Guest Post; Melissa Brown and her Kickstarter
Today I am here to introduce you to my friend Melissa Brown. She’s currently trying to fund her very first novel and she needs your help! Find out more info below in her wonderful guest post!
I am a creative writing teacher seeking public support to crowd fund my YA novel, Becoming Death. Using Kickstarter, I have until December 17th to convince friends, family and members of the public to raise £1,250 to fund production of my debut novel. The primary costs of the campaign are cover design, professional editing and printing.
Becoming Death is a tale of family secrets, falling in love and questioning your destiny, told from the perspective of a supernatural protagonist. When Madison Clark turns eighteen, she is ushered into the secretive family business. Little does she know, her family are Grim Reapers, custodians of souls on their journey to the beyond. Will she be able to carry out her new duties when she finds out that her next victim is her best friend?
Becoming Death was born as a National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo), project in 2014. For the last five years, I have led this online challenge that encourages entrants to write a 50,000 word novel in November for the Norfolk, UK region. Through Nanowrimo, I have helped other authors successfully publish work and I feel that now is my turn. I have been successfully writing and posting my fan fiction under the name lonegungal17 for years; but writing and self-publishing my own book is a new challenge.
I have always been interested in the supernatural but I wanted a new take on it. I started researching different types of creatures and one that stood out to me was the Grim Reaper. After researching the Grim Reaper, I found this creature was very rarely portrayed as female, thus my main character was born. Madison is a typical teenage fangirl: she writes fanfiction about her OTP (one true pairing), is addicted to her favourite comic book series and doesn’t really know how to be an adult yet.
The book sets up a new back story of how Grim Reapers might function in the modern world, past traditions like wearing robes and carrying scythes are reserved for ceremonies. Instead they attend evening classes to learn how to use their powers, use an app to track their victims and scroll through social media to learn more about them
It was the challenge of completing a project within a tight timescale that helped me decide that crowdfunding was the right option for me, and I believe crowdfunding offers an exciting opportunity for up-and-coming novelists to break into the market. I welcome donations of any amount. Rewards for donating include advance copies of my book, bespoke jewellery, writing courses, writing advice sessions, and opportunities to have a character created in your appearance or with your name. For more information, I can be contacted at Twitter at @MRBrown_author.
You can find more information about my book here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melissabrownauthor/becoming-death-a-ya-novel
Sound like something you’d want to read and back? Please do!
