Kickstarter is More Important Than You Think

I'm starting a campaign for my next book. Let me explain.

I’m starting a Kickstarter campaign for my next book, Operating Manual for Enlightenment. Please click the “Notify Me On Launch” button on the Upcoming Product page to follow it. I need your support!

Public Funding Is Democratic

Kickstarter is one of several public markets for new ideas. Many ideas are average, but some are interesting. What’s just as important is the concept of the democratic marketplace.

Here is the secret no one is telling you about information: it’s sold for profit. There is no “objective” information and there are no “facts.” You will never hear information that does not cost you something; all that you hear is generating a profit for someone. This is the publishing industry.

“Publishing, even among culture industries, is notoriously sleepy as a capitalist enterprise.”
—  Dan Sinykin (2024)

Information you don’t pay for directly is created as a “loss leader” shown to entice you to buy-in. The reason you don’t get the immigrant, lower-class, or children’s point of view is because these points of view are not profitable. The only things you ever hear are the things someone will pay for.

The exceptions are open marketplaces where all ideas are traded. Working against these are vested the interests—publishers, censors, experts, politicians, and corporations—all of whom want to control information.

Institutions Stifle Innovation

You might have thought vested interests look for quality, opportunity, progress, and change, but they do not. And this is not only in the retail market but also in the academic, art, design, education, medical, technology, craft, and any market you can think of. We think this is a matter of free speech, but it’s really a matter of free thought.

“The publishing industry is stuck somewhere in the Jurassic era.”
— Sabreen Swan (2020)

This is why we don’t hear independent points of view, scarcely find new art, and rarely see new faces. What novelties appear are mistakes. Or they’re courageous attempts of independent producers to finesse, finagle, fool, or fake their way into the market. The only alternative to mediocrity is to sell directly to consumers. 

This is what Kickstarter is: not a way to raise funds, but a way to offer new ideas. What is being called “crowdfunding” is a dismissive term used to deprecate creativity. Creativity has always been the enemy of institutions. 

Kickstarter, Patreon, Indiegogo, StartEngine, and a growing number of others are idea incubators. It is from these sources where significant, positive, new future changes will begin. Your “votes” for innovation in these information markets will have a greater effect on our future than your votes in the political system.

How Kickstarter Works

These markets arn’t asking for donations, they’re selling ideas. Each campaign is for a product. Some are ready for sale, but most are in development. The idea is to gain support to bring new ideas to market.

First, campaigns are announced to attract attention. Once a campaign starts, they run for a limited time, usually four weeks. Each campaign sells spinoffs from the main idea. Backers pledge to pay a fixed price for one product in this series. The total of all pledges adds up to the total pledged amount.

Each campaign has a threshold that must be reached by the end of the campaign for the project to get funded. If the project fails to meet this goal, none of the pledges are collected and no money changes hands. Sixty percent of the campaigns fail to reach their threshold.

If the campaign meets or exceeds its threshold, then the inventor must make good on their promise to deliver. With manufactured goods, this may take a year to bring the product to market. For books, it’s usually a month or less.

The Special Things You Get

Backers get special products. I’ll produce a retail book through an established publisher, but as a campaign backer, you’ll get special products. Depending on what you pledge you can receive:

• A digital or printed paperback special edition, or an audiobook version.

• Two book covers; choose the one you want (see above). The most popular will appear on the retail version.

• With sufficient funding, extra chapters will appear only in the Kickstarter edition.

• A signed, personalized bookplate along with a handmade bookmark.

• Greater sponsorship puts your name printed on an acknowledgement page.

• Purchase personalized advice—either in writing or in person.

• Register for a limited attendance, 6-session, online workshop.

All these are available if the campaign passes its CA$750 pledge goal. If the campaign fails to meet this goal, then you pay nothing and the project is not funded. This is how Kickstarter campaigns work.

The Book

Operating Manual for Enlightenment: Rebuilding Your Mind explores your constructed identity. It considers what you need and provide; how you remember and present yourself; and why you think and feel. These are the foundations of identity.

Enlightenment is finding peace in the present and arranging a peaceful presence. Your problems are not projects to which you apply your tools, they are your tools. The project is rebuilding yourself in harmony. This is hard because you are what you’re rebuilding.

Because there is no manual for growing up, we all grew up stunted. We all have to rebuild ourselves, and this is how you do it.

This book is the first of the trilogy on recreating yourself. The subsequent books will address preparing for change and incorporating change.

My campaign will start on Monday, April 1st and run for four weeks. Visit the campaign’s Upcoming Product Page and click the “Notify My on Launch” button for more information.

Once the campaign begins, you’ll be able to pledge anything from $5 to $2,000 toward my various book-topic-related products. I’m depending on you for support and encouragement. Forward this email to those interested in supporting new ideas. We’ll all benefit from it!

References

Sinykin, D. (2024 Mar 18). The Gigification of Publishing: Will Authors Equity disrupt a stodgy industry? The Baffler. https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-gigification-of-publishing-sinykin?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

Swan, S. (2020 Mar 5). The Problems With Publishing: Stories From The Experts, Submittable. https://blog.submittable.com/problems-with-publishing/