Earlier this year I was sent a link to a writer’s patreon begging for money.
He was a bestselling writer who had become a full time author, and had written nearly 30 novels. Then, when the coof hit in 2020, his sales took a nose dive. And after trying a kickstarter that was successful, he got nailed by the tax man because he didn’t realize how it all worked with kickstarters and taxes. So he took a full time job to pay his taxes, but during that time he was racking up more bills, with his royalties not meeting his monthly nut anymore, and was trapped between a rock and a hard place trying to find time and energy to write while working his arse off, just to sink deeper into the abyss.
Thus, his kickstarter.
His goal was $20k.
Last I checked it topped off at less than $9k.
I suppose that’s better than no “k’s.”
But, still not really enough.
Which brings me to the point of all this:
The guy messed up by thinking like a writer vs thinking like a publisher.
I can’t say for sure since I don’t know the guy from Adam.
But I doubt he had an email list, or if he did, it probably was not all that responsive. I also doubt he had any kind of back end sells in place. I further doubt he did even the most basic things for building a list and audience beyond just social media. And I would bet someone else’s left testicle he wasn’t doing JV’s with other writers for list building and sales purposes. Frankly, just doing what I write about on pages 14-15 (that most of my long time Email Players have heard me teach, but few ever do, even as they claw for breath to get leads on Facebook, Twitter, etc) would have helped probably double his contributors.
This is not a critique of crowdfunding.
Personally, I admire the really savvy crowdfunders.
Some of them have taken “OPM” (other peoples’ money) almost to an art form. I think of guys like Vox Day, Ethan Van Scrivener, and especially Eric Sanderson’s $41.7 million.
There’s a lot of leverage in that if you can pull it off.
But, if you can’t, then simply be your own crowdfunding platform.
Like for example:
- Don’t think like a “writer” think like a publisher — which gives you far more ways to expand and roll out, including selling the work of other writers (via licensing, buying the rights, as an affiliate, etc)
- Don’t rely on SJW-converged platforms like Patreon — or any of the other ones.
- Manufacture sales — vast majority of baseball games, for example, are won by “manufacturing” runs, one hit, one stolen base, and one RBI at a time… not 9th ending grand slams (although obviously that does happen, it’s foolish to count on it).
- And let your customers be your “backers” by buying stuff from you.
To do this you obviously need customers.
And, they have to be engaged customers who buy.
And, just as important… engaged customers who repeatedly buy, refer, advocate, etc.
That part is where my Email Players newsletter shines.
More info here:
Ben Settle
