Crowdfunding in Publishing; Where Business Meets Art

Crowdfunding covers the widest array of projects and purposes imaginable, but all successful crowdfunding campaigns, whether rewards or equity, reflect similar consistencies that make them successful.  Crowdfunding in any form is essentially investment—putting money in to receive exclusive rights within the project.  Successful crowdfunding employs every element that is essential to a successful business: marketing, money management, public relations, even law and finance.  Entrepreneurs and start-ups have a strategic advantage over artists, filmmakers, and musicians in management and marketing, however artistic projects have advantages of their own.  Artists are intimately familiar with the real audience engagement that crowdfunding demands and businesses often struggle to mimic.  Instead of a single product or service, backers and investors for equity and rewards crowdfunding services alike are driven by the full panorama of the story.  U.K. equity stars BrewDog brewery have raised almost £5 million because fans gravitated to their humble beginnings and edgy, punk attitude as much as their incredible beer.  Storytelling is a common denominator to all forms of crowdfunding as well as the organizing element behind it, social media.  Building a galvanizing platform by sharing your story as well as your strategic advantages is essential to crowdfunding.  The most successful crowdfunding campaigns blend business and art to create a compelling image that is streamlined and organized. 

      To test the theory, I combined a degree in business management and entrepreneurship with a budding writing career.  I decided to crowdfund my second self-published novel, The King of the Sun.  The first step was preparing the project by fleshing out the description, rewards and engaging users.  

Telling the Story

      With any project, business or product in crowdfunding, there are three essentials to cover with enoughvdetail to inform, but enough brevity to interest: experience, credibility and effort.  To establish experience, I highlighted my first self-published book and its favorable reviews, asserting that the book is not a first-time experiment and that the quality of writing is good.  Other projects and startups do the same; OUYA references testimonials from developers, Pebble highlights their history with similar products.  For credibility, showing your own face and online accounts asserts that you a real person and accountable for the campaign.  By making this information readily available, I am connected to the image and authenticity of the project.  Also, the cover of the book and the first chapter are available to read, proving the project itself is real and testable.  Visuals of the owners, the product, testimonials from users, viewers or customers and any evidence from the project is a forefront point and should take some priority, under the description of the campaign itself.  Lastly, the history of hard work invested into the project evidences its quality and integrates your own devotion in it.  For The King of the Sun, its three years of writing and two years of revisions are both a testament to time, quality and hard work.   

      By establishing these points, you are both the architect and the artist behind your campaign; the responsible manager that can be trusted with contributions and the humanizing creator that deserves them. 

Rewards and Benefits

Rewards crowdfunding trades monetary investment in a project for a series of prizes while equity crowdfunding awards interests in the company to investors.  These systems offer interesting reflections of each other.  Successful equity crowdfunding shares usually include some voice in the company, but the true value is in the perks—just like rewards crowdfunding.  BrewDog brewery gives their crowd investors discounts for life, exclusive rights to their newest brews and other benefits.  The best rewards follow this business model.  The rewards for crowdfunding should be linked to the company, but also intrinsically interesting, especially for low money amounts which indicate a lower loyalty connection.  Rewards and share perks also need to be planned carefully; the rewards cannot be more expensive to fulfill than the money asked or an overall deficit results, just like share perks cannot result in losses for the company.  Exclusivity is the best, most cost-effective way to reciprocate.  Exclusive rights to extra content, new items, first releases or meetings or insights with the founders bring fans closer to the project with intangibles.  For smaller amounts, rewards must be large enough to entice support, easiest to fulfill and least dependent on a relationship with the project.  A useful, versatile reward that also displays appreciation and support for the project is ideal; KotS uses artwork from the book for desktop backgrounds and bookmarks as simple, useful rewards.

 See the King of the Sun crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo or find out more on the website.

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