January 31, 2015

An Amazing Ride!


An Amazing Ride!

At nine p.m. this evening – an arbitrary time we set a month and a half ago – our Kickstarter project to support publication of Red Star Tales came to an end.

It has been an amazing ride! 

We sought to raise $16,000 – just enough to cover the costs of translation, rights, editing and initial production of this 450+ page book. We projected we might need 250-300 backers to reach our goal. In the end, we "overfulfilled the plan" by 33% – raising $21,444 from 424 backers! 

The results have left me speechless. Almost...

It was great to share with the world a project we have been working on, shaping, developing for months. We were not sure that a volume of never-before-published Russian science fiction would resonate. But it did! As the support slowly built and then started to pour in over the course of the project, we felt as if we had tapped into something really significant.

Yes, there are people out there who want quality fiction in translation.

Yes, there are people out there interested in Russian science fiction.

Yes, there are people who still read books!!!

A huge thank you to all the backers and boosters. Your special gifts will be in the mail shortly, just as soon as we can get everyone to supply their mailing address.

In case you missed it, here's the video describing the project.

Filmmaker Victoria Savchenko did a superb job, and we just love the cover that Taisiya Kulygina designed. We can't wait to see it on thousands of copies of the book.

Again, thank you to everyone.

 

Paul Richardson
Publisher

 

p.s. You may be asking what we plan to do with all the "extra" raised on this project? Well it will go fast. The two stretch goals (both met and exceeded) have us sending about 400 wall calendars to all corners of the Earth. And we'll be printing an extra 400 copies of the book and mailing them to over 200 universities and schools that teach Russian. And we are even thinking of trying to put these books in bookstores (not normally a profitable venture for a niche publisher). But then, people don't go to bookstores any more, do they?

 

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Some of Our Books

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 

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