Kickstarter or indiegogo? Two authors, two choices.

For those of you at the monthly Professional Series meeting who heard firsthand from Panda Chronicler Anne Belov and her Kickstarter experiences, here are two more locals who have forged a path along the same lines of crowd sourcing support for their writing projects.

Brenda Winter Hanson dives into crowd-sourced funding for her mermaid novel.

Assistant Regional Advisor Brenda Winter Hanson has started her own site, through indiegogo, to help her get to a writing workshop that will allow her to delve into her entire manuscript. Here's her story, which takes us through her thinking behind this decision to go public. To view her campaign site, click here. Go, Brenda!

Karen Kincy

Another local author, the novelist Karen Kincy, turned to Kickstarter to help fund her newest book. In a recent interview with the Chinook Update, below, Karen shared her success story:

Q: Is this a new frontier for you? How did you decide to pursue this avenue? Other people doing it?   What made you head in that direction?

My project for Shadows of Asphodel was my very first Kickstarter, and I was inspired to do it after seeing all the amazing entrepreneurial projects that have succeeded on the crowdfunding platform--everything from handmade chocolates to board games to indie films. It helped me immensely to plan the logistics and marketing of the Kickstarter in advance, as well as deciding a reasonable budget to self-publish a book. I spent at least a month brainstorming with my friend and fellow novelist, Chelsea Campbell, since we have also been scheming up a co-authored book to write this summer. (Moral of this story: Talk to your writer friends! They have awesome ideas!)

Q: What happens now that you've made your fundraising goal?

After I finish the manuscript to the satisfaction of my beta readers and myself, it's time for editing, formatting, and pre-publication marketing. Shadows of Asphodel is slated for a September 2013 release. I'm keeping my backers in the loop through Kickstarter email updates. Soon I hope to share at least a sneak peak of the cover--I have already commissioned an amazing cover artist for Shadows of Asphodel, and can't wait to see the final cover.

Q: What has been the response from: fellow writers, agent, publishing folks, etc.? 

Curiosity and excitement, mostly, and a whole lot of enthusiasm from those who backed the project and spread the word. I couldn't have done it without my cheerleaders!

Q: Would you do this again? Why or why not?

I would definitely do it again. Thanks to Kickstarter, I don't have to worry about funding the initial costs of  self-publishing a book myself. And since most of the Shadows of Asphodel Kickstarter backers chose pledge levels with ebook or paperback rewards, I can effectively count those as a small batch of pre-orders, hopefully that will lead to good first reviews from those who love the book.