Now That My Book is Finished, How Do I Finance It?

We know that God helped you write your book and now He’ll help you finance it. Jeremiah 29:11 says that He knows the plans He has for you, plans of profit, for an expected end. That includes financing your first book! One of the hardest things to do is raise money. One possibility for financing publishing your book is to look for opportunities to use an established fund raising vehicle. Consider the benefits, then motivate yourself to go for it!

I was introduced to kickstarter.com while watching RockCenter on NBC. They ran a piece on this benevolent team of Internet fundraisers who help people fund their dream projects. You pitch your dream; you can even offer rewards for donations. Kickstarter broadcasts to an international audience. Did I mention that… it’s free?! The catch is you can only use 300 characters to pitch your idea. I said characters, not words. Characters include commas and spacing; that was the hard part for me!

If accepted, they ask you to submit a video showcasing your project and letting your audience meet you. I had never made a video—it ended up being a lot of fun! However, of all this, still the hardest thing for me was to ask for money! Kickstarter’s pitch is: We have the money, you have the dream. So how do you know what amount to ask for? Make your goal attainable, a reasonable amount. Consider what it will take to publish your book, then add 5%, since Kickstarter does charge a handling fee.

I followed the steps and launched my project. I had to be my own cheerleader: on Facebook, via email, word of mouth, you name it. I told everybody I knew and my friends joined in. Understand this before you start: your job is to talk it up! I set a 30-day goal for my project. You can go up to 60 days, but they advise against it. It’s either going to happen or it won’t and stretching it out to 60 days may be too long.

It’s an all or nothing kind of thing—you either make your goal and get all of the funds, or you don’t and all of the donations are returned. Twenty-three chatter-full days later our “Can-Do” campaign had raised $5,625 when my goal was $5,000! Within 24 hours that money, less Kickstarter’s 5% handling fee, was placed in my Amazon Payments account and my first novel, “One Unexpected Event” was funded!

Check out my Kickstarter project here (you’re going to love my video). As I always say, “Put feet to your faith and always work your dream.” It’s your job to plant; God will give the increase. Remember they don’t know you need the money if you don’t ask. As a member of the Xulon Press Blog Team I would be happy to answer any questions and help with any guidance.  Please comment below, I look forward to hearing from you!