This is a Worldbuilders blog.
Back in 2009 we ran a few Worldbuilders auctions as an experiment to see if people would be interested.
Much to our delight, folks jumped all over the option of bidding on books and rare manuscripts. My read-and-critique sold for over a thousand dollars. In the blog comments people said I should auction things like “Dinner with Pat” or “Have Pat wash your car” or “Run your hands through Pat’s majestic beard.”
There were even a few e-mails requesting I auction… *ahem* intimate things. Things that I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to sell unless you live in some of more socially progressive parts of Nevada.
Anyway, there were a lot of these comments and e-mails, so I decided to have some fun with it.
I decided to auction off a favor. If you won the auction, you could ask me for something. And if it was within my power, I’d do it. (With a few limitations, of course.)
I called the favor the Golden Ticket because it sounded slightly less geeky than referring to it in terms of a D&D spell or a Disney movie:
(Is it just me, or is this picture a little creepy?)
I put it up on e-bay, and to make a long story short, the Golden Ticket sold for over 15,000 dollars.
The auction was a success. But it was a mildly disturbing success. I could *one* person out there who wanted a favor enough to spend 15,000 dollars on it. But for the bidding to get that high meant there had to be TWO people like that. It weirded me out a bit…
Over the years, hundreds of people have asked what the winner wanted. My response has usually been, “I should really post about that on the blog, shouldn’t I?”
So, finally, here’s the answer:
The winner was Bill Schaefer of Subterranean Press. (He’s the one who published The Adventures of The Princess and Mr. Whiffle.)
What happened was this: When Bill found out about the auction, he called me up and asked if he could use the golden ticket to get me to write a novella for Subterranean press.
At this point, the bidding was already at a couple thousand dollars. So I told him, “Sure. But you’ll have to wait until I’m done with book two. People would kill me if I did a story with you before I finished that….”
Bill agreed, then waded into the bidding, fists swinging. In the end, he won. What’s more, he offered to buy the novella from me and pay the $15,000 to Worldbuilders out of his profits. Which means he was effectively paying for it twice.
Since then, Bill has been waiting with Buddha-like patience for his story. After three years, the novella is almost finished. It’s the main thing I worked on when I tried NaNoWriMo this year.
And to preemptively answer your questions: There’s no title yet. There’s no pub date yet. You can’t order it yet.
Rest assured that I’ll post about it here as soon as there’s solid news to share.
Since then there have been a few other golden ticket winners. When cashing in their favors, people have requested that I:
- Have dinner with them while we were both out at San Diego Comic-Con.
- Come to their college and do a reading/workshop about creative writing.
- Give them a full body massage.
I’m just kidding about the last one. Probably.
There. Now that you know the story of the previous Golden Ticket winners. Let’s add two to this year’s fundraiser:
Edit: Just to be clear, I’m adding two tickets. One is going into the general lottery. The second is being auctioned off on e-bay.
- The Golden Ticket.
This is going into the general lottery. That means anyone who donates at least 10 dollars on the Worldbuilders team page has a chance to win it. The more you donate, the better your chances.
This year though, some things will be different.
Here’s a few details you should know:
The golden ticket will actually be a ring.
I figure if I’m going to keep doing this, I should stop stealing from Roald Dahl’s books and start stealing from my own.
So, in the fine traditions of the Maer’s court, you’ll be getting a gold ring with my name on it. The ring will be real gold, designed by the same lovely folk at Badali Jewelry who did the Eolian talent pipes.
(In a perfect world, I’d have a picture of the ring to show you. But the design isn’t finished yet. Just trust me for now. The folks at Badali do amazing work. It will be cool.)
This ring will be the physical embodiment of the favor. When you want to cash in the favor, you’ll give the ring back to me. If you want to keep the ring forever, you can. You can keep it forever and never cash in the favor at all, if that’s what you want to do.
If you give the ring to a friend, then they give it to me, I’ll do a favor for them instead.
If you lose the ring, you’re screwed. You’ve lost the favor.
For more than a month now, I’ve been trying to decide if this is a stupid idea. I’ve worried it will make me look too geeky.
And you know what? I decided I don’t care if it’s kinda geeky. I mean really, what’s the point of being a fantasy author if you can’t be a bit of a geek now and then?
What sort of favor can you ask for?
Here are some guidelines:
I won’t do something like endorse a political candidate I found disgusting. Along a similar line, wouldn’t blurb your book as a favor. I’d *read* it as a favor, and if I really enjoyed it I’d give it a blurb. But blurbing a book I don’t *really* like would be dishonest.
Other than that, the rules are going to be old-fashioned common sense. No, I won’t give you all my money. No, I won’t kick a puppy. No, I won’t change book three so that, say, Kvothe and Elodin have a sex scene. Or Kvothe and Ambrose have a sex scene. Or so someone dies, or doesn’t die, or has a threesome with Bast and Chronicler, or whatever. Sorry.
What *can* you ask for? Here’s a few things I’d easily agree to:
- We can hang out over dinner at a convention we’re both attending.
- I’d critique your manuscript.
- I’d come to your convention or do a reading at your local library/bookstore.
- I’d perform your wedding ceremony. (Someone asked about this.)
- I’d put your name in book three.
- I’d let you be a beta reader for some of my upcoming stories.
Some things will require a little negotiation, of course. I’ve discussed getting your name in the book on the blog before, for example.
Similarly, if someone wanted me to come out to their house, make them dinner, and tell them a story, I’d be cool with it provided:
1) They didn’t mind waiting until I can work it into my travel plans.
2) They like pasta.
3) They don’t kill me and wear my skin like a coat.
See how easy I am to work with?
Now that that’s clear. Let’s put another golden ticket up for auction:
- AUCTION: The Golden Ticket.
(It won’t really look like the One Ring. It won’t be surrounded by fire, either. But trust me, it will still look cool.)
Bill from Subterranean has told me that he will be bowing out of the auction this year. So as of now it’s anyone’s game.
Rather than get bogged down in endless rules or examples. Here’s the plain-language commitment I’m making to you if you win this auction.
If you win the golden ticket, I’ll do my level best to fulfill any reasonable favor you ask of me.
Click here to bid on the Golden Ticket auction.
Or, if you’d like to see all the auctions Worldbuilders is currently running, you can click here.
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Remember, if you chip in on our team page before February 7th, Worldbuilders will match 50% of your donation. And every $10 you donate gives you a chance to win all manner of cool stuff in the lottery.
If you want to see the other items that have been donated, or learn more about the fundraiser itself, you can head over to the main Worldbuilders page.
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