About this project
$15,611
397
To get a FREE YEAR of ebooks for the no pro rate CG Magazine (2013): pledge $25 and select any reward. You automatically get the zine ebooks in addition to your selected reward!
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Stretch Goal #2: $14,000! Status: WE MADE IT!!! (Friday 6/22 8:00am)
We made it to $14,000 around 2:30am! This means CG Magazine will pay authors pro rates for stories in 2013! You can still get the 2013 year of the magazine FREE with any $25 pledge!
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UPDATE 6/18 10AM: It's GO TIME! We've nearly reached $10,000 with less than 5 days to go! More than 70% of the way to paying professional rates! Please help us by pledging and/or spreading the word!
UPDATE 6/10 10AM: We're shooting for pro rates for CG Magazine for our second stretch goal! If we make it, everyone who pledges $25 or more gets a FREE YEAR of the pro-rate magazine! We're over halfway to the new goal - help us make this incredible dream a reality!
UPDATE 6/5 11PM: We're deciding what our next stretch goal should be, and we want your opinion! There's a good discussion going in the comments already. Ideas being discussed: paying professional rates, funding 2014, etc. Please add your thoughts, we want to hear from everyone!
UPDATE 5/25 Noon: There's a surprise for our pledgers (and new pledgers can get in on it too)! Check it out! Also, there are a couple new rewards at the $35 and $200 levels! Is there anything missing? Ask us!
UPDATE 5/25 11AM: We've sailed past our original goal and even hit our first stretch goal: CG Magazine will be reborn! YAY! Stay tuned for another stretch goal, and another surprise to thank all you wonderful supporters!
UPDATE 5/21 6PM: OMG everyone, we're more than halfway there in 5 hours! HUGE thanks to everyone for spreading the word!
WHO WE ARE
Crossed Genres was formed in September 2008 as a science fiction & fantasy magazine, with few resources and almost no visibility. Since then, that little zine has grown into Crossed Genres Publications, a small indie press publishing not just the zine, but also speculative anthologies, collections and novels.
(Above: Just a few of our covers)
We also spun off the Science in My Fiction blog, ran a big SiMF short story contest, ran two successful Kickstarter campaigns, and consistently reach thousands of people each month.
Despite this success, CGP has never been profitable; we've lost about $10,000 from our own pockets in the past 3 1/2 years. We're okay with that – we knew going into it that we would lose money. We've continued because we love speculative fiction, and we love getting the work of talented yet undiscovered authors into the hands of readers.
We don't want to be forced to let CGP go, but due to the co-publishers unexpectedly losing their day jobs, we simply can't afford to lose money on the small press any longer. So we've launched this Kickstarter project to cover CGP's publishing costs through the end of 2013. The funds would pay for at least four publications before the end of next year.
WHAT THIS KICKSTARTER WILL PAY FOR
The $4000 goal will mostly go towards the content we publish; over half will go directly to authors and artists for fiction and cover art. The rest will pay for editorial, production and distribution costs, as well as some advertising/publicity. [Note: NONE of the money will go into our pockets. 100% of the funds raised will be invested in CGP and its publications. We'll be happy to simply not lose money any longer.]
Projects in 2013 will include:
- Menial: Skilled Labor in SF (anthology, currently accepting submissions; release 1st quarter of 2013):
Other people treat laborers like the dirt they work with. But skilled labor is crucial to the continuation of human culture on earth – and if we ever wish to visit the stars, skilled labor will be indispensable.
We want stories about men and women who understand the nuts and bolts, the atmosphere and the water and the soil. You know – the things that keep us alive. We want characters who get their hands dirty every day; people who aren’t too proud to work their bodies at least as hard as their minds.
- Winter Well, an anthology of speculative novellas about older women (currently accepting submissions; release 2nd quarter of 2013):
We’re looking for speculative stories featuring women of advancing age (late middle age and older). They’re smart, they’re tough, and they have wills of their own.
They may be warriors, politicians, adventurers, etc. Even if they are also wives, mothers, wise women or healers, those archetypes must not be their defining characteristics. Their motivations, their driving force, must be their own. Whatever was in their past, they’re not interested in being in the background now.
We want stories about women breaking free of suppression; we also want stories of women who’ve been empowered all their lives.
- Plus at LEAST two additional titles released in the 2nd half of 2013.
We may add 1-2 additional projects depending on how successful the Kickstarter is. These titles haven't been decided yet – and some of the rewards for pledging give you the chance to influence what we publish!
REWARDS
There are rewards for readers and for writers; for fans of ebooks and for fans of print. We're offering signed, rare & special books, t-shirts, writing critiques, input on the theme of an upcoming anthology, even the opportunity to name & describe a character in the upcoming novel of a NY Times bestselling author!
For the $50 reward, the ARC & Rarity Grab Bag, some of the books you might receive include:
- Signed copies, including Broken Slate by Kelly Jennings, Fat Girl in a Strange Land, Subversion, CG Magazine quarterlies, etc.
- Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) of A Festival of Skeletons by RJ Astruc, Fat Girl in a Strange Land, Subversion, and others
- Science in My Fiction contest winners (only 80 copies were ever printed!)
There are others as well, but we have limited quantities, hence only offering 10 grab bags!
CGP has been lauded for our cover art throughout our history, so for the Kickstarter we got permission from the artists to offer 8" x 10" photo prints of a few of our most popular covers. These prints are available only to supporters of our Kickstarter:
"Marshmallow Cat" from issue #10 (Child Fiction) by Carl Pearce
Untitled from issue #12 (LGBTQ) by Julie Dillon
"The Very Ugly Duckling" from Quarterly 4 by Minna Sundberg
Untitled from Fat Girl in a Strange Land by Lili Ibrahim
Huge thanks to the artists and authors who contributed to the rewards!
Here's the Geek Swears t-shirt that's one of the rewards:
And the Runner Girl t-shirt, like the animation in our video!
For the customized LEGO sets: You choose any of the genres from Crossed Genres Magazine's issues, and we'll design a LEGO set for you crossing science fiction and/or fantasy with that theme! Like this one we made for ROMANCE, "One Hundred Ten Ton Proposal":
We'll write out detailed instructions for building it, and send them to you along with all the bricks and pieces to build it!
CONCLUSION
Crossed Genres Publications has been proud to bring new voices to appreciative readers. CGP has been the first sale for dozens of aspiring writers! (They always excitedly tell us so ;) Our diverse and unusual themes present challenges which writers have risen to magnificently, creating excellent and unique reading experiences. But unfortunately, that's now at risk.
If the fundraising goal isn't reached, then CGP will stop producing new books. We'll cancel the submission calls for Menial: Skilled Labor in SF and Winter Well, and after we release Daniel José Older's Salsa Nocturna in July and Sabrina Vourvoulias' INK in October, there will be no more new titles.
We don't want this to happen. And we hope that you don't either. We love discovering brilliant new stories and authors. Please help us keep doing so, and we'll continue to share them with you!
Thanks,
Kay & Bart, co-publishers
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