Okay, so you’ve heard that I’m running a Kickstarter campaign for Tales Of Dominions. But what does that mean? Maybe you’ve heard of Kickstarter, but aren’t sure what it is. Maybe you’re totally unfamiliar with Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general.

Hopefully the following will help explain things.

Let’s start at the beginning‌—‌what is Kickstarter?

Put simply, Kickstarter is a crowd-funding platform for creative projects.

Let’s break that down.

Crowd-funding. You might’ve heard the phrase. It might bring up images of desperate people pleading for others to help, maybe to cover extortionate medical bills after an accident. Or it might seem like some kind of scam. And while crowd-funding, in its widest meaning, could encompass both those things (yes, there are scammers using crowd-funding, because scammers will use anything they can), Kickstarter focuses on creative projects.

This means all the campaigns on Kickstarter are there to offer some kind of creative output. Some offer music (downloads or physical copies), some offer graphic novels, others are set up to fund boardgames or special packs of cards. And, of course, there are books.

Each campaign aims to attract backers, who will pledge towards a funding goal. If enough backers pledge sufficiently to reach this goal, the campaign is a success, the project is funded, and each backer receives their reward.

What kind of rewards are we talking about?

Every Kickstarter campaign is different, so I’ll focus on my Tales of Dominions project here. I’m offering three basic rewards, at different tiers.

The lowest reward tier is reached with a pledge of £5. This gets you the ebook version of Tales of Dominions. The next tier (requiring a higher pledge) gets you both the special edition paperback and the ebook. The highest tier I’m offering brings the reward of the special edition hard-cover (along with the ebook).

There is another tier I should mention‌—‌a ‘this looks interesting, and even though I’m not interested in getting a copy of this book I’d still like to support it with a £1 pledge’ tier.

Oh, these are minimum pledges for each tier, too. You can always increase your pledge while remaining at the same tier.

You mentioned a funding goal. What’s that about?

The funding goal is the target amount the creator hopes to bring in through pledges. Each campaign runs for a limited time (my campaign runs from 9th to 30th June). If the pledges meet or exceed this funding goal by the end of the run time, the campaign is a success. Kickstarter collects pledges, and the creator gets on with fulfilling those rewards (in my case, that means ordering and shipping out physical copies of the book, as well as sending out download links for the ebook). There’s usually a ‘questionnaire’, too‌—‌a way for the creator (in this case, me) to check details (like postal address).

And if the project doesn’t fund? Then it’s failed (and I turn to chocolate to make myself feel better). If this happens, Kickstarter doesn’t collect pledges, so it doesn’t cost you anything. But you don’t get those rewards either.

Obviously, I don’t want this to happen. I want this to be a success. I’ve set a fairly low funding goal. And if it fails, I’ll still release Tales of Dominions to all the usual stores later in the year.

So if you’re going to publish Tales of Dominions to Amazon and Kobo and all those places, why use Kickstarter?

Good question. In part this is an experiment. I’d like to use Kickstarter more often, so I need to learn as much as I can about the platform‌—‌and the best way to learn is to get stuck in. But it’s also a way of offering those special editions. Yes, Tales of Dominions will be available in paperback through Amazon (and possibly through other places), but this won’t be the Kickstarter version. And the hard-cover version will be exclusive to Kickstarter.

Anything else I need to know about?

I should mention add-ons. Along with the reward tiers, there are also ‘add-ons’. You can think of them as those things on sale at the tills in shops, those little extras you might like to get. For my campaign, these add-ons will include copies of my previous Kickstarter book, Nexus‌—‌a collection of short stories and a novella that have appeared in previous anthologies, brought together in a single volume with AI-generated artwork. Nexus has only ever been available through Kickstarter.

I’m also doing a stretch-goal. If the campaign funds at twice the original goal, I’ll give every backer a bonus ebook containing more short stories. Kickstarter projects are nothing without backers, so this is my way of saying thank-you.

Kickstarter isn’t a store. It’s a collaboration between creators and backers, between readers and writers. I’ve backed quite a few campaigns, and along with receiving exclusive books (or simply getting a copy of the book before it is ‘officially’ available), it’s also a way of showing my support for some fantastic writers.

If you have any questions I haven’t answered here, feel free to get in contact (twiain@yahoo.com). And if this all sounds interesting, please visit the Kickstarter project page. If you visit before 9th June, you’ll be presented with the opportunity to be notified when the project begins. And if you visit after it’s started, you’ll be able to read more information and browse the various reward tiers and add-ons. Together, we can make this project a success.

Thank you.

TW