The Big Meow (no spoilers)

[alla]

I donanted US$15 to the challenge pledge . I was going to do $20, but while I have AU$20 to spare, I don't have US$20 oh well.

From the blog:
At any rate, when enough "subscription" payments have arrived, everybody who subscribed will be emailed the first chapter (and a link to a password-protected page on the Web. All the subscribers to a given chapter of TBM will be getting back a receipt back assigning them a unique password for that transaction).

I get the impression that none of the chapters will be posted until there has been enough interest from subscribers. So sitting around and waiting for it to be posted for free isn't really going to work all that well. ie If there isn't enough interest, the next chapter won't go up at all, so no-one will get to read it.

[Peter Murray]

Quoth the Kathy:
But I figure on this board the chances of folks wanting to pay rather than not would be higher than the average.

Wanting, but not necessarily able. If you're, say, 14, you'd have to try nagging your parents.

The angel in question has gone public, so spoiling any guessing game :-) .

Quoth the Alla:
So sitting around and waiting for it to be posted for free isn't really going to work all that well.

It'll work for the person doing it if there are enough people willing to pay.

I wonder what the subscription price is per chapter?

[Kathy Li]

Oooo. We should be matched, now. I just saw the total was close, and I threw enough into the kitty to make sure we're over. Let's hope a lot of other people did the same thing.

----
Update, DD's decided to have a full-blown webpage, not just a blog for the project:

http://www.the-big-meow.com/

[nelka35]

The first chapter is out!

So - who read it?
I did, and I love it.

The hard part would be to wait for each chapter now... It(the waiting) has its good points, actually, which I never considered before - the excited waiting lasts, and there isn't frustration, because the other chapters aren't available - because they aren't written yet.

Hope you all get to read it, and we can discuss it somewhere(spoiler forum?), or just wait together for the rest...

[Peter Murray]

Three more weeks before chapter 2... oh well, at least it's being written now. And if the enthusiasm that raised $5,000 in the challenge grants continues, we'll see all ten chapters .

I didn't expect to see *** in the book, but it was a nice surprise.

[nelka35]

Yeah, I am trying not to think about having to wait for the next chapter. Being busy with kids helps, I just wouldn't have time to... )
There were three grants so far.. wonder if there will be more. Hope so.
And on the book's site DD said that she is considering and probably will add a hidden board to discuss the book here, at YW forums.
And *** I wasn't surprised to see, actually; I am wondering who else we will see.. whether we will.

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by nelka35:
... Hope you all get to read it, and we can discuss it somewhere(spoiler forum?), or just wait together for the rest...

Spoiler forum's a good idea, but it's currently labelled specifically for Wizards at War, so I just made a separate spoiler thread in this forum, for now.

I've created a shortcut to the spoiler thread from the Spoiler Forum, and shortcuts to both this thread and the spoiler thread in Upcoming Books, so hopefully all comments will get funneled here, and then they can be moved to the appropriate place if one's created.

[Moggie]

Is there anyway to say I havn't recieved access to the first chapter apart form hassling DD herself ?

[Peter Murray]

Originally posted by Moggie:
Is there anyway to say I havn't recieved access to the first chapter apart form hassling DD herself ?

I don't suppose there is. That must be a disadvantage of self-publishing: no publisher and mail-order staff to absorb the hassle.

[Kathy Li]

Chapter 1 has gone public!

Looks like if you can't afford to subscribe or donate, that the chapters will be made public after a week.
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Posted 31 Mar, 2006 15:04
Anybody else notice that the progress meter jumped on Chapter 2? In an odd sort of way, I'm loving how incredibly not-real-time it is. At least I hope it's not real-time. The idea of DD pulling an allnighter to get a chapter written is slightly disturbing. At any rate, it looks like Chapter 2 is on schedule.
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Posted 10 Apr, 2006 17:51
In case you aren't following the blog, or DD's Out of Ambit blog, Chapter 2 of The Big Meow is now up for public consumption.

[Kathy Li]

Ok, I'm looking at the progress meter on the Big Meow website, which is at 2%, and I'm looking at the calendar, which says Chapter 3 is supposed to be up for subscribers on Friday, and I'm wondering....

...should we begin making book on whether or not she makes it? [grin].

[Buran]

Wow. I go away for a while due to way too many distractions and come back and my wish came true -- a new kitty book. I'm looking forward to its release. Anyone know if the print copy I'll get when I paypal is the softcover US version or a hardcover? I have the US Book of Night, but the UK Secret Service (I did not like the US title plus the Bond joke made me laugh) but to be honest I find I prefer the softcover.

Off I go to pay up!

[Peter Murray]

You know that it's not just a Bond joke? The British government/Civil Service envelopes have the message "Oh Her Majesty's Service" printed on. I think it means they don't pay postage. We used to have those at home for scrap paper (probably for when my father brought work home, really).
So, Ian Fleming added "Secret" in there, and DD added "Wizardly".

DD said on her blog that the planned publication is via Lulu.com, a print-on-demand company. I can't find any reference there to whether it would be a softcover or hardcover, I think they do both. (The only book from them I've got is a softcover of the webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court.)

[Buran]

No, I didn't! Very interesting.

Here in the US, we have something similar -- members of Congress can "frank" letters, which means that you get an envelope with their signature and "M.C." (Member of Congress) printed on it, or something like that. I occasionally get these when my senators/representative respond to one of my emails regarding some issue or other.

I think it's one of the things inherited from English practice, since we are after all a rebel colony of yours.

Thanks for the tidbit! I soak up random factoids like that.

[nelka35]

Originally posted by Peter Murray:
You know that it's not just a Bond joke? The British government/Civil Service envelopes have the message "Oh Her Majesty's Service" printed on. I think it means they don't pay postage. We used to have those at home for scrap paper (probably for when my father brought work home, really).
So, Ian Fleming added "Secret" in there, and DD added "Wizardly".

Interesting! Thanks for telling us.