(Read Parts 1 and 2 of this three-part series online.)

3: Production and publication

With the book hitting its crowdfunding target, it was time to look at production and publication. We had a fantastic copyeditor, Hayley, who carried out what Unbound called a developmental edit. She spotted lots of errors, some quite structural, and did a superb job.

We had a new editor, and Unbound decided to change the title. They felt Kitten on a Fatberg would be hard to market, and so it became Work in Progress. This was a bit of a wrench, as we were so used to the title (named after one of the character’s eccentric poems). Many supporters were fond of it too. But Unbound was confident in its decision, and we embraced it.

With COVID, the publication date was pushed back several months, which worried us as it meant our supporters would have had to wait almost two years for their copies. (They stayed loyal and patient, but apparently people do sometimes ask for their money back.)

When the books arrived at last, I received a couple of hundred copies which we had pre-ordered with our article payments. This turned out to be a good decision (we could have chosen to just add to the pot in the form of lump sums), as it meant we had review copies to send out (something we discovered Unbound doesn’t do) and more stock to sell. We signed COVID-friendly bookplates and arranged a couple of launch events: one outside our local book shop, and one in our local library.

Unbound organized a blog tour and got Work in Progress onto The Pigeonhole, an online book club where readers get advance sight of new books and can comment as they read. The Pigeonholers loved the book, and many wrote reviews on their own blogs, Goodreads, Amazon, and elsewhere.

The book has had great reviews and ratings, but not quite achieved the reach we hoped for. Disappointingly, we couldn’t get any reviews in the national papers, which still makes quite a difference in the UK. But we did appear in various book podcasts, and got lots of nice comments on Twitter. We have over 50 reviews on Amazon, where the book averages 4.7 out of 5.

A few months after the launch of Work in Progress, my first solo novel, The Wolf in the Woods, came out with Sandstone Press (in the interim I acquired an agent and an additional publisher). So I was able to cross-promote the two titles.

We’re busy on a follow-up, about a harmless UFO cult that’s running out of members.

So is crowdfunding for you? Here are some pros and cons:

Pros

–    Unbound publishes a real mix of titles – if you can find a market for your niche idea, you have a good chance.
–    Good for people with a strong social media presence and/or marketing background.
–    Good if you have some profile or a following in your area already. Areas such as gaming and progressive political and social topics always seem to do well, too.

Cons

–    Not ideal if you don’t like social media or the promotional hustle.
–    Harder to do if you are a complete unknown and have to build profile from scratch.
–    Can be a lengthy lead time from start to finish – requires stamina and persistence.

Read Parts 1 and 2 of this 3-Part piece at FundsforWriters.com.

Read more of Dan Brotzel’s articles on writing fiction and content at https://danielbrotzel.medium.com/