The Time Is Now

Dear Readers,
We’ve reached the point where we must ask you to help us.
Burnside editors and regular contributors have been running through ideas, planning and preparing for months. It’s time for us to step out in faith.
We know Burnside is special. We know we’re on to something. We know what we’re capable of. We know the community that’s sprouted up here, and the hearts and talents of our writers. We know we can be an important and influential voice, filtered through the perspective of our faith. We know we can do better.
We also know we’ve lost something. We’ve lost the time when Christian media was objective and relevant, when it actually had something to say to us and the world as a whole. Your donation to Burnside will help bring that objectivity back, because we pledge to be thoughtful, honest and pursue Truth at all cost. We cannot do this without you.
We’ve set up a PayPal account, and we are asking you to take part in building the Burnside Writers Collective.

Details.
Our goal is to raise $10,000.
This figure will go toward building and launching our new site. Barring unforeseen events, our designer will be the awesome folks at Metaleap Design. They are best known for designing Paste Magazine.
What to Expect.
Our site will change dramatically, but will keep it’s general aesthetic. You can view some of our planned changes here, but, perhaps most importantly, we will be moving to daily content. Initially, we will run two articles per day (plus blog posts) and expand from there. We have more, but we’ll keep coy about most of it for now.
The launch of Burnside 2.0 is scheduled for January 2009. That’s a tentative estimate weighing in all sorts of factors (like raising $10,000). We hope it can be sooner.
If you choose to donate, we want you to receive something more than just our gratitude, profound though it may be. So we talked to some of our writers, drew inspiration from the biannual beggars at NPR, and, in the case of Don Miller, used outright blackmail to come up with these incentives.

Donations under $35: A Burnside sticker.
$35-$59: A copy of Donald Miller’s upcoming book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and a Burnside sticker. The book is due out in 2009. We may or may not be able to get copies before they hit the stores. Regardless, you’ll get when we get it.
$60-$99: An autographed copy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, a book of your choice penned by one of our contributors* (list of options below) and a Burnside sticker.
$100-$199: An autographed copy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, two books penned by our contributors, a Burnside t-shirt and a Burnside sticker.
$200 or more: An autographed copy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, all five books penned by Burnside contributors, a Burnside t-shirt, a Burnside sticker and your name listed as a Burnside Patron on the new site.
$10,000: All the above, plus marriage to one of our editors or contributors.**

We are in the process of establishing non-profit status, but contributions are not currently tax-deductible.
Thank you for joining with us in this work. All of us at the BWC are excited and inspired by what happens when so many storytellers and thinkers gather in one place, and Burnside has been that refuge. We hope it will be for you, as well.
Sincerely,
Jordan Green
Editor-in-Chief
Burnside Writers Collective
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List of books by Burnside contributors:

Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir by Susan Isaacs (due out March 2009)
Divine Intention by Larry Shallenberger
Deliver Us from Me-Ville by David Zimmerman
Assaulted by Joy: The Redemption of a Cynic by Stephen Simpson
Where’s Your Jesus Now? by Karen Spears Zacharias

* – Donors giving over $60 will be contacted and asked which particular book they would like to receive.
** – Perk not yet authorized by Donald Miller.
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