Games on eBay

My son Marty is saving up for some cool things, so he’s ransacked my closets once again, looking for good gaming things that I don’t use anymore to sell. He has twenty things up there now. They’re mostly Dungeons & Dragons 3E stuff, including a pack of Eberron books, as well as the Forgotten Realms setting book and some system add-on books like the Spell Compendium, the Manual of the Planes, and the Psionics Handbook. He also tossed in an older edition of Warhammer 40,000 and a copy of Smallville, some Star Wars books, and even some Conan RPG books, among other things. Go check it out. My closet’s loss could be your gain.

My HuffPost Live Premiere

Last night, I had the pleasure of appearing as a guest on HuffPost Live for the first time with host Jacob Soboroff, along with Bill Clerico (of WePay), Eric Mack (of Crowdsourcing.org), and film editor and Kickstarter user Jon Mercer. We had a great discussion centering mostly on how people view and use Kickstarter and whether or not there are going to be problems with backers being frustrated by troubles with creators. You can watch the whole thing on the HuffPost Live site or check it out below.

My Books on Drive Thru Fiction’s Bestsellers List

I’m happy to report that the three books in the Matt Forbeck’s Brave New World trilogy are all in the Top 10 Products on Drive Thru Fiction and have been for a while. At the moment, they occupy the #5, #7, and #10 spots. On top of that, I have stories in Don’t Read This Book and Tales of the Far West, which sit at #2 and #9.

That makes me doubly pleased to announce that my Star Wars vs. Star Trek is also available through Drive Thru Fiction now too. Best of all, it’s only $8.99, so head on over and download it at your pleasure.

12 for ’12 for Sale at Robot Trading Company

Part of my plan for 12 for ’12 isn’t just to write a dozen books in a year. It’s to be able to produce and sell them forever after that. As the first step in that, I’ve gotten the Brave New World trilogy out the door and placed it with as many different decent online retailers as will have it. You can now buy the ebooks from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Drive Thru Fiction, iBooks (except for Revolution for some reason – I’m checking on that), Smashwords, and the Sony Bookstore, and you can grab printed editions through Drive Thru Fiction and Amazon too.

I also placed the books with the Robot Trading Company, the retail sales division of Angry Robot, the company that publishes my Amortals, Vegas Knights, and Carpathia, among many other excellent titles. This is a special set-up for me, as I enjoy working with the Angry Robot crew, and I’m happy to be able to do so again, even with books that I’m publishing myself.

They announced the deal on their site, and they also posted an article I wrote for them, introducing myself as a publisher and explaining what I’m doing. Many thanks to Darren Turpin, who helped with the legwork to set all this up, and to Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris and the rest of the Angry Robot crew for continuing to be some of the greatest partners in publishing.

The Monster Academy Kickstarter Is OVER!

Wow. I didn’t know if it would happen, but we had a great surge of backers and bumpers at the end of the Monster Academy Kickstarter, and we knocked it clear past all of the stretch goals I set up. This means:

  • Every backer at $50+ gets the BNW ebooks for free.
  • Every backer at $75+ gets the Shotguns & Sorcery ebooks for free.
  • Every backer at $100+ gets the Dangerous Games ebooks for free.
  • Every backer getting a printed book gets the Monster Academy ruler/bookmark and the 12 for ’12 bookmark for free.
  • Plus every backer will get the 12 for ’12 ebook for free too.

We’re also going to be able to ship out a number of truly cool slipcases for people who lined up the full collection.

It’s trite to say that I don’t have the words to express my gratitude to you all for every bit of the wonderful and fantastic support you offered throughout the drives, both with your generous pledges and with tirelessly helping spread the word. Instead, I’d like to say I have about 600,000 words to offer you in thanks, in the form of the books you backed. Starting tomorrow morning, I’m returning to my keyboard to work on them, rededicated to delivering them to you as fast and in the finest shape I can manage.

Thanks so much.

Five Hours Left! Stretch Goals Lowered!

It struck me that every time I’ve run one of the 12 for ’12 Kickstarters, I’ve lowered the stretch goals on the last day. Although we seem like we’re cooking along here with the Monster Academy drive, I’d like to maintain that tradition.

I’m pretty sure we’ll hit the $15k stretch goal, as we’re less than $100 $30(!) away from that now. That will unlock free Monster Academy rulers/bookmarks for all backers getting a printed Monster Academy book.

I’m going to lower the threshold for the free 12 for ’12 bookmarks to 365 backers. That’s one backer for every day of the year, which somehow seems fitting. That’s only 23 22 more backers than we have now, which I think we can break.

I’m also going to lower the threshold for the free copy of the ebook edition of the book I plan to write about 12 for ’12, which I’ll start writing after I finish all those novels. This will go out to all Monster Academy backers. The new level for that is $15,922. 

Why that odd number? Because that would bring the grand total of the 12 for ’12 Kickstarters to $60k. When I launched this plan back in November of last year, that’s the number I’d hoped to hit for all 12 books, and now that it’s within reach, I want to do everything I can to see it actually happen. And if we can manage that, I’ll toss in that 13th book to make it a full baker’s dozen for you.

We have just over five hours to go. Spread the word for this final push! And thanks so much for all your support!

Last Day!

Last night, just before I went to bed, the Monster Academy Kickstarter drive cracked the $14k barrier. This unlocked Stretch Goal #2, which means that all backers at $75 or more now get a total of nine ebooks (the Brave New World trilogy, the Shotguns & Sorcery trilogy, and signed copies of the Monster Academy trilogy), plus a softcover copy of the Monster Academy omnibus. That’s a pretty stunning deal. Thanks to all of you who helped make that happen!

At the moment, we’re gunning hard for Stretch Goal #3 at $15k. Once we hit that, everyone getting a printed Monster Academy book ($35+ levels) gets a free Monster Academy ruler/bookmark stuffed into their book. Just beyond that, at $16k, we unlock Stretch Goal #4, which gives $100+ backers all 12 ebooks of the 12 for ’12 novels.

There’s more beyond that, of course, but I’ll be thrilled if we get that far. At the moment, Monster Academy has moved up the ranks of the best-funded 12 for ’12 drives to take the #2 spot. The #1 spot still goes to Dangerous Games, which hit $18,002. Topping that is a tall order, but we still have 11 hours left, so let’s push hard and see what happens.

A quick round-up of some of the press from this week:

Probably the favorite thing I’ve done for all of this, though, is an essay I wrote for Jennifer Brozek’s blog about what I love about Monster Academy. It helped crystallize the story in my head and realize what the story’s really all about. Here’s the money quote:

It’s not a story of a chosen child who fulfills his destiny. It’s the tale of a bunch of kids who were supposed to grow up to be the bad guys teaming up to do the right thing in the end, despite all the odds arrayed against them.

That speaks to me. None of us are chosen ones, especially when we’re kids. We’re not fated to succeed. We have to work for it, often against people who don’t like us for reasons beyond our control.

To me, that’s a story worth telling. I hope you find it to be a story worth reading too. 

Thanks for all your phenomenal and fantastic support. Here’s to a big finish!

Unlocking Stretch Goals = Great Deals

The Monster Academy drive is cooking along at a good speed. We smashed through the $12k stretch goal yesterday, and there’s an excellent chance we’ll unlock the $14k stretch goal soon. This makes the higher-level pledges look even more attractive. It works like this.

Right now (since we unlocked the 1st stretch goal), if you pledge $50, you get a hardcover copy of the first Monster Academy book, plus six ebooks (the Monster Academy trilogy, signed, and the Brave New World trilogy).

Once we crack $14k, if you pledge $75, you get a softcover copy of the Monster Academy omnibus and nine ebooks (the Monster Academy trilogy, signed, the Brave New World trilogy, and the Shotguns & Sorcery trilogy).

If we hit $15k, everyone at $35+ gets a Monster Academy ruler/bookmark too.

If we make it to $16k, a $100 pledge grabs a hardcover copy of the Monster Academyomnibus, plus a full dozen ebooks – every one of the 12 for ’12 novels. I hope you’ll agree that’s an amazing deal.

I’m pushing hard to make all this happen, but I could use your help. Spread the word far and wide in what little time we have left. At midnight tomorrow, the clock runs out.

Thanks for your support!