FEBRUARY 13, 2024

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

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It costs money to grow a content business.

The Tilt research finds it costs an average of $10,700 to start operations and ongoing revenue or infusions of cash to expand the content product line.

If your business bank account won’t support the growth, consider a tool that usually grabs attention for launching physical products – crowdfunding. The well-known platform Kickstarter supports a whole world of word projects.

Oriana Leckert, head of publishing at Kickstarter, says, “Crowdfunding is a unique way to build and strengthen connections between an author and their readers, a publisher and their audience, any kind of creative person and their network.”

But, she notes, crowdfunding also brings secondary benefits like raising awareness of the work, building communities, testing ambitious ideas, and making a “moment” out of bringing new work to life.

Oriana, who works on Kickstarter’s outreach team, works with a wide range of creators. Some of the successful projects include:

• Terrell Jermaine Starr launched Black Diplomats, a podcast featuring interviews with people of color and women specializing in global affairs. It raised $17K from 260 backers on Kickstarter. Rewards for its supporters ranged from a pin to free access to its Patreon content and shoutouts on the podcasts.
• Long-time author Brian Sanderson used Kickstarter to release four secret novels (digital and hardback). He targeted $1M and raised almost $42M from 185,000 backers while offering rewards and exclusive preview content to the supporters.
• Independent publisher McSweeney’s used Kickstarter as a bridge to move from an 18-year for-profit company to a nonprofit operation. It promoted upcoming content from Roxanne Gay and Lena Dunham, as well as new books and a new podcast season. Its 3,400 backers pledged over $250K.

About 150 projects launch every week in Kickstarter’s publishing category. “A few years ago, when we crossed $200 million pledged, we put together this extensive roundup of 117 Favorite Kickstarter Publishing Projects to show what’s possible,” she says.

Book campaigns are the most straightforward because authors typically use the platform to raise funds for print production and the other costs associated with bringing a book to life.

But, Oriana says, campaigns also exist for larger, stranger, or less tangible items. Their success requires creators to get creative by figuring out unique rewards, creating innovative promotional plans, and connecting with everyone in their network to bring everything to life.

Creators who meet their project goal pay a 5% fee to Kickstarter and receive their money two to three weeks after the campaign ends.

How to get started: Kickstarter offers a plethora of resources to help creators launch a crowdsourcing campaign. Its robust hub covers projects from books, comics, journalism, poetry, zines, and more. It tackles topics from creating your Kickstarter budget to building your audience to getting your crowdfunded books into libraries.

But Oriana’s No. 1 piece of advice for the Kickstarter curious is to find five live campaigns and become a backer so you can follow those creators out in the world. “This will give you a sense of how people are running their projects – the tone and style of their campaign pages, the kinds of rewards they’re offering, the cadence of their updates, the frequency of their promotion, and everything like that,” she says.

And don’t forget the historical archive of Kickstarter projects. Oriana says, “Do a deep dive into what works and what doesn’t, and unabashedly adopt all the best tactics.”

– Ann Gynn

​Check out more resources on crowdsourcing for a book project.​

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150+ content and copywriting templates

It’s a content creators’ world these days. You just look/like/laugh at it.

Unless you’re one of us: an original piece in the prolific creator economy. Whom we solemnly salute… with an abundance of gifts.

Take 150+ content and copywriting templates to quickly craft:

• Infographics
• Ebooks
• Blog posts
• Social posts
• Case studies
• And more

Just pick, adjust, and plug. For more time brewing the bangers, and less time screwing with frameworks.

Entrepreneur: Vanessa Gordon

Biz: East End Taste Magazine and Hamptons Interactive Brunch

Tilt: Food trends, culture, and events with a refined perspective

Primary Channels: Website, Instagram ( 54K)

Other Channels: Facebook (14K), X (19.6K), LinkedIn (7K), Pinterest (3.7K), Instagram - HamptonsInteractiveBrunch (4.4K), Newsletter (5.2K)

Time to First Dollar: 2 months

Rev Streams: Sponsored articles, banner ads, newsletter sponsorship, sponsorship packages for in-person event series

Our Favorite Actionable Advice

• Select a brand name that can work on multiple levels. Though Vanessa launched her magazine to write about the Hamptons, her brand name is agnostic of the New York enclave, allowing her to accommodate other locations.
• Work with sponsors who don’t question your rates. These people understand and value your content and business. They will come back and give you more business. People who question your rates or try to negotiate are likely not people you want to work with.
• Use your connections. Don’t be afraid to sit down and ask questions and pick the brains of your network. Learn from their experience. Attend as many networking events as you can. You never know who you will meet and how they can help your business.

– Marc Maxhimer

​Read Vanessa Gordon’s story.​

• ​Creators Are Failing Because 9 in 10 Make This Mistake (Content Inc.)
• ​Is Content Exclusivity Dead? (This Old Marketing)
• ​Email Marketing for Authors & Creators (Publish & Prosper)
• ​Tilt Your Business: A Mastermind for Content Entrepreneurs takes to LinkedIn Live at 12 p.m. EST Tuesdays.
• Join your fellow serious content creators at the Content Entrepreneur Expo May 5-7, 2024. Save your seat today!​

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