All About Crowdfunding Your Book With Charmaine Hammond
What every author should know about crowdfunding!
Recently, we had the chance to talk to Charmaine Hammond, co-founder of Raise a Dream, an 11x best-selling author, professional speaker, and the creator of the Your Book as a Business Program. She has helped authors launch their books, learn how to engage sponsors, and, build communities of readers and clients. Her writing journey began with a short story in Chicken Soup for the Soul, What I Learned From The Dog in 2009, leading to five traditionally published books and being featured in 11 others. She teaches authors how to bring their books to life through collaboration and sponsorship.
Victoria Bennett is the force behind The Crowdfunding Hub, an online community supporting anyone interested in running a crowdfunding campaign. She is a seasoned crowdfunding and marketing strategist. She boasts a stellar track record, having been involved in campaigns that raised a collective $20 million.
Together, Charmaine and Victoria developed and lead the Crowdfunding for Authors program.
Here’s what Charmaine shared with us!
1) For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, could you explain what crowdfunding is and how it works?
Crowdfunding for Authors is more than just a revenue generation or financial tool—it’s about community building. At its core, crowdfunding allows authors to gather small amounts of money from their audience, tapping into the power of collective funding. It’s not just about the money to develop, publish, and launch your book but also about rallying a dedicated community of readers.
Many authors are looking to crowdfunding to help fund the writing, publishing, launch, presales, and marketing of their book, and Crowdfunding can work for:
- Authors who are expanding and diversifying: Authors with a published book might want to diversify. This includes translating the text into other languages, launching a new edition, or producing accompanying materials like journals or coaching programs.
- Launching a book: Authors gearing up to release their book can use crowdfunding to support their launch process.
- Aspiring authors: New authors looking to venture into the world of writing can give their dreams a jumpstart.
- Content creators: This also extends to content creators and entrepreneurs looking to monetize their content in various formats.
Whether you’re a fiction, non-fiction, or children’s book author, crowdfunding offers potential across genres.
2) Are there certain platforms that you would recommend authors use (or avoid) if they’re interested in crowdfunding their books?
With so many crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, Fundrazr, and Crowdfundr and new ones coming out monthly, making a choice can be overwhelming.
GoFundMe is a great platform for the personal raising of funds, but there are better platforms for a book. The others above are ones we see authors choosing more often.
Authors need to research crowdfunding platforms thoroughly, as some platforms allow authors to keep partial funds raised, while others operate on an all-or-nothing model.
The key is to align the platform’s features with your goals. Most authors lean towards Reward Campaigns, where backers receive rewards like books or other perks.
Managing a campaign requires commitment, so be prepared to dedicate time to ensure its success.
Here’s a great way to learn about crowdfunding and the different platforms available. Visit other author campaign pages on the various crowdfunding platforms. This will help you understand the different approaches that authors take, how they build community through their campaign, how they stay connected with those who supported the campaign, and the types of updates they share on the campaign page. This type of research is also helpful in sparking ideas about perks (for reward campaigns).
3) How long does (or should) crowdfunding for a book take (i.e., should you give yourself a deadline)?
We suggest and teach authors a 90-day plan. This includes all the preparation steps: building your crowd, warming your crowd, developing a stellar video, creating the social media posts, writing email copy, creating your marketing plan, building your campaign page on whichever crowdfunding platform you are using, launching the campaign, doing updates, and moving the campaign to optimal success.
Authors who don’t allow the time for these essential steps show in their fund-generation campaign results.
4) What inspired you to crowdfund your book Crowdfunding for Authors with Victoria Bennett? Did anything surprise you about the process?
We are in the writing journey right now! Victoria and I have known each other for about six years now, and we discovered that together (my author, marketing, sponsorship, and publishing experience and Victoria’s crowdfunding and marketing experience), we have a sweet spot that can help many authors, aspiring authors, and publishers.
The questions that authors ask us in our webinars and programs are helping us create great content for the book and build our self-study programs for authors.
5) If someone is interested in crowdfunding their book, what information should they have ready before they start, and are there any “perks” that you recommend authors give to those who donate?
The opportunities and the possibilities with crowdfunding can seem endless, but authors often ask the magic question: how much can one raise? The figures vary, but authors typically target between $7,500 and $12,000. These funds generally cover editing, publishing, marketing, launches, book tours, translations, and other associated costs.
Remember, the key is to combine creativity with a well-planned strategy. Many authors use rewards-based crowdfunding platforms and approaches, meaning that your backers (people who contribute to/support your campaign) receive perks for supporting your campaign. For example, we often see authors with a $5-$10 perk simply to support the campaign. Maybe at a $35 perk, the backer receives one of your book’s first copies and the Kindle version. At a $75 perk, the backer may receive three books (1 to keep and two to gift to others), along with a personalized thank-you video and a shout-out on social media. We recommend authors should have at most seven perks. Confused minds never buy. Some authors might look at experiences such as $250 for a virtual coffee and chat with the author, three copies of the book, a bookmark sent in the mail, and a $10 coffee card to join you virtually for coffee. Visiting other author campaigns on different platforms is a great way to learn about perks.
6) What happens if someone doesn’t meet their crowdfunding goal, and what should someone’s next steps be if this is the case?
Depending on which platform the author chose, this question has different answers. For example, if the author chose the “all-or-nothing” style campaign platform, the money is returned to the campaign’s backers. Sometimes, authors will contribute themselves to the outstanding amount to avoid this outcome. Meanwhile, authors who choose the “keep-it-all” platforms receive the money as the campaign progresses. This is why choosing the right platform, having the 90-day plan, and following the steps is key.
7) Is there any other advice you’d give to authors who want to run a successful crowdfunding campaign?
The most important advice to provide authors to ensure their crowdfunding campaign is a HUGE success:
- Ensure you do a 90-day plan (like the one we teach authors). This will ensure the right steps happen at the right times and that all the ingredients to successful and profitable campaigns are addressed.
- Choose the right crowdfunding campaign platform.
- Remember, it is not an “if-you-build-it-they-will-come” solution. Crowdfunding campaigns take some work for it to work for you and your book.
8) Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Throughout the year, we offer free webinars to authors to answer their questions and help them with their crowdfunding campaigns. We suggest authors follow Raise a Dream and The Crowdfunding Hub social media platforms as we give tons of information away on our social media platforms, and also subscribe to the resource link below.
9) Where can our readers keep up with you online?
Readers can follow us, our writing and crowdfunding journey, and download several FREE crowdfunding resources (tip sheets, guides, checklists, etc.) from: https://swiy.co/TCH_CFA.
Thank you, Charmaine, for your willingness to share your expertise with us! We encourage our readers to follow Charmaine and Victoria here!
If you are writing a book and want a hand, let us know! Our team—Kim, Taylor, Emily, Maria, and Jean—would love to help you with creating your book. If you'd like to talk about your idea or want advice, we are here for you. Even if we don't work together, I'm happy to share what I know. Book a 30-minute complimentary consultation by clicking here:
https://www.kwepub.com/consultation
We look forward to hearing about your incredible book project.
Write on!
Kim Eley
KWE Publishing
“Failure isn’t in not reaching your goal but in having no goal to reach.”
–Benjamin E. Mays
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Come join me on April 6 and 7, 2024, live from Phoenix Arizona. Hosted by Janine Hernandez, founder of the Book Publishing Academy who has invited me to be a part of this movement, where you are going to get the tips, tricks, and secrets to writing your book. Seats are limited.”
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You can enter the giveaway by clicking here or by pressing the button below! Best of luck to those who enter!
Resources:
Here at KWE Publishing, we want to share a few of our favorite resources with our newsletter readers. Check back weekly to see what resources we recommend!
Since we learned so much getting to talk with Charmaine and learn about her and Victoria’s experiences in crowdfunding, we wanted to share The Crowdfunding Hub’s YouTube channel as well!
There are a variety of elements that go into crowdfunding for your book, and Charmaine and Victoria do a wonderful job sharing important information that authors should know about. On their channel, you’ll find a variety of webinars that go in-depth about the various crowdfunding platforms that can be used to raise funds (for books and other projects), how long a crowdfunding campaign should last, and how to determine whether crowdfunding is the right decision for you. If you or someone you know wants to learn more about crowdfunding, we highly recommend you check out The Crowdfunding Hub’s channel!
