Connor Coyne

You guys are great! Just last week I expressed concerns about momentum and reaching the goal to publish Hungry Rats. I am pleased to announce that with the help of pledges over the last week, we have reached our Kickstarter goal of $3200. And with 59 days to spare!

What does this mean? Quite simply, there will be a novel. This novel will be published with a print-on-demand package that allows me to negotiate the best price possible for purchasers, and has a quality cover, binding, and printing.

I will continue to raise funds on Kickstarter. If I can raise an additional $1100, I will be able to pursue the sort of aggressive marketing that will give me a shot at real distribution. I will take advantage of new underutilized venues such as Facebook ads and Google AdWords, and will take Hungry Rats on the road to Michigan, New York, and other destinations.

If I can raise an additional $1700, I will be able to more fully integrate collaborators into the distribution process. Imagine an Andy Kaufman style “gig” (sans Carnegie Hall) featuring literature, music, performance, film, and more. This is a 21st century novel, and we should take advantage of 21st century technology and culture!

In the upcoming weeks look for more updates including teasers of some Hungry Rats b-sides and outtakes (you may not know this, but the novel originally ended with an 8,000-word scat jazz jam on evil lumberjacks), new rewards, and more.

I want to thank you all again for your help and support; it is truly an honor to be backed by such an outstanding group of people. This inspires me to brew some coffee, cue up some Thom Yorke, and revise this thing until it’s perfect!

Your Friend,

Connor

Hi Everyone!

Thanks again for helping to support the publication of Hungry Rats! I want to write you again since it is at this moment the single make-or-break element of this venture; if I reach my Kickstarter goal, a published novel will emerge in some form or other. If I do not reach that goal, I will not have time this year to regroup and try again, and the project will be indefinitely tabled. This is literally a make-or-break moment.

We are already 39% of the way there! With 18 backers I have raised over $1200 of my $3200 goal. But that means there’s a long way to goal and in just a few short months…

A new wrinkle to emerge is this: I’ve been conducting most of my fundraising appeals through personalized messages via Facebook. I have been writing to a subset of my Facebook Friends who I think would be most interested, and every message has been personalized. Despite this, the (tiny dot cc) url has been blocked as spam, and there is no appeal for this on Facebook. This means that several dozen people I carefully approached are not going to have a chance to respond; they have “negative exposure” to the project.

In short, I *cannot* do this alone. By the time I have contacted every person and have applied every resource, I will not have reached my goal. Keep in mind, also, that $3200 is the bargain basement for publication. It is lowest number at which I can guarantee a result of any quality. A much more ideal number would be in the range of $4300-$5000.

Please spread the word on this project. Please spread it far and wide. There is a legitimate thirst for stories that challenge, stories that build suspense, and stories that turn us toward the dark side of human nature. Thomas Harris and Patricia Cornwell have built their careers on such stories. So have Alain Robbe-Grillet and even Djuna Barnes. This novel is from a proud and diversified family. It tells its story from Michigan, through the lumberjacks. I sincerely believe that there is a wonderful opportunity here. Please help me to share my story with the world.

http://hungry-rats.com

Your Friend,

Connor Coyne

I have posted a higher-quality version of my Kickstarter Pitch to YouTube. Check it out with more here or watch it below:



Here’s the url if you want to embed it on your own site/blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jg27j-n4qo

Here’s my Kickstarter url if you want to make a donation: http://tiny.cc/hungryrats.