Not One Stinkin’ Dime

I decided to try an experiment. What would happen, I wondered, if I set-up a crowdfunding appeal on either Kickstarter or Indiegogo? I had written a post, Kickstart Your Indie Projecton Indies Unlimited in favor of Kickstarter, and my fellow IU writer Rich Meyer had written one, Mendicancy – The First Refuge of The Modern Indie, critiquing the idea of independent authors asking for money to fund their book costs. What better way to prove my point that people are happy to fund novels, and to gain visibility for my book at the same time, than to put together a crowdfunding campaign? Continue reading “Not One Stinkin’ Dime”

Who or What is New Publisher House?

I just love big numbers, don’t you? Especially when they have a dollar sign in front of them. Take this one: $52 billion. A good-sized number, wouldn’t you say? I mean, if you took 52 billion dollar bills and stretched them end-to-end, they would reach…um…a really long way. (Liberal arts major here, okay?)

Why my fixation on this number? A new, and somewhat mysterious, company called New Publisher House featured it prominently it in the executive summary of “State of Independence 2014,” its report on indie publishing: “The self-publishing book market in the US currently represents over $52 billion in untapped revenue. This is twice the size of the established mainstream book publishing market’s total annual sales revenue.” Continue reading “Who or What is New Publisher House?”

Kickstart Your Indie Project

Spunky rests after a hard day

Let’s be honest. It would be wonderful to climb the stairs to our private tower, a writing oasis, carrying a cup of coffee and nary a financial concern. Oh, the blissful euphoria, to have our creativity flowing freely, unimpeded by the worry of small things like the electric bill. We could travel extensively, immerse ourselves in foreign culture and inspire our masterpiece. We could be like Spunky the cat, who has had a fabulous benefactor her entire life allowing her to work on her favorite project–herself. Proper grooming and self-absorption have been, in this feline’s case, taken to a lofty level.

To have a patron who writes the checks and funds our creative vision should be a benefit available to all dedicated artists. Unfortunately, the funds to support art and artistic endeavors are the first line item cut by the bean counters. Without the joy of visual art, music, dance and literature we would certainly live a black and white existence. There is hope, my friends. From a small office in Brooklyn the idea of crowd funding was realized in a brilliant platform called Kickstarter. You can read about Kickstarter basics here. Continue reading “Kickstart Your Indie Project”