Publishing and Crowdfunding with Publishizer

Publishing and Crowdfunding with Publishizer Crowdfunding is the perfect medium for today’s author raising funds for marketing and publishing expenses. But there is a hybrid alternative to straight crowdfunding. Instead of querying multiple publishers on their own, authors can raise funds on a platform like Publishizer that also matches authors with publishers based on pre-order milestones of their book. After doing much research, I chose  Publishizer  over  Kickstarter,  Indiegogo  and a number of hybrid crowdfunding/publishing sites such as  Inkshares  for one main reason: the idea of matching authors to publishers. I didn’t want to send multiple emails to publishers. I wanted them to come to me based on the merit of my proposal. All I needed to do was demonstrate proof of concept of the book Having gone through the experience growing my platform With Publishizer, you write a proposal outlining your book’s marketing plan for approval. You not only set a date to launch your campaign, but you also reach out to readers for pre-orders. The number of pre-orders lets Publishizer know that you are a serious writer and that there’s a following out there willing to buy the book. Then Publishizer queries publishers on your behalf based on number of pre-orders signed up Throughout the campaign, I worried whether I could even reach the 250 pre-order milestone needed to attract an indie/independent publisher, my ideal publishing goal. Acquiring 250 pre-orders takes endurance and stamina! To help me stay accountable, Guy Vincent, founder of Publishizer and his team set up weekly strategy calls (at no extra charge) via Skype and Zoom calls. They are big on helping you think outside the box in terms of getting supporters and talking about your book to sponsors to increase your marketability. Since I had an already established fan base, I reached out to those supporters first – most of whom supported this second crowdfunding campaign. I held contests, offered enticing rewards, did giveaways on social media, did several Facebook live videos, shared milestone updates – in short I built a lot of book buzz. At the end of the intense, three-month campaign, Sand and Steel: The Spiritual Journey Home was queried to 98 publishers thanks to 253 preorders that also included a very generous sponsor, growing my platform and fan base Out of the seventeen publishers who expressed interest, I ended up signing a contract with Mascot Books who, from the start, resonated very strongly with the themes and messages of my memoir about what it means to find a home in the United States as a returning American struggling with Reverse Culture Shock. It was a perfect match. Like publishing, the crowdfunding world is changing, and Publishizer is matching reputable publishers with authors like myself who otherwise, would not have known about these publishers.