Kickstarter
In days past, it was not uncommon for artists, sometimes even writers, to have a benefactor, someone who paid the bills while allowing the artist to create. That's pretty rare today, however. Or is it?
The website Kickstarter allows artists and writers to do just that. Well, sort of. Instead of seeking out a solitary benefactor, what the writer can do is put up a page about a current or future project while asking for financial aid. Those who want to help can then drop a few dollars (or a whole bunch of dollars, if they want) onto the writer's project. But this is not a handout. No, the artist or writer has to provide something in return, so any financing is more like an investment.
What kind of things can an author offer to investors? Well, a free book or e-book, for one. An author might also offer to include his or her investors by name as characters in the book. Other ideas can come to mind.
Kickstarter is not a fund raising site, however, nor is it meant to be a site to directly pay for an artist's bills, etc. Also, authors are not allowed to make promises of future financial gains to the investors. So, there are some limits, but a lot of those limits make sense so the site cannot be abused.
To learn more about Kickstarter, check out its Guidelines page, or its Blog.
2 comments:
hum, definitely an interesting idea. I may have to check this out.
I don't think it's for me, but one never knows. I've been tempted to try just to see how much I could raise.
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