- Joined
- Sep 7, 2010
- Messages
- 857
- Reaction score
- 94
- Location
- Near Washington, DC
- Website
- lblankenship.blogspot.com
I've been looking at Kickstarter.com (a site for crowd-sourcing creative project seed money, if you haven't heard of it) and thinking about ways to defray costs of getting to Viable Paradise. Apparently a Clarion student used Kickstarter recently to raise funds for the trip. Since the point of Kickstarter is to offer rewards in exchange for support, the Clarion student offered copies of an anthology comprised of her writings while at Clarion. Which is all well and good.
While VP is shorter than Clarion, I'm workshopping a first draft novel and expect to do the second draft soon after the workshop. If I were self-publishing, I'd have no qualms about offering free copies in exchange for Kickstarter.com support.
But I don't want to rule out traditional publishing.
Does any exchange of money for writing violate the spirit of the "unpublished manuscript"? If I offer the chance to critique my second draft manuscript -- electronically, maybe a hard copy -- in exchange for $50 toward my bus ticket to VP... ? Are publishers going to have to turn away the later, finished draft?
I can't guarantee I'll be picked up by a publisher any time soon, of course, even if my manuscript is perfectly virginal. But I can't offer "maybe someday" as a reward on Kickstarter.com.
Thoughts?
While VP is shorter than Clarion, I'm workshopping a first draft novel and expect to do the second draft soon after the workshop. If I were self-publishing, I'd have no qualms about offering free copies in exchange for Kickstarter.com support.
But I don't want to rule out traditional publishing.
Does any exchange of money for writing violate the spirit of the "unpublished manuscript"? If I offer the chance to critique my second draft manuscript -- electronically, maybe a hard copy -- in exchange for $50 toward my bus ticket to VP... ? Are publishers going to have to turn away the later, finished draft?
I can't guarantee I'll be picked up by a publisher any time soon, of course, even if my manuscript is perfectly virginal. But I can't offer "maybe someday" as a reward on Kickstarter.com.
Thoughts?