The Three-Day Novel Contest: If You Can’t Be Them, Coin Them – Day 351

I can’t think of a worse time of year (besides, arguably, Christmas) to have the Novel Three-Day Contest than Labour Day. Spending those last few days with the kids before school starts again (albeit likely clothes and school supply shopping…) is de rigueur for most parents. And what about all those teacher/writers? Not much of a chance for them either, getting ready for classes…

For me, it is compounded most years by other family events, so I don’t usually have a chance to participate. This year will be the same.

However, as the title says, if you can’t be them, coin them!

I have supported one writer who is seeking a small amount of funds to do it. Laura Roberts (of Black Heart Magazine fame, among other notables) is taking advantage of the KickStarter, a website that helps creative types raise money for projects. If you haven’t heard about KickStarter, you can read about it all here: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter%20basics#WhatIsKick

I think KickStarter in itself is an interesting idea, kind of mixing the idea of the benefactor (or benefactors) with a stock exchange. It’s an all-or-nothing proposition though – if the project doesn’t get pledges in the amount of at least the funding goal, then it doesn’t launch.

Usually supporters get at least some type of token gesture of thanks. In Laura’s case, she has different support levels that include various things from a free digital copy of the book (“replete with typos!” – love that line…), access to her blog, and a t-shirt.

I went in at the $25 level, and was able to suggest the character name. (I couldn’t bring myself to go with my name, but I did suggest one that was close…)

Her “entry level” of support is just $5, and gets you access to her “private journal”, a live blog. I think that’s well worth it for the curiosity factor alone, never mind the fact that you’d be supporting a novelist in her writing habit.

Full disclosure: Laura has not asked me to mention this, nor do I gain anything from this – except the fact that if she doesn’t get full funding (as mentioned above), then the whole project gets pulled and I get another avenue to immortality pulled from under me (it’ll be 4:01 all over again…!)

So if you have $5 you can spare, why not send it her way? As of this writing, she is at $88 of a goal of $120.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lauraroberts/worlds-greatest-3-day-novel

Note: KickStarter uses Amazon as its payment method, which really sucks if you’re living outside the US (i.e. it won’t let you use your Amazon.com account name unless you have a US address…) However, if you’ve run into problems, I’ve found a workaround here:

https://www.jungledisk.com/secure/signup/mturk.aspx

Are you going to be doing the Three-Day Novel Contest yourself? Drop me a note or let us know in the comments – I’d love to hear about it!

~Graham

PS – I’ll be working on my novel novel instead of a three-day novel, though it won’t likely be the marathon session most others will be doing…!