A lot of writers with brilliant ideas for children’s books are on a tight budget and, of course, there’s the rule that the better the book looks, the more attention it will draw. This is nothing new. These last two years the world was in turmoil economically and some shockwaves are yet to be felt. But that doesn’t mean that the creation of art should stop. So, don’t worry. There are some methods to get your funds and realize your dream!
The basics
Being low on funds doesn’t mean you have to abandon your book. In fact, there’s a way of collecting enough money to get your book in front of an audience and not lose a bit of the quality you envisioned it with crowdfunding. A lot of writers got their jumpstart by using this method and getting their goal with the help of others. We have a couple of pieces of advice to help you with reaching your goal as well. But first, let’s get to the platforms.
Crowdfunding! Where?!
There are many platforms that book authors use but only a few everyone prefers. And with good reasons. The process is more or less the same, so we’ll just mention them with short explanations to give you the basic idea.
One of the crowdfunding platforms with the most author success rate is Unbound. You should know that a lot of award-winning and shortlisted authors funded their books from this platform.
This is NOT an author crowdfunding platform but it has attracted a lot of author interest over the years. Why? Well, because there are a lot of people who are patrons of the arts, so to speak, and would help a person publish a children’s book.
This is another crowdfunding platform not specific for authors but many of them prefer it because you don’t need to pay a fee to get your campaign going! All you have to do is organize your campaign and get it going for a jumpstart of your career!
Maybe the most famous, this is a crowdfunding platform that focuses entirely on creativity. That gives the authors confidence when choosing this channel. You have a good chance of success if you organize your campaign. You even have the opportunity to be noticed by a traditional publisher who might take you under his wing. One thing you should keep an eye out for is scammers who pose as agents. That means - do thorough research before committing to anything.
Tips & Tricks
You should know that a good visual element is imperative for crowdfunding campaigns. So even if you can’t afford the illustration up front (don't be afraid to ask the illustrator/illustration studio for a test or a free illustration with the purpose of it being a part of a campaign), you at least need to obtain a sketch to explain your idea, the benefit that your book will offer the children, and that you’re serious about it.
The other important thing is the description. You have to be extremely concise and coherent about your goals. You know that explaining the goals is a must but the manner in which you do it is as important as the visual element.
So let’s begin with the most important tips. You’ll need a campaign video in which you’ll incorporate the creative. Our advice here is that you organize your campaign step by step. First, take into consideration that your crowdfunding effort is a campaign, not a one-day event. So don’t push everyone you know to trumpet your campaign on the same day because there are loads of people who got part of their funds in the first couple of days and then the campaign got bogged down.
Create your own “starting team”. These are family, close friends (if you have some influencers even better), and generally, people that you can count on. They’ll spread the word about your campaign on your starting day. Here’s the main tip to achieve this: be as helpful as possible and leave them with as little to do as possible. That means sending them links to the page, images for different social media platforms (you know, Instagram uses one format, Facebook another, Twitter third, etc.), videos, and whatever else you can think of to make their job easier.
The next step is adding other close friends and family who are not on the list for the starting day. Remember: don’t bunch them up all at once because crowdfunding is a marathon, not a sprint. Then, spread the list to people you think might do something to help, and at the end, to people, you know in general.
Don’t think that you can start the campaign, tell people, and then be passive and expect to be successful. You have to be omnipresent and continue sharing elements from your book, getting people engaged (mostly via social media), and simply showing everyone that you really care about this.
Conclusion
You should never give up, even more so if you have a brilliant idea for a book. Don’t be worried if you have a lack of funds. There are people out there who will help you if you present your idea in a good manner. The other upside is that the people who will back you will also be the greatest advocates for your children’s book and will help you announce it to the world more than you’d expect. So that’s it for this week. Meanwhile, if you want us to write a blog post on a specific subject, please feel free to contact us on Facebook or Instagram. Have a great weekend!
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