The New York Times published an article last week about a new crowdfunding site for artists: Kickstarter. The idea is that artists can use the site to connect directly with potential patrons. In exchange for this support, artists generally offer insider access and “in most cases, some tangible memento of their contribution.”
The article starts by describing the experience of one New Orleans musician, Earl Scioneaux, who wanted to create a jazz/electronica album but needed $4,000 to produce the project. So he set up the following scale of rewards: “for a $15 payment, patrons received an advance copy of the album; for $30, they got a personal music lesson as well. A payment of $50 or more got both of those, and a seat at Mr. Scioneaux’s dinner table for a bowl of his homemade gumbo and a chance to listen to some of his studio recordings. ‘I didn’t expect people to be all over that one,’ he said, ‘but it sold out almost immediately.’ ”
As it happens, I’ve been working on a nonfiction, journalistic book project, and so this article makes me wonder: what incentives might interest you in helping to fund such projects? Would you be interested in different incentives for a book of literary essays, or a memoir project like The Adderall Diaries, or a fiction or poetry project? What about an art project like The Swimming Cities of Serenissima?
And a further question occurs to me: would it encourage you to help fund the Rumpus if we offered certain perks? Let us know in the comments.
2 responses
Hey there — for what it’s worth, I’m a San Francisco-based writer, and I launched a Kickstarter project last week:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robinsloan/robin-writes-a-book-and-you-get-a-copy
It’s now 100%+ funded. People have really responded to this idea of micro-patronage. I do think it’s important that contributors are going to get something — a physical, printed book. In my case, that’s primarily what they’re paying for — not for my time, or travel costs, or whatever else.
And, for what it’s worth, the funding levels I set up have been working really well so far. Interesting to note that many, many more people have chosen the higher levels. Again: There’s something really attractive, at least right here & right now, about this idea of micro-patronage.
absolutely go for a kickstarter(s) for the rump — hundred bucks for cool ass tees, fifty for private/personalized dear sugar advice, two hundred to have name inserted somewhere in an issue, one hundred fifty for inclusion in the bad poetry corner (weed out the ego-maniacs) — the possibilities are endless.
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