ng_moonmoth

fuzzyred and I are throwing a Pool Party for this week's Polychrome Heroics sale. This is the way we encourage folks to support ysabetwordsmith's writing by offering a chance to share in the quarter-price discount available for large purchases.

Here's how it works: the organizer of the pool (that's me, in this case) proposes a list of target poems worth enough to trigger the quarter-price discount. Per published rules, anyone who contributes to a quarter-price buy gets quarter-price on all poems in that buy. So, if there's something you'd like, and would like to save some money on, or make it inexpensive enough to sponsor, you can join the pool by pledging whatever sum you consider meaningful toward the current target list -- and then add targets of your own. If you contribute enough to purchase your target(s) outright at quarter-price, they will be added to the list. If you can't swing that much, and want to see if other pool members are willing to make up the difference, you need only ask for your target to be included. More often not, someone will be interested, and the answer will again be "yes".

So come one, come all! Here's the target list we're starting with:

"A Murmuring, Fateful, Giant Voice"	64.50
"The Ones Who Have Your Back"	47
"Sung in Hobo Jungles"	63
"The Sort of Things That Make People Stop"	35.50
"Public Art as a Team Sport"	107

That's $317 at half-price, or $158.50 at quarter-price.

If one of those is of special interest to you, and you want to designate that poem as the target for your initial contribution, that part will go there. Otherwise, it will go wherever it will do the most good for the pool. As poems on the target list accumulate enough money for sponsorship, more targets will be added; any ideas from pool members are appreciated.

The pool will close sometime Saturday evening when I am online. Contributions via PayPal will be collected and forwarded once they have been received. Let's go sponsor some poetry!

fuzzyred and I are starting a quarter-price pool for this week's Polychrome Heroics half-price sale. We're leading off with the entire Kraken offering ($21) and the entire Shiv offering ($116). If we can get at least $60 from elsewhere, we can add "Better Than Their Neighbors Think" from the Mercedes thread. As usual, contributing any meaningful amount to the pool unlocks the quarter-price capability for anything else you want to buy.

Payment details will be sent to anyone who pledges a contribution. If you are interested in something not yet part of the pool, please mention it in your pledge comment, and we'll see if we can get enough sponsorship to add that as a target. Come join us!

ysabetwordsmith, who writes poetry by request, has occasional half-price sales where poems that have yet to find an interested buyer are offered at half their usual price. This time, the sale focuses on their Polychrome Heroics storyline, containing tales of superheroes and supervillains that go far beyond the usual fare of resolving conflict by fighting and breaking things. Yes, there are fights, and yes, things get broken, but there's so much more in it! Plus, diversity of the sort that is just now barely breaking into the mainstream is all over the place.

Another part of their sales is an additional discount for volume buyers. A large enough sponsorship commitment halves the price again, making the purchase price 1/4 of the original. Folks may pool their money to reach this threshold, and anyone who contributes to the pool may use the quarter-price discount on any other purchases they make.

I'm running a pool this week. I'm going to start the way I often do, by designating initial target poems that are prerequisites for other poems. This sale, those are:

"No Idea What's Going to Happen"	$30.50
"Vulnerable and Bound"	$25.25
"A Fresh Opportunity to Make a Mark"	$69.00
	$124.75

So, anyone who wants to contribute a meaningful (to them) sum toward this amount can buy anything else in the sale at quarter-price.

As pledges come in, I expand the target list. If someone pledges money and wants to sponsor a poem not on the initial target list, that poem can be added. This time, my personal stretch targets are:

"From Many Emotional Colors"	$17.25
"The Cardinal Sin of Satanism"	$29.00
"Not So Much in Words"	$89.50

The pool closes with the end of the sale, Friday evening.

[EDITED: Given that the sale runs through Sunday, it should be OK to keep the pool open until Saturday night. I will send out reminders to people who have pledged to send money Sunday, and will forward once I have it.]

OK, who's on board with this one?

[EDITED : "Where Change Can Take Place" was sponsored outside the pool by another reader. "No Idea What's Going to Happen" has replaced it in the initial target list.]