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Why An Author Would Chose to Crowd Fund Their Book/Series

Opinion

10 Mar
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Why I'm Considering Crowd Funding a New Series

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Hey peeps! I hope everyone is ready for some beautiful Spring weather? I know I sure am. Today’s post is something that has been bothering me for some time and really ought to be discussed further. This post is not about how to get published, but more of my thoughts on my journey. Publishing is a different journey for every author. While I wouldn’t dare to tell anyone how it’s done “the proper” way, if self publishing is your gig, I will not tell you how to run your business.Some time ago I posted this question to my social media accounts: “Would you support an author crowd funding their upcoming paranormal romance/urban fantasy series? Inquiring minds want to know.” Much to my surprise I only received one response:“I funded all my books myself because it hardly costs anything. What do you need money for?” I’ve purposely removed the author’s name to that reply as I don’t want someone to view this as bashing their opinion of how they conduct their business. Said author is responsible for the quality of their own work and is likely not even a reader of mine to begin with.Now begins my beef.
First, they did not even answer the question posed.Second, how does it hardly cost anything? I will take a wild guess they didn’t even hire an editor (which is entirely their own prerogative), and where in the Hell did they find their cover artist? I may have stalked their website, which don’t even get me started on their branding. It’s their business and they can run it how they want. Third, the money is to cover the upfront costs I personally cannot afford even on a payment plan. Now lets talk about a breakdown of costs for my series and why I posed the question. The crowd funding campaign I’m thinking of launching is for the first 4 books in a series I’d like to launch consecutively for 4 months. My preferred artist and editors are all in the United States and I’m in Canada which means exchange will be abysmal. The following calculations are approximate and based on service rates from several months ago. Editing: $1,750 USD (doesn‘t include my proofreaders fee as I work in trade with her in running her website.) Cover Art eBook & Trade Paperback (not including graphics for marketing): $1000 Special Ltd. Edition Print Run limited to 50 copies of each title $1600 So far the total is sitting at $4350. I’m not even including the cost for advertising for this. This campaign is to help the production of this series and all the offerings/campaign perks would mean that my patrons/sponsors would be the first ever to receive these books before I go wide with this. Limited edition paperbacks would contain a ton of extra content that the regular print run on Amazon would never see. Now if I only ran a campaign for the first book, the cost would run at $1048 without an advertising budget. Which I still don’t have capital for and would rather not go into debt over this. My whole purpose was to show you that self publishing is a great opportunity to make money, but it takes investment. When you don’t have a dime to invest in it, a lack of funds is essentially a dream killer. Now you’re probably thinking why don’t I go with a small press publisher or a big one.

It’s a great question and one I’m happy to oblige.
I’ve been published with small press publishers since 2013 and the money you make is utter peanuts. I’m serious. I don’t expect to make a living off of this, but I expect to be paid my worth. They also lack the budget for marketing and well, sometimes the editors they hire are… well, they should probably not be editing for publishers. That’s about the kindest way I can put it. The only other 2 small press publishers I would work with in a heartbeat, do not work with this genre.
I don’t know of any NY publisher that would be interested in this series, and frankly, I’m not willing to sacrifice my voice for anyone. That doesn’t mean I don’t like NY publishers because I do. In fact, I’m writing a series I’m hoping to pitch to one soon.
This series has been in the works since 2010 and I’ve slowly chipped away at it. I know there’s a market for it. A niche one, but it will still have an audience.
So, I will ask this question again, as you will now have more information about what my motivations are.
Would you sponsor an author in a crowd funding campaign if it meant you’d get first dibs on a brand new series and swag?
P.S. I have a brand new paranormal romance novella coming out soon, and a historical romance this autumn. I will reveal a new cover soon, too. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to get the early reveal. The link is below.

Much love to you all!

xo-Layna Pimentel

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Layna - Author & Entrepreneur
Wanted to take a moment thank those who have inbox Wanted to take a moment thank those who have inboxed me and interested in collaborating as reviewers. 
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