Crowdfunding for Writers Who Need First-Time Guidance

Photo by Andrea Jaeckel-Dobschat on Unsplash

Today’s post is by writer Jason Brick.

The model we’ve come to call crowdfunding has always existed in the form of pre-sales or (in publishing) pre-orders. With pre-sales, a company or individual pitches an idea to likely early adopters. Those who get excited enough buy one in advance, providing some of the money needed to make the product a reality.

Kickstarter made this easier and more accessible by combining the concept with key components of social media. They gave creators—of books, technology, art, or whatever—a platform for presales. That platform handled the transactions, gave the campaign a home page, and provided social infrastructure to help a project gain followers and momentum. It filled a hole in the modern market, and was successful enough to get cloned. Over a hundred crowdfunding platforms exist today, but the overwhelming share of that market belongs to just four. More on that in a bit.

Authors and publishers alike can use crowdfunding to provide the cash needed to produce, promote, and distribute our books at a level that wasn’t possible twenty years ago. Kickstarter and its clones provide the simplest route for authors to fund new books. A successful campaign gives you the money to hire professionals for editing, layout, design, art, and other skills that aren’t in your bailiwick. It creates initial buzz you can leverage for further sales after the campaign has closed. It can produce enough profit to rival advances from some publishing houses.

In short, it makes self-publishing success even more possible by authors who don’t want to deal with the slow timeframe and low royalties of working with a traditional publisher.

What’s new in crowdfunding?

The newest crowdfunding platform is ten years old. Crowdfunding is established, and produces about 2 billion dollars in revenue for publishers and journalists annually. In 2020, Brandon Sanderson raised over 40 million dollars with a single campaign. It’s old news. Or is it?

Over the past five years, the crowdfunding scene has seen some major changes that will impact how to succeed if you start crowdfunding your work.

It’s no longer fringe

Not too long ago, crowdfunding was the realm of scrappy, independent underdogs making cool stuff happen where traditional publishers were too slow or stodgy to get things done. That was even more true of technology innovations and some really interesting art projects. It was the realm of interesting people doing interesting things, forming tribes of people with similar passions.

Over the past five years, more and more established companies have used crowdfunding for market research, initial cash infusion, and to defray the risk of testing new products. It’s not a fringe operation, but an established business model. A level down the “food chain,” independent crowdfunded publishing projects are still common.

What That Means: The market is saturated on several levels. Your crowdfunded book is not unusual. It’s one of two to three everybody sees on their Facebook feed every day. Among those who see it and are interested, you’re not competing with just other independent authors. You’re also up against professional small presses, who can outspend you on publicity, advertising, and production value.What to Do About It: This doesn’t mean your book can’t succeed in crowdfunding. It does mean you have to come at it in an organized and professional fashion. The days where you can succeed on the basis of an idea are gone. You need a plan, and you need a budget. We’ll talk more about both later on.The rise of Patreon

Patreon took a new angle by combining Kickstarter’s idea with something from the Renaissance: patronage. Way back when, it was fashionable for royalty and wealthy merchants to fund artists and their work. Patreon takes a social approach to this. Instead of a single patron providing a lot of money, they provide a platform where creators can get a lot of people to each support them with a little money. With enough followers it can end up being a sizeable income.

The top five writers on Patreon make a minimum of $35,000 per month just off of their account, plus whatever they make from Amazon, speaking appearances, and similar adjunct earnings. The average Patreon account makes between $300 and $1,600 per month. That’s not quit your job money, but it is about twice what the average KDP author pulls in.

What This Means: There’s a potential new model of crowdfunding success for authors. It’s old enough to be proven and to have built up some community, and new enough you won’t be competing with enterprise-level marketing budgets with full-time staff.What to Do About It: First, consider whether or not you’re the kind of writer who can produce new work reliably on a schedule. If not, “traditional” crowdfunding is a better path for you. If you are that consistent writer, decide whether or not you want to learn the new skillset needed for Patreon success. If the answer to both questions is yes, it might be worth giving a try. I’ve recently started a Patreon account to support my flash fiction magazine. It’s early days yet, and I’m still learning. But if you have some fiction at under 1,000 words, I invite you to check us out and submit.Professional crowdfunders

I already mentioned that full-time small presses are crowdfunding as their core business model. Besides them, there is an ecosystem of professional crowdfunders who will manage campaigns, coach authors, and generally provide skills and experience most independent authors never had a chance to gain.

What That Means: Success with crowdfunding doesn’t require professional-level training and funding. It does require a basic understanding of what works, and what doesn’t, when you run a campaign. People who try to wing it, even in a way that would have done well in 2016, are unlikely to succeed.What to Do About It: Before starting your first crowdfunding attempt, learn about the field. If you ever pitched an agent, your first step was learning how to pitch an agent. Crowdfunding is no longer any different.BackerKit: new player

If I’d written this article even a year ago, my advice would be to use Kickstarter. It’s the Coke and Kleenex of the crowdfunding world. It’s Facebook: where the most people hang out, whether or not they love it. Kickstarter’s platform and infrastructure simply provided an insurmountable advantage. That’s still true, however…

BackerKit spent the first decade of its existence helping people with successful crowdsourcing campaigns organize and manage their fulfillment. They provided order tracking, billing, and communication, and would outsource your entire shipping chain if you paid them.

In 2022, they launched their own crowdfunding platform as well. After ten years of watching what Kickstarter did well (and poorly), they set out to provide a better option. In my opinion, they succeeded in terms of support. They don’t have the crowd size yet, but are poised to do so.

What That Means: Right now, BackerKit is still growing their base, but if you click those crowdfunding links that keep coming up on your feed, you’ll find a growing number of them leading to BackerKit. Maybe more important, the majority of the really exciting projects led by thought leaders in the community are over there now.What To Do About It: As of August 2024, Kickstarter is the market leader and most likely your best place to start: Backerkit’s market share is still just 3% of Kickstarter’s. That said, keep an eye on BackerKit. Those numbers and the best advice might change soon.An updated plan of action

With all the new information, and the heavy-hitting competition, is it impossible for new authors to make it with crowdfunded efforts? I’m here to tell you no. In 2019, Joanna Penn interviewed me about crowdfunding, based on my successful series of Kickstarted flash fiction anthologies. Two years later, I Kickstarted a collection of self-defense stories that netted over $20,000 just from the crowdfunding campaign.

So I’ve had a reasonable amount of success on crowdfunding, in spite of the changed landscape. And I promise, you’re smarter than me. And a better writer. And vastly more attractive. If I can have that level of success, you can do better. Below is a basic plan of action for success you can use as it is, or make the changes your experience and instinct tell you will make it even better.

Most of the coaches and experts I’ve spoken with recommend starting work on a crowdfunding campaign a full year before launch date. Before even that process starts, success begins with two important tasks.

1. Assess your platform

“Platform” was a buzzword in the mid 2010s, referring to your total reach to the public. The term has faded a bit, but the concept remains the same. When you begin your crowdfunding journey, the first thing you need is a solid understanding of who is already on Team You. This includes:

Your total followers on social media like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTokSubscribers to any newsletters or email lists you run, or are a regular contributor toYour close circle of professional, hand-to-hand contactsMembership in any groups or associations in which you have a leadership or highly public role

Not all of these people will back your crowdfunding campaign, but a percentage of them will. If you assume 2% will support you—either backing you, or being responsible for somebody else to back you—you’re unlikely to overestimate your platform’s performance.

2. Develop your expansion plan

Once you understand the reach of your platform, the second question is how you can expand that reach. Start by making a list of each of your platform assets:

List each of your social media accounts, and their number of followersList each newsletter and their number of subscribersWrite the names of your close professional contactsList the groups you lead, and how many active members each has

Come up with three specific actions you can take for each list item. It’s okay to duplicate, e.g., using “get active on related keywords” for Instagram and Twitter. Follow up by identifying three assets you don’t have yet, but could develop quickly.

Use this sheet as the foundation of your plan to grow your platform as an author. Start working on it today. When you’re ready to start your first crowdfunding campaign, the growth of your following will help. Between now and then, it will still generate publicity, excitement, and sales.

Once you have a realistic sense of your reach, it’s time to dive into the details of your crowdfunding project. This plan applies specifically to traditional crowdfunding. If you’re looking at Patreon, some of what’s below will apply.

Begin with the goal in mind

What do you want to accomplish? Ask 100 different authors and you’ll get 100 different answers, 150 if you come ask again six months later. That said, most of those answers—and probably yours—will fall along these general lines:

Cover the costs of editing, layout, cover design, and similar up-front expenses with publishing a professional bookLaunch the book with enough backing to make a defined amount of profitLearn how to crowdfund, and see whether or not you like it enough to do againBuild or expand your platformFuel a subscription model for your content

None of these is the “right” or “wrong” reason to do a crowdfunding campaign. Each one will inform the rest of your decisions. For example, your funding goal will be different if you just want to cover costs versus wanting to make a meaningful profit.

That’s why you consider and define your goal at the beginning. It impacts everything else.

Choose your platform

For a long time, Kickstarter was the best place because it had more people. Like I mentioned above, BackerKit is poised to take the lead, and worth investigating even though it hasn’t as of this writing.

There are two other platforms worth mentioning:

Indiegogo  is the Pepsi to Kickstarter’s Coke. It’s a solid platform but gets about one-quarter of the traffic and funding of Kickstarter. Years ago, Indiegogo had the advantage of allowing partially funded campaigns, but Kickstarter began doing likewise. These days, Indiegogo is best for people with a strong existing following, and folks who prefer to avoid market leaders for one reason or another. GoFundMe  has even larger market share than Kickstarter. However, it’s for charitable giving and funding things like medical bills or school projects. It’s not appropriate for professional publishing, and I mention here only because you’ve probably heard it mentioned.Finish first or after?

This is an important question that will impact the promises you make in your site copy, your fulfillment plan, and your publication timeline. Do you want to finish your book before or after your project funds? Again, there’s no right or wrong answer here, just a right answer for you.

Finish First: Starting your campaign with your book already finished provides several advantages. You have finished product to provide images on your campaign page. You can read finished excerpts during your campaign. Fulfillment is simplified and easy to keep on schedule. On the other hand, it means funding later in your publication journey. If you fail to meet your goals, you’ve written the book and paid for production to no avail.Finish After: This option inverts your process, and the pros and cons. You minimize risk by only moving forward if your project funds, but you don’t have any finished project for promotion. Your fulfillment gets more complicated, takes longer, and is more vulnerable to things going wrong.A Middle Ground: In most of my crowdfunded campaigns, I’ve taken a point in between. When the campaign launches, I have the manuscript finished, but not edited. I’ve done the heaviest lifting in the writing journey, but haven’t spent much money on production. When the project funds, I can move forward with the rest of the process.Make graphics decisions

You’re going to need art. At a bare minimum, you will need an awesome cover to promote at various places online. If you have interior graphics, you’ll need a plan for those. If you want to get really fancy, you can get custom art for your campaign page.

Make a list of the art you want, then find out how much each piece will cost you. The market is broad and complex, made even weirder by the entry of AI. Jane has some good pieces on getting art for your book here and here.

Whenever possible, negotiate to pay your artist per piece, not by the hour. Most prefer to work that way, and it gives you a static number to include in your budget.

Know your vital statistics

Your personal vital statistics give nurses and doctors a snapshot of your health. Crowdfunding campaigns also have vital statistics. Some marketing gurus will go deep on this, offering a bewildering array of metrics by which to gauge your success. They’re not wrong, but the level of complexity isn’t helpful for those of us just starting out.

For the first few campaigns, we only need to focus on a few numbers:

How much it costs to produce each bookHow much it costs to ship each bookHow much you want to sell each book forThe total cost of your flat-rate expenses (like cover art and marketing)How much profit you want to derive

If you know these numbers, you can figure out how many copies you need to sell. This tells you how much your campaign needs to make. For example, with some thought and research you find out:

It costs $3.00 per unit to print a book of the size you plan to produceIt costs approximately $5 to package and ship each bookYour flat rate expenses include:$500 for cover art$750 for editing and layoutA $500 advertising spendYou’re testing the waters on this one, and want to make $1,000 profit off this campaign

Based on this, you need to cover $1,750 in flat rate expenses and want to bring in $1,000 in profit. Each book costs $8 to print, and a little research shows you can sell books of your sort for $18. That’s $10 gross profit per book.

At $10 gross profit per book, you need to sell 175 copies to cover your flat rate expenses, and 100 copies to bring in your desired net profit…except for one thing.

Kickstarter charges a 5% fee for its services, and your payment processing will run another 3–5%. Assume 10% in fees, so add 10% to the number of books you need to sell. That’s ten percent of 275, or 26.5. We’re not sending people to Mars here, so it’s okay to round that to 300.

Your specifics will naturally be different, but you get the idea. It’s vital to know this information before setting up the rest of your campaign.

Pro Tip: Kickstarter gives lots of publicity mojo to campaigns that meet their initial funding goal early. This has led many pros to set their official funding goal at a fraction of what they actually want so they meet that requirement. This approach has its pros and its cons. It’s up to you.

Create your preview page

This is a landing page that gives visitors information about your book, and a way to put themselves on a mailing list so you can let them know when you go live. Every major platform offers a free landing page as part of starting your campaign. Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and BackerKit allow you to set up that landing page months before your launch day to start collecting emails and building excitement.

Some others exist, like ClickFunnels, Unbounce, and SamCart. They have advanced functionality that experts can use to fine-tune their prelaunch mojo. Those tools are powerful, but if this is your first crowdfunding project, they will require a whole other learning curve. For beginners, the page from the platform will do just fine.

A word about schedule

At this point, you’re ready to set a launch date. There are two schools of thought here.

You can set a date for your campaign, then work towards it. Aim for a time where you will reliably have the time and energy to put yourself fully into making it wildly successful.You can create a preview page that allows people to sign up for updates. When you reach a critical mass of signups, you announce the campaign will begin in a few weeks.

The second reliably produces better earnings and results. However, it’s more complex and might push you into running your campaign in the middle of other projects. My recommendation is you set a date for your first campaign, then try the preview page method once you’re more experienced and ready for greater complexity.

The campaign itself

Whether you set your launch day at the beginning, or you wait until you have that critical mass of subscribers, eventually you will reach your launch. It’s important that, from launch day minus 30, to a week after closing, you consider this a part-time job you’ve taken on in addition to your other responsibilities.

Yes, that means many authors will be working their day job, seeing to family, trying to write, and be putting 10–20 hours a week into this campaign. That’s a lot, but it’s often worth it. Consider taking time off from writing while you’re in the thick of this.

You can run a campaign for as long as you like, with publishing projects typically coming in at around 30 days. Generally, all campaigns get the majority of their backing during the first and final weeks, so a two-week campaign where you’re highly engaged can also work. It’s up to you.

You can find many excellent, detailed plans for making your campaign work. In my experience, the differences between them are either cosmetic or boil down to personal preference. For your first campaign, pick one you like and follow it to the letter. This isn’t the time to reinvent the wheel. Use a blueprint from somebody who has experienced success, then tweak it for your second campaign once you’ve seen it in action.

Fulfillment and beyond

As tempting as it might be to breathe a sigh of relief at the finish line, you have a long way to go yet. Crowdfunding isn’t just a marathon. It’s a marathon you run after a 60-day sprint. How you behave after closing day will determine a lot about your relationship with your fans, and how receptive people are to your next crowdfunding project.

They key is to keep consistent communication with your backers. Kickstarter explicitly doesn’t guarantee that paid-for campaigns will deliver, and the web is full of horror stories where backer funds disappeared. If you keep your backers posted, they will be forgiving if things fall behind schedule.

However, don’t go overboard with this. A post a week is more than sufficient. You can get by with a simple status update, sharing everything that happened during that week that moved your campaign closer to shipping. On weeks nothing happened, post some kind of preview, even if it’s just a screenshot of your work.

Be sure to make and post an unboxing video when the first books arrive at your home.

Okay, so now what?

I get it. This feels like a lot—and it is. Crowdfunding campaigns are not small endeavors. But, just like writing a novel, the trick is to figure out where to grab hold of it. Once you do that, the rest is just one step at a time.

What I recommend is asking yourself four core questions. Once you’ve answered them, you can start at the top and do everything else in its time.

What? Exactly what book (or kind of book) do you want to produce? Think on this until you know enough to write a proposal and outline. That level of specificity will help you figure out the basics of your campaign.Why? What do you hope to accomplish by undertaking a crowdfunding campaign? I went through the most common reasons earlier. Take a moment and review those, then brainstorm any other reasons you might have. Then pick one and focus on that goal.By When? When do you want to see the results of this attempt? I strongly recommend setting that for at least six months out. Preferably you would give yourself a year. Whatever you choose, creating a timeline will help you set up for success.What’s First? What is the first thing you need to do, discover, create, research, or find a mentor about to maximize the success of your campaign? With projects this large, momentum is important. Identify that first thing, and do it today.