How to fund a book on Kickstarter if you AREN'T Brandon Sanderson
*You might notice this newsletter is on a new platform, Buttondown. For more info, scroll to the end.*
In case you missed it, prolific bestselling fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson launched a Kickstarter project two weeks ago and blasted past his already lofty $1M goal to become the most funded Kickstarter project of all time. As I write this, his project has passed $31M pledged by 133,000 readers with 11 days left in the campaign. Some of you expressed interest in understanding WHY this project blew up so much. My former colleagues at Kickstarter asked if they could publish the piece I wrote, so it lives here: How Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter Project Broke the Bookish Internet
In the piece, I talk about the elements of this campaign, and the unique attributes of Brandon Sanderson himself, that made this such a big deal. A few of these elements include a good campaign, trust, a strong promotional plan, fun, and excitement. I'm sure you've noticed that none of the things I've just listed are unique to Brandon Sanderson.
My job for 6 years was to help writers, publishers, and others in the literary world use Kickstarter to fund their literary projects. I even ran three of my own campaigns to make books and art prints. And now that I don't work at Kickstarter anymore, I think it might mean even more when I tell you that Kickstarter is a very effective platform for writers and publishers to launch books and more, even if they aren't at the scale of Brandon Sanderson. A few of the reasons for this:
The fundamentals of making a book (cover art, descriptive copy, author bio and headshot, production plan and timeline, promotional plan) dovetail very well with what it takes to run a successful Kickstarter project.
A crowdfunding campaign lets you gauge reader interest in a book before committing a lot of financial resources to publishing it. If there's a lot of enthusiasm, you can increase your print run and benefit from economies of scale.
"A failed Kickstarter is a dodged bullet," in the words of crowdfunding savant, Spike Trotman. It's a cheap(er), fast(er) way to find out that something about your project isn't working, whether it's the marketing, the imagery, it's not a strong fit for the audience you have, or you don't have enough of an audience to make a go of the project...yet. Based on this information, you can adapt and try again.
A crowdfunding campaign gets you the money before the bills are due, so you can pay your copyeditor, proofreader, printer, and more, rather than fronting the money and hoping you eventually earn it back through sales.
If you're considering running a Kickstarter project (or another type of crowdfunding project) for your book, here's a quick list of resources to help you along your journey.
Kickstarter's Creator Tips is a page of resources for publishers, journalists, and comic creators who are planning to run a KS project.
Kickstarter's guide to how to publish your book. Jane Friedman has also written and published a ton of great pieces about the various types of publishing and what you need to know. It's really important to have a plan nailed down before you launch a campaign so you know what your costs and timeline will be, and are prepared to fulfill the rewards after the project ends.
Many authors aren't sure how to go about promoting their work. This can be a big stumbling block when considering running a Kickstarter project. Here's a guide to promoting your creative work from Kickstarter's Kate Bernyk.
A few years after I published a book that I funded on Kickstarter, I wrote this piece laying out the costs to create the book, and how much money I earned from it.
If this is a subject you'd like to read more about, leave a comment or drop me a line! I can write more about it in future newsletters.
*More on the new platform*
When I launched On the Books, I used Substack to send out my newsletter. It's a platform I was very excited about when it first launched: the ability for writers to earn money directly by writing their newsletters was a revelation. But it has become more apparent over time that Substack's leadership is making choices that aren't in line with my values. This was made more clear than ever by Meera Navlakha's excellent piece last week, "Why Substack creators are leaving the platform, again."
I've begun to revive this newsletter over the past month, and it's important for me to be on a platform I feel good about. So thanks to a tip from Stephen Lovell, I'm trying out Buttondown. I hope you'll stick with me on this new platform, but I understand if this isn't what you signed up for and you want to unsubscribe.
Let me know if you have any thoughts about it.