How I Am Crowdfunding The Kingdom of Heaven (Book)
On September 1, I will open pre-orders for The Kingdom of Heaven on Inkshares, a crowdfunding site for hybrid publishing.
Inkshares offers equal-opportunity publishing assistance, conditionally. Anyone who can generate enough interest for their book will have it published by Inkshares at no upfront cost.
The book would get a professional editor, a well-connected marketing team for marketing assistance, a cover, distribution, as well as the Inkshares imprint.
How does funding work on Inkshares?
Simply: I must set myself a funding deadline, and then reach a set number of pre-orders of the book before that deadline. Once the minimum number of pre-orders are reached, the book will be taken to press as quickly as possible.
The pre-order goal (set by Inkshares, not me) is 750. Once Inkshares is absolutely sure the book will sell at least 750 copies, it can go to press.
In order to be absolutely sure this will happen, I need pre-orders. This necessitates making an account on Inkshares and pre-order a copy of the book. (Note: This means that 750 people have to order 1 copy. Multiples are considered cheating; one person cannot order 750 copies in order to get the book to press. If your friends or family want a copy, encourage them to order it themselves.)
What happens if the goal is not reached?
Inkshares will refund everyone and I will move toward self-publishing the book outright.
I think I can reach this goal in 8 months. However, that is ambitious, since it requires me to sell almost 90 pre-orders a month or 22 per week or 3 per day.
This will be much less daunting if I can start with a burst of energy! It lowers the amount of grinding I will have to do later on in the campaign. Especially since a strong start will help me get pre-orders from within the Inkshares community itself, taking off some of the pressure. That is why it's extremely important for you to put September 1 on your calendar as the date to pre-order The Kingdom of Heaven.
My understanding is that a pre-order for a paperback on Inkshares is $15.99 and an ebook pre-order is $10.00.