Save vintage SciFi!

I love Kickstarter.com. It's a place where someone can present their plan for a project. It might be a book, a movie, a performance, a cd, or so many other ideas I can't even begin to fathom them all. Then you can decide if you want to help out. Pledge them a dollar, pledge them $5, Pledge them $1000, whatever you'd like. If they meet their stated goal in pledges, and only if they meet their goal, the pledges are collected and the project is funded. It a wonderful and fascinating website. If you haven't checked it out yet. Do so.

One such project I just pledged to this morning. It's for a group called Singularity and Co. And I love their idea to no end. Here, I'll let them explain it.

So here’s what we’re going to do: Each month we’ll choose one great classic, obscure or otherwise fascinating sci-fi book that’s no longer in print and not available online, track down the copyright holder and/or author (if they’re still around), acquire or otherwise clear the copyright, and publish the title both online and as an e-book, for little or no cost. Our supporters and followers will help us choose which books will be digitally rescued from copyright and publishing limbo via a monthly poll on our website, and we'll share the story behind the story, including with each ebook what we learned about the book, the author and their history along the way.

And while Singularity & Co. promises to keep our mission alive, in perpetuity, throughout the universe, we need your support to get started. This Kickstarter campaign will allow us to rescue our first four neglected works by providing for the following:

* Acquiring and curating the treasures to be found  among many, many paper copies of old, out of print sci-fi books
* Expanding our current website to allow us to display and deliver our sci-fi library - physically as well as electronically - and support voting capabilities for fans to help decide the next titles to be rescued
* Building an open source book scanner (see http://www.diybookscanner.org/ for an example) to aid in turning forgotten paper books into e-books
* Covering costs associated with tracking down rightsholders, authors and/or their estates, as well as clearing or acquiring the electronic publishing rights to our orphaned books
* Spreading the word not only to established fans but also potential supporters who love great books and ideas (may include attending conventions, creating t-shirts, prints and anything else we can think of)
* Covering costs associated with legal work to be done by our attorneys, all of whom are generously contributing their time pro bono (we’re trying to keep our costs as low as possible)

Awesome, right? I signed up immediately and hope you will too. The project has already met their goal, even doubled it, but more funding will allow them to save even more books. Check them out today.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/singularityco/singularity-and-co

I've often thought about doing my own kickstarter project to bring "Dr Zombie Lives Next Door" to a print edition. Hmmmmm. Must ponder this some more. What do you think?