*** IMPORTANT ***
I have made the decision to CANCEL this campaign.
*** PLEASE DO NOT CONTRIBUTE ANY MORE.***
3/18/2014 - Update -After many exchanges with Indiegogo support, and discussions with the contributors involved, ALL contributions ALREADY MADE (minus Indiegogo fees) will be retained and used for the Authors, and will be distributed to the Authors as originally intended.
According to Indiegogo, the campaign will run its course and cannot be deleted, nor can refunds be issued to contributors directly. The funds already raised to date will be deposited by Indiegogo into the designated account after the end of the campaign period, according to their rules.
3/17/2014 - Update -Indigogo has informed me that they cannot delete this, and that I will need to reimburse the contributors directly. Since all the funds are still on their end, I am waiting for their response to my new inquiries.
Vera
********************
In Brief...
I screwed up.
I take full responsibility, and it is all my fault.
The Long Story
I am Vera Nazarian, two-time Nebula Award Nominee author,
award-winning artist, publisher of Norilana Books. In 2006 I singlehandedly
started a small independent press Norilana Books, with about 300 paper print
POD (Print-on-Demand) titles in print, mostly classics of world literature
(about 90% of the complete catalog), and a few of my favorite contemporary genre authors such as Tanith
Lee, Sherwood Smith, Modean Moon, William Sanders, John Grant, Eugie Foster,
Roby James, Mike Allen, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Dave
Hutchinson, Jeffry Dwight, David Dvorkin, Leonore Dvorkin, Deborah J. Ross, Ken
Rand, Adam Campan, Catherynne M. Valente, and the Marion Zimmer Bradley
Literary Works Trust.
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Norilana Books is also the original home of the
much-acclaimed anthology series
Clockwork Phoenix edited by Mike Allen,
Warrior
Wisewoman edited by Roby James,
Lace and Blade edited by Deborah J.
Ross, and the revived
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress edited
by Elisabeth Waters.
Things were going well the first few years, and I was
promptly and happily paying royalties to all my wonderful authors, and
releasing handsome paper print editions of their works in hardcover and trade
paperback. And then the economy crashed, while at the same time, a series of
personal misfortunes struck.
Within a very short period of time I was faced all at once
with the cancer of my mother, death of my father, the loss of my home to
foreclosure, bankruptcy, a cross-country move from California to Vermont, and
having to start my life over on a severely reduced income, after having to
undergo major life-saving surgery myself.
At the same time, the publishing industry started to change
rapidly, with the advent of ebooks and ereaders, and paper print sales dropped
considerably, so that my already inadequate income was reduced to about one
third of what it had been.
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But this fundraiser is not about me...
It’s about the wonderful Norilana Books authors who need to
be paid their long overdue royalties. As months went by and I was
struggling just to survive, I was no longer able to pay my authors the
royalties owed them.
My authors have understood my dire situation and have waited
patiently throughout all this—are still waiting. All rights to their books are
theirs, and some of them chose to exercise their reversion, while others are
still with me and my tiny press because they prefer for their books to stay in
print in their current editions.
Regardless, they all need to be paid as soon as possible—all
the back royalties, down to a cent.
At this point I am still struggling, still not back on my
feet, still fighting every month to barely cover the rent and the bills.
But my authors should not be made to wait any longer, and
deserve their hard-earned money NOW. The fact that I cannot pay them is killing
me.
This Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign is a real means for me
to raise all the funds necessary without costing my authors anything.
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What We Need & What You Get
The total amount of Norilana Books royalties owed to
everyone is $19,198.36. Together with
the Indiegogo fees, the amount I must raise is $20,926.21.
I have set up a dedicated bank account just for this
campaign. All the funds placed in this account will be disbursed to the authors
directly. I will not get a single cent.
***ADDENDUM***
If anyone wants to step in and administer the funds and use a different financial account of your own to which I have NO access, I would be only too grateful. In fact, I would PREFER that a trusted third party manage this entire process and disburse all funds directly to the authors. Please contact me if interested!
***
And now I ask you with all my heart to help my authors out.
As rewards for your generous contributions to this campaign,
I am offering you my own books, as a loss only to myself.
For every $5 you contribute, you will get an ebook of your
choice from the list of my own books below.
In fact, here is a free ebook up-front, with my thanks, just
for reading this page!
Cobweb Bride (Cobweb Bride Trilogy, Book One)
It's free on
Amazon Kindle,
B&N NOOK Book,
Smashwords,
Apple iTunes,
Kobo, and
Sony.
And here are the rest of the book rewards you may choose
from:
In addition, I offer as a high level rewards:
- The chance to be
“Tuckerized” by me – to appear as a real character in my future works of
fiction.
- A dedication in one of my future books.
Other exciting stretch goal rewards will be revealed if the
fund goal is exceeded. All extra funds will go towards future author royalties.
You might ask why don’t I offer my authors’ books as rewards
instead of my own. It's because I cannot give away copies of their books
without paying them additional royalties, I cannot have them incur any
additional losses without compensation, and since I don’t publish ebook
editions of their work, there are no ebooks to give away.
You might ask why I don’t offer paper print editions as
rewards. My answer is simple—I cannot afford it. I cannot even afford to buy
copies of my own books from the printer warehouse.
So it has to be ebooks. And really, in this day and age,
when pretty much everyone has a smartphone, a Kindle, a Nook, an iPad, or other
tablet, digital is the preferred format for most of you.
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The Impact
Thanks for reading all the way through, and thank you for
your kind and generous help, from the bottom of my heart on behalf of all my
amazing, wonderful, incredibly talented authors!
Times are tough for all of us, and likely for you also, so I
can understand if all you can afford to pitch in is $1 or $3 or $5 bucks.
That’s okay! Every dollar helps!
And for just a few dollars you get to pick out some very
entertaining reading material written by yours truly—ranging from epic fantasy,
to science fiction, to mythic literary fantasy, to pop humor, to inspirational
philosophy, to historical satire, to hilarious and romantic Jane Austen parody.
Take your pick!
All it takes is a few generous bucks!
And for that you have our boundless gratitude!
Other Ways You Can Help
If you cannot make a contribution—which is okay!—you can still help immensely by spreading the word!
- Please re-post, blog about this campaign, tweet, share it on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pinterest, and any social network of your choice! Ask folks you know to get the word out and make some noise!
- For your convenience, use the Indiegogo share tools!
And that’s all there is to it.
Thank you immensely for your generosity!
