Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Monty Harper... Chocolate Cake....

Fewer than 1 in 5 people on my mailing list ever actually open and read any given MontyNews!
 
My friend, Mindi, suggested I lead with chocolate cake in the subject line; we'll see if that improves my numbers!
 
What does chocolate cake have to do with anything? My birthday is coming up August 21. That also happens to be the deadline for my fundraising campaign. If we make our goal, I will throw a live online video birthday bash for all my supporters, and Lisa has promised to celebrate by smooshing a chocolate cake in my face!! You want to see that, don't you!
 
Fundraiser? Goal? What am I on about?
 
I'm trying to raise $9,000 to record a new CD of fun science songs for kids. These are unique songs because they focus on what every-day scientists actually do! I want to treat these songs right, take them to a professional studio with a producer and fantastic musicians, and make a CD families will want to hear over and over again. That takes a lot of money! $9,000 is actually a very very modest budget when it comes to commercial quality recordings.
 
Right now I stand at only 9% funded ($790). I have only 32 days left. If I don't reach my goal in pledges by August 21, I'll get nothing! I'll have to find another way to fund the CD, and the project will be put on hold indefinitely.
 
Please take a few minutes to view my pitch video and read about the project on my Kickstarter.com page here: 
 
 
Then please consider making a pledge to support this project. The most popular amount is $20. This will get you a signed copy of the CD as soon as it comes out (in October). I know $20 may be a bit more than you'd usually spend on a CD, but you will be helping bring this CD into the world! This is your chance to become a patron of the arts!
 
Also keep in mind this is only a pledge. No actual money changes hands unless and until the project is fully funded.
 
Some of my friends have told me they are holding back to see how the campaign goes before deciding how much to pledge. Please don't wait!
 
I'll need a crazy number of people to back this project - way more than I'll get from my email list. I need to be building momentum right now. The Kickstarter website won't feature my project unless many many people are already supporting it. Once I seem to be picking up steam, they may feature it, and that will bring in even more supporters. 

When I get a significant percentage of my goal covered, and it looks like I might make it, this becomes a much more interesting news story, and I'll be able to get more coverage. But that needs to happen while there's still time!
 
So it's important for me to collect lots of pledges as soon as possible!!
 
Note that you can always log in and edit your pledge. So if you are hanging back thinking about how much you want to contribute, please go ahead and make a small pledge now. You can always add to it later if you want.
 
Again, the link is:
 


For those who have pledged already, thank you thank you! For those who read this whole thing, thank you thank you!! It's great to have fans like you. I really do appreciate every little thing, including the mere fact that you are on this list!
 
- Monty

 
P. S.
Come see me perform my science songs at the Stillwater Public Library August 17 at 6:30 PM!

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