We founded LitReactor in 2011 as a community for readers and writers.

For the people involved, it's a passion project. And as with most passion projects, we've hit some hard times. 

There are a couple of reasons why, and for the sake of transparency, we'll tell you:

• The sudden death of one of our founders, Kirk Clawes, in 2017—besides losing a dear friend, he was handling all the coding, the billing, and the site's pending re-design
• Closing out Kirk's ownership stake with his estate
• A silent partner leaving the site
• A resulting IRS issue from that departure

LitReactor never generated a lot of money. We made enough to keep the lights on, pay our staffers for their labor, provide some really incredible online writing classes, and bring attention to a lot of great books and writers—with a focus on indie lit and small presses, areas often overlooked by the more mainstream book sites.

I believe in this site. We all do. That's why we're doing this: turning to the community, asking for help to keep us stable until we can sort out what's going on, and explore some potential options to keep the site healthy in the long run (investors, my DMs are open). 

On a personal level, I wouldn't be the writer I am without this site. I cut my teeth in the online workshop, which I now run. I've seen writers come into our classes with hopes and dreams and walk out with publishable work. 

Our goal right now is simple: Bring in enough money to stay afloat. That money will:

• Help us pay staffers and instructors
• Pay server fees and related upkeep costs
• Build us a financial buffer

And the more we raise, the more we can dedicate to bigger long-term projects, like the redesign.

The site is currently run by myself, Dennis Widmyer, and Josh Chaplinsky. We're forgoing personal payments until this gets resolved. Our priority right now is staff and stability. We've done our best to step up, in our own personal ways, but at this point, we don't have any other options besides a fundraising campaign.

It was our last resort, so please don't think we come to this lightly. We understand it's a big ask. Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. We've assembled some pretty cool perks, but we'll be adding more as we go. 

Thank you. 

—Rob Hart, Class Director