How to Use Crowdfunding for Your Self-Published Book

So, you’re self-publishing your own book! After you’ve plotted the narrative, constructed the story and written more drafts than you can remember, your finished book needs a way to get into the hands of hungry readers. While writing your very own book may not require much money to complete - besides endless coffees and all your hard-working hours of labouring over words, of course - printing a self-published book is a whole different story. Crowdfunding the money required to print your self-published book is one of the easiest and most cost-effective methods of keeping the costs at a minimum. Plus, it’s a terrific way to spread the word and promote your book before it’s even made its way out of the printer. Let’s take a look at what this process involves and the best way to go about crowdfunding your self-published project.

‍

What Is Crowdfunding?

Whether you’re new to the whole crowdfunding process or you’re just here for a refresher, it’s important to understand what this method of funding is and how it can assist you on your self-publishing journey. Crowdfunding is essentially a means of gathering small amounts of money from a variety of sources in order to fund the costs of doing business. In the creative world, crowdfunding is an incredibly useful way to raise money for a project that has no commercial backing from players in the industry. It’s also common for people that donate money to your crowdfunding project to have some kind of incentive for contributing funds - like a copy of your brand-new book!

‍

Australia’s book industry was revolutionised thanks to the introduction of crowdfunding. The nifty process of sourcing money from large swathes of people has allowed the method of self-publishing books to become a much more accessible feat for those that can’t fund the entirety of the printing and publishing processes themselves. In our recent chat with indie author Tansy Rayner Roberts, Tansy told us how “crowdfunding [provided a] huge opportunity to level the playing field for indies”, meaning that there was now a way for self-published authors to not only raise funds to print their book, but also provide a method for gathering funds for more costly side quests, like crafting special edition books with sprayed edges or extra embellishments.

‍

There are four technical types of crowdfunding - the two types you'll want to consider to crowdfund your own self-published book are donation-based crowdfunding and reward-based crowdfunding. While a donation-based crowdfunding campaign means exactly that - that contributors donate money without getting anything in return - if you opt for reward-based crowdfunding, you’ll need to give your donors a reward in exchange for the money they donate - for example, an attribution to their generosity in the acknowledgement section of your novel, or even copy of your book.

‍

It’s helpful to remember that if you choose to go down the route of reward-based crowdfunding and opt for offering a copy of your book as incentive for donating money, this doesn’t have to be the only way for readers to receive a copy of your book. While this method works like that of pre-ordering, the idea is also to raise enough money to print enough copies of your book to then sell at bookshops, take to book fairs, or even allow readers to purchase it from your website.

‍

‍

How To Set Up Your Crowdfunding Campaign

Now, onto the nitty gritty of the crowdfunding process! For authors using crowdfunding as a means of raising money for their self-published book, it’s important to understand that most crowdfunding websites (like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe) will take a percentage of the money raised. You’ll want to keep this in mind when budgeting the costs of printing your book, as well as the fact that you’ll need a deadline to raise funds by. 

‍

Creating a crowdfunding page isn’t as simple as slapping your funding goal and project name into a website. To run a successful crowdfunding campaign, you’ll want to make sure that your campaign provides donors with the right information, presented in an accessible and exciting way. Think of this like an ad for you and your book. You can brandish your crowdfunding profile with your book’s title, a synopsis, the front cover design, and maybe even an excerpt of your best writing. Plus, you’ll want to show your donors a little bit about yourself through things like a bio, your previous work, a picture of yourself, or - for bonus points - even a short video explaining who you are and why readers should donate to your creative project.

‍

Your Crowdfunding Campaign Has Begun - Now What?

Once you’ve launched your crowdfunding campaign - set a realistic goal, timeline and uploaded all the necessary information about you and your project - the next step in the crowdfunding process is encouraging donors to put their money where your story is. Think of this part as a double-whammy of marketing: you’re marketing both your campaign and your book.

‍

Like with so many methods of indie marketing (especially when the budget is next to zero), social media will be your best friend. Spread the word of your campaign by posting about your book and the writing process on your social media accounts. You could set up a designated Instagram account for your novel - posting snippets of writing or special previews of cover designs - or you could even start a Substack to keep your readers in the loop of your writing life. Sharing is caring, and it’s also a great way to get the word out there of your book and build up excitement for the printing process. Plus, showing your backers that you’re actively participating in the process of self-publishing will demonstrate that you won’t just take the money and run - it's a great incentive for them to see what they’re actually contributing to and how their money will result in a finished product.

‍

How Crowdfunding Builds Community Hype For Your Work

Not only does crowdfunding provide a handy source of financial support for when it comes to printing your self-published book, but it also garners a sense of community among your readers and followers. Tansy Rayner Roberts talked to FolioFox about how crowdfunding new projects has become easier over the years of her career thanks to the loyal following of local readers who want to support her work. The more books an author self-publishes and the more fans they gather along the way leads to a safer bet placed on the amount of people keen to contribute to a crowdfunding campaign for the next story in the series.

‍

Tansy also highlighted how crowdfunding isn’t just a great source of raising money for self-published books, but also for all of the merch and special editions that come along with them. Building a sense of community around an author’s work helps immensely in raising funds for all the extra bits readers want to get their hands on - like branded notebooks and tote bags - and it allows full control over how that merchandise is made.

“With my Kickstarters, a lot of my merch is personalised or hand-made,” Tansy told us. “Readers get really excited about that - even if it isn’t quite as cost effective as ordering bulk mass-produced merch from China.”

‍

You’re not just building a book or a brand - crowdfunding provides a means of building community.

At the end of the day, the readers and followers who demonstrate their financial support through crowdfunding don’t just show up for the words that you write. They’re there to support your creativity and the community you have fostered through your self-published stories.

‍

To learn more about self-published book printing in Melbourne, get in touch with our team at FolioFox today. We're here to help you navigate the evolving world of book printing with confidence.