Pulling together his photography, writing, illustration and design experiences, Ed Kane, retired army media content producer of Lakewood, has put the final touches on a retirement book project decades in the making.
Kane’s book, Roads to Ruins, is a pictorial essay and history of the castles and other primarily defensive structures of Germany’s Middle Ages. Producing the material for his “retirement” project took six trips to Germany over 30 years. He has produced the entire book – photography, design illustrations and writing – himself as his legacy project. Now ready for printing, he has opted to raise the funding for the printing phase by appealing to the crowd-funding website, Kickstarter.com.
With the project launched on kickstarter.com, the website’s followers will be able to gauge their interest level based on the subject matter and pledge one of the several funding levels. Each pledge level has a reward attached to it that will be delivered once the funding goal has been reached. Many backers will opt to pledge an amount that offers what amounts to an advance copy of the book.
Kickstarter.com is dedicated to funding projects of a creative nature, including books, theatre productions, videos, computer gaming, fashion and more. With his typical sense of humor and challenging fate, Kane’s book launched on Kickstarter.com as of April 15, which is Titanic Remembrance Day and the tax filing deadline. The funding period will end May 14th. At the end of that period the total amount from all the pledges must reach Kane’s established funding goal. At the end of the thirty day period the established goal must be met in order for the pledged funds to be applied to the book. It is an all-or-nothing marathon. While it is a nerve wracking wait, the end result could far surpass expectations. Projects must meet the established funding goals to succeed, but there is no limit to how far above that goal the pledges can amount to. Popular projects known to exceed requested amounts by multiple times are not uncommon.
According to listings on www.kickstarter.com, four previous projects have launched from Lakewood without success. Kane believes his Roads to Ruins project will break through that barrier and give Lakewood a success. But, a successful campaign relies on rallying the public, and especially Lakewood, to visit the site and at least place a pledge that will provide backers with an advance copy of the book. Go to www.kickstarter.com and type “Roads to Ruins” in the “Project Search” bar at the top of the page.
Assuming a successful campaign, anticipated delivery of the full-color, 208 page book is for late August, 2014.
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