

Ask HN: Any Talented Writers Here? - rosstamicah

We have a startup launching soon which seeks to help authors raise money via "crowd funding" for their early stage novels. It's like Kickstarter for authors. We're currently looking for great writing samples to post initially on the site. Early stage stories welcome!<p>Please send writing samples to samples@storyfunded.com or visit http://www.storyfunded.com for more information.
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AmberShah
Love this idea. Would definitely love to fund some of my fav authors, esp ones
that post on free sites in spare time. I am wondering how this would work
though. As a reader I'd totally do it for an author/excerpt I was psyched
about.

As an author I'm wondering how useful it would really be. After all, if you
already have a large following, getting a publishing deal would be pretty
easy. And if you don't have a large following, then you're getting little to
no money through the site. Is the site designed to actually help you gather an
audience, or is it expected that people will divert their existing audience
from other means (social media, etc)

I'm assuming if I give money I'd get the book for free (at least digital
version). And how much would I have to give to get this. Would I get anything
else? Like maybe a "funders-only epilogue" or something?

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jeromec
Great questions. Authors of any level can use StoryFunded to develop a
promising book. It's particularly suited to talented, but unknown authors
since they can gain both exposure and finances to aid book development.

Rewards are offered in contribution levels, and every author has a thank you
page which lists all contributors.

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wolfrom
Have you spent any time at places like <http://www.fanfiction.net/> ?

My wife is always saying that there are many authors on there that ought to
focus on getting non-derivative work published (if they aren't already).

I imagine authors could use pseudonyms for their fundraising?

~~~
AmberShah
A few more suggestions I thought of:

literotica.com is similar to fanfiction.net except focused on erotica and some
crossover into romance or other. Some of the authors there have published
their stuff (from the site and otherwise) through regular publishers. I have
personally polled certain author's profile waiting for the next installment of
a novella, and since they are doing it on the side (for free) it can take
awhile. That is what I first thought of when I read about storyfunded, that
these authors could use that to get some $$ to write the stories, and thus
justify spending the time to write the stories (the money made selling it
after the fact would just be gravy)

In case you haven't heard of it, Absolute Write is a really popular forum for
writers (<http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php>) And of course, all
these writers are readers and they are already into the community-support
spirit since they are on a forum. If I were you, I'd totally take out an ad on
there and/or get active on their forum (not spamming, of course, just
providing help with your site in your signature)

I signed up as an author and the email I got said samples should be 10 pages.
This seems like a lot. Of course, some could be that long, but it seems odd to
make that the average. Not just as a writer, but as a reader, I am not going
to take the time to get invested in a story 10 pages worth when I know there
is nothing coming. Unless you do partial chapter releases? That would be cool.
Not sure if you've heard of it, but Dear Author has a "First Page Saturdays"
where they, obviously, provide the first page of a novel and people can
critique or whatever. It's pretty easy to decide whether you'd keep reading
from just that much alone (try it and see:
<http://dearauthor.com/category/features/first-page-features/>) and btw, I'd
have funded a couple of those myself...

~~~
jeromec
This is fantastic advice. Thanks a lot! :)

I will definitely look into literotica.com, and absolutewrite.com. I have
noticed romance novels seem to be quite popular on writing sites.

As for posting around 10 pages, we certainly will be looking to find the
optimum number of pages to post. I agree posting even fewer pages may suffice.
However, some contribution levels will be $5, $10, or higher. We feel people
donating higher amounts will want to see a little more of the story's
direction. We do allow authors to release and edit writing as they see fit.
Ultimately, the amount posted and read is determined by authors and readers,
not us.

Again, this is all excellent advice. Thanks!

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sambeau
This is a really nice idea (and one, as a part-time writer with a very
unfinished novel, I have been thinking about). My worry is that it would be
hard to raise the ~$50,000 many authors would need to be able to be able to
give up work and complete the tome.

~~~
jeromec
We anticipate authors will be able to raise several thousand dollars for
promising book projects. Very promising ones certainly may raise $50K or more.

Crowd funding is proving to be a very powerful fundraising model. For example,
the record, so far as I know it, is currently $190K for an iPad stand listing
on Kickstarter.com:

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jay-design/padpivot-
lap-...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jay-design/padpivot-lap-and-desk-
stand-for-your-ipadtablet-or)

Edit: Also, successfully raising funds is just the start, as this would be a
great indicator of ready market demand for the book.

~~~
pbj
Not even close to this one :)

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-
lunati...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunatik-
multi-touch-watch-kits)

I love the idea for your concept though!

~~~
jeromec
Wow, thanks for the correction! :)

I thought I heard about a project nearing one million dollars, but the iPad
listing was what came to mind.

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jeromec
clickable: <http://www.storyfunded.com>

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joeld42
You should be posting in places that writers hang out, not here.

That said, maybe I'll send you a chapter. :)

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jeromec
We're working with those places as well. However, for some reason I had a gut
feeling any writers hanging out on HN would be the kind of writers worth
connecting with ;)

Please do send in your writing!

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revorad
How do you make money? Do you take a cut?

~~~
jeromec
Like Kickstarter.com our site earns 5% of funds raised. We may also assist
authors with later book sales.

