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You.
You have answered.
APEX LIVES!!!
With an extraordinary push in sales and raffle tickets in the past 24 hours, our running tally turned into a windfall.
After seven days, this is where we stand.
Apex Sales: $4600
Raffle: $1800
Donations: $600
Subscriptions: 175
$7000 in seven days.
$5000 goes to the printer. Issue seven will be sent to press tomorrow morning. If all goes well, it should be ready in 7-10 business days to ship!
The extra $2000?
Effective with issue nine, fiction pay will be increased to 2 cents per word. If the raffle continues to do gang-busters, I might be able to increase the pay to 3 cents a word and join the elite paying publications. Remember, the raffle continues until Friday night!
The extra revenue will allow me to do something I've wanted/needed to do from day one: pay my editors. Gill, Mari, E.D., and Diane are the unsung heroes of the publication.
Effective with issue nine, artists' pay will go up to $20 for full page interior pieces. $100 for cover art.
Effective tonight, I submit myself to indentured servitude to Mary Robinette Kowal. She convinced me not to close shop and surprised me with a raffle that received over 70 donations.
Most importantly, having the printer monkey off my back assures that Apex will continue. Stronger than ever. Better than ever.
This I promise.
The Mad, Crazy Raffle lives on until Friday night!
But look.
82.5%
This is not counting the raffle numbers. They look substantial. I've emailed Mary to give me a total count.
Hope is a scary thing to a horror fan.
http://apexdigest.myshopify.com
http://saveapex.maryrobinettekowal.com
71%
Incredibly, we're almost three quarters of the way to our goal. Mary, fearing that the steam might go out of the subscriber/fund drive, created this nifty banner.
We encourage you to slap this on your website, blog, or Myspace at least until Friday night, when the raffle officially ends. That's when the subscription drive will end and I guess by sometime Friday we'll know if the madness has a happy ending or if Apex is eaten by the debt zombies.
By the way, there's at least 15 more fantastic items to bid on in the raffle. A real life literary agent (Jenny Rae Rappaport) has offered to read and critique the first three chapters of a manuscript for free. Gary Yap has offered up a signed copy of a Harlan Ellison collection. He's also put up a signed print of the bizarre and exotic Grim Trixter cover art. Uber-artist D.E. Christman has placed his issue seven artwork for James Reilly's "The Tow" up for raffle. And there's many other new items.
The website: http://saveapexdigest.maryrobinettekowal.c
A note on Grim Trixter trade paperback preorders:
Apparently, the USPS has "lost" the box of signed paperback copies of Grim Trixter somewhere between Brandy's house and mine. Brandy has to wait two more days, and if the box still hasn't appeared, she will be filing a form to declare the box "lost." The USPS subsequently will try to track down the parcel.
I sincerely apologize for the long delay. Rest assured, even if the USPS does not find the box of lost Grim Trixter books, all those who preordered will still get their signed copies of Grim Trixter.
A note on Grim Trixter hardcover preorders:
The box of hardcovers was shipped from the printer about 10 business days ago. They should be arriving anyday, from here, they will be shipped via Priority to Brandy who will then sign and personalize as requested. Again, I apologize for the delay.
Last night, as I was finishing up my nightly email correspondence, I get a chat request from Mary Robinette Kowal. We chat, she tells me to keep my chin-up because tomorrow there would be an Apex raffle. I'm thinking "Hey, cool...Apex has a handful of collectibles to raffle."
I'm called in to work early. It's lunchtime before I'm able to get some internet time. There's an email from Mary. It says "You have a raffle." And there's a link.
http://saveapex.maryrobinettekowal.com
I look at the list of items and I'm picking my jaw up off the floor. A veritable treasure of books, cds, and services were donated. Not wanting to feel left out, I offered myself up for raffle.
Here it is...the official "Save Apex" raffle put together by Mary Robinette Kowal.
A lettered edition of The Resurection And The Life by Brian Keene. (Note: It will contain some special items not offered with the regular lettered edition. Personalized by George Walker and Brian Keene. (This comes out in late fall))
Lifetime, yes, lifetime subscription to Dark Discoveries published and donated by James Beach
Memorial Day (A Mick Callahan Novel) autographed, written and donated by Harry Shannon
Seascape by Jack Ketchum donated by Anonymous Apex Fan (Note: A signed, special promotional chapbook, Seascape by Jack Ketchum. Only 200 were ever printed, and none were ever sold (the promo was a giveaway). This is chapbook #197 (of 200), signed by Jack Ketchum.)
Autographed Bloodstone written and donated by Nate Kenyon
Autographed Decipher written and donated by Stel Pavlou
Autographed Gene written and donated by Stel Pavlou
Evil Text artwork drawn and donated by Morbideus (issue six art for "Cut and Paste")
Burning Names artwork drawn and donated by Alex McVey
Free edit and critique of short story by Shimmer editor-in-chief Beth Wodzinski (thank you Beth)
Free edit and critique of short story by Apex editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore
Horror on the Orient Express cd autographed + limited edition poster composed and donated by Alex Otterlei
Signed first edition hardcover of The Sparrow written and donated by Mary Doria Russell
Midnight Syndicate T-Shirt autographed and stickers created and donated by Midnight Syndicate
The Thirteenth Hour autographed cd composed and donated by Midnight Syndicate
Copy-edited manuscript of Ben Bova's novel, Titan written and donated by Ben Bova
Six issue subscription to the signed limited Clarkesworld Magazine chapbooks published and donated by Neil Clarke
Signed set of M.M. Buckner's novels Hyperthought, Neurolink, and War Surf written and donated by M.M. Buckner
Resurrection, Inc. signed limited edition written and donated by Kevin J. Anderson
Less Than Human signed limited edition written by Gary Raisor and donated by Overlook Connection Press
The Tery: Definitive Edition - rare advance proof (only 1 of 50) that comes with a signed book plate by Mr. Wilson written by F. Paul Wilson and donated by Overlook Connection Press
The Last Rakosh: A Repairman Jack Tale - Signed Limited - a rare Signed Publisher’s copy written by F. Paul Wilson and donated by Overlook Connection Press
Offspring - the sequel to Off Season - a rare Signed Publisher’s Copy written by Jack Ketchum and donated by Overlook Connection Press
An autographed copy of Tales of the Atlantic Pirates written and donated by Geoffrey Girard
An autographed copy of Tales of the Jersey Devil written and donated by Geoffrey Girard
A copy of Elemental autographed by the editors edited and donated by Alethea Kontis and Steve Savile
An autographed copy of AlphaOops written and donated by Alethea Kontis
A one year subscription to Shimmer Magazine donated by Beth Wodzinski
Autographed copies of Dark Side of the Moon written and donated by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Autographed copies of A House Divided written and donated by Deborah Leblanc
A collection of horror and cult flicks, promos, and swaaaag donated by Horrorview.com
An autographed copy of Hopscotch written and donated by Kevin J. Anderson
A copy of The Magic Ring autographed by the editor Dr. Amy H. Sturgis
Autographed copies of Infoquake written and donated by David Louis Edelman
An autographed copy of The Conqueror Worms written and donated by Brian Keene
An autographed copy of Terminal written and donated by Brian Keene
An autographed copy of City of the Dead written and donated by Brian Keene
An autographed copy of The Rising written and donated by Brian Keene
The Art Director of Apex Digest, Justin Stewart, has donated two pieces of original work artwork
Apex editor Diane Goettel will edit short stories (under 8,000 words) for three different people (she's a professional freelance editor)
Donated copies of original artwork by artist Judi Davidson
Sexy outgoing phone messages by voice actor (and Shimmer editor) Mary Robinette Kowal
Status: 41.2%
The really crazy thing about all this is that there are only 4 copies of issue six left! 2 copies of issue four (I put the 10 I had stashed away for personal use up on the website). However, there are tons of the Best of Apex 2005 chapbooks and Grim Trixter remaining. Preorders for Aegri Somnia also help!
A quick note...no matter how the story ends for Apex Digest, Aegri Somnia will be released in mid-December.
Online Apex Shop
See, I'm having to come out to the public that Apex Digest needs help. That I need help. Like, within two weeks.
Those who know me that my hubris is a personality flaw.
But this damn magazine means too much to me.
The story starts out well. A nice guy, me, starts a science-fiction and horror magazine. He loves it. He puts his own money into it. To his delight, the critics respond well to the stories. It goes into Barnes and Nobles. It starts breaking even. Who cares if he has some debt from starting it? He's paying that back and things are golden. He is proud of his magazine.
You see where this is going, don't you? The word "pride" is your cue that things are about to go south.
This nice guy loses his job. He has four months of unemployment, but he keeps putting the magazine out. That small debt starts to get bigger. But he keeps his writers and artists paid and delivers the magazine on time. The printer is understanding and lets him slide on payments.
If the nice guy had asked for help then, he wouldn't have needed to slide on payments. But he has a lot of pride and thinks he couldtough it out. Then the nice guy gets a new job, which proves his point. He starts paying down the debt to his printer.
If this weren't a horror story that would be the happy ending. There would be butterflies and fuzzy kittens. But this is a horror story.
We never see the printer's POV, so we don't know why the email is sent. All the nice guy knows is that the printer wants all of the money and wants it now. He doesn't have it.
At the moment, I don't know how this story will end.
All of Apex's distributors rightfully expect their copies of the magazine within the next couple of weeks. Apex subscribers rightfully expect their copies within the next couple of weeks.
If I fail to get Apex #7 out to the distributors and subscribers, the story ends. I've begged and borrowed as much as I can. Now I'm dropping my pride and admitting that I need help publicly. I need 200
new subscribers to create the revenue required to pay off the debt to the printer.
Tell me how my story ends. Think of this as one of those "choose your own adventures."
Do you buy a subscription?
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