The Half-year Reset

Neera

Get back on track in the second half of 2021.

We are already in June.

Half of 2021 is almost gone.

Remember the things you wrote down in January, the things you wanted to achieve. Your goals. How are they going.

Well, it is time to have a look at them. How are you going with them? 

Not good?

Well you are not alone. I am in the same boat. But guess what? There is still time. Each year, around this time, I review my goals and press the RESET button.

This year, I am doing it slightly differently. I am following my favourite artist’s Struthless’s method. 

Follow along if you want to revisit your goals and still achieve them. 

There is still time.

Empty your head

Write down all your thoughts on a page, preferably in a notebook if you own a diary or a journal to write in occasionally, even better. 

Vomit out all your thoughts. Mine started like this.

“My life sucks. I am no good. I will never be able to achieve anything worthwhile…

Write three pages at least. Or until you have nothing more to say. Now that your head is empty, you are in the right “headspace” to process new information. 

That’s right.

Our head is a processor like a computer, not a storage vault. A diary or a journal is a good place to store the crap occupying the prime real estate in our head. 

Besides, once we put down our thoughts on paper, they miraculously disappear from our heads. Somehow thoughts can’t exist in two places at the same time. They can be either in our heads or on paper.

Now that you have a head like a clean slate, let’s go to the next step.

Create two lists

Move to a clean page and draw a line in the middle.

Dig out that piece of paper (or the diary or the computer file) where you wrote your goals at the start of the year. If you can’t find it, don’t worry, just write them from memory.

Write them out on the left-hand side of the line.

Place a tick against the one which you have already achieved or in the process of achieving. No need to panic if you haven’t achieved any. This whole exercise is to make sure that you do accomplish what you set out to at the start of the year. 

Also, write down what you actually did in the first half of the year. You would have achieved things that you hadn’t written them down as goals. They are achievements too. 

Now stare at the ones you haven’t achieved for a good minute or two. Think hard. Do you still want to achieve them? 

Or were they written to make you feel better after drinking hard the night before? Has the world moved on since? Or better still, you have moved on? 

Cross them off if they are not relevant anymore. Let them go without any guilt or grief. 

Now on the right-hand side, of the line write down what you would really want to achieve this year. 

We are almost halfway through the year; you now have a much better idea of how much you will be able to achieve. More so now that you are not caught up in the heat of the moment of the New Year. And more in touch with your soul through the trials and tribulations of January to June. What do you really want to achieve in your life? What are your long-term goals, and what are your quick wins? Write them all down.

Once finished, I want you to prioritize them in order of importance. 

Which one is the most important one that you must do so that if you die in six months, a day before your death, you are really pleased that you have done it? Place #1 in front of it.

Image by the author

If you have been a little more organized and can achieve another one, place #2 in front of it. 

Then #3, #4, #5 and #6.

No more. Six goals are enough for the next six months. 

If something comes up and you are not able to achieve all of them, at least you have achieved the most important ones.

Now you have very little time and have only the most important goals to work on, so let get cracking.

Ask yourself a question.

Who would you have to be to achieve these goals? 

You won’t achieve goals just because you have written them down on a piece of paper. You are going to lose that piece of paper again. And your brain will not remember them. 

But one thing it will remember very well is what kind of person you want to become to achieve a particular goal. 

If your goal is to quit smoking, it is not enough to say I want to quit smoking by the end of 2021. But I am a person who doesn’t smoke makes it an identity-related goal. And identity-related goals work better than the outcome-related (quit smoking) or process-related goal(use chewing gum when I have the urge to smoke).

I would go to the length of identifying a person I admire and see myself acting and behaving like that person. My long-term goal is to write fiction and non-fiction. There aren’t many writers who are doing both effectively. But there is one, whom I admire a lot. I see myself becoming like her. I listen to her podcast. I read her books. I am following her footsteps. Each day I am getting closer to becoming like my idol. 

Before you jump in with both guns blazing, I am not becoming exactly like her but I am becoming the person who can be as prolific a writer as my idol. A person who can put in as many hours as she has into refining her craft, building her market, and continue providing value. 

Not everyone can become Gandhi, but having him as a model can make you a better person. You get my point.

So ask yourself, who would you have to be in order to achieve your goals?

If you know the person write down the name of that person or cut up an image of they person and put it on your goals sheet.

Let’s move on to the next step.

Build a system

We all should write James Clear’s following words in our best calligraphy handwriting, and put them over our desks.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. — James Clear.

A system is either a routine (daily, weekly, or fortnightly) or breaking things down into smaller tasks.

Make the system to when you are at your weakest, not when you are at your strongest. 

You will not have all the energy all the time. There will be days when life will take over, and you will get no time to spend on your goals. 

If such days are more frequent, don’t make daily goals, make them weekly. Then make sure you achieve them each week. 

So rather than committing to write 1000 words every day, commit to write 3000 words a week. If you do it, you win. If you do more, you win again if you don’t do it,, up your game or tweak your system.

Accountability Partners

Now write down your goals and your system to achieve them and send them to your accountability partner by email. Ask them to check on you weekly. 

My accountability partners could be your readers on Medium, your friends, your social media fans. 

There your go. 

A halfyear reset and the system in place to make sure you achieve them.

I will be reporting my progress through my articles on Medium from point to point.

Let me know how you go with the exercise and who will be your accountability partners.

What Is Your End Game As A Writer (Knowing that will help plan your strategy)

Neera

When we start writing, we have no idea where we want to go with that. We write because we like to write. We enjoy the process and we continue with it.

Then comes a time when writing takes over our lives.

We want nothing more but to write. Our job becomes a liability. We want to quit as soon as possible so that we can devote more time to writing.

We convince ourselves that we can make an income from writing. If only we can devote more time to it, build a following, write that book, write an article a day, start a newsletter… we will be able to make a living from it.

But it is not that easy.

Making a living from writing takes more effort than making a living from selling insurance policies (or door-to-door selling or network marketing or selling used cars or becoming a real estate agent — take your pick).

Why?

Because we don’t know what our end game is.

We take writing as a generic profession, as a GP (General Practitioner), whereas it is a specialization.

There are different fields in writing and each one requires a different strategy to succeed. Not knowing that from the beginning not only makes it harder to succeed but takes much longer and causes so much heartache and frustration that many people give up after a few years, never to come back.

I divide writers into three categories:

  1. Hobby writers
  2. Freelance writers
  3. Passion writers

Hobby Writers

Hobby writers are the ones who like to write for personal satisfaction. They might write poems, short stories, or even articles in magazines (online or physical). They might write a book, maybe more than one. It could be fiction or non-fiction. But they have no intention to make a living from their writing.

They had a story to tell, and when they have told it, they are satisfied if they have been able to publish it and send it out in the world, even better.

With some stroke of luck, hobby writers might be able to make a lot of money with a single book or an article, even without much marketing. Such examples are rare, but they do happen.

Hobby writers treat writing as a way to communicate their feelings (poems), their stories(memoir or biography) and messages (articles or a book).

They are usually not stressed about their writing and very satisfied with their output.

If you are a hobby writer, enjoy your writing and don’t get caught up in the whirlwind of building a following or starting a newsletter. Keep in mind you are not in it for money.

Freelance Writers

Freelance writers make a living from their writing and sometimes are well paid and at the top of their trade.

Many professional writers are in the paid form of writing where it becomes a job — many journalists, content writers, ghostwriters and copywriters fall in this category.

They may or may not have proper qualifications in writing. To them, writing provides not only personal but also professional satisfaction. They might start in one category and move on to others.

They become professionals to work in the field they love but soon get caught in the vortex of a trading time with money. They get busy with delivering other people’s projects while their own projects get sidelined.

Their end game is to get some big bucks for ghost writing or big clients for content writing. Many journalists are going into paid newsletter arena where they fulfill a particular need of a group or a community with their writing skills.

Passion Writers

Passion writers write what they are passionate about, whether it is content, fiction, or non-fiction.

They are successful because they keep evaluating where they are going. They not only know what they want to write but also what the market wants.

Content writers

If they are content writers, they know they are writing to inspire or to educate. They know to make a living with content writing, they need a healthy mailing list and courses to sell. They start small, but by consistently providing value to their readers, they make a name for themselves. These writers often become entrepreneurs.

That is the end game for them. They will build some business from their writing. It could be a publishing company or self-development organization or marketing agency.

Fiction writers

If they are fiction writers, they write genre fiction. Genre fiction has populist appeal and it sells well. Traditionally genres are romance, mystery, thriller, horror, fantasy, historical, and children’s books. But new genres are being added all the time. Genre readers follow their writers and read everything they write.

The end game for fiction writers writes is to write series. Their readers are ready to buy their next book because they are invested in the story. The imaginary universe the fantasy and sci-fi writers create are money spinners. Think J K Rowling, Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Dean Coontz, Dean Wesley Smith. These are just a few well-known names. Many other not-so-well-known writers are making six to seven-figure incomes. These writers become brands in themselves.

Non-fiction writers

These are the writers of non-fiction books. They pick a niche and become experts in that. They write books in that niche and take speaking engagements. Sometimes just a single book becomes such a bestseller that they can build their whole business around it (think James Clear’s Atomic Habits). Other times they release series such as Rober Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad series.

The end game for non-fiction writers is the speaking engagements. They charge premium rates to speak at premium conferences and may have a whole business behind their book.

What is your end game?

Do you write for personal satisfaction, or do you want to make a living with your writing?

Do you want to build a business around your niche, or do you want to create a fictional universe?

Figure out what your end game is and then choose your path to get there.

The Teapot

Neera

From the day I moved to a small tea estate in Assam with my husband Amit, I heard nothing else but stories about Mrs Dubey. 

No one knew how long Mrs Dubey had been living in the ivy-covered bungalow at the farthest corner of the estate. Neither did they know how old she was? Or from where she was before moving to the remotest tea estate in Assam? But they knew about her teapot. They knew about its magic powers. 

“My brother couldn’t find a suitable match for his daughter,” my maid stopped mopping the floor to attract my full attention, “Mrs Dubey invited her to have tea with her. The poor girl, she was used to having tea in a metal glass, but Mrs Dubey served her in a china cup. From the magic teapot. Within two months she was married.”

Of course, I didn’t pay much attention to her. The remote communities always had magic stories. But a magic teapot was the first. I wanted to meet Mrs Dubey but didn’t think it was appropriate to go to her unannounced. I waited till someone introduced us. 

One morning Mrs Dubey’s maid knocked at my door, inviting me to have tea with Mrs Dubey in the afternoon. I strongly believed my maid had something to do with it. By now everyone in the small community was aware of my childless status. It was her way to help me. 

But accepted the invitation not because I believed in the magic of the teapot but because I had nothing better to do. At least Mrs Dubey was educated. She might be a good company to pass time.

I walked to her bungalow, through the winding tea plantation carrying a cake which I managed to bake during the noon. 

Mrs Dubey looked much younger than her years, which I estimated to be somewhere in nineties. Her skin was as white as the white lace dress she was wearing. 

“Welcome, my dear. May I have the pleasure of knowing your full name.” she asked in a flawless English accent.

“Nalini Mistri.” I took her hand which she had put out so delicately while resting the other one on the walking stick. In a white lace dress and a matching hat she looked more elegant than someone half her age would.

“Lovely name!” she said, “I hear you have been shy to make an acquaintance.”

“Of course not!” I started with a lie but checked myself in time. For some reason, it didn’t feel right to lie to her. “A little bit!” I nodded.

She laughed. “No need. In country side all we have is each other. Follow me please.” She led me to the verandah where a round table was set up for afternoon tea. It was quite an elaborate setup. A lacy white table cloth. English china. White hand-embroidered napkins, which Mrs Dubey told me she embroidered herself in her younger days.

We started chatting easily. Mrs Dubey came to India as a young girl from England. She fell in love with a local tea estate owner Mr Deshmukh Dubey. They got married and she never went back to England. Although they travelled to a lot of other places.

The maid brought the egg pudding and home baked cookies along with the cake I brought. The warm evening air got filled with the aroma of home baking. 

Then came the much anticipated tea pot. It was no doubt beautiful. Despite frequent use it was in good condition. Perhaps due to the utmost respect with which it was treated. It had a big belly, like a pregnant woman. The handle small and sturdy, the spout short and curved. If you look at it from a certain angle it looked like a matron with one hand on the hip and other up in the air.

“It belonged to my aunt,” Mrs Dubey noticed the awe with which I was looking at it. “It has special powers, she added.” 

I didn’t say anything, not wanting to disrespect the old lady. 

“Anyone who drinks tea from this pot,” said Mrs Dubey, “their luck change for good.” 

The maid had gone inside leaving us to eat and chat. I offered to pour the tea. As I got up, a bird flew in my direction and I lost balance trying to doge it. I caught the table to break my fall but hit the teapot which fell on the floor and shattered in pieces. 

My hand went to my mouth. I looked at the Mrs Dubey’s face which fell open with disbelieve. The maid came running from inside. The look on her face, when she saw the broken pieces floating in steaming tea, gave me a fair idea of the gravity of my crime.

“I am sorry! I am so so sorry!” I looked at Mrs Dubey and then the maid and back to Mrs Dubey. I had no idea why I was apologizing to the maid but I was. Maybe because I had taken the magic out of her life. 

“It is all right my dear. It was bound to happen one day.” Mrs Dubey was much more understanding and forgiving. But her maid was in obvious shock when she bent down and picked the pieces one by one, carefully placing them in a tray. 

I brought the pieces of the broken pot with be hoping to find a similar one on the internet. It was the least I could do. Although it wouldn’t have the same powers everyone believed it had, it was the least I could do. 

Days of searching on the internet brought results. I found a similar looking pot on eBay. It was expensive but I thought I owed it to Mrs Dubey. When it arrived, I took it to her. She was very pleased. It even brought the smile back on the maid’s face. That day we had tea together, with the usual ceremony.

Mrs Dubey told stories of people who came to her with their troubles, and she would listen to them. She had such a reassuring face that anyone would want to tell her all of one’s worries. 

I told her everything too. How Amit and I got married, how he was always busy with his work, how I had to leave my research career behind to follow him from tea-estate to tea-estate, how a baby would have filled that gap but perhaps God had other plans.

She listened to me with the same patience she would have listened to thousands.

I started meeting her regularly. We always found something to talk about. She was a worldly-wise woman who had travelled far and away in her time but had nothing to do nowadays. I was a well-educated woman who had no idea what to do with her life.

Months later, two things happened simultaneously. Amit got the news that he job in Munar tea estate that he wanted so much before coming here. I got confirmation that my pregnancy test was positive.

Mrs Dubey and I looked at the teapot as if wanting it to reveal its real identity.

Was it possible that it was the twin of the broken one? Maybe it was not the teapot but Mrs Dubey was the one with magical powers? An idea she dismissed instantly.

Whatever might be the case, I didn’t have enough time to get to the bottom of it. I had to pack for our next move. It also meant my friendship with Mrs Dubey came to an abrupt end.

Months later, after the birth of my daughter, on a hazy morning at Munar, I received a big parcel in the mail. As I opened it I found a neatly written letter on top of a carefully packed box. It was from Mrs Dubey.

Dear Nalini,

By the time it will reach you, I would have gone to a better place. I had a long and fulfilling life, so no need to shed tears for me. I am forever grateful to you and never properly thanked you for the time we spent together in the last few months of my life. I was starving for some company when you came. I always wanted to tell you but didn’t have the heart. There was no magic in the teapot you broke. It was a story I made up to give people some hope.

As time passed, more and more stories got connected to it, and the teapot became a thing of magic. Then it broke. My heart broke with it too. I thought no one will come to me to share their stories now that the magic is gone. But then you brought the new teapot, exactly like the one before. And immediately afterward fell pregnant.

Your story got connected with the new teapot.

Since you left, Ira’s daughter got cured, Chandra’s nephew passed exams and Bodhram’s cow survived malaria.

These things were probably going to happen anyway, but they got connected to the teapot.

You see, magic is in beliefs, not in objects.

There are so many desperate people in this world who need some magic in their lives. Magic gives them hope.

I am passing the teapot on to you because I feel you will use it to incite some hope in people’s lives.

Lovingly,

Eleanor Dubey

I opened the box to find the teapot I bought from eBay. For some reason, it looked shinier. Maybe Mrs Dubey’s magic got rubbed on it.

Photo by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash

Crowdfunding for Writers

Neera

In 2006, a young entrepreneur was running a support platform for video bloggers. He called it fundavlog. 

Keen on spreading the word; he started a blog explaining the idea behind fundavlog and coining a term for the concept he was trying to introduce. 

I have used a recent buzzword within fundvlog babble. That word is Crowdsourcing. My first interpretation of it was a broad one… one that can be applied to generalities surrounding concepts/observations such as ‘smart mobs,’ ‘wisdom of the crowds,’ ‘new economies,’ ‘open-source,’ and ‘self-sustaining communities.’

…

But I have decided that another similar term can be used to explain the general ideas being presented here. And I think that term is ‘Croudfunding.’ Money is the root. Money incubates, inspires, and give rise to good content. Money provides new and/or rejuvenated opportunities. — Michael Sullivan

Michael figured that building a community from an online ‘sphere’ was a challenge but not impossible. He looked at the idea from different angles and completely out of the box. He was very impressed with mediaventure.org, both the initiative and projects funded through it.

He wanted fundavlog to raise money for projects like mediaventure.org. But unlike mediaventure.org, he wanted the focus on content creators rather than the industry.

Although his project failed, he came up with two basic rules for crowdfunding:

Rule #1 Not to pilfer facilitated funds.

Rule #2 Absolute transparency.

Crowdfunding is based on “reciprocity, transparency, shared interests and, above all, funding from the crowd.”

If you haven’t read yesterday’s article, I suggest you read it first and then come back to the current one to understand how crowdfunding can be your prime strategy to write and sell books.

Crowdfunding is not a marketing platform.

Most people make the mistake that they think crowdfunding is a marketing gimmick, just like Mailchimp or LinkedIn.

That is not true.

Crowdfunding is a sales platform just like Amazon.

It is a place where you can test your book idea and sell it even before you have written it. 

Isn’t it cool?

Before I get into details to describe the difference, let me clear a few more concepts about crowdfunding. 

There are typically three types of crowdfunding: 

  1. Reward crowdfunding, where you raise your funds by reaching out to supporters, who receive a small gift or product sample if they pledge a certain amount.
  2. Debt crowdfunding is where you receive a loan and pay it within a specific time frame — some prefer this over a bank loan because it can be much faster.
  3. Equity crowdfunding means you give a portion of company ownership to the people who provide you with funding.

Although Kickstarter works on the Reward Model of raising money, one thing to understand is that you are, in fact, raising a debt which you will have to pay in the form of the product which you have specified in the pledge.

So when you hear someone say they raised $1M on Kickstarter, they haven’t raised any money at all. They have, in fact, pre-sold their products.

Ben Einstein has written an excellent article to explain the misconceptions about money raised on Kickstarter. Have a read of it. The link is below.Crowdfunding is Debt
Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other crowdfunding platforms are often misunderstood. It definitely isn’t investment: It’s…beneinstein.medium.com

Crowdfunding is one more market.

It’s one of the rare self-publishing markets that offer to pay you in advance. It also has a great financial incentive, paying roughly 92% of your list price.

But once your campaign has run its course, it’s pretty much over until the next time. The platform isn’t designed for long-term sales.

Since 2009, Kickstarter has helped raise over $5B in revenue for nearly 200,000 successful projects.

Of this, publishing rates $185M on 18,000 successful projects. Publishing is sixth out of fifteen potential categories. That’s an average of $10,000 per successful project, but it’s not exactly a linear curve. Only 4,200 projects have made $10,000 or more—still, a respectable 23%.

Gaming is the biggest category. The reason being Gamers adopted crowdfunding years ahead of writers and readers.

Readers are traditionally anti-technology. It took Kindle more than a decade to be accepted. Even now, given a choice, people prefer paper books to digital books.

But pandemic changed that big time. All of a sudden, there is a surge in eBook and audiobook sales.

However, writers’ participation at Kickstarter is increasing. Several bestselling authors are launching their books on Kickstarter.

Michael Sullivan, a bestselling fantasy and scientific-fiction writer, has successfully run eight campaigns; his last campaign raised $168,000.

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits campaigned to raise $44,700 for printing and publishing his book Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change. 8,211 backers pledged $244,255 to help bring his project to life.

Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo started a project to raise $40,000 to publish Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls — 100 Tales to Dream Big. That humble children’s book packed with 100 bedtime stories about the lives of 100 extraordinary women from past and present, illustrated by 100 female artists from all over the world, raised $675,614, much more than the wildest imagination of the creators. Their second campaign was even bigger, which raised $866,193.

But no one can beat New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s records of raising $6.8M.

Crowdfunding can be a very influential market.

The important thing to keep in mind is that Kickstarter or any other crowdfunding site is one market. A very influential market.

Even a career-defining market.

It can be a complete bust, but only if you treat it lightly and give up too early.

Even if you have a few failed attempts, it doesn’t matter. Where else can you get the word out for your project and get paid in advance?

For many writers, Kickstarter is becoming their launching strategy. Once you have run a few campaigns, you will know how much effort to put into it and how much reward you will get from it.

Fear of the failed campaigns

A false hurdle to starting a Kickstarter campaign and any long-term Kickstarter success is the fear of what happens if your campaign fails to fund. 

There is no doubt that some of your campaigns are going whether you work at them casually or aggressively.

But does it matter?

You fail at submitting your articles to reputed publications.

You fail at getting your manuscript accepted by the traditional publishers several times.

You fail at selling your book on Amazon.

Failures are just the stepping stones to success.

So what is my game plan?

Publishing hasn’t hit the same critical mass in the audience as Gaming has, but the potential is there. 

Every writer who will use crowdfunding will improve the market and bring more audience to the platform.

That is what we need to do.

I intend to study Kickstarter for six months to a year before launching my first campaign. 

During that time, I will support several campaigns both in publishing and other categories. 

All that exposure will help me understand what kind of books do better on Kickstarter.

There is no secret to crowdfunding. Crowdfunding rewards ingenuity and hard work. Writers are familiar with both.

References:

  1. Archived blog on fundavlog.
  2. Crowdfunding Your Fiction: A Best Practice Guide by Loren L. Coleman.
  3. Kickstarter Stats

Disclaimer: I am learning about Crowdfunding. If my understanding is incorrect or the information doesn’t align with facts, let me know, and I will correct those.

Photo by Nicholas Green on Unsplash

I Am Learning About Crowdfunding

Neera

(What I am finding is more interesting than cryptocurrency)

I have always been mesmerized by the concept of crowdfunding. 

Not because of the stories about people raising millions of dollars for their project, but because of many other reasons:

  • It is a great way for creators to get the word out for their projects.
  • To find out if anyone else is interested in their project
  • Get enough money to start the project.
  • Sell before they actually build 
  • Reason to go actually finish and deliver the product.

But my interest had been superficial. I had never gone to a crowdfunding site to find out what kind of projects are being funded, who are floating them, and the benefactors.

Until recently, when I bought a book bundle (where multiple authors get together and release a number of books at low prices), and one of the books was Crowdfunding Your Fiction: A Best Practice Guide by Loren L. Coleman.

The book revived my interest, and I started going to the crowdfunding sites just like a new writer would explore Medium. It is early days but what I have discovered so far is really interesting and encouraging.

What is crowdfunding anyway?

According to Loren Coleman, a veteran in crowdfunding, it is a little bit eBay, a little bit Etsy and a whole lot of speculation. 

You have a project you want to create, a story, a board game, a piece of technology, you post your idea on the crowdfunding market and make a promise. 

If X number of people agree to give you Y dollars each, you will create the item in Z amount of time and send all your backers a copy.

That’s it.

There is no rocket science to it. 

Although it is considered a new concept, the core idea of “the crowd” funding ventures is nothing new.

The history of crowdfunding.

Between 1200 –1800 traders used to finance shipping ventures. The trading expeditions used to be very risky, expensive, and yet exceptionally profitable. Traders would get a share of the profit or bear a part of the loss. This approach would provide shipping companies with a sensible risk management strategy.

In 1713, a young poet, Alexander Pope, raised money to translate the ‘Iliad.’ Alexander Pope was quite keen on translating Homer’s epic poem, ‘The Iliad’, into English but lacked the necessary resources to publish it. He asked donors to pledge two gold guineas to support his work in exchange for having their names published in the book. He was perhaps the first one to run a reward-based crowdfunding campaign and successfully completed a creative project.

In 1783–84, fans crowdfunded Mozart’s tour. Mozart was performing three piano concerts in the Viennese concert hall but didn’t have enough money to travel. He sent an invitation to prospective backers offering concert manuscripts in exchange for financial support for the tour. 176 backers donated enough funds to make his tour happen.

In 1885, New Yorkers donated millions to install the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was a diplomatic gift from the French people to the US. But the efforts to raise funds for its pedestal stalled. When all means failed, Joseph Pulitzer decided to launch a fundraising campaign through the newspaper. More than 160,000 New Yorkers chipped in. $100,000 was raised in five months.

Digital crowdfunding.

The modern digital crowdfunding has its roots in 1996–97 funding of British rock band Marillion. Marillion’s fans raised $60,000 through an internet campaign to support their tour to the United States.

The first online website, “fan-funding,” to raise funds for artists, was launched in 2003. Soon after ArtistShare platform was established where artists could seek funding from their supporters to cover their production costs in exchange for free, early access to their album, song, or another piece of art.

The first peer-to-peer lending platform Zopa kicked off in 2005 in the UK. Zopa was followed by Lending Club and Prosper in the US in 2006.

In 2007, the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board (ASSOB), which is considered the world’s first equity-based crowdfunding platform, was established.

After the 2008 financial crisis, people turned to the internet to seek funding. IndieGoGo and Kickstarter, launched in 2008 and 2009, respectively, made crowdfunding a household word. Many other platforms started, and in just five years, crowdfunding grew 1000%.

To date, people have raised more than $34 billion worldwide using these platforms.

Whatever your reason for raising money, there is a crowdfunding site for you.

Just how much money can be raised by crowdfunding?

In few words, much more than your target.

In 2015, Pebble Technology started a campaign to raise $500,000 to build a smartwatch. They were at the right time at the right place. This was their second Kickstarter campaign which beat their original Kickstarter record from 2012 by over $10 Million dollars. They raised $20,338,986.

The biggest amount ever raised is by Cloud Imperium Games which has raised over $317 million for the development of their video game Star Citizen, breaking a record funding volume for a single project. They have been crowdfunding since 2012, both through crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and their own website.

Travel Tripod by Peak Design, Goal $500,000; Raised $12,143,435.

The World’s Best Travel Jacket, Goal $ 20,000; Raised $9,192,055.

The Veronica Mars Movie Project, Goal $2,000,000; Raised, $5,702,153

Okay, these some of the extra successful projects. 

For every successful crowdfunded project, there are many unsuccessful projects. 

But that is not the bad news.

In fact, the news is mostly good for crowdfunding.

In July 2018, The Conversations (a research-based news and analysis publication) analyzed Startnext, (the biggest German crowdfunding platform), to figure out what was behind crowdfunding’s success? 

At that time Startnext had more than 100,000 pledges to more than 2,000 projects. They gave The Converstaions access to their whole database. 

This is what they found:

  • It was never too late to get a campaign on a successful track — provided its creator manages to get a surge in pledges rolling.
  • Attracting a lot of support in the first day or two was considered a crucial indicator of quality. The Conversations analysis found that even projects that fell short of this average path to success, succeeded. Nearly 90% of the projects that are under track after two-thirds of the campaign still become success stories.
  • Even more strikingly, 40% of severely under-track projects still make it in the end. These are projects that are more than 70% off their targeted amount with a handful of days to the deadline.
  • A large fraction of successful projects (23%) were late bloomers. Meaning the average crowdfunding campaign started off with a healthy amount of pledges, levelled off in the middle of the funding phase, and then got a boost in the last few days.

Their biggest insight, it is never too late with crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is best learned by participation.

Just like Medium or a social media platform, crowdfunding is a community bases activity. It can be best learned by participation. 

There are many platforms. Some are listed below. 

Source: The Best Crowdfunding Sites

Hop on to anyone and participate. Follow and back campaigns. You can invest with as little as $1. There is a merit in doing that because then you will start getting emails about how the campaign is going. 

Build sample campaigns for yourself, even if you don’t intend to launch everyone.

Research by surfing your preferred categories at least weekly and other categories at least monthly. 

Watch the failed campaigns too, you will learn a lot from them.

When a project interests you for content or just for the campaign, back it. Leave a word of encouragement under comments. Encourage good campaigns.

References:

  1. The History of Crowdfunding
  2. Crowdfunding success and failure: what actually happens during a campaign.
  3. Top 20 Most Funded Kickstarter Projects of All Time (2019).

Let me know what your thoughts or experiences are about crowdfunding.

In my next article I will write about crowdfunding your book project.

Photo by alex bracken on Unsplash

I Am Half Way Through My 100 Articles In 100 Days Challenge

Neera

On 13 April 2021, I set myself a challenge, to write 100 articles in 100 days.

I was following Violinist Hilary Hahn, who started a 100 Days of Practice project. She posted a video of her practicing violin on Instagram for 100 days with #100daysofpractice and invited others to join her. 

Austin Kleon (the writer of How To Steal Like an Artist) connected Hilary Hahn’s idea with comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s, “put a cross each day when you have achieved your task/habit and don’t break the chain” and created a PRACTICE/ SUCK LESS GRID.

Image by the author

I am halfway through the grid, and I haven’t broken the chain so far.

I wanted to achieve three things with this challenge.

  1. To get better at article writing.

2. To bring the writing time down from 5–6 hours to 1–2 hours.

3. To build a system to publish every day.

I wanted to write a post to evaluate where I have reached so far.

Did I get better at article writing?

Two years ago, I challenged myself to write 30 articles in 30 days on my website. That single exercise helped me more than anything else. But it was a very demanding challenge, and I couldn’t gather enough courage to start a similar challenge again. 

But I knew I have to if I wanted to get better fast. 

There is nothing better than concentrating on one activity and doing it every single day to get better at it. The improvement is remarkable. 

For one, I do not have the dread of writing an article. When I was writing one or two articles a week, I dreaded the day those were due. I would procrastinate and take a long time to come to the actual task of writing. Now I know I have to write and publish before the day is over. So I get on with the job and do it as quickly as possible.

I am typing much faster. My thoughts are much clearer. And I am writing more and more articles from memory. Writing 1200–1700 words article a day brings clarity to your thought process. You start developing your perspective about things, and you no longer waffle. 

I am much more fluent now than I was 50 days ago. I have been writing on varied topics such as Life, Writing, Learning, Travel, Authorpreneurship, Productivity, Self-Improvement, and even Short Stories. As a result, I have a healthy backlist of articles.

Did I manage to bring the article writing time?

I used to take 7- 8 hours to write an article. The day my article was due, I had to clear the whole day. I will start in the morning and sometimes wouldn’t be able to publish till late at night. I would agonize over the topic, second-doubt everything I wrote, spend hours researching and editing used to take even longer than writing.

Now I write the most articles within 2–3 hours. I use a stopwatch and write in 15-minutes sprints. I have developed a distinct voice. Although I would like to get my writing time down to one hour, I am quite happy with a 1–2 hour time frame.

The articles that need research still take longer than the ones I write from memory. This article is mostly written from memory; hence it is written relatively quickly. I have gone back and forth to get some facts from time to time, but most of it is from my head. 

Nowadays, I don’t research while writing an article, which used to be a big time-waster. So instead, I either do it beforehand or after writing the article. 

When I come up with a topic, I first write down all I know about it. Once I have done that, then I go and do the research. This way I do not get influenced by what other people are saying. I only use research either to strengthen the point I am making or to give an alternate viewpoint.

I can form an outline in my head as I am writing. As soon as I decided to write this article I knew I am assessing myself against what I was set out to achieve when I set this challenge. So three questions became the outline for this article.

I don’t pre-plan topics anymore. I have about 128 drafts sitting in my draft folder, but I rarely use them. Instead, each day, I come up with a topic to write about without much effort. Usually, it is from what I have been reading or something I have already written about, and I have a new take on it. 

When I can come up with a new topic, I feel really excited about it. If I leave it for a day or two, there is no guarantee that I will feel the same level of excitement. So I write and publish on the same day. But I do leave the article for a few hours before editing it. 

Have I been able to build a system to publish every day?

Definitely yes. And it is straightforward.

In fact, publishing becomes a mindless task once you start doing it every day.

It doesn’t have the kind of dread when you publish once or twice a week. 

Initially, I created a small checklist to remind me of the things I must do before publishing.

  1. Run Grammarly and fix all grammar, punctuation, and readability errors. 
  2. Get Microsoft word to read the article back to me one paragraph at a time and remove any superfluous material, tidy the sentences, and get rid of repetitive words.
  3. Insert the feature image and make sure all images have credits.
  4. Insert the footer with CTA (call to action).
  5. Pick the correct tags.
  6. Publish. 
  7. Add to a publication or leave it on my profile.

After a while, I didn’t even need this checklist. It has become second nature. 

I stopped bothering to send my articles to big publications because they take a long time to respond. Since my aim is to publish every day, I couldn’t wait for them to get back to me. 

When I started with Medium last year, getting accepted by a publication was a big thing. But getting into publications was hard. Publications receive far too many submissions than they can publish. Besides, Medium has changed its policy regarding publications, and many big publications are closing down.

It seems like I have almost achieved what I set out to achieve with this challenge. But the icing on the cake is extra achievements. Here is a list of them.

Other Achievements

  • I won a $500 bonus from Medium in early May.
  • Many of my articles are chosen for further distribution.
  • I won 300+ new followers. 
  • Editors of many publications have invited me to submit my articles to their publications. 
  • Several people subscribed to my newsletter A Whimsical Writer.
  • Surprisingly, my most read articles are travel articles.
  • I published five fictional stories which were well accepted.

What to expect in the next 50 days?

It will be nice to become a member of the $100-month club. However, I am not holding my breath for it. It will happen in due course, and while I am learning and growing each day, I am happy.

I want to write more series, like the three article series I did on How To Write Stories From Everyday Life. I can provide much more value with these. 

I would also like to collaborate with other like-minded writers who are committed like me, to help each other grow. 

It will be nice to see my follower numbers grow. 

Last but not least…

A big thank you to all those who read my articles and kept cheering for me. Without those claps and helpful comments, it is tough to keep going. 

So please keep them coming.

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash