Indiegogo & Kickstarter: Moral for Authors?

[madam_noe]

I just learned of a friend-of-a-friend who used Indigogo to pay for his bills while he wrote a cookbook for eBook self publishing (a process that costs $0 if you don't use a professional editing service).

I found that slightly shady as not only did he not use an editing service, but when it came time he couldn't even Google how to format a *.doc into an eBook, something I've done twice by simple Googling for the right way.

However, my best friend urged me this could help me. I am being published by Red Sage next year but want to sell an urban fantasy to a large legacy publisher and will need an agent. I will need a new printer, postage, a professional editing service to do this. However I was recently laid off and am having no luck finding a new job, and as a freelancer who worked for a service I don't qualify for unemployment insurance. And being single, unlike many writers, I don't have an SO who can help me through this time.

So my thought was I could start a campaign to raise $3000 to pay 2 months of bills, get a new printer, professional editing, professional revamping of my website, and postage to mail the book out. The idea would be once I was ready to sell it I'd mail it and then have time to find new regular work.

Do you think this is moral? I'm really not sure. I would offer "perks" i.e. rewards for contributors. At lower amounts it'd be free eBooks of my current work and for higher amounts it'd be free copies of the SW book once done or autographed free copies.

What are your thoughts? Does this seem like a good idea or does it seem predatory to you?

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I've browsed throughthe kickstarter program. There are people on there looking for as little as $1500 right up to people looking for 50 grand or more.

Try it, what do you have to lose?

 

[49greg]

I'm not sure what is customary for authors and publishers, so to me it doesn't sound bad at all. I'm sure in all kickstarters there is money set aside for someone to get paid, or to get money for expenses while things get going. Why should a writer do it differently?

Actually it sounds innovative. Go for it.

 

[sr71plt]

To be publishing through a mainline mainstream publisher, you should be able to deliver the manuscript to them without paying for a professional edit. The publisher will have it edited themselves at their own expense regardless, they expect their authors to be good enough to shine through without an independent editor, and they really don't want to hear/know that you had it professionally edited beforehand. That wouldn't put you in the realm of author they are looking to work with.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I don't see anything immoral about it if you're being honest with readers about what they're getting for their dollar and what the risks are.

The question I'd be asking is - how good are you at self-promo? Do you expect to be able to raise $3k this way? You can probably count on good friends to buy a copy, but unless you have several hundred good friends that's not going to get you to that target, so you'd likely need to attract strangers as well.

Speaking as a stranger, I would need to see a good-sized sample of your writing and evidence of your ability to plan and finish a large project - I don't want to give $10 towards a novel that never gets finished. Perhaps the hardest part would be attracting my attention in the first place: why am I going to go look at THIS project rather than all the others out there?

At lower amounts it'd be free eBooks of my current work and for higher amounts it'd be free copies of the SW book once done or autographed free copies.

Well, it's not really "free" at that point ;-)

 

[RejectReality]

There's also Patreon, if you're prolific.

That's a service where people set up a monthly or per-(whatever) donation rather than a 1-time thing. A lot of video content people are going that route.

If people are willing to donate, and you're honest in your presentation and rewards, I don't see why it would be considered predatory.

 

[callmeismael]

Definitely doesn't seem predatory, as long as you're upfront about what you're offering.

However, I will say that from those I know who have done it, a successful kickstarter campaign is a lot of work; you need to know how to find your audience and get them to the campaign and then convince them to contribute. If you already have a following, that's great. If you're trying to build up your following at the same time, then it's going to be much tougher.

One of the challenges I see for you is that a professional website should really be done before your Kickstarter campaign, and Kickstarter might not like you incorporating it in your costs, so I wouldn't mention that as one of your goals in your campaign. They specify that the money should be going toward the creation of the creative item (product, film, book, etc.), as opposed to toward you spending the money on promoting yourself or the project. The money you pay yourself for your time, as well as for editing, printing, etc. is all fine.

Although I'd phrase it that the money is going towards you creating something; not going towards paying your bills while you create something (even though the latter may be true). From what I've seen, appealing to a person's sense of charity on Kickstarter is less effective than getting them excited about the thing that you're going to create with their help.

Even if your goal is $3000, you might find it worthwhile to set the kickstarter goal much lower, if you're planning to spend the time creating the thing, anyway. It would suck for you to spend a couple months creating something and then missing out on $2800 because you didn't quite reach your goal. At the same time, keep in mind that you won't get paid until your campaign is finished. So make sure you can make ends meet while you're waiting for your campaign to finish, and make sure you've got a contingency plan in case your Kickstarter flops.

 

[madam_noe]

I don't see anything immoral about it if you're being honest with readers about what they're getting for their dollar and what the risks are.

The question I'd be asking is - how good are you at self-promo? Do you expect to be able to raise $3k this way? You can probably count on good friends to buy a copy, but unless you have several hundred good friends that's not going to get you to that target, so you'd likely need to attract strangers as well.

Speaking as a stranger, I would need to see a good-sized sample of your writing and evidence of your ability to plan and finish a large project - I don't want to give $10 towards a novel that never gets finished. Perhaps the hardest part would be attracting my attention in the first place: why am I going to go look at THIS project rather than all the others out there?

At lower amounts it'd be free eBooks of my current work and for higher amounts it'd be free copies of the SW book once done or autographed free copies.

Well, it's not really "free" at that point ;-)

Hey there,

I have a website already (not professional, a yolasite freebie that gets a lot of traffic). I also have 2 books already self published, 1 finished one being published by Red Sage, so the only way a contributor would have to worry about me not finishing is if I have to spend all my time job hunting then working to cover debt.

Also the term "free" has to be legally used for perks, as these platforms are not retailers, so the perks are not being sold. It's why there's a "free gift with purchase" on infomercial stuff. The word free shows no sales tax will be charged.

As for attracting people, they can read samples of my work on literotica, they can read my work on my existing website, they can read previews soon from Red Sage.

To be publishing through a mainline mainstream publisher, you should be able to deliver the manuscript to them without paying for a professional edit. The publisher will have it edited themselves at their own expense regardless, they expect their authors to be good enough to shine through without an independent editor, and they really don't want to hear/know that you had it professionally edited beforehand. That wouldn't put you in the realm of author they are looking to work with.

Actually, for almost all mainstream publishers I need an agent, and my friends who've gone through the process recommend the professional edit- as in proofreading. 4 out 5 of them paid for it with their agent before submitting it to a publisher.

I am trying to go off what I know of the process from friends who've been published, so none of this info is hard and fast, hence why I am information gathering. Thanks for the input.

 

[sr71plt]

Actually, for almost all mainstream publishers I need an agent, and my friends who've gone through the process recommend the professional edit- as in proofreading. 4 out 5 of them paid for it with their agent before submitting it to a publisher.

It's true that you need an agent for mainstream publishers, but that really has nothing to do with editing. Paying an agent for a professional edit has been a long-time scam. An agent her/himself can work over a manuscript quite a bit (which shows commitment), but the moment they suggest hiring a professional editor through them (which shows having more interest in dipping into your pocket than finding a publisher for your book), run for the hills. I work for publishers. Trust me (or don't--I really don't care; someday you'll remember that you were warned), they don't appreciate authors who need professional editors before their own edit (which they pay for), and I've seen explosions when an author got a publishers' edit back and started in with the "but my own editor said . . ."

But you can certainly experience this whole process for yourself.

 

[madam_noe]

It's true that you need an agent for mainstream publishers, but that really has nothing to do with editing. Paying an agent for a professional edit has been a long-time scam. An agent her/himself can work over a manuscript quite a bit (which shows commitment), but the moment they suggest hiring a professional editor through them (which shows having more interest in dipping into your pocket than finding a publisher for your book), run for the hills. I work for publishers. Trust me (or don't--I really don't care; someday you'll remember that you were warned), they don't appreciate authors who need professional editors before their own edit (which they pay for), and I've seen explosions when an author got a publishers' edit back and started in with the "but my own editor said . . ."

But you can certainly experience this whole process for yourself.

Thanks for the advice. My friends have told me their agent didn't charge for editing, but often recommended an outside editor to limit the copy-editor span of the publishing process (I have heard some "hilarious" horror stories about that.)

Cutting that out I've decided to go for $1980 thanks to input here and on my Facebook page. Seeing as how advances are small and parsed out in a way Indiegogo will offer me a chance to create my own advance and handle some things up front.