On Crowdfunding and Publishing

[This post is an elaboration of my tweets from Dec 10, 2013.]

Another Kickstarter for a diverse anthology flit across my Twitter timeline yesterday. I used to support these automatically, either with money or by sharing them with my social networks. Now, I hesitate.

I opened this project and skimmed the description until I got to the details about how they would use the funds. The largest portion of the money would go to paying artists and the writers. That’s great. A huge problem in publishing is that marginalized people have less opportunity to be compensated for their work, so it encourages me that almost all these Kickstarters highlight “pay the writers” as one of their main objectives.

I was more disappointed by what was absent. There were no line items in the budget related to marketing the anthology or distributing it. I closed the project window without backing it.

Of course, I was then curious about the other projects I had backed in the past. One in particular had been on my mind for a while. The organizers were trustworthy so I knew it would be produced. But would it sell? Would it be the big break some of these writers had been waiting for? Would it get any buzz? Or would it just get swept under the rug like all the others?

My heart sank when I re-read the project details. The project was funded beyond expectations. It even surpassed its stretch goals! But the extra money was set to be channeled into more production, not marketing or distribution.

I am not at all knocking the crowd-funding model (though there are plenty that do). I am simply concerned about the allocation of resources. Why is marketing and distribution not a key part of these Kickstarter budgets? I think part of it is a misunderstanding of what it means to “publish.”

To publish

Publishing a book is not the same as printing a book. I can write a manuscript, draw a cover, go to the copy shop and get a copy printed and perfect bound and hold my book in my hands. That does not mean I’m published. If I have more money, I can write a story, draw a picture, and then go to the copy shop and have 5000 copies printed and perfect bound and hand a copy to everyone in my family. That still doesn’t mean I’m published. (This, by the way, is the basic idea of vanity publishing.)

When a publisher buys the “rights” to a book, they are buying (among other things) the permission to distribute the book. The publisher buys this permission in hopes of making money. They maximize their chances of making money by giving the book the best package they can (production) and by making as many people as possible want to buy it (marketing and publicity).

A book birthday/publication date is not the day the book is printed because, once again, printing =/= publication. The publication date is the day the book is available for distribution.

Back to my point

As the cost and difficulty of producing a book decreases, one of the biggest advantages a traditional publisher has is their ability to market and distribute a book. Many of the creators who turn to crowd-funding in my network are people who feel that traditional publishing has not made space for their marginalized voices. To put it simply, when we say “there aren’t enough diverse books published” we mean “traditional publishing has not used its resources to market and distribute diverse books.”

So why then, when a Kickstarter project (or Indiegogo project etc) asks for money to counteract the lack of diverse books, are all the funds used for production, and little to none for marketing and distribution?

I am a huge supporter of literature that moves away from the mainstream. I want to back your book/anthology/magazine.  How about I give you money to buy ads? Or to pay a sales representative to meet with book buyers and get your books into bookstores? Or run a marketing campaign? Why are those never the stretch goals? It’s great to produce a super gorgeous book but I don’t want the stock to sit in a warehouse.

If a diverse book never reaches the readers’ hands, does it make a sound?

Almost every book put out by a traditional publisher has a marketing plan at the proposal stage. It’s part of the P&L. Look at the back of any ARC. Flip through a sales or rights catalog. The marketing plans are listed. People who are investing in the book, whether by carrying it in their store, buying the translations right, or reviewing it for their publication, need to know what the publisher plans to do to make the book successful. Everyone in publishing knows it’s not science and best-sellers are unpredictable. However a marketing plan is a clear way to communicate commitment to the book. It’s the publishers way of saying “I believe in this book and here are all the ways I’m going to support it.” So what does it mean when a Kickstarter project has no funds allocated to marketing and distribution? Is simply creating the work enough?

Even if we put money aside, ignoring marketing and distribution does a disservice both to the readers and the writers.  The writers who submit their work to be published in the book/anthology/magazine hope to reach an audience. Have you really created more opportunities for marginalized writers if the work isn’t well promoted? More importantly, what about all the readers who “do not see themselves represented in traditional publishing”? Have you really given them more diverse choices if they don’t know your book exists?

All my questions are genuine and I don’t pretend I have all the answers. I want to hear your responses and thoughts. I really do wish everyone the best in their ventures. I just want to reiterate that even in our eagerness to gather support and funds for our Great Idea, we need think practically. I know we are artists and creatives but publishing is a business and it is our livelihood. Time to start treating it as such.