Author, Musician, Editor, Writing Coach
Think about what influences you when you browse for a book…do you read the book’s description, maybe read a passage or two, and check out the back cover or inside for reviews? And are you a critical reviewer of reviewers? Do you look at the credentials of the reviewers to see how “weighty” or valid they appear to be?
If you don’t, you’re atypical, according to the 2015 Canadian Book Buyers Report by BookNet Canada. Read More
So you know those Commandments, right? The one about adultery? God definitely meant it was a sin. Definitely. So imagine the impact when publishers of a new Bible in 1631 accidentally left out the word not in that particular commandment. Proud and loud, it advocated, nay, required that its readers fornicate away with those who weren’t their spouses by saying, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Oops.
Developing and then articulating a clear vision for your campaign is essential. You may already have a specific project in mind, like the development of a book trailer, or travel to do research for your historical project. Perhaps your goal is more general, such as paying for production costs for your book.
No matter what is your goal, it will be unique, and it will have a story. Your job is to identify and tell that story. There are four traits your story should have to help convince your communities of interest to support your campaign goals. Think of these four Cs when you’re writing your campaign story. I’ve used some examples from one of my favorite recent (and wildly successful) campaigns to which I contributed, Thin Ice and Physiclo.
When I was a pre-teen, we moved out of the city to a rural acreage. We did this because my brother had died tragically at 19 in a car accident, and my mother couldn’t bear living in the house where he’d been raised. It was meant to be a fresh start for our family, and it was full of new adventures. The first thing that happened was that my sister and I got horses. The property housed a large dog kennel operation, which we inherited. It became the focus of our lives for the next seven years.
So I grew up in Kansas at a time when the state was Republican, but had a Democrat as its governor. Is it any wonder I was politically conflicted? The older I get the more I realize that left and right party ideals are not nearly as black and white as they used to be. And in those decades, the traditional two parties have devolved into a spectrum of grays, like center Republicans (are they conservative Democrats?) and other splinters like the Tea Party that some describe as just a smidge left of the Ku Klux Klan. So these days I define myself more by what I feel is right and wrong to me rather than by a party affiliation. Read More
Why me, Lord? Maybe you just received divorce papers. Or you broke your favorite cut glass serving bowl from your grandmother (not that I just did that), or were rejected when you asked for something. Whatever the disappointment, sometimes you just need to throw yourself a feelings feté.
originally written for the Saskatchewan Community Futures Development Corporation
In a nutshell, as many people now know, crowdfunding is the internet-based financing approach to acquire “pennies from many” to support all kinds of people, projects, ideas, initiatives, causes, companies, communities, creations and inventions.
I’ve been both a campaigner and a contributor to crowdfunding campaigns for a few years now, so it often surprises me that people still ask the question, “Why should I contribute to a campaign?”
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So two weekends ago I had a rare gift: I got to spend two days in New York City, where I lived for a few years more than three decades ago. I had only gone back a couple of times after I moved away, and even that was still 20 years ago. A lot of living was packed into that short time.
So this is a big topic for me. I’m probably going to write five posts on it…that’s how many different reasons I’ve come up with so far for why in God’s name we don’t ask for help when we need it. To ask for help is to make yourself vulnerable in a moment. To admit a lack of something, a chink in the armor of your otherwise amazing-ness, is like, well, it can be embarrassing. And scary. In this first post, I need to set this all up. Let’s talk a bit about predictive science, the brain, generalization and melting butter.