I'm Launching a Book Via Kickstarter and I Need Your Help

Photo by Shannon Hartford, Quantum Flow Photos, used by arrangement.

I have made a decision that will surprise you. My friends on Substack are the first to know.

I’ve decided to launch my new book using Kickstarter.

This is a nonfiction book about two things necessary for great writing—the craft and the magic of it. It’s called Craft & Current: A Manual for Magical Writing.

If It Sounds Interesting

Gathering

Only a small sliver of rare folks are going to want a book about someone

raised like I was raised, in a junkyard
being on fire for writing
wanting to talk writing day and night
wanting to know everything they can about writing
wanting to share everything they know
and believing that magic is an essential part of it.

I’d like to help the book find its people.

❤️

This book is close to my soul. I loved writing it. The writing took years, yes, but I stretched it out on purpose. I kept learning new things about craft, and I kept putting them in the draft.

Then I had an epiphany about magic, how necessary it is for great writing, and I revised the entire book to add thoughts and suggestions on accessing the mysterium. That part of the book is more meager than the craft part, but it’s a start. I plan to keep exploring and writing about spirit-lines in writing.

Sometimes after you work hard on a project it will lose its gloss, but this book has never lost its shine for me. I don’t think it will for others either.

I believe in the book, and I’m happy and eager to share it.

Indie

I am independently publishing it.

To get a book into the world requires a bit of cash. I’ve hired a book designer, designed a postcard mailer, and need to purchase apps and audio equipment. Marketing is going to require some funds. A modicum, but some.

Having a little influx right here at the start of the book will cover some of these expenses.

But Why This?

Why not find a publisher? Why not offer the manuscript to one of the fine presses I’ve worked with in the past? Or seek a new one?

Why do crowd-funding?

I realize that I haven’t written about this. I approached the subject two years ago in a Trackless Wild post called “The Question I Wrestle With” and also over at The Rhizosphere with a post called “What Can We Do About the Decline of Books?”

I promise to write more about it, if you’re interested, but in a nutshell I’ll say this. Writers experience a lot of gatekeeping—they wait to be picked. They wait to get picked for representation, for publication, for awards, for prizes, for speaking engagements. I have been picked a lot in my life. I still get picked and I’m so grateful for that. You picked me or you wouldn’t be here, reading this. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Also I’ve not been picked a lot. Including for some things I really wanted.

Waiting to be picked was really terrible for my sense of self-worth, and that’s true for all of us. I know the quality of my writing. I know what I bring to the table. I know how much love and kindness I have in my heart. I know how high I set my bar.

So I picked myself.

You should too. However that looks for you.

Yes

Crowd-funding feels weird.

In fact, I thought that Kickstarter was a crowd-funder for private medical bills and new school playgrounds, stuff like that. Similar to Indiegogo. That’s the way we put a new roof on Cedar Grove Church, the historic building being restored in my community.

But no.

Not for Charity

Turns out, Kickstarter is a product launcher, a crowd-funding app for introducing new products to folks.

Six months ago I needed to purchase a scanner for our Archives. I found a new version with gadgets and upgrades, and when I clicked to buy it, the button sent me to Kickstarter. The company was using Kickstarter to launch this new digital scanner.

Kickstarter is exactly for this, for gathering like-minded people to be part of the launch of something they feel good to be part of. Something they believe will help them and help others.

I hope that fits for you. If it does, I thank you.

If it doesn’t, I thank you too.

What Next?

The Kickstarter will launch in early June and run for 11 days.

On Kickstarter, if a person doesn’t reach their goal, they get nothing. So I’ve set my target money goal at $1962, which is an amount that

will cover expenses
is low enough to attain
also happens to be my birth year.

How It Works

The Kickstarter offers premiums for donations, and those premiums are copies of the book. So a donation of $22 gets you a signed paperback copy of Craft and Current.

First

The book will not be available anywhere else right away. People who back the Kickstarter campaign will be the first folks to get a copy of the book. The first and the fastest way will be through Kickstarter. It will be months before I upload it to Amazon, if I ever do.

Basically, then, Kickstarter is a pop-up store that allows folks to be first to get a book.

And the price will be the same on Kickstarter as anywhere else.

You just get it first and fast.

Along with the books themselves are a few other premiums, such as special events. You won’t be able to see any of that until Launch Day.

Pre-Launch

Kickstarter now has a wonderful feature. It’s a pre-launch page.

You can go to this page and click that you’re interested in the project, then Kickstarter will notify you the moment the project goes live.

Here’s the button in case the book or my story appeals to you.

Get Notified Upon Launch

Unheard Of

I also decided to do a Kickstarter because of a fantasy writer named Brandon Sanderson who broke all records with a campaign in March of 2022. He promised to deliver 4 novels to his readers within a year, and he set a goal of $1M. His Kickstarter raised $41M.

I have no secret fantasies of 41M for a little book on writing magic. Not even 41K.

But there’s a system of backers on Kickstarter and I’d like to try it. Some of us may be over there looking for interesting projects to support.

Get on the List

Advise Me

Have you done a Kickstarter? Did you meet your goal? Any to-dos or not-to-dos? Have you ever backed a Kickstarter campaign?

Craft & Current Cover

Book designer Erin Kirk designed the cover using art by Raven Waters. Here it is. What do you think?

I Need Your Help Again

Because I’m my own marketer for this book, I bring myself to you again on bended knee. I need a Street Team. Any help I can get with spreading the word about the book will be deeply appreciated. If you’re able to post a graphic on social media, I can get one to you on Launch Day. I made a Google Doc (button below) where you can leave your email address. Or you can send me a direct message.

Count Me In

If you run a magazine, newspaper, blog, column, Substack, newsletter, television show, podcast, radio show, billboard company, You Tube channel, or media outlet I haven’t even thought about, I’d love to talk about being on the show or doing a post-swap or getting draft copy to you. I’m eager to hear all possibilities.

Thank you very much.

Other News

A lot is going on at the farm and in the wild, all good, but I’ve kept you far too long, so I’ll be brief.

Visitors from Dogwood Alliance came by yesterday for a story-gathering project on place.
Some young filmmakers from Regent University in Virginia Beach shot a short here over the weekend. At one point we had 8 actresses in the guest cottage trying to put on makeup at the same time.
I finally got unpacked and caught up from my big research & work trip out to Tulsa.
Wild garlic is blooming. Garlic scapes are ready. Amaryllis is in bloom. The trees are loaded with mulberries, which is making red-headed woodpeckers very happy. This year we have our first crop of loquats—maybe 50 of them.
It’s salad season in the garden»lettuce, carrots, raw beets, arugula flowers, sugar snaps. I’m supposed to be starting cukes, running beans, and squash. Soon.
We still haven’t mowed the yard, so No-Mow-April continues, hopefully into No-Mow-May. The yard is absolutely swamped and tangled with flowering weeds, including lyre-leaved sage and spiderwort and crimson clover. We’ve mowed paths to the clothesline and the barn in order to better see snakes.
Speaking of the clothesline, the pup loves to pull clothes off the line. I’ve been having to hang clothes high off the ground, folded up, nothing dangling. High is high, since he’s now 7 months old and 107 pounds. Because I despise shopping, the clothes I own are important to me, and I don’t want them ripped off the line. Yesterday the dern pup pulled down the entire clothesline—apparently one of the posts was rotting. One homemade flannel pillowcase was lost. Raven put up a new post on one end, and now the line is even higher off the ground.