By Dan Brotzel

I’m the co-author of a new comic novel, Kitten on a Fatberg, which is currently crowdfunding on Unbound.

Unbound uses a different model to the traditional publishing one. Essentially, a book’s author(s) have to raise a certain amount of through pre-ordered copies before the book goes into production.

Once that happens, Unbound handles promotion and distribution. And because the publisher has covered its costs up front, the payment deal isn’t a royalty percentage but a 50:50 profit share. Another advantage of this approach is that the publisher gets to see what sort of demand there is for a particular title, and who the market is.

At the time of writing, we’re currently 31 percent funded. Here are some of the many things we’ve learned along the way…

Don’t mistake crowdfunding for vanity publishing. Getting accepted by Unbound is just as tough as getting accepted by a conventional publisher. You need to make sure that your submission is as ready as possible.

Understand your potential base. With crowdfunding, you have two target audiences – those who know YOU (family, friends, co-workers) and those interested in the book (who may not know you at all). Focus your efforts on the first group.

Work your network. Beyond your inner circle, you have lots more connections you could approach: former colleagues, old school friends, social media contacts. These people are all easier to interest than strangers because you are a known quantity, so long as you approach them with care.

Get your approach right. There is no one right way to approach people, but a personalised message is essential. Some education about crowdfunding may be useful. Humour can be effective. Above all, nothing too hard sell.

Don’t beg. Avoid framing your ask as if you are seeking donations. You are selling a book, not asking for a handout.

Avoid the temptation to batch-and-blast. Don’t just email all your contacts in one go. Far better to send a handful of emails every day, topped and tailed with a personal message.

Explore press and PR options. In our case we’ve written a series of articles on writers’ blogs, in literary magazines, and in the local press. Where there’s a fee for an article, we put that towards our target too.

Be savvy about social media. Find different ways to spread you message. Ask for influencers in your world to help spread the word. If you’ve been published by online litmags, for example, editors are usually only too happy to share news of your book. Imagery and video play very well in social media too.

Work those nudges. People often need to hear a message three or four times till they act on it. So find ways to subtly remind people about your book – add a message to your email signature, share updates on Facebook, put up flyers in local cafes and bookshops – the more imaginative your ideas, the better.

Be patient. Crowdfunding is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be days when you get flurries of interest – especially near the beginning – and days when nothing happens, despite your best efforts. All you can do is keep plugging away, keep emailing, keep thinking of new ways to reach people…

BIO: Dan Brotzel (Twitter handle: @brotzel_fiction) is co-author of a new comical novel, Kitten on a Fatberg (Unbound). As a reader of this blog, you can pre-order Kitten on a Fatberg for a 10% discount – simply quote promo code KITTEN10