Kickstarting
An Anthology
A seed of an idea
Have you ever thought about editing an
anthology?
I love editing. And I love the joy that
community publishing projects bring to emerging writers. For many people an
anthology is a first chance to get published. It can also be a new chance for
an author to get noticed, to rustle their leaves a bit in the virtual forest of
indie books
An anthology, because of the mass of
contributors, is a marvel of collaborative energy. The production value is
higher. The distribution is wider. And the good will is stronger. Every author
in the collection comes with its own team of supporters: friends, family, and
fans. An anthology is the perfect project to crowdfund.
Putting down roots
Which crowdfunding platform is best for
anthologies?
I chose Kickstarter, and I’ll tell you why.
The anthology I am editing, Sproutlings: A
Compendium of Little Fictions, is a Hunter Anthologies project. Hunter
Anthologies is based in Newcastle Australia. Last year the editor of
Novascapes: A Speculative Fiction Anthology, Cassandra Page, ran a crowdfunding
campaign through Pozible. In the final two days the campaign was only about 17%
funded. I strapped myself to my laptop and hammered Twitter and Facebook to
create a bit of momentum. The project met the $3k target in the last minute.
That was cutting it too close.
Two recent news stories about crowdfunding
stuck in my mind:
1.
Those bigot pizza shop owners,
Memories Pizza in Indiana USA, refusing to cater hypothetical gay wedding pizza
parties, going out of business due to their stance, and having $842k donated by
conservative sympathisers on GoFundMe
2.
The dude, Zach Danger Brown,
who raised $55k to make a potato salad on Kickstarter
It’s horses for courses.
GoFundMe specialities in charity causes.
Kickstarter specialises in creative projects.
Kickstarter is also rated highest out of
the plethora of up and coming crowdfunding platforms for driving internal
traffic ie Kickstarter is a community in itself. People with Kickstarter
accounts go there to browse for projects with cool or limited edition rewards.
That’s why there are strict guidelines that donation-only (no reward, no
product) benevolent causes are not permitted on the Kickstarter. You have to
make something. Kickstarter has established itself as marketplace for creative
people.
From little things big things grow
Why Kickstarter over Pozible?
I know how I like to market, and it is
community based. So lots of small pledges. A virtual shaking of a tin. Many
people want to help but they don’t have $50 to pledge, they may not even have
$10. Some fee-pricing models make relying on micro-donations unviable.
Kickstarter has a discounted payment processing fee for micro-pledges.
Creative people like to support other
creative people. So when you are relying on starving artists it is best to
accommodate for them. I included tangible rewards (ie something greater than my
gratitude or a warm feeling) for pledges of $2, $5, and $8 to encourage and
appreciate the low rollers. I’ve been a low roller, and it test your generosity
when the bidding starts too high.
The organic feel
Sproutlings: A Compendium of Little
Fictions is about as grass roots as it gets in publishing. It is not being
marketed on author notoriety, a list of author names has not yet been publicly
released. The authors have a secret group where identities were revealed, but
it true egalitarian style we don’t want any tall poppies sprouting before the
book launch.
To paraphrase Amanda Palmer in The Art of
Asking, the best way to engage the curiosity and good nature of people is to
ask them for help. Sproutlings is running two Thunderclap crowdspeaking
campaigns that will blast off in the final days of the Kickstarter. Thunderclap
is a free and easy to use service that allows you to harness the social media
power of the crowd. People sign up to distribute one scheduled Tweet (they can
also use Facebook or Tumblr), it takes 100 people to activate the campaign.
Asking people individually to help you with the Thunderclaps raises awareness
about the Kickstarter. Many people click through and pledge.
Movement and sound
We live in a multi-media world.
I’m addicted to YouTube. You’re addicted to
YouTube. We like to have our senses engaged.
According to Kickstarter “projects with
videos succeed at a much higher rate than those without (50% vs. 30%)” and they’re
“by far the best way to get a feel for the emotions, motivations, and character
of a project”.
One of the contributing authors to
Sproutlings: A Compendium of Little Fictions is a mad keen video book trailer
creator, running Moosey Productions. Sproutlings had two promotional videos
made. I selected some free creative commons instrumental music myself, one is a
spindly creepy gothic tune, the other is a curious xylophone tango climbing the
walls.
My authors love to share the videos on
social media because they are fun. You know your friends will like them, and
possibly ask questions.
I have seen the results on my Kickstarter
dashboard stats, people are clicking through from the YouTube videos.
All the things
Make your message easy for people to share.
Mock up some promotional images to share on
Facebook and Twitter using Powerpoint and saving the slide as a JPG. Put a
great description in words, and all your links, in the description of the
image. When people share the image all the info comes along for the ride,
nothing high tech, not even cut and paste.
Use the description box and annotations on
your video/s.
Post regular project updates to the backers
on your Kickstarter.
Use Tweet Deck to schedule round the clock
messaging to allow people in other time-zones to find out about the project.
Start a Facebook Fan Page for your
anthology, and create an online launch Event on Facebook, and invite, invite,
invite.
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