Fire–I mean KickStarter
I am rather suspicious about crowd funding. I think it’s done some wonderful things. I think it’s helped a lot of people. So I’m reluctant to dismiss it out of hand. Heck, I’ve considered it, like last fall when we learned our foundation is sinking and every place we called gave us a $50k quote, minimum. We thought about starting an Indie-Go-Go campaign. But then decided we needed to do everything we could on our own first.
(Disclosure: We’re still trying. We still haven’t gotten it fixed. We still might go that route. But not yet.)
My friend Sara, who is an excellent writer (she is on the top tier of people I’ll pursue for books should I ever become a publisher) just pulled off funding of her book about a banshee in Nashville. I want to read this book.
Another friend Lucy Snyder (also on that tier) has a book being crowd funded by the publisher. I also want to read that book.
But on the other hand I’ve seen big name writers asking for $20k-$50k to self publish a book. Or even to publish a book traditionally. What happened to the publisher, be it you or a third party, bearing the production costs? Now if you want a book published you can expect your audience to pay to produce it AND to buy it?
Doesn’t seem fair. Sorta rubs me like people expecting others to buy their very poorly written, edited and produced books just because they wrote them and put them up for sale. Of course a lot of these Kickstarters offer up free ebooks to funders at a basic level, making it not far from just preordering the book. Nothing wrong with that.
Now I have seen some small presses offer preorders of books that never come out. But, unlike those, going through Kickstarter if the project doesn’t make its goal you aren’t charged. That’s more protection than some lifetime membership and small press preorder schemes I’ve seen.
Of course after the funding it’s still up to the author to actually write the book and get it out there and fulfill any other obligations they’ve made. Since stories of this not happening are few, I suppose it’s a fairly honest risk.
Of course then you get authors writing and producing the books…and burning it rather than sending it to contributors who donate money. Or publishers who stiffed their writers asking for help paying those writers back. (Bonus: that publisher has already benefited from fundraisers.)
I still don’t know what to think about crowd funding. It’s dangerous to treat it like a free source of money, but it does get things done that relying on publisher might not, especially in an age when publishers are not doing a whole lot to distance themselves from the image of them milking authors for any little penny they can. I still give, very selectively, but never expect anything back. Like lending to friends I consider the money as gone, maybe that’ll make it easier if it does just go.
What do you think?
Hi Michele!
Thanks for mentioning the Jessie project.
re: your questions: “What happened to the publisher, be it you or a third party, bearing the production costs? Now if you want a book published you can expect your audience to pay to produce it AND to buy it?”
Okay, here’s the thing … in our Kickstarter (and most that I’ve seen) you ARE getting the books, along with other perks (such as your name in the book, or a tuckerization, etc.) Yes, you have the option of just chipping in a buck or two because you feel like it, but all the other tiers involve getting a copy of the book, and in some cases several other titles as well.
Also, the readers ALWAYS ultimately pay for the cost of a book — that’s how the publishing business works. Yes, there are some publishers that just fund everything out of pocket without attempting to recoup production costs from the people who are buying the books … but those publishers tend not to last very long!
So, from my perspective, this isn’t any different than a publisher taking pre-orders for a limited edition, which “traditional” small- and middle-size press publishing has been doing forever. The old model was that the publisher would guess at how many people would want to buy a book, price out the print run based on that estimate, then start taking pre-orders and use the money from the pre-orders to fund the production of the book. This model is just an update on that; the big difference is that now it’s tied in with social media and people can be public about what they’ve backed if they choose to.
-Lucy
Also: as far as publishers taking the money and running off with it instead of using it to pay authors or deliver books … there’s a long history of that in traditional publishing, too. A long, long history. Ask around about how many authors got stiffed by Dorchester, for instance.
So, does it pay to take a closer look at who you’re dealing with before you give them your work or money? Absolutely. But that goes for every situation, not just crowdfunding. I went with Alliteration Ink for my Jessie project because I know Steven Saus, have worked with him as a contributor to several anthologies he’s produced, and he’s a stand-up guy who does what he says he will and he’s got a history of running good Kickstarters.
That’s pretty much what I think too. Make sure the people you are dealing with are stand up. Your opinion means a lot to me and I certainly don’t see you throwing yourself in with a scammer (at least on purpose). But clearly they are still out there.
For what it’s worth, Steven Saus has been one of the most thoughtfully ethical publishers I’ve worked with (see his Kickstarter policy here). There are scammers out there, but give me some credit for having the sense to not work with them. 🙂
Wow, that’s an impressive policy. I haven’t even seen crowdfunding policies from other publishers. Very forward thinking.
I can’t really say I’m a supporter of crowd-funding unless it’s for an extremely good cause–say, doctor or vet bills, charity, disaster aid, or some other desperate need, because, at least in my mind, that’s exactly what it is: charity. I don’t feel it’s right for authors or publishers to beg for money when they can, conceivably, publish their work with no overhead on Amazon Kindle, Nook, etc. No, you won’t have a pretty book to hold in your hand, but…hang on, you can even do that for free through Createspace. So…no, there’s no real practical reason to ask people for their money. Just my two cents.