Hold Something: Quarterly Update!

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Hey all! I posted in January about a project I'm doing called Hold Something, and wanted to post to share how things are going, and give new folks an opportunity to check it out.

What's Hold Something?
Each month, I choose a snapshot I've taken with my digital camera and use it as a prompt for a short story. Readers get a copy of the photo, the story (printed on high-quality paper), and a note from me. I also draw one subscriber from the list every month to receive an extra goodie, usually a spare author's copy I have on hand, but it can also be a found object that relates to the story, or some other shiny thing that I think readers will appreciate. You can get all the details here or check out an excerpt.

So how's Hold Something doing a quarter later?
Not too badly, at least from a production standpoint. I've got a regular editor (copperbadge, who's written and self-published some excellent novels), and a regular source for my materials. I know about how long it takes to do the actual material production and shipping. I would say in terms of reliability, things are Very Good.

Overall, readers are largely positive and enjoying what they get every month. I've got folks on two continents. There is nothing cooler than sending mail to TWO CONTINENTS every month.

Why should people subscribe?
1) Hold Something has turned out to be kind of awesome. ;) (No, really. I love making this thing.)
2) I pay my editor a flat fee per subscriber, and would love to be able to pay him what he's worth.
3) Hold Something is a project that creates an immediate and mostly reliable revenue stream, which helps me justify the amount of time I spend writing instead of getting a "real" second job to support my mom, fix the house, etc. (This is especially urgent right now since we need to have work done on the roof this year and I'm still scrambling to figure out how I'm going to afford this.)

Anyway. That's my quarterly spiel. Ping me if you've got questions, feel free to spread the word, etc. Also, thank you to the folks who do already subscribe. I grin every month when I go down the list, frantically writing addresses on envelopes.

Comments

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to get one months without having to subscribe? I'd feel way more comfortable with that than with a subscroption. (Nothing against you there, just a personal preference of mine - I don't like the whole "try two issues FOR FREE" thing that newspapers and magazines do, either.)

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

You know, adding a "try one month" button or option would be the work of minutes. Let me go do that real quick.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of thing that I keep telling people about when they want to start a crowdfunding project. Trust your audience; they'll tell you what they want and will suggest cool new features as your project develops.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

And done!

I've also updated the photo to reflect the current papers/note cards/etc. I'm using.

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

Does that make three continents now? (Can't promise the "every month" bit, though, either way.)

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Sadly, Europe is reasonably well-represented.

Now if you could snag me an Australian...

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Ah, I saw two people asking about shipping to Australia, and thought you had it covered.