Seth Godin Used Kickstarter to Fund His Next Book Raising Over $130,000
Dan Schawbel Under 30
Seth Godin has written more than a dozen bestselling books that have been translated into more than 30 languages. His latest company, Squidoo.com, is ranked among the top 90 sites in the U.S. by Quantcast. He has created his own publishing imprint called "The Domino Project" and I've interviewed him previously on his book Poke the Box and We Are All Weird. His next book is called "The Icarus Deception" and just like his other books, he performed a marketing experiment. He used Kickstarter to fund the book, which will be published by a traditional publisher. He was looking to raise $40,000 and has raised over $130,000 so far today. After reading this interview, please go support Seth by going to his Kickstarter page.
Why do you think Kickstarter is valuable in the book launch process?
Kickstarter eliminates the risk that publishers and booksellers face. They have limited resources and limited shelf space and Kickstarter is proof to them that something is going to work.
For authors, the risk is different. They should write and write and write and write before they hope to get a match, because writing is relatively cheap.
If you can't get it funded, should you still write the book? How much do you need to raise and what do you do with the money?
For me? Or for any author?
In my case, I established a baseline that was very do-able and that my publisher felt would send a powerful signal. If I hadn't made it, I would have kept my word and not made the book. As for what do I do with the money, I'm not planning on making much money at all from the Kickstarter--the books cost a bunch to print and mail etc. Kickstarter isn't a profit center, it's an organizer and an instigator.
How did you go about already raising enough money on kickstarter? What type of promotion does someone need to do to raise enough money?
It's the LAST step, not the first one. I started working on this Kickstarter 9 or 10 years ago. That's the way you maximize your results. Dig your well before you're thirsty.
What do you think will eventually happen to the traditional publishing model?
Oh boy, it's in big trouble. Shelf space plus ebooks plus returns plus reading decreasing plus alternatives plus backlist fading...
Books are going to be a whole different business in five years. Not gone, but different. Vinyl records are still here too.
Can you give us a preview of The Icarus Deception? How'd you think of the name?
Shhh. Can't say.
Dan Schawbel is the managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and management consulting firm. He is also the #1 international bestselling author of Me 2.0 and was named to the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 list in 2010. Subscribe to his updates at Facebook.com/DanSchawbel.
I'm a partner and research director at Future Workplace, an executive development firm dedicated to rethinking and reimagining the workplace. I also wrote the New York T...