EDITORIAL: Crowdfunding Week

#SWCFW #Crowdfunding

In this editorial for our crowdfunding week, I wanted to try and justify why I wanted to dedicate a whole seven day’s worth of posts and interview to this new(ish) way of getting your book into print. I think I’ve managed to boil it down to one reason: 

It’s exciting.

There. That good enough? No? Fine…

It’s exciting because with traditional self-publishing, you had to go ahead with the writing and the publication of your pet project on blind faith. In fact, that’s the way it has worked with all publishing until now. The big companies try to spot great manuscripts or key trends before the buying public know they even want it. They put in tonnes of money, edit it, print it, market it, distribute it and then – hopefully – sell the books. The advent of Print-on-Demand publishing for self-publishers changed this a little, and the ebook now provides a way of supplying a single file which can be downloaded ad infinitum. Great, but you still don’t know if anyone is going to be interested before you write the thing.

Ideally, you’ll have a fanbase or interested parties, but as The New Disruptors mention in this podcast, (essential listening about a serial kickstarter) you only need a core audience to help finance your dream. And, if you’re particularly canny, you can even get this dream funded before you set pen to paper (which is sometimes the case on unbound.com).

Following the 1000 True Fans philosophy writers can build a career on their own efforts, and achieve the holy grail – artistic integrity.

Stay tuned for more interviews and posts about the delights and perils of crowdfunding.

image: http://www.freeimages.com/profile/abcdz2000