I always listen to opportunity and (when applicable) say yes and figure out a way to make it happen. Attributable no doubt to growing up selling shmattes* retail and the rest of my life in the arts, medical or hospitality industries where making it happen is a way of life.
2 months working harder on publishing Home Cookin’- The Stories Behind The Food, a few things are changing for the better.
We’ve got the analytics but they mean little to me because I don’t understand the terminology. A meeting with the 2 Melissa’s this week will rectify that so they can inform me of the difference between users, event counts, conversations and so on and help plot a course.
Self Publishing Tips from Kickstarter
Melissa1 https://networlding.com/ had a call with Kickstarter meyvn* Oriana Leckert that offered up an incredible amount of info which I will share:
* Our Publishing Creator Tips page
* A massive roundup of 117 publishing projects showing what’s
possible here
*10 essential elements for your campaign page
*How to create a great Kickstarter Publishing project
*How to put together an expert Kickstarter budget
*Always Be Planning: a guide for creating your project timeline
*96 reward ideas to help you brainstorm, plus 70 more focused
on digital items
And a handful of excellent nonfiction and cookbook to look at for inspiration:
*Rob Walling’s The SaaS Playbook
*Vijay Boyapati’s Bullish Case for Bitcoin
*Kevin Kelly’s Vanishing Asia
*Nick Seluk’s Quiet, Brain
*Paul Wheaton’s Building a Better World in Your Backyard
*The Straight-Up Food Cookbook
“I’d also recommend backing a few campaigns now, and following the creators out in the world, so you can get a sense of how people are running their projects — here’s a list of currently live publishing campaigns, sorted with the Projects We Love at the top.”
Developing A Plan
To me it’s not a cookbook, and while containing 60 or so recipes I view it more as personal profiles with food as the common denominator- but like songs I’ve written, what I view it as doesn’t mean shit. Kickstarter is not how I envisioned this to play out, but it’s an opportunity so we’ll listen and learn. Admittedly gun-shy I’ve already poorly self-published something (https:// www.amazon.com/Garlic-Manifesto-idiosyncratic-view-through-ebook/dp/B00IA3D07E ) I’m concerned the same fate awaits.
But my plan of finding a lit agent to submit to the proper publishers may be dead wrong. The marketplace has changed and more publishers accept queries from unrepresented authors. There’s also less stigma of self publishing then when I was trying to place it pre plague with my 100+ unsolicited queries. Utilizing the above info and with some solid support it’s worth a shot, so I’mma gonna buckle up and see where the hell it takes me.
I’ll be the one participating actively in growing it, not passively-aggressively dismissing good ideas.
You’ve gotta show up for the muse to visit, but man plans and Gods laugh.
*shmattes – A rag or piece of garment. My family owned clothing stores and while they were not rags or shoddy, we commonly called them shmattes.
*meyvn – A person who knows. One who understands.
This is a great article Alan. It will benefit many people.
sharing the wealth