#swcfw: Lisa Sofianos

#crowdfunding #kickstarter #book #punk

Lisa Sofianos spoke to StoryWorld about the non-fiction book The Truth of Revolution, Brother

Tell me about your project!

We are three friends who lived through the punk movement and were inspired by the energy, ideas and creativity and the irresistible call to action that it contained.  We decided to connect to the people who shaped those ideas and see how they have lived them in the intervening decades.  We wanted to know what they had learned and what this would tell us about how to live now in a time of global economic crisis, war and neo-liberal capitalism.  We weren't interested in yet another retrospective, but rather, we wanted to put the punk legacy into the context of the present.  We wanted to know what did it all mean?

We have spent the last year interviewing the architects of punk thinking at length in a series of conversations and we have found that the ideas of challenging authority, of disrupting ideology and of taking charge of your own situation are just as incendiary and relevant as they were decades ago, but they have been refined and developed over the years.  Some of the people we have spoken to have been on incredible philosophical journeys that can't fail to inspire new ideas about one's own life.  Our travels have taken us as to places like Iceland where the Capital, Reykjavik, is governed by a party of anarchist situationists who enjoy the highest approval rates of an Icelandic political party in years.  We are turning these conversations into a book that will also seek to challenge and disrupt the ideas of the reader.  We have been very lucky to have gained so much access to the contributors in their homes and workplaces and, as far as we know, ours is a unique project.  

Robin and I are published authors and Charlie has won graphic design awards so we thought that we were in a good position to do justice to the work.

How's the campaign going?

Very well, although the first thing I do now on waking up in the morning is to check our Kickstarter site.  We achieved nearly 50% of funding within the first two weeks and with 4 weeks to go we are optimistic about reaching our final goal.  I particularly like the fact that you can build a community around the project and we are finding that many backers have become our advocates.  The way that Kickstarter works is that backers pledge funds in return for "rewards".  These are usually items produced by the project, in our case first or limited editions of the book, exclusive photographs, original art etc. The backers are committed to the success of the project because they want to receive their reward, but they also want to play their part in the creative process. It feels as though we are all working together.  We keep the backers informed of the progress of the project and in return we have had offers of help to produce or contribute to the book, messages of support and help in getting the word out.  We are also creating more interest and finding new interviewees for the project as we go along like Keith Levene (first Clash guitarist/Public Image Ltd) who joined us yesterday.

It has been hard work to keep generating interest in the project and connecting with websites, the press, bloggers and our own social media platforms.  I would strongly advise that you have a good strategy for creating a buzz around a project before you consider using crowd funding and be as inventive as possible.

Why did you choose to use crowdfunding?

Robin and I have published books through more conventional routes in the past and it has worked very well.  But we all knew that we wanted this book to be a one-off, sitting across the genres of music, culture, philosophy and art.  We have very definite ideas about the look of the book, that it should include unique artwork from the contributors, that it should challenge ideas of form and embody the idea of disruption, and that should also be a thing of beauty to do justice to the subject matter. We know that traditional publishers are very focussed on how they will market a book and can be risk averse and we didn't want to be faced with making a lot of compromises, so we decided to self-publish.  We were also mindful of the do-it-yourself punk ethos and saw an alignment.  After the decision to self-publish we then had to find the funds to cover the up-front production costs that would normally be born by the publisher.  We settled on crowdfunding because of the success that similar projects seemed to enjoy and because it is a brilliant synthesis of finance, marketing and sales.  Kickstarter gives us the ability to engage with supporters from around the world who then become a valued resource and the reward system gives us an international sales channel.  It's such an elegant idea.

What is your target and deadline?

We are looking for £15,000 to produce and print the book.  We have nearly finished the interviews and the finances for the writing and design are all covered. Kickstarter is an "all or nothing" funding model so if we don't make our target amount by 11 May 2014 then we don't get anything and neither do our backers.  We’re putting everything into it to make sure we do!  If you’re out there reading this, take a look and what we’re doing, back us and join the project.

Where can people find you?

The Kickstarter project is here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200002823/the-truth-of-revolution-brother-punk-philosophy-bo

The Truth of Revolution,Brother website is www.thetruthofrevolution.com

Twitter @robinrydenow

             @thisaintrock

UPDATE! THIS PROJECT HAS NOW BEEN FUNDED! Lisa & Co have reached their £15000 goal with now four days to go. This means the project will definitely go ahead and any orders you place (and you should) will be fulfilled. Click above to find out what great products and incentives they have still available.