Before we go any further, thank you for checking in. And I mean that most sincerely.

Because you are here, I am going to assume you have watched the three introductory videos, or at least enough of them to understand why I built Author Fight Club, why Regression Pricing Theory exists, and why I have spent an absurd amount of time trying to engineer a subscription model that does not eventually turn around and bite the people it was built to serve.

If you haven't watched them yet, there's no penalty for being out of order. Go back and have a look when you are ready. This page will make a lot more sense once you understand the problem I am trying to solve, and why I'm stubborn enough to try solving it.

Now, to my point.

As I said in the videos, I am looking for one hundred people to become part of the foundation of this journey. The founding members of a much greater community.

That is The Vanguard.

It's so much more than a mechanism in a bigger machine, but the cold hard facts are that for me to be able to honour what some economists might label 'a lunatic promise' of capping the price forever, I need insurance from the downside.

The Vanguard is not a customer list dressed up in gold trim. It is not a fake scarcity trick. It is not me dangling a shiny badge in front of you and hoping you mistake it for substance.

It is the first committed body of authors willing to lift Author Fight Club up to become real.

And The Vanguard's purpose is two-fold. It is the beginning and the end in equal measure. Firstly, The Vanguard kickstarts the formula, and secondly, it is the cohort that never wants to see the community die. Let me explain.

Regression Pricing Theory does not come alive in a vacuum. A price formula with nobody standing on it is just a rule sitting on paper. It can be modelled. It can be tested. It can be published. It can be argued over by people with calculators and furrowed brows. But it does not carry real weight until people stand on it.

The Vanguard is the first weight on the curve.

And one hundred people is not a mathematical constant. It's not a gimmick either. It's the foundation group I believe I can properly support while Author Fight Club finds its feet, and it's the first serious test of whether this model can do what it was built to do in the real world.

Yes, Author Fight Club is a subscription platform. I'm not pretending otherwise. But I want to be very clear about this. You are not being charged today. Today I'm just looking for a pledge.

A pledge is a promise in principle.

I make one to you.

You make one to me.

That's all at this stage.

You are saying: I have seen what Author Fight Club is trying to become, I understand the purpose of Regression Pricing Theory, and when the platform is ready to launch commercially, I am prepared to stand on the curve.

That's all that matters right now.

The first one hundred are not just early users. They are the people who help turn the thing from a theory into an ecosystem. Every person who joins adds weight to the model. Every committed member helps the price mechanism begin doing what it was designed to do.

That is the first reason The Vanguard exists. The second is something I care about just as much.

The Vanguard is also the group I am prepared to stand behind if things get difficult.

I fully expect Author Fight Club to succeed. Of course I do. I wouldn't have built the bloody thing if I didn't believe that. My expectation is that the platform grows, the subscription base strengthens, the fixed cost burden thins, and the price eventually reaches the advertised floor and stays there.

That's the beautiful version. But I am not going to build a page like this and pretend the ugly version doesn't exist.

Here it is.

If the worst-case scenario ever happens, if subscriber numbers fall, if the live price begins moving upward again, if the whole thing enters one of those grim little attrition spirals that every founder hopes they never have to stare down, then I want to know exactly who I am fighting for.

I'm hoping you fall in love with the AFC Community and that you never want to see it lost. I truly am. That's the essence of The Vanguard. To fight hard in dire times for something to believe in.

So, if that perfect storm erupts — you fall in love with the platform and an attrition spiral ensues — one hundred people is the number I believe I can carry without lying to myself.

Putting it another way, if one hundred people is the number I believe I can support in the beginning while Author Fight Club finds its feet, then that same number is what I can serve, answer, and stand behind as a one-man show while it regains its footing in trying times.

If the storm comes, I will keep the lights on for The Vanguard.

That is the heart of my pledge.

Now let me make the financial side plain, because this is not the place for fog.

When Author Fight Club launches commercially, Vanguard members will pay the live subscription price just like everyone else that follows them.

As the community grows, Regression Pricing Theory does what it was built to do. The live price moves according to the model. If the subscriber base strengthens and the price reaches the advertised floor, Vanguard members stop paying. That's the payoff.

You will still receive an invoice, but it will read $0.00. And that part matters too.

I want the invoice to keep arriving because I want the promise to stay visible. I want you to see the system working. I want you to know, every billing cycle, that the floor has been reached and your Vanguard pledge is being honoured by structure, not by memory, goodwill, or some future version of me having a generous day.

If subscriber numbers later fall and the live price rises above the floor, your subscription switches back on at the live price, which will still be low. Attrition would have to be extreme for the price to catapult toward the ceiling.

But if the numbers recover and the price returns to the floor, your invoice returns to $0.00. That's the cycle.

No coupon code. No special request. No "contact support to redeem your founder benefit" nonsense. No little trapdoor hidden under the rug. The structure does the work.

And if that sounds unusual, good. It should. I am trying to build something unusual because the usual way of doing things is exactly how we ended up here.

I should also point out that you are not locked in. If your circumstances change, you can step away. If you decide Author Fight Club is not for you, if you fall out of love with the platform — and I sincerely hope you do not — you can step away. No penalty. No guilt. No awkward retention theatre. No twelve-step cancellation obstacle course designed by somebody who thinks user experience means making departure feel like dental surgery.

If that happens, you can gift your seat to someone you think belongs as part of The Vanguard, or it can be released and reallocated according to the numbers. The exact mechanics of how that will work are still being ironed out. When they are, all details will be published on the public ledger along with all the other associated data.

The point of The Vanguard is not to trap you. The point is for you to fall in love with a world-class platform built from the ground up by an author, for authors, and to decide you want it protected.

That is a very different thing.

One more thing, before I'm done, because this matters very much to me.

I'm not some mythical cyber ghost floating around behind the machinery. I am a real person. I am an author. I am the idiot who decided to build this entire platform himself because apparently finishing a book was not enough punishment for one lifetime.

I am also in the chat below. Not a bot. Not a support department. Not a carefully sanitised FAQ pretending to have a pulse. Me.

So, if something is unclear, ask me. If the pledge feels uncertain, ask me. If you watched the videos and still have a question sitting in the back of your mind chewing on the furniture, ask me. If you want a full description of exactly where the development of the platform is at, ask me.

You don't have to send me your email address. You don't need to hand over personal contact details. You don't need to enter some customer funnel and hope a human being eventually falls out the other end. Just jump into the chat below, ask the question, and we'll have an honest conversation.

If I can answer your questions, I will. If something is still being finalised, I will tell you. If your concern exposes a weak point I need to think harder about, I will think harder about it.

I would rather have an honest conversation now than have anyone pledge on a misunderstanding.

So, again, thank you for dropping by. Time is our most valuable commodity and I do not take the investment of mine, or yours, for granted.

I sincerely hope the time you invested here has been worthwhile. I hope the videos gave you enough of the story to understand what I am trying to build. More than that, I hope they gave you even a small sense of what Author Fight Club could become if enough authors decide they are tired of being picked clean by tools that were never really built for them in the first place.

If that idea moves you, even a little, I would love you to pledge to The Vanguard.

It is a small leap of faith, but then again, so is every book worth writing.

I will leave the choice to you.