Tarot Adventures, Book Two: Comet over Echo Rock Crowdfunding video

I'm launching the crowdfunding campaign on January 13th.

Tarot Adventures, Book Two: Comet over Echo Rock is a dark, gritty adventure for characters of 2nd through 4th level.


Contains all original art and builds on the story from The Draw of Glenfallow (but its not necessary to have played through that module in order to enjoy Comet over Echo Rock).


I will be providing links to the campaign on launch day.  I'll also be doing a live stream at 8pm EST via KickStarter live, where myself and several artists will be taking questions, talking about the Tarot Adventures, and having a fun time with the community.  So check that out and join in.  It will be fun.

Interested in the Tarot Adventures, but want a reminder?  Follow me on KickStarter (W.S. Quinton) or follow me here, on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.  I'll be posting about this through the week.

Thanks for joining me on this grand adventure into writing and publishing.
I hope you'll join me next time as well.

Respect your audience

Today I had a first time experience.

I received an e-mail from one of my KickStarter backers asking me to remove him from the email list I had built.  I did so immediately.

Now, some of you may wonder what is so weird about that.  Well, I built my list from asking questions in backer surveys, and asking people if I could add them to my email list for future notifications (my language was more precises in its word choice, but stick with me).

So I received the email back, as a reply to a seasonal greeting that I had attached information on coming projects to.  Personally, I have often received email from places I once wanted to be kept in touch with (web comics, podcasts, etc.)  Then after a while I would stop looking forward to such communication, and I would remove myself from their site or request that I be removed.  Usually it took a while to get off those lists.

I realized tonight, that it shouldn't have taken any time at all for me to be removed from those sites.  I also realized that I had acted in good faith with this backer.  I felt good about that.

While I hope that person will continue to support my efforts, he or she will not be receiving emails from me.  I respect that person's wishes.

The point I'm trying to make is this:

Often people are told that the key to directly marketing your products and talents, is to be able to reach to people directly.  Email lists are a valuable commodity then, as they represent people who have interacted with you before (hopefully have a positive experience).

The problem with that viewpoint is that it casts those people you are communicating with in the role of a commodity.  They are valuable to your bottom line.  That is a point I have to take a stand against. While whatever money you are making is probably important, the peace of mind of your audience is more so.  Always respect your audience. Even, and perhaps specifically, when a member of that audience doesn't want to be there anymore.

Don't try to hold on to people like they are treasure. Instead, treasure the people you hold onto, and be gracious to those who leave.

Now this isn't like a bad break up story.  No drama or anything like that.

In my emails to people, I include a message that basically says "hey, I put this list together from people who authorized me to do so. If I've made a mistake or you want me to take you off the list, just email to me and say so".  Its easy on all parties.

Now my audience isn't large, so yes I'll miss that one person.  But I'm glad that I stuck to my business ethic.  I'm proud of myself for doing the right thing.

I hope that in your dealings, you'll do the same.

Thank you for joining me once again on this fantastic journey into self-publishing.

I hope you'll join me next time as well.

Frankenstien Faktoria, by Angus Abranson

Good morning everyone!

If you haven't seen it yet, Angus has launched a project of his own on KickStarter!

Many of you know of Angus from his fantastic articles on En-World and his contributions on various social media channels about crowdfunded rpg projects.

The project looks really cool, with great art examples attached and all the details you want to know about a new rpg project. 

Lets all take a moment out of each of these next few days, and give this project some love and attention by sharing the link out to other, supporting this project, and showing our appreciation for a member of the community who has helped so many of us in our efforts to get our own projects off the ground.

Thank you Angus, for all you do!!!

Link to the campaign is below.  I hope you will all take a moment to use it and help get the word out.

Thanks everyone

Promoting your crowdfunding campaigns on your own

Today I want to go over a few things about promoting your crowdfunding campaigns.

From what I've researched and what I've experienced to date, I have some points I would like to go over that I think can really help you with your crowdfunding efforts.  For reference, I'm going to be referring to KickStarter (where I've ran three campaigns to date, with two funding successfully). To my thinking, these points are perfectly valid for other platforms.

What everyone seems to agree upon:

When you research crowdfunding and "how to" points on the subject, you'll encounter a lot of suggestions on the following points.  These are things I've found to be valid processes in expanding upon your audience, and garnering more support.

1)  Begin your promotions weeks ahead of time.  This really cannot be understated. You want to build up awareness and create an anticipation of your new project.   We'll go more into the "how to" later in this article.   To put the importance of this into perspective, I'll remind you that my first Kickstarter campaign (for Tale of the Wizard's Eye), was only lightly promoted.  People saw it on this blog, on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, for a few days prior to launch.  With a funding goal of $600 it took TotWE three weeks to reach its funding goal.  When I launched my second KickStarter campaign (for Tarot Adventures, Book One: The Draw of Glenfallow) I was promoting it for weeks in advance.  TDoG reached its funding goal in three (3) days.  

2)  Get other people involved in your promotion efforts.  For this article I'm going to focus on free or low cost promotional efforts, so I'll forgo any use of marketing services.  What I am advising is that you use every resource you have to spread the word.  For social media, I recommend that you prepare a list of those collaborators, friends and family who have agreed to help you out.  Provide these wonderful people with the links to the campaign and any other relevant content (pod casts about the project, online articles/blogs about the project, etc).  Make certain they each understand you want them to post about it often (work it out with them as to frequency), and be grateful for their help.  Seriously, they are doing an amazing favor for you.

3) Prepare your lead in promotions thoughtfully.  Utilize images of your product/project, incorporate information about it, bring in testimonials of people who have used your product, and make it sincere.  Sincerity is important.  Be genuine and honest. There is no need to, nor should you, exaggerate your project.  Use clear, best quality images, for each promotion blurb.  You should also check each link to make certain it functions correctly and routes to the correct page.  Watch through all of your video, check spelling, and have another person double check your work. In other words, be thorough folks.

4)  Low cost advertising on social media.  I have an admittedly limited experience with this.  I have utilized targeted Facebook advertising and post boosts.  I recommend that anyone who is to utilize social media advertising, do their research (extensively) and plan out within their budget.  This avenue is strongly recommended in the literature you will encounter.  Other people swear by it, but at this time I cannot.  I've had some limited success spending as much as $30 to boost posts on Facebook.  I say limited because I had only a handful of backers as a result of such a post.  You may do better than I with a more carefully executed effort.  

5) Prepare a press release and send it out to bloggers, pod casters, newspapers, magazines and associations with an interest in the subject of your project.  So for comic books, send out a press release to the admins for Facebook groups for comic book fans, to Twitter personalities who show interest in your genre, post examples of your product on Instagram (place the link to your campaign on the posts and in your biography), send the press release to bloggers, pod casters, news entities, comic book shops.  With comic shops, ask these guys if you can put a poster/flyer in their place and they'll often agree... but ask nicely, they're doing you a favor if they agree... and do something nice for them, like bringing them a signed copy or setting up a book signing event.  You can do a lot of mutually beneficial promotion that way with all parties and your comic book fan base all reaping the benefit from a bit of cooperation.  

6) Public appearances:  This is something that not many resources I've seen go over but something I've had a lot of success with.  Go places, meet people, and tell them about what you are doing.  I'm talking about setting up at events at shops or conventions that support your product type.  So, keeping with comic books as an example, at comic book stores and conventions.  Talk to people about the subject at hand, about the industry or art form, and leave about 20% of the conversation for your own self-promotion.  Personally, I recommend closing with your own promotion.  Give folks the value of your expertise/knowledge in the field, build a rapport, be social, and have fun.  Having fun is important.  You want to have a good time yourself, and if people have fun with your event they are more likely to support your cause.  So don't take yourself too seriously.  Enjoy the company of people with similar interests as yourself.  

How you promote it is up to you:  

I touched on "what" to do above, now lets talk about the "how".

1) I would recommend at least three weeks of lead time before launching your promotions for your crowdfunding campaigns.  Longer running efforts afford you the opportunity to reach more people, but you must be able to hold their attention.  To this end, use your promotional campaign to reach/retain potential backers by implementing a "remind me" feature link to your campaigns.

On your blog entries, on your social media posts, and on your pod cast episodes you place a feature to allow people to sign up for email notification.  Make this a transparent to people.  Let them know you'll email a reminder to them upon launch (of course you'll need to remember to do that, so put it on your calendar).  Build an email list of those people who have consented to receive those notifications, and assemble it well in advance of the release (updating as more emails come in).  In your email, be certain to include a link directly to your crowdfunding campaign.  Be courteous, professional, and genuine.  (NOTE:  make sure you blind copy the  email list when it goes out... I have accidentally only CC'd my list before which was horrifically embarrassing... don't do that).

2)  Your social media promotions should be informative, exciting, accurate, and contain links to things like a YouTube video for your coming campaign. (Example:  https://youtu.be/Gy8xUupb6wQ )

You'll want people to be able to see and hear what all the excitement is about.  Do yourself and your future backers a favor, and keep your promo videos at or under two minutes.  Once your campaign is live and running, add a link to the campaign so people can move directly and easily to support your efforts.

For those people who are helping you out, give them information such as you would include in your press release.  What is the URL for the crowdfunding campaign?  What backer rewards/perks are available? When does the campaign start?  Are you doing a launch part, and if so when/where/how?  Include a graphic, link to your promotional video, and/or link to the campaign (once launched).  Make it easy for people to get to your campaign and support it.

3) Social media advertising:  I would like to recommend that you very carefully analyze the population you can expect to reach.  Make a realistic, or pessimistic estimate as to how likely people are to click through and support your campaign, then compare the amount of net funding you gain after the costs of such advertising.  Will you have a net gain at least equal to the amount you laid out for the advertising (in other words are you going to make twice your money back)?  If so then I would say its worth the effort.  If your numbers tell you that you might or are unlikely to have such a gain, then I would recommend against it.  If you are like me and don't know much about the social media advertising dynamics, consult a professional or someone with experience in using it before you  execute your marketing campaign.

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That's the promotional concept, in brief, for you to consider.  As you develop your crowdfunding campaign, please carefully consider all facets of its finance, fulfillment, and promotion.  The idea is to bring your idea to life with the help of the funds from the public.  Be honest in all your dealings, me realistic in what you can achieve, own up to any problems you encounter, and be successful.  

Please remember from my prior blog posts that you are growing an audience.  Your backers aren't your personal money machine, they are the people you are creating for.  Treat them with the respect they deserve.

Thank you for joining me again on this great adventure into self-publishing.  As always, I welcome your comments below.

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Live Stream Event: Talking about coming projects and taking questions and feedback

Art by Brian Lee / Lettering by: James Lee

Friday, Decemberr 22nd, 2017 at 9:00PM EST,  I will be hosting a live stream event on KickStarter live. 

I'll be speaking on coming projects, taking questions and feedback from the audience.

This streaming event will also feature artists who have and/or who will be contributing art to projects from Sinopa Publishing LLC (my publishing company). 

So come out and join us Friday night.  Introduce yourself and ask some questions.  Hear from artists on what its like to work for a new company.  Tell us what you think of the work we've done.

I'll be asking existing KickStarter questions for feedback on the coming campaign for
Tarot Adventures, Book Two: Comet over Echo Rock as that campaign is launching on January 13th.

This will be a fun event and you are cordially invited. 

Link to the Live Stream!

Thanks for joining me on my ongoing adventure into game design, writing, and publishing.

I hope you'll join me next time.

The next turn of the cards... the Adventure continues in Comet over Echo Rock

Cover art by Brian Lee
Lettering by James Lee

Update (January 14th, 2018):  
The Tarot Adventures, Book Two: Comet over Echo Rock funded in just under 4 hours last night!
I want to thank all the backers who came out right at launch, hung out and listened to me babble during the live stream, and generally made it a fantastic night.  
You people were awesome!

 Link to the KickStarter Page:  http://kck.st/2DubJ3g   


The Tarot Adventures began with the Draw of Glenfallow.   Pieron changed his destiny and the fate of the world itself is being rewritten.

Now the next turn of the cards is on the table.  The Comet is drawn and appears over the Echo Rock silver mine.

The Echo Rock Silver Mine by Christian Martinez

Pieron's rule in Glenfallow has begun.  The squalor and devastation of the goblin occupation is being swept away as settlers arrive to build farms, homes, and new lives.  The Temple of the Sun is being rebuilt thanks to the efforts of a young priestess and an elder monk.

In the northern mountains dark forces continue their depravity.

Dwarves have arrived to re-open the lost Echo Rock silver mine.  They are met with monstrous violence.  Now they bury their dead in the shadows of the northern mountains, and look to Pieron for aid.

Hobgoblins and a Goblin Sorcerer: by Jake Ochoa

In the dark caverns of the mine dwell viscous monsters thirsty for fresh blood.

Rats of Unusual Size by: Alexia Veldhuisen

Echo Rock is rife with peril.  It will take courage, iron will, strength of arms, and perhaps a bit of magic to overcome the dangers lurking in the mine.

A giant Snake by:  Kelsy Cowan

The challenge lies before you.

Can you triumph where all others have failed?  Can you brave the monsters of the mountains, rid Echo Rock of its terrifying occupants, and take revenge for murdered dwarves?

Dwarves burying their dead by: Kelsy Cowan

There is glory to be seized, political clout to be had, and treasures to be won.  You must be brave enough to face the perils of the mountains, skilled enough to do battle with the monsters of the mine, and lucky enough to survive.

Raise Pieron's banner, restore the mine to the dwarves, and the comet will fly over Echo Rock.

Cover by: Brian Lee

Tarot Adventures, Book Two:  Comet over Echo Rock

The second book in the Tarot Adventures series will see its KickStarter launch in January (date coming soon).  I will be conducting a live streaming of the KickStarter launch party where I'll be taking questions about the Tarot Adventures series, hearing from folks who supported Tarot Adventures, Book One: The Draw of Glenfallow, and generally having a good time as we launch this campaign.

Check out The Draw of Glenfallow KickStarter campaign for post release updates and comments from backers who have or are playing through that book to see what they are saying about the book that launched the series.

A real Ogre by: Alexia Veldhuisen

The Tarot Adventures are planned to include 22 unique adventure modules, published through the coming years, with each adventure themed after a card of the major arcana of the classic Tarot deck.
These adventures are setting neutral, allowing them to be placed into any fantasy campaign.  Come with us as we explore the story that starts with one common man who took a chance to change his destiny.

Tarot Adventures, Book Two:  Comet over Echo Rock with be funded through crowdfunding efforts on KickStarter and Indiegogo. These two campaigns are to be launched together, to expand the audience for this book.  A portion of all contributions are paid to contributing artists.

ALL artists working on this project are freelancers and you can find their information and more samples of their works on the artists biography pages linked to this blog.  Sinopa Publishing LLC pays all artists for their contributions based upon the contracts negotiated for such work.  We do NOT pay in "experience" or "exposure" as "experience" won't pay for groceries and people die from "exposure". 

We are funding this project though the following:

KickStarter

Viralstyle

Indiegogo

Artists:

Art for Tarot Adventures, Book Two: Comet over Echo Rock, was contributed by the following artists:  (click on the links below to see their biography pages)

Nick Caponi
Kelsy Cowan
Brian Lee
James Lee
Christian Martinez
Jacob Ochoa
Alexia Veldhuisen


If you want your work to be seen in titles by Sinopa Publishing LLC then send a message to our Facebook page or by email to: submissions@sinopapublishing.com .  Please include an online reference to your work and your commission rates.  Samples will NOT be used other than as a benchmark measure for your capabilities. Attention to details provided, timely meeting of deadlines, and high quality work are expected. Sinopa Publishing LLC does NOT release images without contract to do so. Only submit your own work.

Bloggers and Podcasters:

Do you want to do a piece on the Tarot Series, build community, cross promote, and get an early start on writing/speaking about this series?  If so, then comment below and reach out to me.  I share crowdfunding projects on my social media (cool ones I believe in) and I appreciate those who do the same.  I also do interviews on pod casts (I actually really enjoy doing that), so hit me up and we can talk for a segment.  I'll share the link to my social media and we'll work to build your audience and mine at the same time.



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NOTICE

Email list sellers, "marketing" services, and other scammers .... you folks need not bother.  I don't buy email lists, I don't hire "marketing" firms, and if you use words like "guaranteed" or other such nonsense in your pitch, I don't want to hear from you.  Sinopa Publishing is building its audience by word of mouth and by the rarely done social media advertising post.  I appear on podcasts and provide information for bloggers to use on their sites.  I believe in building community, and fleecing people out of money is not part of that plan.  Our community is what helps us grow.  I also promote other KickStarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe campaigns to support people I've built those relationships with.  And, NO, I will not recommend you to them either.  We DO NOT engage in unsolicited email campaigns, the sale or purchase of email addresses, or marketing gimmicks.  Do NOT offer me money for my audience's email addresses. I will NOT sell them to you.  You are now duly advised.  Any communication contrary to the letter or spirit of this notice will result in litigation.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

To all of you who have stuck with me this year:  Happy Thanksgiving!


If you are writing and exploring self-publishing, I hope that this blog has been of some use to you.  I've made mistakes, I've made progress, and I've had set backs.  It is my hope that chronicling those here helps you to avoid my mistakes and gives you a leg up on publishing your own work.

As the holidays have approached I've fallen a bit behind on my posting here.  I apologize for that.

So for Thanksgiving holiday people have a wide range of traditions they practice as friends and family gather for the holiday meals. 

What are some of your favorite customs for this holiday?   Please comment and share below.  If you have a favorite receipe you wish to share with everyone, feel free to do so.

I wish a wonderful holiday season for you all.

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I have a lot going on with the books I'm developing and projects getting ready to launch.  I hope you'll stick with me through the coming months.  I know its going to be exciting!

What is going on, you ask?

Well, Comet over Echo Rock is going to get it's KickStarter in a few weeks.  Art is currently running late and play testing hasn't begun second phase yet (my fault on that).  I'll be typing up the next play test version next week and will get that to play testers soon thereafter.  My goal is to have that book fully formatted, or very nearly so, by the time I launch the KickStarter campaign.  This will help with getting the fulfillment done quickly and smoothly.

Several other titles are in the works.  2018 will be a very busy year filled with new books and grand adventure.

One project that will be ongoing, is the continued effort to fund and develop my samurai comic book, 47 Furious Tails.  That title will see crowdfunding efforts to pay for art costs and print run.
This project is particularly important for me as an entry into comic books, and a validation of my capability to produce a high quality comic.  Wish me luck, share the links to the crowdfunding pages (please!), and enjoy this title.  Its going to be beautiful.

You can donate to 47 Furious Tails, Issue One:   HERE