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?
This article was republished by SocialMediaToday!
Even though Seth Godin has a clear advantage over most authors in that he already has an insanely dedicated cult-like, or rather tribe-like following, the theory behind this idea is a great one!
You don’t even have to do this on kick-starter if you’re afraid your project will get drowned out by other projects, you can run it on your own site if you want. The key is to already have enough killer content that people will be willing to support something before they’ve even seen it. So, it’s a long-term investment to be sure, but once you develop that relationship and reputation by all means capitalize on it!
Hi Alana, thanks for your comment. Seth Godin is the first to point out that you have to have a tribe BEFORE you can achieve success with a site on Kickstarter. Build your platform first, then offer your fans the opportunity to be part of your project. Seth wrote about this on The Domino Project: http://www.thedominoproject.com/2012/06/why-kickstarter-campaigns-fail.html
Hi Denise.
As you can well notice from the name of my blog and other social platforms it is donnamerrilltribe. That reflects how much I just love Seth Godin!
There is a power in a tribe and that’s why I branded myself this way. It goes beyond syndication. It leads to joint ventures, friends, helping one another and of course business opportunities.
Many thanks Denise for introducing me to the latest and greatest of Seth today. The kick starter is a great idea and social proof that we can all work together with the same belief system of a go giver and a true Triber.
Donna
Donna, thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for Seth Godin and the tribe concept. I believe we can achieve so much more with partnerships than we ever can alone. Not to say there’s not a place for doing our own thing, I do that all the time. But combining that with collaboration can be powerful for many businesses. Blog on!
I saw your tweet about this yesterday and signed up to support the project. I think this is healthy on so many fronts, not the least of which is simply expanding options for writers/authors and diluting the control traditional publishers have over what is published.
This is yet another example of what you have been teaching for years, Denise…that building your visibility and platform can pay rich dividends in the future in the form of support for something like this.
Thanks for your comment, Elizabeth. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. As of the time I’m posting this comment, about 24 hours after Seth Godin launched his Kickstarter project, he has raised $196,183…well over his $40,000 goal!
I think it’s a good thing for many reasons. There is no longer just one way to publish a book and Seth going this route, will hopefully lend this method some more legitimacy. Next, there are still so many people who think that the answer to all their book selling problems is to have a publisher who will do everything for them and will do it as they want it done. The fact that Seth Godin’s publisher, even with the immense following he has, still laid down rules of what had to happen, shows just how crazy the world of publishing can be. For most, sidestepping the get a publisher part, will actually be a logical step.
It also shows that numbers of followers don’t mean anything if you can’t get their support. He got the support he asked for. If he wasn’t focused on building his following the right way, that wouldn’t have happened. Do you have to have zillions of followers to get support? No, but you do have to have followers/fans that are truly happy to be a part of your community. Rabid fans would be nice certainly, but happy and supportive are a great place to start.
I agree, Cheryl. Because Seth Godin is so influential, he can help set the stage for new methods for getting a book published. By watching, studying and modeling his project, any author can do this. They may not be able to triple their funding goal in less than a day, but focusing on building “happy and supportive” fans over the long term will help overall.