My friend, Cat Gerlach… uhm… I mean Katharina Gerlach… (Author names. **sigh**)… is running a Kickstarter this month. If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll remember Cat from the Indie Authors’ Advent Calendar that she puts out every year. The Kickstarter is for an anthology the size of an Epic Fantasy, but filled with short stories. Here’s the link. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/katharinagerlach/make-100-magical-short-stories-with-me/

If you loved the calendar, and want to see her publish more projects, back her.

If you love that little hole she’s backed herself into, and want to see her write a short story about four mice, a sapient pumpkin, and a David-Niven look-alike who just happens to be a trapeze artist… well, you can make it happen for the incredibly reasonable price of 150 euros. (No, I haven’t checked the exchange rate.) (Can I start a Kickstarter to fund my funding Cat’s Kickstarter to make Cat do that? No? Are you sure?)

Okay, yes. Be nice. With friends like me, Cat really doesn’t need any enemies.

I don’t think this will wind up with the mind-boggling success of Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter last year, but I do think there’s a pretty good chance that it will wind up getting funded. I’m having a good time watching my friend’s numbers go up, anyway.

So, this has me thinking about Kickstarter projects, and more specifically, about the rewards that creators offer for backing their projects. Let’s not talk about the insane, here’s a leather-bound, special edition hardcover things that Sanderson offered. And the quirky… here’s a bit of Terry Pratchett’s Gum, as scraped off the shoe of Neil Gaiman type things that big name authors can put out there. (And get away with.)

(Wouldn’t that be nice?)

At any rate… I don’t have a specific project in mind, but the question of what kind of rewards to offer always hits me as… uhm… tricky. Obviously, you have to want the project, itself. So, that’s a given. But… what to go with it? It has to be something within the realm of financial possibility (no handing out Rolexes), and also something which is… desirable? (Terry Pratchett’s gum, good. My gum? Can’t even give it away.)

Kat’s offering up one of her previous novels, a short story, and various versions of the anthology she’s trying to fund. She’s also–metaphorically, at least–offering up herself on the alter of “what’s the worst thing my friends could come up with.” Brave, Cat. Very brave.

(Mumble, mumble… a tapeworm, in the sentient colon of a giant… a single piece of undigested corn… and the peasant boy the giant accidentally swallowed whole. The tapeworm has magic (which is how he got there in the first place) and the peasant boy doesn’t. (Which is how he got there in the first place.))

So, what do you want to see in a Kickstarter? Is there anything you wouldn’t do? And… what is the absolute worst thing you can imagine Cat having to write about to pay off her patrons? Let me know in the comments.