There are eleven days left to our Kickstarter, and we’ve passed our original goal, saving CG! We ALSO passed our first stretch goal, resurrecting CG Magazine! Now, it’s time for stretch goal #2!

We asked people to comment on what they thought the next stretch goal should be. The consensus was that we should aim for a goal that will most help us achieve true sustainability, so CG can keep going long after the KS is over. There was some debate as to what goal would best achieve that, but the overwhelming majority thought – and we agree – that we should reach for paying professional rates to writers.

Professional rates mean:

• More submissions. A bigger pool of stories to choose from means better quality writing to publish!
• SFWA qualification. If we pay professional rates we can eventually become a qualifying market for Science Fiction Writers of America, which is extremely good for…
• Higher visibility. Pro-rate markets, and especially SFWA-qualifying markets, get much greater attention within the SFF community. More visibility means even more submissions, and potential submissions from well-known writers; all that leads to higher sales, which is what we need to achieve sustainability.

Even more, reaching professional rates would mean that CG is growing and developing, rather than remaining unchanged. This has been a problem we’ve struggled to address in the past, and now we hope that reaching this new goal will bring the growth we’ve been working toward for years.

So here’s our new goal!

If the Kickstarter reaches $14,000 total, Crossed Genres Magazine will re-launch in 2013 as a professional-rate market!

When we hit our first stretch goal, we guaranteed that everyone who pledges at least $25 to the Kickstarter will get ebooks of the entire 2013 year of CG Magazine, free, in addition to their backer reward. And that’s still true. But if we reach this new goal, everyone who pledges at least $25 will get not just a year of a zine, but a year of a pro-rate zine! As always this is in addition to the backer reward you choose when pledging!

We’re sure you have questions, so we’ve tried to answer some of them:

What about new writers? You’ll never publish them any more!

CG has always prided itself on how many new/undiscovered writers we publish. We don’t want that to change, but there’s a legitimate fear that if we offer pro rates, newer writers will get squeezed out in favor of more practiced or established writers.

In order to ensure that CG Magazine continues to welcome and nurture newer writers, we’ve decided to reserve one story slot every month for a “New Author Spotlight”. A new writer (qualifications TBD) will not only have their story published, but will be featured in a Spotlight on the website, with a short interview, and perhaps some other features we’re considering. This way we guarantee that each month at least one new writer not only gets their first professional-rate sale, but also gets extra publicity for their work!

Also, we may select more than one new writer for publication in a month – this is primarily to guarantee that new writers are never shut out of Crossed Genres Magazine. And because we love the idea of the reactions we’ll create by giving writers their first pro sales. 😉

But you’re trying to nearly double what you’ve made so far! Why are you setting the goal so high?

Because pro rates are expensive! The (currently) recognized rate for pro pay is $0.05 per word. That means that a 4000-word story (a reasonable average) costs $200. We’re talking about funding at least a few of those every month for an entire year; and even with this goal we’d have to publish a smaller total number of stories than in the past.

Who actually benefits if you make it?

Everyone!

• Writers benefit because they’ll be paid better.
• New writers benefit by having the chance at their first pro-rate sales, and the chance to get extra publicity if we decide to Spotlight them.
• Readers benefit by getting to read even better-quality fiction – as free ebooks, if they pledge to the Kickstarter.
• We benefit because we get to offer pro rates, which has been a dream of ours since CG was founded!
• And everyone benefits because pro rates offer us the best chance at long-term sustainability, meaning all this can continue!

But… can you actually make this goal?

Why not? We made it halfway in the first 19 days, and we still have 11 days to go. Is it a stretch? Sure! But we think this is a worthwhile goal that’s good for everyone. We’re excited about the possibility – we’ve been dreaming of paying pro rates since we founded the magazine in 2008! – and we hope all of you are excited too!

Okay then – how do we make this happen?

We were hoping you would ask that!

The first, most obvious way to help is to pledge to the Kickstarter, or if you already have you can raise your pledge. You can also help by spreading the word! Tell people, in person, via email, in social media, any way you can! Make sure they know that they benefit as well if they pledge: Would you pay $25 for a year of ebooks from a pro-rate zine? We would! $25 is a pretty good deal for a year of a pro-rate zine, and that’s not even counting the backer rewards you get!

If you have any additional questions about the goal, please ask! And please join us on this quest to level up CG Magazine!