A Man Runs Into A Woman competition

A Man Runs Into A Woman was the first book crowdfunded through PledgeMe, and we’re pretty proud of it. Not only was it the first publishing project, but it also held the title for the quickest funded project – reaching their goal in 24 hours.The book is launching on 10 August, and to celebrate that we have a little give away going on. Leave a comment on this blog post (or our facebook comment) and go in the draw to win your very own copy of Sarah Jane Barnett’s masterpiece. Come on, ya know you want to!

To celebrate, we also did our normal stalker survey follow up – check out what they had to say:

WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT PLEDGEME?Crowd-funding was a new concept to us, but now we’re completely sold. We wanted to use PledgeMe in particular because it’s New Zealand based and the audience for the poetry collection will be mainly New Zealand based. It also gave Hue & Cry Press an alternative way to promote and fund the book. And proved to be a good way to connect with our readers. A lot of people were talking or Tweeting about the pledges, which has meant the book has been on people’s radars months before its launch.HOW DID YOU FIND THE EXPERIENCE?

Watching the pledges come in was nerve-wracking. Both of us spent a lot of time sitting in front of our laptops refreshing, refreshing, and refreshing the page. We really didn’t know if we were going to reach our target, so were overwhelmed that we did in 24 hours. It was encouraging to have so many people come out and support the project – both the book and the launch of Hue & Cry Press. And not just family and friends, but other writers and people within the arts and social media industries. It was exciting and strangely reassuring. We knew we were on to a good thing, but it was nice to know real live other people seemed to agree.

ANY TIPS FOR NEWBIES?

For crowd-funding books in particular:
– Have an image of the book, even if it’s just a mockup of the cover. People really liked our mockup cover (so much so we almost used it for the book) and I think it encouraged them to pledge as they could imagine the finished, printed book in their hot little hands.
– Have rewards that really do reward the people who support the project. They’re pledging their hard earned cash, so give something extra special on top of what they’d get when just buying the book. We did posters and button badges. Personally, I’d like to go and give every person who pledged a hug!
– Give clear and concise information about the project. Let people know why it deserves their pledge but don’t give them a novel to wade through.

ANYTHING YOU’D CHANGE ABOUT PLEDGEME?

Nothing – it’s a great alternative funding platform.

I SAY CROWDFUNDING, YOU SAY:

A sustainable way to fund arts. Maybe even The Future?

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More about the launch party, and Hue & Cry, here.