Some big, fun news in this update!
Mark your calendars if you live in the Bay Area: I'm throwing a book release party on Saturday, December 19. It's going to be at the amazing Gray Area Foundation for the Arts—easily one of the most Annabel Scheme places in San Francisco—from 7-10pm or so. If you're a backer who lives in the Bay Area, you'll get a follow-up email from me with more details next week; I just wanted to tell you now so you can save the date. And, a question to everyone else: If we set up a live video feed from the party, would you want to take a peek?

A bit more operationally:
Many books have shipped. Domestic U.S. Super Occult Value Packs shipped yesterday. International SOVPs shipped today. I prioritized these because I know some people are planning on giving their bonus copies as gifts. (That's so cool!) Single copies, both domestic and international, will ship next week on Tuesday and Wednesday.
There are some people who still haven't submitted shipping info. If you're out there, it's not too late! It should say "Submit Info" in blue at the top of the page right now. Click that!
Now, the fun stuff:
The remix catalyst. The party on December 19 isn't just going to be to celebrate the book; it's also going to serve as a kick-off for the Creative Commons remix catalyst. I've decided on the format for this, and there will be more details later, but here are the basics, so you can start noodling it immediately:
It's not a contest. Instead, it's all about collective commissions.
When it launches, I'm going to ask you to pitch in an idea for a remix project along with the name of a person who actually could do that project. That person could be you! But it could also be some writer, musician, or artist on the internet whose work you dig. I'm a big fan of Jillian Tamaki, for instance, so maybe I'll suggest a winsome portrait of Annabel Scheme drawn by Jillian. Each pitch will also have a budget attached; maybe I'd peg the portrait at $500. (I'm probably low-balling her rate. But I'll get to that in a second.)

After the pitches are in, we'll all vote, and then I'll rank them in order according to those votes. Then, I'll start at the top with $1,000 and go down the list, subtracting each project's budget until there's no money left. So maybe it will just be one big $1K project that everybody loves. Maybe it will be a few $300 projects. Maybe it will be a whole lot of sub-$100 projects.

If a project was pitched by the same person who intends to do it, it's good to go. We'll pay that person half of their budget to start and half on completion. However, if a project is connected to someone who, er, doesn't know about any of this yet—as in my Jillian Tamaki example—then I'll reach out to them, explain what's up, and offer them the remix gig. (I think that's so cool: "Hi, you don't know us, but we voted, and you're our favorite.") My hope is that they'll find this as fun and exciting as we do. If they don't, or if they can't do it with the budget we're offering, then we'll just move to the next project on the list. No problem.

So does that make sense? It's a little bit more complicated than a contest, but it seems a lot more interesting to me. I really like the idea of actually paying for new work. And I also like the idea of bringing some of your favorite artists into the mix.

So start thinking about what you might pitch—either for yourself or for someone else. I think that plugged-in web creators are going to be a better bet for this than, say, Coldplay. But then again, maybe there's somebody in your world who's not all up in the blog scene—maybe they've never heard of Creative Commons—but they'd be perfect. A writer, an illustrator, a photographer, somebody who builds things. Bring them to us!

Finally, some miscellany:
The misstep. Just wanted to share a little blooper. I had this idea for the cover art that involved custom stamps and gold ink. Well, it totally didn't work. Looked like crap. (Part of the problem was that I'm not a very good stamper; a bigger part was that the organic look of stamping just didn't feel very Annabel Scheme. Stamps are rough and grungy; Scheme is sleek and stylish.) But at least I got some cool bling out of the experiment:

I share this as a reminder: in any creative project, there's so much you never see. So many ideas get tried and abandoned behind the scenes. (Also, uh, let me know if you need anything... stamped... with the words "Annabel Scheme"?)
The snack. Here's a very short story, just released, to hold you over 'til the books arrive. It's called The Dance Party on Jefferson Avenue and it was inspired by a pair of pants.

(And remember: start brainstorming remix pitches!)