are constantly online sharing funny and informative stuff, like just about every day. You have to give the people something. All the time.
Long gone are the days of just sitting at your desk for months and years, typing away at your masterpiece until your editor comes and takes it away and you can start your next book. Today, you need to be out there producing at least five days a week. You need blog posts, Twitter posts, FB posts, updates to your web site or G+ or LinkedIn profile or whatever it takes. You need to be giving the people something all the time. ALL THE TIME.
A good friend of mine is writing his YA masterpiece and he has worked very hard at it, but he doesn’t even know that his real hard has yet to begin. Yes, Stasey has a blog and that’s a good thing. But the climb up to get your social media strategy enabled is long and takes being on your phone ALL THE TIME. How do I know this? Because I’ve used Twitter more in the past month than in the rest of my life.
Speaking of which, the rest of my life is calling, so I must go. But I want to hear your story about your social media strategy, or what steps you’ve taken to get your Kickstarter campaign prepared. Well?