**Decision to stop the Crowdfunding Campaign and put Among the Stacks on Hiatus**
This isn’t a particularly easy thing for me to write. It’s a bummer, but I genuinely believe that it’s the best course of action. Recently, the show received a lot of extremely valid and necessary criticism about how its run and especially how the crowdfunding campaign was set up and run. It was genuinely eye-opening, but there were a lot of great points which needed addressing, and that’s something I wanted to do.
I began editing the crowdfunding page to provide added clarity on items such as the nature of perks, remove typographical errors, and generally clean up the campaign. However, in doing this, I came to fully understand just how underdone the campaign was. There were a lot of points raised, and I mean a lot. I also began to look more critically at the way I was running the show, especially given the feedback I had just received, and I realised that this, too, needed to change.
I could have continued the show and made these changes, and, sure, maybe everything would have turned out fine, but most likely, they wouldn’t. Papering over the cracks is never a good idea, especially if you are continuing to move. This is true both for the show and for my own personal health. What would most likely end up happening is that these problems would continue to dog the show as it went on, until they became a million times worse when they eventually blew up down the line.
Seeing just how unpolished the campaign was was terrifying, and humbling. But it was necessary. And so, in the same way you wouldn’t want to keep driving a car when multiple people have shown you how there’s a leak in the engine that will cause it to explode later on, I don’t want to keep running the show as is without some serious examination and changes.
Because of this, I’m going to be ending the crowdfunding campaign. Anyone who has donated money will have their contribution refunded, because, after being shown how many things were wrong or unintentionally misleading, I can’t in good conscience continue to accept money from people when things will most likely fail spectacularly. It wasn’t my intention to mislead or take advantage of people, and I won’t continue to do it now I am aware that I have done it without meaning to.
Because of the Indiegogo campaign rules, campaigns can only be lengthened, not cut short, so the campaign will have to remain active until its natural end date at April 1st, 3:59 PM PDT, but any donations received will be returned to backers.
As for the show, we will release Tales 7-10 as planned as these are already recorded and in various stages of production, it not being fair to the people who put in amazing work on them, and the end of Tale 10 being a satisfying place for the narrative to pause, but on April 29th, after the release of Tale 10: Resurrection, the show will be going on an indefinite hiatus. I will pay the people who have already done work for the released episodes out of my own pocket over the coming months for their time and effort.
In the meantime, as stated before, we will be updating and bringing our transcripts up to date, along with timely releases for the upcoming releases of Tales 7-10.
Among the Stacks was always meant to be fun, a creative project that I’ve wanted to make for years now, and I was really excited to explore this with my friends. With our casting call tweet gaining so much exposure and having so many people express interest in the show, all of a sudden we had a massive audience, people were paying attention to us. This was something I wasn’t really prepared for, and it shows.
As a showrunner, I was frequently irritable, and didn’t listen to others’ opinions when I should have, and took expressions of genuine feedback way too personally. The show shifted away from the creative melting pot of ideas it had been at the start and slowly became a vanity project where I was the only one whose voice could be heard. Following a creative project with passion is all well and good, but following a creative project and not caring who you hit on the way is not. Among the Stacks should be what it was originally intended to be: a collaborative show, where everyone’s input is valid and constructive, not Nigel: The Show.
A lot of the feedback I received pointed out the explosive overconfidence of the project and the crowdfunding, and that I had bitten off more than I could chew with the show. So I’ll be stepping away and not doing anything show related for a couple of months, before returning to address and restructure how the show is run on all levels: storywriting, showrunning, and even social media. It’s not an easy call for me to make because this is something I love, and I know a lot of people enjoy both listening to and working on, but, in its present state, the way the show is run is untenable, and I am at fault.
When will Among the Stacks return? Honestly, I’m not sure. It’s a world I want to return to with so many stories I want to tell, but I want to do that with a better run show.
I hope that you can understand this decision
Sapere Aude
Nigel McKeon (she/they)
