It has now officially been one day since the launch of my IndieGoGo campaign to help pay back the cover design costs for my novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It. Woo!
Day 1 was awesome, and exceeded all expectations. Thanks to the generous contributions of friends, I’m already at 45% of my funding goal. And a ton of wonderful people have helped share the campaign on their own social networks, so hopefully that percentage will continue to grow. Thank you to everyone who’s helped out so far, and thank you in advance to everyone who is planning on, but has not yet had a chance to, contribute!
An interesting thing I’ve noticed, from browsing assorted book campaigns on crowdfunding sites, is that I set my goal ridiculously low. Most of the projects are looking for several thousand dollars of funding at the very least, with some going up into the tens of thousands. I guess it’s a difference in mindset — I’m trying to pay back the cover design cost, which I’ve already paid for, so at this point literally any funds I can drum up are more than I could have hoped for! Whereas other projects are more along the lines of, “If this campaign succeeds, I will be able to: hire an editor ; upgrade my website ; take off work for a year and write”, etc. This isn’t a commentary on the efficacy of one crowdfunding approach over the other — it’s just interesting to note.
And for everyone wondering about my $500 goal, here’s the reasoning: that’s the lowest goal you can set. If I don’t make the goal, oh well, since I wouldn’t have had a chance of making an even higher goal anyway (thus, no opportunity lost). If I do make the goal, awesome! Cover design paid for, hope renewed that one day I’ll actually be able to start making money off my writing. And if I surpass my goal … well, I’ll get to that if it happens, but basically I’d get to have lots of fun coming up with stretch goal rewards for all my backers, not to mention I could put the extra money toward helping drag my book out of obscurity.
Well, that’s enough rambling from me for today! If you haven’t check out the campaign yet, here’s the link again. And even if donating money isn’t in the cards, please consider donating your time and social media connections by sharing the campaign. I shall not rest until every person on the planet has seen this campaign! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Unrelated media of the day:
It’s not the most vocally spectacular parody cover in existence, but the theme is fun and the lyrics made me laugh a couple of times.
Michelle Proulx - Author 
The video was oddly mesmerizing. I never really knew what to think of the tens of thousands campaigns. I’d heard of a few authors using such a thing to help pay bills instead of putting it all toward the writing. That usually ended with an uproar and left people leery of the big ones.
Right? The “Alderaan” line was just fantastic. What an excellent play on words. As for the super high goal writing campaigns, I mean, I get where they’re coming from — being able to take off a year from work on the generosity of strangers would be phenomenal. But I really don’t see it happening — and besides, when I decide to fund a campaign, it’s because A) I want the perk (i.e., a book!), and B) because I want to support the author’s writing. I don’t want to pay their electricity bill!
I agree. One would kind of hope they could pay their bills on their writing instead of the campaign. It does fall into a gray area sometimes because some of the money might go to the writing. Think it’s best when they’re upfront about what the money will go to like editing, cover art, coffee, etc.
I can’t say much about a year off from work. Been doing the full-time author/house father gig for about 2 years now.
That was my thinking — as long as they say why they want the money, and it’s entirely writing-related, I’m good with the campaign. Transparency is key. Although an actual transparent key would be quite troublesome, as you’d have a devil of a time finding it.
Put a tracker on it? Maybe some glow in the dark trimming?
Lol – excellent!! And I’m referring to both video and news 🙂
I knew you were 😀 And no, that’s not because I recently constructed a telepathy machine and am now tuned into your innermost thoughts. That would be crazy. CRAZY.
Ice cream. Chocolate. Rainbows.
Is it working?
Only if you’re thinking about sushi. Because that is the ONLY thing on my mind. It’s possible I need to eat lunch.
Ugh. My theory on sushi is simple: if they can’t bothered to cook it, I can’t be bothered to eat it. :b
Back to the drawing board for the telepathic machine, my dear. 😀
Oh yeeeaaaaaaah, gettin’ my signed copy. 😀
I find crowfunding fascinating. I thought about doing it before I was sure I’d be able to afford editing, etc. for my second book. It’s kind of a scary prospect (doing a video, making sure perks go through, taking time to organize it all), but it seems to work well for some people. I might still do it some day, maybe to drum up funds and awareness for a special edition hardcover set or something. Why ignore a channel for getting the word out, right?
Some of the campaigns are definitely ambitious, and I admire that. Not that I’d ask people to essentially pay me to write a book, but I think it’s wonderful that people are looking for ways to pay for good editors and cover designers.
Best of luck with your campaign! I’ll be sharing the link.
Woo! Thanks so much for contributing, and sharing! I figure that, as long as you’re really up front about why you’re raising funds, it’s a legit campaign. And also the perks need to be decent — some of the perks I saw for the book campaigns were like: $25 = thank you email ; $75 = signed copy of book. Are these books printed on sheets of gold? Good grief!
Wow. I guess doing it that way helps you reach your goal faster–it’s like they donate and then pay for their perks on top of that. It must be hard to find a balance there. You can’t have ALL the money going to perks (unless you’re just doing it for the publicity), but they do need to seem like a good deal.
I would never argue that any of them aren’t legit, as long as they actually intend to follow through on their promises. I just feel better about asking for money once I know I already have a kick-ass product to offer in return for money, like you do. I don’t think I’d ever donate to an “I have a great idea for a book, pay me to take a year off my job so I can write it” from an author I’d never heard of. But hey, if other people want to… 🙂
Honestly, I’m still not entirely sure on how much I’ll actually be making off this campaign. And I’ve purposely priced the perks as low as I can (especially the signed book one!) to encourage people to pick them. I believe some of the perks I’ll be making a few dollars off of, and some a bit more than that. Actually, now that I think about it, hitting my goal may not quite cover the costs of the cover design … ah well. Half the point of the campaign is to send out some signed books and swag, so I’m happy with however it turns out 🙂
45% of the target already? – WOW! Well Done Michelle 😀
It’s going really well! Now onwards to 300%! (I might want to focus on 100% first though, lol)
That would be wise, then when you get $1:00 over it – PAARRTTYYYY! (Eat an extra potato chip lol) 😀
Wait, you’re saying a get an EXTRA potato chip? Dude. I’m SO in.
ENJOY!!! 😀