Earlier this year, Ark Press announced it would be coming out with a new urban fantasy series from Larry Correia titled American Paladin. Today, he answered why it’s going to launch on Kickstarter.
Fans are excited for Larry Correia to be delving into this first Kickstarter. He’s been making waves talking about the build up with Ark Press on X, previewing more from his upcoming release, including a graphic novel adaptation of the book.
This week, one of his fans asked Correia why he would launch on Kickstarter when he’s an established author. He gave this answer:
That's a great question. Why would an already established author use Kickstarter to launch a new book series? I'm not the publisher, but this is how I see it.
I'm established and already write books for a few other publishing houses, but @ark_press is a new start up. I'm one of their tent pole authors as they launch their business. You say I'm famous, but all writers would like to be MORE famous. I'm mostly famous in certain nerdy circles.
Some people will buy anything I write as soon as its available, and I love them. Those people make it so I can live in a house! But there are plenty more potential customers out there who've never heard of me.
Kickstarters are by their nature interesting and exciting. They attract a whole different set of customers than traditional book marketing. Brandon Sanderson demonstrated the potential of this. He's orders of magnitude bigger than the rest of us, but the basic principles still apply, just at more sane and ordinary amounts of money.
Regular distro channels still work great too, and will get used, but with KS being fulfilled directly, logistically speaking it's the best way to sell add on different products and extra perks to the biggest audience of fans, like bundles, graphic novels, a fancy special edition, autographs (that I'll shoot a bullet through and include the brass, but I'll explain that next week!)
It's basically about maximizing exposure and distribution potential. The KS builds buzz and sells specialty stuff that wouldn't ever get stocked in stores. Then there's direct sales. Then there's the Amazon audience. Then there's the B&N audience. Then there's the wholesaler catalog audience, and so on. Ideally you want to get in front of as many as you can.
Some customers will jump into the KS, some will buy direct, some in stores, some from online retailers, that's all great for me. The ultimate goal is to reach as many readers as possible. The publishing industry is constantly evolving so everybody is trying to figure out how to do this efficiently.
The Kickstarter is going to go live in September and it will be interesting to see how Correia’s maistream bookstore audience translates into crowdfunding.
What do you think of Larry Correia crowdfunding American Paladin on Kickstarter? Leave a comment and let us know.
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A great idea when you have a following.
I see what someone else had said now. Larry Correia views crowdfunding as *marketing.* A viewpoint, certainly.
Now we get to watch and wait for shenanigans. Will they play it straight, do a fellow traveler hype train, or court cancellation for the poor me points?