New Street Authors is a collective of independent authors. We aim to support each other and increase our publishing knowledge. To this end we have a monthly guest speaker via Zoom. In November it was Oriana Leckert who is Head of Publishing at Kickstarter.

These Boots Were Made for Kicking!

Kickstarter is a crowd-funding platform aimed at creatives such as authors, artists, crafters, who need to raise money to fund projects such a hardback book print run, video game production, board game manufacture and so on.

Two particular uses of Kickstarter appealed to members of our group and I’m highlighting them here because there might be others who would like to fund their writing in this way.

Audiobooks. Audiobooks are growing massively in popularity. Possibly because, in our busy world, they allow multi-tasking, such as driving or doing chores at the same time as enjoying a book. Most traditional publishers now produce audio versions of their books alongside the paperback and e-book.
But the cost of producing a professional audiobook can be prohibitive for independent authors and/or risky. There is no guarantee of sufficient sales to recoup costs. This is where Kickstarter comes in. An author can ask for funding to produce an audiobook. If sufficient backers signup the project can go ahead at no financial risk to the author (assuming he/she has costed the project correctly). If there are not enough backers, the project doesn’t go ahead but the author has lost no money.
To attract backers, the author offers rewards for different levels of investment, as well as a copy of the audiobook. These rewards might be in the form of physical books, mentions on the acknowledgements page, artwork from the book and so on.

Limited Edition Print Runs. An author selling books at a genre-specific convention directly to readers who are hugely enthusiastic about their reading matter, might find that having a limited edition print run specifically for that event will attract large numbers of buyers. These buyers are getting an edition of the book which is not available elsewhere. But these are not books that can be cheaply produced via KDP. They may have gold sprayed page edges, a cover that is printed on the inside as well as the outside and various other expensive special effects. Upfront capital is needed to produce books like these. And Kickstarter can be a way of generating that capital in return for giving investors access to limited edition rewards.

Of course, the backing of investors has to be worked for. It’s not simply a case of putting your project on Kickstarter and waiting for the money to roll in. You will have to publicise and shout about the project in order to attract backers. But if you fancy creating something from your writing that requires capital, it might be worth a shot. The only thing you have to lose is your time.