I'm guessing you've heard about crowdfunding if you spend any time online. Maybe you heard about it because your friends won't stop asking you for money on your Facebook account :) If you don't know much about it, the general idea is that anyone, in this case an author, can create a project, describe it with a video and text on the crowdfunding website and offer "rewards" in return for people donating money to you to help fund your project. For example, an author could raise money by offering autographed copies and advance eBook versions in return for a $100 or a $20 pledge.
For authors who are looking at self-publishing, crowdfunding is an amazing option that makes the $5,000 - $10,000 that it costs to pay all of the freelancers, production and marketing costs that go into actually making it happen look a little more affordable.
If you're like me, you don't have an extra $5,000 laying around. That's what I was looking at a year ago when I was banging out the first draft of my novel. When I thought about either spending a year plus trying to get a traditional publishing contract, I didn't want to spend the time, or give up the control. When I thought about going into the hole $5,000 just to publish a book, I realized I didn't have the funds to make it happen.
So the challenge was, how do I self-publish without going into the hole?
Crowdfunding was the answer, and if you're a self-publishing author, it may be right for you as well.
There are three options I think any self-publisher should consider: Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Pubslush. They are all great for raising the money you need to make your book happen, but there are some key differences that I'll write about.
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is the platform I used for my book. I chose it because it is the most well-known, and I figured that would help give it more legitimacy overall. I think it did, especially with people less familiar with the Internet. On Kickstarter you create your project (that's mine above) and offer rewards in exchange for certain "levels" of donation. For example, when a person gave me $25 I would include them on my book's thank you page. For $50 you got an autographed copy. For $75 you got a private reading over Skype, etc. As you can see, I raised about $9,000, which was awesome.
With Kickstarter, you have to set a specific duration of time to raise the money in, say 30 days. You also have to set a goal of how much you want to raise. If you fail to raise that goal in the amount of time you allow yourself, you do not get any of the money. It's all or nothing.
Needless to say, it's high stress, and you need to be able to market your project. I did pretty well and I'm still overwhelmingly grateful for it. It was an amazing experience.
Indiegogo
Indiegogo is a similar platform to Kickstarter. The project creation and donation process is the same, so I won't go over it again. One big difference is that Indiegogo does a lot of webinars and meetups around the country to support people who are doing Indiegogo campaigns and help them succeed. That's pretty awesome.
Another big difference is the way that Indiegogo deals with the funds that you raise. If you don't raise your entire goal amount, you still get some of the money. Rather than taking out the standard five percent service fee (which Kickstarter also takes out), they take out something like nine percent. For this reason, I feel like it could be a safer option for someone who wants to test the crowdfunding waters.
Pubslush
Pubslush is a crowdfunding platform specifically focused on helping authors raise money toward publishing their book. Rather than try to describe what they're up to, I'm just going to quote from their About Us page:
Welcome to Pubslush, a publishing platform for authors to raise funds and gauge the audience for new book ideas, and for trendsetting readers to pledge their financial support to bring books to life. Through a publishing imprint, powered by readers, Pubslush acquires high potential books from the platform, and for every book sold, donates a children's book to a child in need.
The goal of Pubslush is simply to be a risk free starting point for authors to successfully publish via whichever publishing route they prefer. The platform, exclusively for books, is optimized to be a resource and network for authors to navigate the evolving publishing industry.
They have a great team, some of whom I have met, and the platform is awesome.
If you're a self-publishing author, check out all three options to see which one is right for you. Let me know if you want to talk more about my experience!
Lead image courtesy of quinn.anya via flickr
Internal image courtesy of screenshot from Kickstarter project
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