Kickstarter and Other Fund-Raising Ideas for Publishing Your Book
It’s been my experience that the goal of any serious writer is to be published.
For my purposes, and perhaps yours, that means putting your story into a book.
Over the last few years of doing this work and talking to dozens of would-be authors, it’s come to my attention that most writers do not have a plan for the work of putting together a book. It’s almost as if they think it’s magical. It just happens when the book is complete. Or, they may know they need help but they don’t know what kind of help or where to find it.
I sympathize with these writers. I want their dreams of becoming an author, a published author, to come true.
To that end, I am offering some suggestions here on how to cover the costs of writing and publishing – and to some extent – marketing a book.
But, some of you may be thinking, Why would I do this? What’s in it for me? Well, the money is in it for you, if you can raise it, but what if you created campaigns around these book tasks:
- Raising funds to buy groceries as you write the novel
- Securing funds to self-publish the novel
- Securing funds to print the novel
- Raising funds for your cover designer and interior layout designer
- Paying for editing services – copy editing and developmental editing
- Funds to plan and produce a blogging book tour for your marketing
Or, any combination of these that you like.
Kickstarter Campaigns
Don’t shy away from organizing a Kickstarter campaign. Many successfully published authors have done so.
Check out this author’s success with her first book: The Lovely Haze of Baby Days.
At MediaShift.org, this post features three success stories of crowdfunding worth reading.
And to really blow your mind, read this tutorial from John Lee Dumas, who raised over $450k in his Kickstarter campaign for his book, The Freedom Journal. Note the mention of a ‘team’. Granted, he had a high-powered group of people, but that should not deter you from creating your own high-powered group of people.
NOTE: You will find some negativity in your searches for a good funding platform. Many people have trouble creating a successful campaign. But remember that you are not them. You are determined and decisive. And your first step is heeding the advice written here, today.
Back to Kickstarter – while it’s true that you must reach the goal you set on Kickstarter to access your funds, I urge you to consider this platform for your fundraising purposes. Start with a smaller amount, say $3000 when you need $5000. Once you reach your $3k goal, you can do a bonus round to reach the rest of your amount.
Kickstarter has tutorials on how to be successful, right here. Plus, they highlight their successful authors, here. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of support from this platform.
Indiegogo
Visiting Indiegogo’s Writing and Publishing page brings up the many active campaigns, campaigns that are ‘coming soon’, and campaigns that are done.
The “How it works” link is your key to starting your own Indiegogo campaign.
I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of books and topics on Indiegogo.
This link takes you to Choose Your Funding Type and… drumroll… you get to keep all the money you raise, whether you meet your goal or not.
Flexible Funding: Keep Your Money No Matter What
Choose flexible funding if any amount of money will help you reach your campaign objective and you’ll still be able to fulfill your perks. Flexible funding is suitable for almost all the campaigns on Indiegogo. With flexible funding, you keep all funds, even if you do not meet your goal!
GoFundMe
This is also a popular platform for budding authors who need to raise the funds for writing and publishing their books.
Visit this GoFundMe page for books and check several out. Look at the structure and the fees and the gifts the writers are offering.
You do realize you have to come up with gifts for each level of money donated, yes? For instance, bookmarks for people who donate $10. Three signed copies of the book for people who donate $65. A conversation with you or a video call with their book club along with signed copies for $100. I just created these ideas on the fly. You must be more thoughtful.
Also, while I expect this comment seems rather straightforward I urge you to remember, with all of the suggestions here, you need to do your research. Don’t just look at one and go off willy-nilly to create your own campaign based on that one example.
Other possible platforms to consider are Patreon, Crowdrise, and Unbound. I don’t know much about these platforms except that they were mentioned in some of the search results I did to write this post. If you have advice about them, please share in the comments.
Finally… Grants
The goal of this post is to inspire you to consider the many options available for funding your book project. While there is no magic formula, nor an easy-peasy way to do this, the results of creating a powerful and successful fundraising campaign can do wonders for both your confidence and your reader’s admiration of you.
It also helps build community, which is something you need to continue on your successful path as a published author.
I recommend reading the John Lee Dumas example thoroughly. Study what he teaches in the long, long blog post. He covers every avenue and shares some things he did wrong, also. It’s worth bookmarking that link to go back to it again and again.
The last thing I will leave you with is this link to BookBaby where they discuss Grants. Yes, grants are available for the support of authors looking to publish – though, generally, they support already established authors, as noted in the BookBaby report.
Grants require a lot of focus and purpose. You must understand both how to submit but also what to submit – one wrong word or paragraph and your proposal could be set aside.
Bookbaby writes this:
A grant is money given – with no expectation of repayment – for a specific purpose. Most grants come from government agencies or nonprofits, often known as foundations. These foundations and agencies typically give grants to other organizations or nonprofits, rather than to individuals, because of the US tax code.
But some groups do offer individual grants, including:
- State Arts Commissions. Go to the National Association of State Arts Agencies to find yours.
- Local arts councils. Do an Internet search for your town or county for the local “arts council.”
- Local governments. Contact the government websites for your area and do a search for grants.
The Awesome Foundation offers small grants via local and topic-oriented “chapters” and my source tells me the application process is just writing a simple one-page description of what you want to do with the money.
Visit their Projects Funded page for more information. Here are a few examples of book projects to click directly into:
https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/projects/184605-we-drank-tea-stars
https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/projects/207492-move-she-does
https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/projects/175717-archetypes-in-art-and-media-phase-3
It’s Your Baby – Nurture It To Completion
I hope I’ve been of some help here. The journey to writing and publishing and then marketing/selling a book is a complicated one. But it’s not so twisty-turny that you can’t maneuver your way through it. Always ask for help. Create a team. Understand each of the fundraising ideas presented here, before choosing one.
- Look at each option and study the way the successful writers completed their campaigns.
- Look at the bonus structure of their offers.
- Look at the design.
- Be prepared to create a video.
- Understand how much you need by understanding the pricing around
- cover design,
- interior design,
- editing,
- marketing,
- and any other task you will need to complete to become “the author of” the book in your niche.
I encourage you to ask a lot of questions – of yourself and of the platform you choose. The answers are out there. Find them.
Join the Master Book Builders mailing list for insights like this – delivered to your inbox every Friday morning. And share with a friend you know who’s writing a book and worried about funding it.
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