Self-Publishing has exploded over the past few years and since the passage of the Jump-start Our Business Start-ups Act (‘JOBS Act’) in 2012, a new reality of crowd-funding has begun to take hold for authors. Crowd-funding is poised to help thousands of seasoned writers, up-and-comers or writers somewhere in between to produce their work by asking for a little help from their friends, networks and communities. Givers get the benefit of feeling good about investing in a worthy cause, and for those that believe in it, just good karma.
Although the JOBS Act is currently pending with rules to be written, crowd-funding, also known as crowd financing, equity crowd funding or hyper-funding, is a very smart idea. According to Erik Bowman a best-selling author and creator of Author.com, one way to finance a book project is by good old-fashioned fundraising through family and friends.
While traditional publishers undoubtedly still have the bigger budgets for mass marketing books to the greatest number of consumers, talking up your book and creating anticipation with a platform for crowd-funding and book pre-sales can be highly effective for authors publishing through indie, small-house or self-publishing channels. Professional writers, journalists and creative writers, who once could only get their work published by jumping through the hoops of traditional publishing channels, can appreciate the opportunities that crowd-funding and self-publishing give writers today.
There're a number of services where authors can crowd-fund book projects. The most widely-known are Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com. Both Kickstarter and Indiegogo are sites where anyone can raise money for practically anything. But unlike these services, Author.com focuses on the author with tools designed specifically for crowd-funding book projects.
Beyond building a platform to raise money, Author.com allows writers to test market book concepts, accept pre-sale orders and get ongoing marketing and sales support. It’s changing the publishing industry by putting the publishing, distribution and marketing of a book directly in the hands of the creator.
Meanwhile, Erik’s formula with Author.com is there to make the transition painless.
The JOBS Act is intended primarily to help new start-up American businesses. According to the pending law, contributions such as crowd-funding donations may be tax deductible up to 10 percent of the amount given.
Self-publishing will surely be redefined as new start for thousands of aspiring and seasoned writers. It’s not a new idea but with the intersection of internet technology and a shift in the way Americans communicate, it is unprecedented.
