HIGH FIVE Interview with Justine Schofield
We are happy to welcome Justine Schofield, development director of Pubslush, a global crowdfunding platform only for books.
Justine graduated from Emerson College in Boston, MA with a degree in Writing, Literature, and Publishing and is currently enrolled at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, earning her MFA in Creative Writing. Justine has become a prominent industry voice for educating authors and publishers about crowdfunding and her work has been featured on many online publications.
What makes Pubslush special compared to other crowd sourcing platforms?
Pubslush is a niche crowdfunding platform for books only and because of the specialized nature of our platform we are able to provide authors with many valuable tools that will help them more successfully publish their books.
Analytics-Pubslush offers a special service to all authors called Market Analytics. At the end of your book campaign you will receive a detailed demographic summary breaking down important information regarding your supporters such as location, age, gender, and traffic source. This is a powerful tool for the author to use in planning the most effective future marketing and advertising campaigns.
Personalized Service-We are an organic, hands on company that focuses on educating our users and providing the most valuable and up to date resources and tools to facilitate the publishing process. The Pubslush team takes great pride in providing one on one service to all our authors. Our author relations team is an amazing resource for the authors on our site and provides hands-on support to authors through every step of the process, from pre-campaign preparation to helpful crowdfunding tips throughout their time on Pubslush.
Flexible funding- Determine a book’s viability by setting a dollar threshold. Pubslush offers flexible funding, which allows authors to keep all funds they raised after they reach their minimum.
Free, Risk-free- No upfront costs! Pubslush charges a 4% commission plus third party processing fees at the successful completion of a campaign.
Books for Sale- Pubslush provides continued support even after a campaign is over. We have a “Books for Sale” section at the site that links successful campaigns to their Amazon pages.
How many campaigns succeed in terms of reaching the fundraising goal and are you satisfied how these do on the market?
Pubslush offers flexible funding, which means an author is able to keep the funds they raise so long as they surpass their minimum funding goal. Our platform minimum is $500, but authors can set their own minimum in accordance to their publishing goals. We offer the flexible funding option because we know that any amount of money will help mitigate the financial risk of self-publishing and can help authors bring their books to life.
How successful a book is both on Pubslush and post-Pubslush is entirely dependent on the author and how dedicated they are to the success of their book.
Which share of successful campaigns are published traditionally by publishing houses and which share is self-published? Do you expect this ratio will remain the same during the next 5 years?
Many of our authors choose to use their funds to self-publish, but of course all authors have the option to use their successful campaign to entice an agent or publisher, too.
Through our Pubslush Pro program publishers can also use our platform to crowdfund for their upcoming books. Pubslush Pro allows publishers to gauge the market for a book, raise funds and gather pre-orders pre-publication, and collect and maintain a database of customers. We will be introducing an even more customizable and user-friendly version of Pubslush Pro in the New Year, so we expect to see the number of publishers using our service rise significantly.
What’s the benefit for the reader who gets financially involved?
Readers who support crowdfunding campaigns are introduced into the publishing process. They can now be a part of the discovery process for books and have a say in what books they’d like to see get published. Since Pubslush is a rewards based crowdfunding platform, some of the most enticing benefits are the unique rewards readers receive when they support a campaign. Authors on Pubslush can create specialized and unique rewards, such as a Skype chat with the author or a special meet and greet, that provide extra value to the reader.
What are the next steps for Pubslush and what’s your plan for the future?
Because we are a niche platform, Pubslush is able to really concentrate on bringing together all the players in the publishing industry and we will continue to find new ways to connect writers, readers, publishers and industry professionals.
Early 2014 we will be coming out with some great new features that will help to bridge some of the inherent gaps in the publishing industry and we will continue to build our platform and business model to create a vibrant literary and publishing community.
Justine, thank you very much for your time!
For further information on Pubslush visit pubslush.com
