The Sensationa G-Girl

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

New on Kickstarter is this comic project, The Sensational G-Girl.

This project covers funding for production and advertising costs for SENSATIONAL G-GIRL #1, a full-color comic book from Heroic Publishing, featuring a book-length, 24 page G-Girl adventure. The first issue is currently scheduled for a Spring 2011 release, which means production needs to get going in earnest right away.
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G-Girl's real name is Billi Jayne Jensen (aka "Beej"). She's a scion of the Olympian gods, a great-granddaughter of Zeus himself. She's a third-generation superhero. Her granddaughter was the original Giant, her father was Giant's successor, and even her mother (Nemesis Girl) and twin "brother" Will (the current Giant) have superhero identies of their own. Beej is extremely strong, incredibly tough, remarkably athletic, and has some limited ability to channel electrical energies through her magical G-shaped costume.

Check the sidebar for a very nice set of donor perks -- comic book collectors will get a kick out of that.

Tags for Money-Related Matters

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

crowdfunding has several tags relating to money, sales, etc.

Cyberfunded Creativity -- Use this to mark posts that deal with cyberfunded creativity/crowdfunding as a business model, or individual CFC projects that people can visit and support.

Economics -- This covers broad issues of finance, the bookkeeping side of home business, national trends, and so forth.  Frex, sometimes haikujaguar's series about "The Three Micahs" gets tagged this way.

Print On Demand -- POD publishing creates one book at a time when a customer wants to buy it.  Some POD publishers let the author buy in big batches for a discount.  red_trillium requested the addition of this tag, so I added it.  I know plenty of other folks here use POD and I wanted to make sure you'd see the new tag.

Shopping -- Any post about stuff you're selling can go here: jewelry, coffee cups, prints, etc.  Lots of people use sites such as Cafe Press, Etsy, Zazzle, etc. to market their crowdfunded projects. 

The etiquette of pimping stuff in this community:

1) People come here to look for projects, so it's okay to pimp your crowdfunded goods and services.  Don't overdo it, but updates for ongoing projects are okay.  (See also our Project Update tag.)  As a general guideline... For erratically updated or monthly projects, pimp when new material appears.  Weekly projects can be pimped weekly, although that's probably best reserved for popular ones; otherwise once or twice a month is probably enough.  Daily or otherwise very frequently updated projects should not be pimped more than weekly unless something unusual is going on.  Frex, I usually mention my monthly Poetry Fishbowl in this community.

2) People come here to look for ideas in crowdfunding models, so highlight the details of crowdfunding when you pimp your stuff.  If you want to try something that nobody has tried before, that's okay, but you'll have a higher chance of success if you explain how it relates to the overall concept of crowdfunding.

3) You can help put the "crowd" in "crowdfunding" by pimping projects that aren't yours but that you support.  This includes linking to things on someone else's LJ (check to make sure it's not Friends-locked), on another blog service, an independent website, or one of the big crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.  Long-running projects may be updated over time, especially if comments indicate audience interest here.

4) Followup reports are welcome!  If you do a print sale, fishbowl, icon day, etc. that you pimp here, please consider posting a followup report or a link to such a report on your own LJ so that people can see how it turned out.  This helps show what approaches work well.  It also gives you an opportunity to thank  your sponsors.

Cyberfunded Photography

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

A majority of the projects in this community are some flavor of literature.  There are some arts and crafts projects too; and webcomics are a mainstay of cyberfunded creativity although not heavily represented here.  Rather new, with only a few projects so far, is the use of crowdfunding with photography.

So far I know of three people here who are doing this, and we're taking different approaches ...

* I started earlier this year.  I post a lot of photos, mostly nature, in my LJ.  They include both artistic and casual documentary shots.  Some of these posts have an end blurb indicating what else I have that I could post, along with prices.  I modeled this after several people's sketchbook projects, so you can get two extra photos posted for $1.  Here's an example of my crowdfunded photography.

* red_trillium is exploring various possibilities with crowdfunded photography.  The pictures tend toward the fine art kind with people and objects.  So far there are books, calendars, and other items.  The main LJ includes some photos plus discussion of photography and crowdfunding.

* quennessa does fine art/fashion photography with live models and interesting props.  She sells high-quality prints and has also used crowdfunding sites to raise money for the photo shoots needed to launch a new project.  Her LJ includes photos and discussions.

If anyone else is involved in cyberfunded photography, I'd love to hear about what you are doing.  Other folks are welcome to explore the above projects and share your thoughts on the various business models.

Some Photos, A Book and Some Thoughts

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

I'm new to the whole crowdfunding experience. I've dropped coins in busker's hats on occasion but when it comes to online crowdfunding I've been mostly sitting back and checking it all out, with occasional coins dropped in virtual hats.

I'm a photographer. I've been trying to figure out how to build up a fan base, trying to figure out how to get my art in front of the public, trying to figure out what my art is worth, what people want and how to sell my images.

I'm still trying to figure it out.

For now, however, I've put together my 3rd book on Blurb called Broken Memories: A Memento Mori of Waikumete Cemetery. This one is a photo-essay taken in the older sections of Waikumete (New Zealand's largest cemetery) where the graves have suffered from time, weather and vandalism. The electronic age has made us more mobile and has given us infinite distractions to fill our days. It is easy to get caught in the internet's fast pace and semblance of immortality. Where does honoring the reminder of a loved one's passing fit in our lives in this electronic age of fast food and fast living. I have the preview option turned on so if you are interested in seeing the images feel free to browse.

This is my 3rd book I've uploaded to Blurb. My other two have turned out well, the images rendered well and the books professional-looking. If you have a book you want to create, especially one with images, I'd recommend you take a look at their site. I did have a few hiccups with their Booksmart tool when I first tried to use it but that was mostly because of me, not the tool, & I did have get help from their support when I contacted them.

Like any Print On Demand, you have to keep in mind there can sometimes be quality control issues but I haven't had to return any yet (haven't put in huge orders yet either). You also have to do your own marketing. It's a possibility though, if you want to put together something and either give it as a gift (trust me, mine went over well with family last Christmas) or if you want to see your projects come to life.

I'm happy to talk about my experiences with Blurb, drop a comment. And of course, feel free to check out my most recent book!