Yeah,
@johnsoncm , It’s crowd funding. Before you crowd fund, you’ve got to have your own platform and do your own legwork. 70% of your book funding needs to come from your own resources easily right now.
I know it’s the harsh truth, what @Ricardo Henriquez is saying has merit.
As part of what you are doing in crowd funding is selling yourself and practicing your self promotion skills.
Syndicate backing isn’t a matter, or a metric, of if a book will sell or not. That’s more a matter of community engagement. Authors who are helpful to the community, will be picked up by Syndicates more than anything else.
Which, does increase the chance the book will fund. But you’ve still gotta bring your own readers to the table.
There just simply aren’t enough authors to reliably fund a book from someone else on the website. I could go further into some tactics and some math behind stuff.
One thing to do: Is recruit people who want to support as readers, to join syndicates. Although that’s a hard sell because basically you are paying a lot of money for years before you get a product.
However just so you know: Inkshares Nirvana moment is when they have enough readers on the site where it’s easier to fund, and they are indeed working on that behind the scenes. It’s just going to take years for that kind of traction to build up.
They do, however, come. I’ve got 5 people who are just avid readers that stalk a lot of books on here. I brought them to Inkshares with me. Now imagine if every other author had 1-2.
Eventually...
I approached these outlets in person with my book in hand as soon as it was printed and "orderable".
I came prepared with a short pitch on "why their customers will like the book." I told them it was orderable in their system at the standard industry discount.
If I got any positive reaction at all, I also pitched setting up a book signing at the same time. I never mentioned "crowdfunding" because at this point, it looks just like any book from an author who has a publisher. Talking about crowfunding after your book is out will only confuse people and take away from the central message you want to convey which is "I have a great book from a reputable publisher that your customers want because . . . "
I left a copy of the book with them along with my business card.
This approach worked out pretty well. I have made author appearances at three different Barnes & Noble locations so far and am working on booking more. I’m also in several local Indie stores.
Approaching store managers in person worked better for me than writing or emailing. They get way too much correspondence from self-published authors and don’t spend much time (if any) reading these correspondences because they aren’t interested. They don’t really want to deal directly with authors, mostly just with distributors, their salespeople and sometimes publishers.
Don’t go to bookstores or libraries on the weekend or near the end of a workday. Try and catch these managers when their location isn’t very busy. Around 10 am or 2 pm are good times. Don’t try and catch them just before or after lunch.
Even if you catch them when they have a little free time, they will evaluate your pitch in about 30 seconds and make up their mind very quickly whether they want to spend any more time than that on you or your book.
So be ready to impress them with your pitch right off the bat. "I have a great book from a reputable publisher - your customers want it because . . . . AND it is orderable in your system at the standard industry discount". Smile and hand them your book with your business card sticking out of it. Be ready to answer any questions they may have, but keep your answers short. Smile a lot. Tell the manager you like her shoes or something:-)