Today I launched a campaign with the team at ByLine.com to do a crowdfunder for Sexy Capitalism. I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about why I decided to do this campaign.
First, before we get started, you can support my campaign here.
Let’s skip quickly through the obvious financial reasons for crowdfunding a book. I’ve been working as a freelance writer full time for just under a year now and, while I am doing pretty well, writing doesn’t pay very well. I spend a lot of my time pitching to get work, or writing about stuff that doesn’t particularly inspire me in order to get paid. The stuff I want to do — write Sexy Capitalism or work on my novel — is often the stuff that doesn’t pay. This is all particularly true given the troubles we’ve seen both in journalism and the publishing industry — getting paid to writer is harder than every before.
Crowdfunding, for me, was therefore a good alternative. It provides a great way to get the funds I need to work on my book. But, while really important, in some ways the funds are secondary. My primary reason for launching a fundraiser is more about engaging you with my work.
One of the things about writing is that it is very solitary. I spend most of my days sitting at home in front of a computer, with most of my social interaction coming from social media or the brief chats I have with the people who serve me coffee.
Often this makes me feel quite isolated, and I end up striving for social contact. I actually, at times, miss working in an office and having people right next to me who I can talk to.
More than that though I’ve realised it is a little intellectually draining. My work benefits most when I am getting feedback on my ideas and even more importantly when people challenging me on my ideas and assumptions. Yet, freelance writing is not designed to do that — particularly in the world where editors and publishers are skint for time and therefore struggle to provide in-depth feedback.
What I am hoping is that this campaign will provide some of that space. I want this to be an opportunity for you to join me as I write this book, so that instead of me being chained to my desk and never talking to anyone, the writing becomes a collective process. I am not the only one out there with these ideas, and so why not open up the doors and let everyone be part of the process?
This is where ByLine is great. The ByLine platform has a Supporters Cafe where anyone who makes a donation is able to log in and we can chat as much as you want. I am also intending to write a serious of columns linked with the campaign (first to go up soon!) to give you all a sense of where my thoughts are going with the book. I hope this provides a chance for people to tell me where they think I’m going right, and where I’m going wrong.
I want, in a way, not just to crowd source my funds for the book, but to crowd source the ideas as well. I think that will make for a better book in the long run.
So that’s why I’ve teamed up with ByLine.
I hope you can all support it and help me make this book a reality!
You can support the campaign here: https://www.byline.com/project/17