I’ve been backing projects on Kickstarter for years. Many board game role-playing game publishers use it as their primary platform raising funds for new projects.
When you back a project on Kickstarter, you are making a commitment to the project. You’re saying, essentially, “I want to be part of this. I want to see this project happen!”
Some people back projects at a donor level purely because they believe in the project.
Most people back projects because they want to get one (or more) of the rewards. In most instances, this is a book, or a board game, or some other thing the Kickstarter promises as fulfillment.
So here’s how I ended up launching a Kickstarter. This past year I realized I had completed all the contents for a book I’m calling A Guidebook To Progressive Church. At first, I thought I’d just self-publish the book directly. It’s become increasingly manageable to do this. You simply use software like Scrivener or Vellum to convert your manuscript to the required format, upload it to the platforms like Amazon and IngramSpark, and then voila! readers can download it as a Kindle or e-book or order a print-on-demand copy of your book.
However, I realized there were some team aspects of bringing the book from it’s manuscript stage to the published stage for which I’d need help. One of those was the cover design. I asked Alyssa May, a member at our church, to design the cover. Then, I have a friend helping me with the copy editing and final formatting in Vellum. And I have multiple friends and colleagues who have graciously agreed to help produce things like an index, be additional copy editing eyes, etc.
For this stage, I’d like to pay some of the people who are doing this work.
This is the stage the book is currently in. It’s just completed one round of copy editing, the book jacket has been designed, and it will be ready in the next month once we add the foreword, the index, and the acknowledgments, to go to press!
This is where Kickstarter comes in. I thought it would be fun (not to mention a wonderful learning process) to fund-raise these nominal costs of the project via backers. This way, those of you who want to read the book can order early copies of the book (it will eventually also be published on the print on demand and e-pub platforms), and can also participate in the story of its development.
If you back the book, you’ll receive periodic (no more than weekly) updates about the progress of the book. That’s another part of the Kickstarter I love, you get to be a part of the production.
There are also some rewards that only backers receive, like a sticker and a free digital copy of a shorter book (more like a long essay or novella) I’m currently finishing up on “public church.”
Once we have the copy-edited manuscript complete, it will run through final formatting software, get an ISBN, and get sent to fulfillment centers to send copies (either digital or print) to all backers. Later that month, after all Kickstarter orders have been fulfilled, we’ll also upload it to the main print on demand publishing platforms, where anyone can read the book. You get to be an early reader if you back the project, and then can recomment it to your friends.
Thanks to all those who have already backed the book. I’m excited to see it in print, and even more excited to see what kind of impact it can have strengthening the progressive church movement.
Back A Guidebook To Progressive Church here!