Philip Reed: Phil's First Ransom

[philreed]

This is more personal than it is Ronin Arts. Though there are days it's difficult for me to distinguish between the two.

I've decided to attempt a ransom for a Future PDF. If you've enjoyed the work I've done on the various Future series PDFs you may want to donate.

To contribute go to:

https://www.fundable.org/groupactions/groupaction.2005-08-20.8637110694/view?searchterm=

If the $250 is raised by early October I'll release Future: 6 Free Starship Cargos to the world. Additionally, everyone that contributes will be sent a bonus free PDF. This bonus PDF will be exclusive to contributors for one year -- after a year has passed I'll release the PDF to the world.

The nice thing is that if the amount isn't raised everyone's money is refunded.

I'll be curious to see what happens with this experiment.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Any way to send in a donation via snail mail?

 

[philreed]

Any way to send in a donation via snail mail?

Unfortunately, no. _If_ the ransom isn't met I'd need to deal with sending your money back. Also, the system would require that I take whatever you donate and pay it myself. It's just a lot of complicated steps.

Thank you for asking, though. I'll think about the problem and see if I can come up with a workable solution.

 

[DanMcS]

You might want to try this with a larger product. Doesn't fundable set a limit of a minimum of $10 per person? I'm not sure many people would donate $10 for a product that would normally sell for, what, a buck or two? I haven't checked your prices on your "6 foo" or "A dozen bar" products lately.

The guys that have gotten a lot of press on rpg.net for using fundable are releasing rather larger sourcebooks or games, aren't they?

 

[TheLe]

So if the amount is raised, you will not be selling this book anywhere at all for that 1 year, right?

~Le

 

[D_Sinclair]

You might want to try this with a larger product. Doesn't fundable set a limit of a minimum of $10 per person? I'm not sure many people would donate $10 for a product that would normally sell for, what, a buck or two? I haven't checked your prices on your "6 foo" or "A dozen bar" products lately.

The guys that have gotten a lot of press on rpg.net for using fundable are releasing rather larger sourcebooks or games, aren't they?

They're simply giving the impression of significantly larger products. Meatbot Massacre is 10 pages long, ...in Space is 15 pages long, and Asylum sounds like it will be under 30 pages. Aside from those and Phil's, what other ransom projects are there?

 

[trancejeremy]

I wonder if this would work for reviews? If I get enough donations to buy a book, I'll review it...

(probably not...)

 

[Bobitron]

You know I'm a fan, Phil, but I think I'd spend my $ on Campaign Planner Deluxe, which I absolutely know I would get use out of. I would like to check out some of your future pdfs, but as was mentioned above, don't the Future pdfs normally sell for a few bucks each?

 

[lmpjr007]

Well for all you interested on the business side of this, Business 2.0 Magazine in the September 2005 issue in the "What's New" section (Page 32) covered Greg Stoltze's Meatbot Massacre ransom business model. Now this is a international magazine, owned by Time Magazine I believe, looking at our industry for an idea that is going to be read by a lot. Well I tell you this much, with Greg Stoltze's success with this, Business 2.0 write up and Phil attempt with this, I might be planning to hold one or two future PDF projects "hostage" to see how it works for me.

 

[philreed]

So if the amount is raised, you will not be selling this book anywhere at all for that 1 year, right?

The bonus PDF for contributors, Future: 13 Star Systems, will not be released for one year and when released it will also be free -- contributors get their hands on it a full-year before the rest of the world.

So those that are donating are raising $250 for 2 PDFs.