For this blog post I have decided to look at the business model of crowd funding. Essentially the idea of crowd funding is to target large amounts of people each donating small amounts to contribute to the overall monetary aim or goal of a particular company, product or idea.
The idea of crowd funding is thought to have first started back in 1997 when ‘Rock band Marillion were unable to afford to tour after the release of their seventh album so American fans used the then fledgling internet to raise $60,000 so they could play in the US’ (UKCFA, 2014). Since then there have been plenty of websites surrounding this idea of crowd funding and getting an audience to actively participate in content production and raising funds. Sites such as Kickstarter are one of the most recognizable sites and known as ‘the most popular site to find funding for creative projects.’ (Taylor, 2013). Giveforward is another crowd funding site and is ‘the premier online platform for medical fundraising’ (Giveforward, 2014). This is just a small selection that shows the diversity crowd funding can offer and how sites have been building a great name for themselves, becoming well known for being great resources to get projects up and running.
When applying this to the publishing realm one leading example stands out. Unbound publishers are a crowd funded publishing house using the print on demand strategy to produce and publish their author’s content. ‘Books are now in your hands’ and ‘authors pitch their ideas and you choose which books get written’ (Unbound, 2014a) Unbound clearly place the power and decision making process in the hands of their supporters and followers, giving the readers total control of what gets produced and splitting the net profits 50/50 with its Authors (Unbound, 2014b) . Unbound is a highly successful publisher having published a great range of successful titles and with a highlight this year of having one of their books The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth short listed for the Man booker prize, one of the biggest accolades in the publishing world (Unbound, 2014c).
With the huge rise in self publishing and blogs over recent years are publishers such as Unbound ahead of their time? Will all publishers adopt this idea of only producing books that have a guaranteed audience and are already paid for essentially before production begins?
The concept of crowd funding has been used to produce some obscure and unique titles over the years such as ‘Bloody Hell, What's an Alpaca?’ by Alan Parks (Crowdfunder, 2014) due to a guaranteed and secured readership before the book even goes to print. Publishers are being able to somewhat forecast their sales due to the upfront support for a title and are able to use print on demand to again secure effective cost management of the book from start to finish.
However there are some restriction to the concept of Crowd funding within publishing, some of these websites do not offer the ability to fundraise for projects based overseas, limiting the range of content displayed to potential investors and possibly restricting successful titles here in the UK. However with the huge dominance of social media and the internet in modern day publishing crowd funding is able to raise global awareness and support. Campaigns have the potential to go viral and create a marketing and fundraising buzz through their use of the internet and popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The big question is will this fairly new phenomenon continue or will the buzz and spark surrounding crowd funding eventually die out?
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Bibliography Crowdfunding. UK fundraising platform for community, business and creative projects | Crowdfunder, (2014). Bloody Hell, What's an Alpaca?, a Publishing project from Peacehaven Crowdfunding on Crowdfunder.co.uk. [Online] Available at: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/bloody_hell_whats_an_alpaca/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
GiveForward. (2014). About Us – Online Fundraising Websites. [Online] Available at: http://www.giveforward.com/p/about-us [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Taylor, K. (2013). 6 Top Crowdfunding Websites: Which One Is Right For Your Project?. [Online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/katetaylor/2013/08/06/6-top-crowdfunding-websites-which-one-is-right-for-your-project/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Ukcfa.org.uk, (2014). What is crowdfunding? | UKCFA. [Online] Available at: http://www.ukcfa.org.uk/what-is-crowdfunding [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Unbound. (2014) c. The Wake. [Online] Available at: http://unbound.co.uk/books/the-wake [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Unbound. (2014) b. About Us: Unbound. [Online] Available at: http://unbound.co.uk/company [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Unbound. (2014) a. Unbound | books are now in your hands. [Online] Available at: http://unbound.co.uk/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
The idea of crowd funding is thought to have first started back in 1997 when ‘Rock band Marillion were unable to afford to tour after the release of their seventh album so American fans used the then fledgling internet to raise $60,000 so they could play in the US’ (UKCFA, 2014). Since then there have been plenty of websites surrounding this idea of crowd funding and getting an audience to actively participate in content production and raising funds. Sites such as Kickstarter are one of the most recognizable sites and known as ‘the most popular site to find funding for creative projects.’ (Taylor, 2013). Giveforward is another crowd funding site and is ‘the premier online platform for medical fundraising’ (Giveforward, 2014). This is just a small selection that shows the diversity crowd funding can offer and how sites have been building a great name for themselves, becoming well known for being great resources to get projects up and running.
When applying this to the publishing realm one leading example stands out. Unbound publishers are a crowd funded publishing house using the print on demand strategy to produce and publish their author’s content. ‘Books are now in your hands’ and ‘authors pitch their ideas and you choose which books get written’ (Unbound, 2014a) Unbound clearly place the power and decision making process in the hands of their supporters and followers, giving the readers total control of what gets produced and splitting the net profits 50/50 with its Authors (Unbound, 2014b) . Unbound is a highly successful publisher having published a great range of successful titles and with a highlight this year of having one of their books The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth short listed for the Man booker prize, one of the biggest accolades in the publishing world (Unbound, 2014c).
With the huge rise in self publishing and blogs over recent years are publishers such as Unbound ahead of their time? Will all publishers adopt this idea of only producing books that have a guaranteed audience and are already paid for essentially before production begins?
The concept of crowd funding has been used to produce some obscure and unique titles over the years such as ‘Bloody Hell, What's an Alpaca?’ by Alan Parks (Crowdfunder, 2014) due to a guaranteed and secured readership before the book even goes to print. Publishers are being able to somewhat forecast their sales due to the upfront support for a title and are able to use print on demand to again secure effective cost management of the book from start to finish.
However there are some restriction to the concept of Crowd funding within publishing, some of these websites do not offer the ability to fundraise for projects based overseas, limiting the range of content displayed to potential investors and possibly restricting successful titles here in the UK. However with the huge dominance of social media and the internet in modern day publishing crowd funding is able to raise global awareness and support. Campaigns have the potential to go viral and create a marketing and fundraising buzz through their use of the internet and popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The big question is will this fairly new phenomenon continue or will the buzz and spark surrounding crowd funding eventually die out?
-----598 Words----
Bibliography Crowdfunding. UK fundraising platform for community, business and creative projects | Crowdfunder, (2014). Bloody Hell, What's an Alpaca?, a Publishing project from Peacehaven Crowdfunding on Crowdfunder.co.uk. [Online] Available at: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/bloody_hell_whats_an_alpaca/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
GiveForward. (2014). About Us – Online Fundraising Websites. [Online] Available at: http://www.giveforward.com/p/about-us [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Taylor, K. (2013). 6 Top Crowdfunding Websites: Which One Is Right For Your Project?. [Online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/katetaylor/2013/08/06/6-top-crowdfunding-websites-which-one-is-right-for-your-project/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Ukcfa.org.uk, (2014). What is crowdfunding? | UKCFA. [Online] Available at: http://www.ukcfa.org.uk/what-is-crowdfunding [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Unbound. (2014) c. The Wake. [Online] Available at: http://unbound.co.uk/books/the-wake [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Unbound. (2014) b. About Us: Unbound. [Online] Available at: http://unbound.co.uk/company [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].
Unbound. (2014) a. Unbound | books are now in your hands. [Online] Available at: http://unbound.co.uk/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2014].