Fundraising an Author: Self-Publishing and Funding Your Novel

I am sure most of you would have heard of Crowdfunding. It is when individuals ask for small donations to reach a larger financial goal that contributes towards the cost of a project or raises money for causes. Writers for the last few years have been using crowdfunding to fund the expenses involved in their manuscripts and to self publish.

Writers are taking control of their finances and crowdfunding their own projects. This is a fairly new development in the publishing sector, which has seen a rise in self-publishing since the 1980s. There was greater access to printers and new software which benefited writers. We see a lot of writers now publishing their own novels on Amazon and printing the books on demand, instead of in bulk which we’d have seen beforehand in these traditional publishing firms. 

Self-publishing hasn't always been so popular. Before the '80s, publishing firms would provide editors for a select few writers and (usually) only their novels were published. Britannica describes how this process dates back to publishing firms from the 1700s, which mass-produced novels. These press machines were unavailable to the general public, so professional authors would sell their works to them, and they would print and distribute for profit. Similar to crowdfunding today, authors had patrons who often made contributions to ensure the writer could continue to author works.  

 

Today, writers still have the option to publish traditionally but can have a lot more control over manuscripts when self-publishing. Having more control over a manuscript is any writer's dream, but alongside this control is a responsibility and expense. Not everyone can cover these costs, which is where crowd raising comes into play. 

 

Having more control over a manuscript is any writer's dream, but alongside this control is a responsibility and expense. Not everyone can cover these costs, which is where crowd raising comes into play. 

 

If we think about the services a writer has to pay when pursuing a project, these can include professionals such as illustrators (especially for children's books), digital artists, various editors, proofreaders, and beta readers. Potentially, there may be an expense when marketing the novel once it has been completed. 

 

Here are some average prices for each of these professionals:  

 

Editor -- $30 / an hour 

Digital artist -- $25 / an hour 

Illustrator -- $16.26 / an hour

Proofreader -- $20/ an hour 

 

It is important that the average cost has been calculated, using beginner prices. This could result in thousands of dollars in fees, assuming all professionals involved only charge the above prices and only work for an average number of hours per page. It all depends on how much work you have for the professionals to deal with and which ones you need to use. 

Professionals, such as freelance editors, can charge on average $30 an hour -- that's just beginners! According to Upwork, this figure only increases as the editor becomes more experienced and well known within their community. Digital artists have been estimated as charging between $50 to $70 as beginners, which would be necessary for a cover. These figures shed some light as to how much the overall cost of publishing a professional novel may come to. This isn't really pocket money for the average person.  

 

Not all writers can afford the costs associated with publishing. People who self-publish novels come from a range of backgrounds, for example, Stephen King worked as a janitor. Self-published author, E. L. James is the second most successful self-published author and has sold more than 100,000,000 copies, despite being a manager's assistant at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield.

 

Some authors insist on using programs, such as Canva, to design covers. This eliminates the need for a digital artist. They also rely on grammatical programs, e.g. Grammarly, to act as a mechanical editor for their manuscripts. This may be enough for certain writers. Others may only entrust their manuscript into human hands, but the latter will cost significantly more.  This can be for various reasons, e.g. some feel they lack the experience to do these tasks on their own, or some programs and apps only have so many features for free.

So how are these writers gaining the financial momentum to self-publish their novels? 

Crowdfunding!

 

 

 

Crowdfunding may conjure up images of fundraising for charities and the vulnerable, but platforms have also become a source for people advertising their dreams. Writers can post about their concepts and encourage people to donate to their cause. This way, they achieve the goal of funding to hire the professionals needed to publish their novels. Some have goals of thousands for various reasons (perhaps they need to travel to research) and others have much smaller targets. 

 

There are several platforms that are dedicated to raising money for the literary dreams of writers, such as Ko-Fi and Kickstarter. Here, writers can find a community to market their novel towards before it even exists -- something traditional publishers fail to do. They can pitch their ideas and connect to a new audience from their usual friends, family, and readers. This means they can also receive feedback (which is a type of market research) and alter their concepts depending on what their patrons think about their work. The result may be a degree of funds raised, a tried and tested the idea, and a writer able to bring their novel to life.  

Some writers do worry about sharing their ideas being stolen when they're shared online and suggest that others should never discuss their projects, even when fundraising.

 

 

Market research does play an important role in making a novel more sturdy. Self-publishing often has a weak point in which there's no true assessment of the writer's abilities before it's churned out as a book for people to buy. Conducting research within the public to find out what their book lacks and what improvements need to be made can greatly enhance the finished product. One could argue that an editor can only really assess their writing skills but if the book sells then their skills may not be as important as we usually expect. 

 

This also opens the market for niches in the literary community. Akashic is an independent publishing house that specialises in urban fiction and political non-fiction, which isn't always the top priority of bigger publishing firms. They pride themselves on working with "authors who are either ignored by the mainstream or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks of the major corporate publishers." 

 

It can be quite difficult as an urban fiction writer to find an agent or publishing house who are interested in your work, as it is for a very specific audience. Urban fiction often recounts the socioeconomic and cultural realities of characters living in a city setting. The same applies to political nonfiction, especially if your work is controversial to the status quo. With independent publishers, there is less pressure to create a cookie-cutter piece of fiction for a commissioning editor of some conventional publishing house. 

 

 

 

The real question in every writer's mind is whether it actually works. It sounds too good to be true. You can fit into a community, hype people up about your work, and even get others to pay for the production costs of your novel. It is too good to be true. This method will work for some self-published writers, just as finding an agent is an easier option for other writers. It depends on the writer and the project. Sometimes, the audience simply won't be interested in your work and unfortunately, this is an aspect of being a writer. People won't always like what you've written and it may not sell to the community you're writing for. This can happen both with conventional publishing, self-publishing, and when crowdfunding.

There are other major issues with crowdfunding for a novel. Depending on the platform used, the writer may not get any funds at all if they don't reach their goal. For example, on Kickstarter, if they set their goal at $100 and only reached $99, Kickstarter wouldn't release that money whatsoever. This can be extremely frustrating and disheartening for a writer, especially when they have raised some sort of funding. It would definitely be wiser to choose a platform that enables you to take funds without having to meet the goal, like Indiegogo for example. 

Unfortunately, The New York Editor reported that, on average, two out of three Kickstarter fundraisers fail, which doesn't give you, as a writer, a great chance when successfully raising funds for your work.

 

 

So why doesn't fundraising work for some writers? We're well aware of the success stories, such as Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo. The two authors pitched their idea on Kickstarter and it grew and grew into a New York Times bestseller. Surely, with enough determination and a good enough idea, other writers can too? 

 

Perhaps they can. The bottom line is, it doesn't look good to have a failed fundraiser under your belt. There are other options, such as Patreon, which charges readers per chapter of your novel online. This may be great for writers who have a blog or a group of readers already. Sadly, Patreon does take a cut of the earnings.

 

There are drawbacks to every method, which is why the circumstances surrounding crowdfunding can be so subjective depending on the author as to whether they'll succeed or not. The project might work and might not. The writer may be bad at pitching. They may not market the novel well enough. There is a multitude of reasons why you may fail, just as there is a multitude of reasons as to why the writer may succeed. Always go into a project with a plan -- know if you're going to self-publish, check the ins and outs of eBooks, know how to utilise social media so you can market your novel.  

 

There is more to the process than raising funds, although this can be a stressful aspect of producing a novel. It's important that as a writer, you do the research and know what is best for you in your circumstances.  

Related Articles: 

Digital Writers: The Ways in Which eBooks Helping Writers to Self-Publish  

The World's Largest Book Club - How Social Media Is Changing the Way We Read  

Secrets of a Self-Published Author: Opinions, Steps, Tools, Trolls and Online Retailers  

Best 6 crowdfunding sites for writers 

 

Becky Robinson

A Creative Writing graduate with a love of modern classical literature. Currently sharpening her editorial skills and working to help others improving their writing abilities.

 

LinkedIn: Rebecca Robinson 

Website: Rebecca's Fiction 

Email: rebeccarobinsonwriter@gmail.com