The basic concept of CreativCastle is to Kickstart/Fundraise enough money to buy a castle, by pre-selling stays/writing retreats/author coaching. I have enough partners and celebrity guests lined up that I’m fairly confident I could pull it off this year (2015). However if I’m going to offer coaching packages, I want to be more than an organizer of well-known people.
I want to be a celebrity in my own right.
So this year I’m planning to grow my prestige and reputation by:
I’m also finishing my PhD in Literature (so I know something about great writing) – but I want to prove that I can write, publish and make serious money on my own, so that people trust I have a lot to offer them.
By early 2015, my wife and I will probably be traveling through Europe and blogging about it to build up this platform.
We’ll start planning out the 2016 year, inviting special speakers and guests, and hopefully focus on one or two potential castles.
Sometime towards the end of 2016 we’ll launch out Kickstarter campaign to raise at least 1 million USD (but maybe more!), purchase a castle, fix it up/furnish if necessary, then start running courses until all of our supporters have gotten their rewards.
After that, we’ll run the castle more as a creative co-working space, let people apply for free writer/artist residencies, and be a bastion of creative inspiration and awesomeness.
