About crowd funding…

Over the last few weeks, a number of stories hove broken out about Kickstarter funded projects that have had great success. But while the media’s attention is on the game companies and their bigger results, I was watching the fast rise of funds for MeiLin Miranda’s fiction project, which surged way past the author’s stated goals and gained her over $5,000 from just 102 backers. This kind of money means the author will be able to afford polishing her ebook to near perfection before release, handle a promotion budget, and still have money left over for stuff like bills and paying the dentist. That’s a respectable finish, in my opinion, and it’s an amount I’d be boasting about if I’d had similar results.

Sadly, I can’t use Kickstarter, being outside the US. But I could use IndieGoGo if I could just think of a project that I could find 100 or so backers on. But I’m not really thinking about using these services so much as I’m interested in seeing how other authors are able to use these services for presale orders and promotion. With MeiLin’s story, she originally started the project as a web serial, so some of her backers are past readers who are donating to help polish the story and make it even better for new readers. That they get a book out of the deal is just gravy, because they’ve already read the story, and they already know how good it is.

But these backers also promoted the Kickstarter project and brought in new readers, and then there’s backers like me who haven’t read the series online yet, but who knew about it and we were waiting for the ebook. So for me, I figure I’ll send in some funds, and now I get a download link to the book with a discount code for 100% off. Now, in truth, I paid $10, and the book is $4.95, so I paid more for it than I had to. But it’s a good project, and I’m happy to support a fellow indie artist, even if it means paying more than the sticker price on her book. We can even call the other fiver a tip.