I've been a Seth Godin fan for many years and own all his books. I follow his blogs and buy just about anything he recommends. Why? Mostly because he is an innovator and a big thinker and I want to study and learn his strategy and tactics.
For 25 years Seth Godin has been exploring how to better make and promote books. Today, he moves his quest forward by a big leap as he introduces a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter to demonstrate a new way to publish and promote books. In less than three hours his "tribe" helped Godin more than double his goal to raise $40,000. That is the power of the tribe.
And yes, I am a backer of his project. The idea behind Kickstarter is that your fans support your project in exchange for early access to the product/service/art/book and for bonuses that may range from a digital download, a physical copy, a thank-you on a web page, a private meeting, etc., based on the amount of your pledge.
The buzz around this project on Twitter and Facebook continues to push the project forward. The bonuses are limited so if you want in, you have to act now.
What does this mean for authors who don't have a big fan base like Seth Godin?
Watch and study what Seth is doing. You can do it too. And, you need to be constantly building your online presence and visibility. As Seth says:
The best way for an author to use the internet is to slowly build a following. Difficult, time-consuming and effective.
If you have few followers, friends, fans and subscribers, it's going to be a tough road to publish and sell your book. It will be just as tough to fund a Kickstarter project. It's never too late to start though and now is better than later!
To learn more about Seth Godin's Kickstarter project, here are a couple of posts:
Kickstarter, Strangers and Friends
If you need help boosting your visibility on the web so you can build your fan base, let's talk.
What do you think of Seth Godin's Kickstarter project? Does this seem like a viable way for you to fund a project about which you're passionate?