You may not know who Seth Godin is. In fact, you probably don't. Why? Because he writes marketing books, and let's face it, most of the world doesn't care about marketing. But to me, and to others in my genre, Seth Godin is the Stephen King of our industry.
Yesterday Mr. Godin made news by announcing a new Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for his new book to be released later in the year (2012). The book, entitled The Icarus Deception, is about "the mythology of success (and failure) and how our economy rewards people who are willing to stand up and stand out."
And it appears that people REALLY want to support him.
According to the story on Mashable, "Less than three hours later the campaign hit its funding goal of $40,000, Godin announced in an update appended to the campaign. By 11:00 a.m., funding had passed the $90,000 mark."
Update, at the time of this writing, it's well over $100,000, and frankly, by the time you read this it could be at a million. We shall see.
Crowdfunding for authors certainly isn't new. Personally I've successfully used a crowdfunding campaign to raise over $35,000 for a series of books I'm writing, all back in 2011.
Here's a video I did with WebProNews about how I did it. In this video you will learn some of the crowdfunding tips and tricks you need to try it on your own.
Unlike Mr. Godin, most authors don't already have the massive platform and brand awareness. Therefore, it makes it extra difficult to obtain a traditional publishing contract where you would get paid a "signing bonus" to write your book. But crowdfunding can change all that. An aspiring author can now work to create a crowdfunding campaign about a book they want to write, and enlist the massive power of the social Web to help him or her pre-fund the book.
In my book, How I Raised Over $35,000 In 30 Days, I talk about the ways every author can start and maintain a successful crowdsourcing campaign.
Want more crowdfunding advice? The famous blogger Brian Clark from Copyblogger.com wrote a piece entitled "Three Ways to Fund Your Online Startup Without Investors" in his Entreproducer blog series.
It appears this crowdfunding fad for authors isn't going away anytime soon.