Going into this project, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Our team had a great idea. We had some experience. We had the necessary skills. But I soon found that the hardest commodity to come by was time. Organizing an anthology is difficult, and for a stay at home mom with a very young child, free time is something I don’t have a lot of. For basically the past year of my life, I’ve been juggling the anthology, my family, my responsibilities, and my own personal projects. It’s been exhausting, to say the least.
The Kickstarter pleasantly surprised me. Setting it up was a ton of work. We had to decide pledge tier levels, rewards, goals, incentives–something none of us have ever done before. But we did it! Our Kickstarter campaign was fully funded and we were able to move forward with the anthology. Am I satisfied with the outcome? Yes. Do I want to do another Kickstarter campaign someday? To be determined.
The hardest part of the entire process, I think, was waiting during the submission window. We had the idea. We had the money. We had the cover (designed by yours truly!), and the editor, and the marketing plan–we just needed the stories. And while we were excited about the narrative, we had to find other authors who were, too. Would anyone be as excited as we were? What if nobody submitted any stories? It took a couple months, but we were able to collect the stories we needed to fill the anthology.
There has been a lot of stress involved, learning new skills, honing old ones, and trying to keep up with our timeline. COVID set us back at first, but once we got the Kickstarter rolling, we were able to make up a lot of ground.
And now, after over a year of planning and work, Gaia Awakens is available for pre-order.
23 stories, by 16 authors, from 6 different countries. One cohesive narrative.
Phew.
I love how this project turned out, and I hope that you all love it as much as I do.
semaccready.com 