61 Hours and Counting

It’s hard to believe that we are down to the last 2 days of the Kickstarter. To say that this has been an  eye-opening experience would be an understatement.  I really was just trying to do a bit of an experiment. Something that I had heard others doing and wanted to see what it would be like. I originally wanted $3,000 and as of this minute that amount has been exceeded by $20,000.  I’m often amazed that when I talk about hybrid authorship with many traditionally published authors they show little interest.  Reasons cited often include:

• I have no idea how
• You have to be lucky to succeed in self-publishing
• It’s too much work
• I don’t have the funds
• Money should flow to the author
• I rely on my advances

It seems to me that what this Kickstarter has proven is the last three bullets can be achieved, not by having the publishers being the funding source, but by having your readers step up to fill that role…and they are happy to do so.  No one is twisting their arm, or putting a gun to their head, they like what you have produced in the past, and feel good about helping to make future work a reality.

I know many authors whose first contract had advances in the $5,000 – $15,000 range.  Sadly their second contract offers have been about the same or marginally better.  That means that Hollow World did better on its own than many authors are seeing through traditional publishing.  That’s a pretty exciting development.    I’ll be 100% honest, it’s not replacing what I had desired for an advance. I  predicted that Hollow World should earn about $75,000 in first year ebook profit, and based on this, I suggested a range of possible contracts/rights:

• $0 for print-only
• $35,000 for a North American print and ebook
• $55,000 for World English print and ebook

But here’s the thing…I didn’t expect ANY advance.  And now I’m more than 50% to my North American goal and the book is still in editing.  As I mentioned before I’m going to write-up what I did, and some observations about Kickstarter when all is said and done. My hope is that authors who aren’t getting the deals they want…or worse yet, the ones who have shelved manuscripts that were turned down, will look at this as an example and perhaps take a chance themselves.  Bottom line…I’m all about authors doing what they love for a living, and the more the better as far I’m concerned.

It truly is a new day for writers and opportunities abound.  I hope others will seize the day and start thinking outside the box.  In the end it will be good for both them and readers.

 

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