Authors Helping Authors: The Labyrinth of Flame Kickstarter

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a huge fan of Kickstarter. I've only done one so far (for Hollow World) and it was a huge success. My plan was to raise $3,000 and by the time it was done, I had raised more than $32,000.  Part of why I did the Kickstarter was to prove to myself, and other traditionally published authors, that a Kickstarter might be a great way to launch their own works.

Too many times I've heard about projects that get "shelved" because no publisher would make an offer (or the offer was just too low to consider), or a series has been "orphaned" (some books released through a traditional house but not the entire series).  Usually the orphan comes about about because something bad befalls the author:

• They missed a delivery deadline and the publisher didn't offer more time
• The acquisitions editor left the company and the new editor assigned just isn't enthused. 
• The publisher goes bankrupt
• The publisher is acquired by another organization
• Sales were too low to justify additional books in the series

To me these are GREAT reasons to run a Kickstarter! 

Today, I'm here to tell you of one such case.  And it's for the book The Labyrinth of Flame by Courtney Schafer.

Courtney was one one many authors who went were published through Nightshade Books, and ran into any number of hiccups because of it. For those that don't know, Nightshade ran into some hard times, as many small presses do, and as it neared bankruptcy it sold it's assets (author's books) to two different entities (one who handles print, the other who handles ebooks).  At the time, Courtney had already signed the first two books of her series to Nightshade (The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City) who released them.

But given what had been going on in the series, she retained her rights to the third and final book...you guessed it. The Labyrinth of Flame.

Courtney did the best thing she could do in such a situation. She took control of her own intellectual property, decided to release it the BEST way possible, and started a Kickstarter to help fund the process.  Hence, the Kickstarter was born!  Courtney is self-publishing "the right way" - by hiring the same professionals that worked on the traditionally-published versions of her books.  So you can trust that the quality will be "top notch" because the Kickstarter has helped to make that so.

Courtney has already funded, which I knew she would, and now comes the really exciting time...reaching stretch goals.  This is where backers can get extra special things that are just really hard to do in anyway outside a Kickstarter.  Her first goal is to reach $6,000 and that will unlock a short story created from the point of view of a character of the backers choice! (There will be a poll to vote on).

As soon as the Kickstarter went life, I became a backer...and my wife, Robin, even helped Courtney when she was going through the process to setting up her project. I hope you'll at least take a look at it and see if this might be a series you'd be interested in.  And if you've already read and loved any of Courtney's other books, then you absolutely should back this as it will get your hands on copies of this yet to be released book.  In case you missed the four other links I added to the Kickstarter elsewhere in this post, I'll include it here as well!  Just click on the graphic below: