#bookbus

After spending the last few days in Centralia and getting a feel for things, we've decided to take off up north for Massachusetts. The area is amazing, but cops have started tagging cars for parking and people for walking the graffiti highway (which we got plenty of photos of and left our own little marks on, thankfully).

As you all know, we've gone through a lot of trials and tribulations to get back on the road. We've had to do a handful of things haphazardly. We'll be in Mass (Newburyport) for about three weeks, getting some rest, finishing our renovations (a few important things were unfortunately left unfinished in Florida), and mapping out our first official three months as a business.

One of the main things we've wanted to get done is painting the bus (we're definitely not the Perry County public library bookmobile we seem to be), so we're going to try to do that ourselves. Once we have, we'll feel fully functional and comfortable as a business. We'll have a lot of photos and site updates coming shortly.

It's been five months of living and trying to work out of an unfinished bus, and we're looking forward to some downtime to fine-tune Jolene and get her 100% longhaul ready.

As of right now, we don't have any dates blocked for selling while we're in Mass. However, if you're in the New England area and would like to visit or shop, feel free to shoot us an email or phonecall (our contact information is available on our site at http://theroadvirus.com/contact)

Hey Road Virus fans,

You might have noticed a little radio silence from us the past couple of days – along with getting ourselves packed up and ready to move into Jolene full time next weekend, and celebrating the new year, we’ve also been contemplating our next move.

As you may know if you follow us or have backed us, our Kickstarter did not meet its goal. Obviously, this is a setback for us, but one we learned a lot from.

-We know now that we should have reached out to press and authors earlier. -We know we should have focused a bit more on ourselves as people when talking about The Road Virus, rather than focusing solely on the business to make the appeal more personal. -We had a ton of really enthusiastic backers with <$50 pledges, so it appears that horror/scifi/fantasy fans, who might be eager to buy books from us, may not have the deep pockets required to raise the $19K that would allow us to start every program right away. That’s ok, we’re with you there. -We know that we should have updated our backers and the Kickstarter itself more frequently. -We should have been creating original content on our blog from the start.

Now on to the good news:

-We are going to give this one more go, this time on Indiegogo – giving all our incredible supporters and backers a second chance to help us make The Road Virus a reality! -We selected Indiegogo for our second attempt instead of Kickstarting again for a few reasons, but a big one is: no matter what we raise, it’ll fund The Road Virus. Indiegogo allows us to set a goal (which we’ve also lowered) but if we don’t reach it, each penny you’ve donated will STILL make a difference in getting Jolene road-ready and allow us to start our long list of projects and programs for The Road Virus. -We are undeterred. We are pulling together every cent we personally have to get done what we *can* get done, though crowdfunding will be necessary for bigger projects like the wrap for the exterior of the bus. -With this new opportunity to back us, we’ll be giving any backer who pledged on Kickstarter, that matches or exceeds their original pledge via our Indiegogo campaign, their reward tier ALONG with a bonus tier “The Early Bird Catches the Sandworm” – their name on a plaque that will read “Original Backers: The Road Virus made possible by *your names*” as a thank you to our supporters who backed early and came back to help again. -We’ve quit our jobs and are going to be living on Jolene starting this week, giving us time to devote undivided attention to our renovations and campaign.

We still plan on hitting the road in late January – early February, and we’ll be keeping all of you abreast of our progress. Thanks to each and every one of you who backed our Kickstarter, and we hope to see you over at Indiegogo, and later this year in *your* town with The Road Virus.