Welcome, Spotlight Visitors!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

LiveJournal is featuring crowdfunding in the LJ Spotlight this week.  We welcome visitors to explore this community and its resources.  We have arranged a weekful of interesting new posts about crowdfunding for you to enjoy.  Membership is open and all members may post here; please join in the fun.


What is crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding, or cyberfunded creativity, is an alternative business model that connects creative people with online audiences.  It includes such things as webserials, cyberbusking, artist jams, and many other options.  They're all ways for great projects to manifest and find their fan base, and for viewers to find projects worth their support.  crowdfunding exists to explore this business model and connect the people who enjoy it.


What can you do here?
If you're a writer, artist, musician, or other creator then you can use this community to promote your project(s) and to discuss how to run a cyberfunded project.  If you're a patron or viewer, this is a place for you to talk about your favorite projects, find new ones, chat with creators, and meet other patrons.  Ask how things work, read about what folks are doing, join the discussions.  Have fun!

To browse some crowdfunded projects, check out the Links list in the left sidebar.
To read some archived posts about how crowdfunding works, visit the Memories.
For a sneak peek at what's planned for this week, see the Spotlight schedule.


What if you need help?
This is a "safe and sane" venue. Artistic and literary tastes can vary widely, so please respect each other and behave like responsible folks.  If someone acts obnoxious and won't quit, or there's a gush of spam, or something else goes wrong -- you can contact one of the maintainer/moderator folks, mainly janetmiles or ysabetwordsmith who plan to keep an eye on the community during Spotlight week.

If something jams with LiveJournal, which can happen in Spotlights with the high traffic, try checking back after an hour or so.  If there's still a problem, you can use the regular LiveJournal support methods.

If you have a question about crowdfunding, projects, patronage, etc. then there are a couple options.  One is to watch for a post on the topic; we'll be covering a lot of the main points in essays or discussions this week.  You can comment there.  The other is to make a post yourself; feel free to ask about anything related to crowdfunding.  Other newcomers are probably wondering the same thing, and someone here probably has an answer or opinion, so go right ahead.

On patronage...

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

For the last year or so, I've been pleased to serve as a patron for the work of ysabetwordsmith . I do so for a number of reasons. First, this is one of the ways that I try to keep creativity alive, especially when so many have to turn away from creative endeavours. Second, the relationship between us, as artist and patron, is one that has been fostered to provide mutual benefit and friendship. Finally, and perhaps most important, by not only giving action to my creative input (i.e., taking prompts for poetry), but also by inspiring and encouraging my own literary output, I'm allowed to taste a little of that creative magic.

( Read more... )

Edit: laffingkat  raised the excellent point that I neglected to invite others to express their own reasons for why they enjoy being patrons. In my defense, just look a the time stamp for when this post was originally written.  XD  So does anyone share the same kind of thoughts on patronage as I? Does anyone have any differing ideas? I'm also curious as to how many people in this crowdfunding scene are mostly patrons.

Sharing a World For Fun... and Profit

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Shared worlds can be tremendous fun, as anyone who has dabbled in fanfiction can tell you. In some ways it is easier than working from scratch, because you begin your writing or artistic work in an established framework, and in some ways, it is more challenging, because you are constrained by that world, to respect its rules, history and established characters. It can be wildly inspirational, and gives a great deal of license to explore the 'what if?s' and 'what thens?' that can be left at the 'end' of stories.

Torn World was opened just 18 months ago, inviting new authors and artists to come play in a richly detailed science fantasy world. We have since published 158 stories, 50 poems, 116 pieces of artwork, and 116 meta-fiction articles. I could write volumes on some of the sticky issues we've faced presenting this volume of material in an accessible way, managing submissions and maintaining a continuous canon timeline, defining character ownership and control, and figuring how to run a diverse group of distinct, creative people.

But today, I want to focus on a topic near and dear to all of us: money.

How do you make money with a shared world? Torn World has been busy exploring several different methods!

( Show me the money! )

Let’s Discuss How Creators Can Attract Customers and Patrons

[laffingkat.livejournal.com]

I’ve been a patron of various crowdfunded projects for quite a few years now, so I thought it might be fun to start a discussion of what attracts customers and patrons.

 Personally, I tend to discover new projects because I’ve heard about them from a friend or read about them on a community like this one, so active social networking is probably important in generating interest. But to really draw people in, I think you need to call attention to whatever is unique about your project. Do you have a story or an album with an interesting theme? Do you offer readings with a deck of cards that you designed yourself? Tell us about it, and make sure that at least some of your work is available free so that new visitors can check it out.

 Once you’re starting to attract an audience, how do you get more of them to tip, donate, or buy? Try offering incentives. For her poetry fishbowls (http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/730515.html), ysabetwordsmith posts extra free poems if she gets enough donations, or a new prompter or donor. Among other creative incentives, haikujaguar once posted a lullaby that she had sung in character (http://haikujaguar.livejournal.com/832001.html). meeksp refines drawings that get enough comments or donations.

 Also, don’t overlook the importance of interacting with the audience—I usually purchase from or tip only those who I actually know, or at least think that I’d like to get to know. And even moreso if I have a chance to be involved in the project in some way, or feel that I’m contributing to a community. Past conversations here (http://crowdfunding.livejournal.com/276686.html) indicate that I’m not the only one who feels that way.

 If you have a crowdfunded project, what techniques have you used to attract customers and patrons that worked well? (Of course, it can also be useful to discuss what hasn’t worked well.) Do you provide a tip or donation button? Do you ask existing customers to link to your site or post product reviews, and if so, do you provide incentives for those who do?

 If you support crowdfunded projects or think that you might like to, what attracts you to particular projects? What makes you more inclined to support them, monetarily or otherwise? Do tip incentives encourage you to give more?

Nightlights is Go!

[chrysoula.livejournal.com]

 Hi there! My serial fiction Nightlights launches today! This is the landing page for now. And this is the first post: Jerk Bingo. There's also a LJ feed at  farmerofdreams .

It'll be updated Mon/Weds/Fri. It's a pre-plotted paranormal YA story with lots of action and an undercurrent of romance. It's designed to be easily read in a news feed reader; there's a link on the right side of the page, just above a Donate button ;-).

While it's pre-plotted it's being written as an ongoing thing. When the main story is completed, I plan on taking audience requests (possibly as a crowdfunding exercise) to write extra scenes -- the equivalent of deleted scenes on a DVD, except the audience gets to choose who's in them and when they take place.

I'm really excited about this and I hope you'll check it out!

 

Crowdfunding in the Spotlight

[ysabetwordsmith]

This week's cool news is that LJ-Crowdfunding is featured in LiveJournal Spotlight. We have lined up a batch of interesting posts about different crowdfunding topics to entertain visitors coming to us from the LJ Home page. If you're interested in connecting creative people with their audience online, now is a good time to drop by and see what we're doing. So far, we have "Welcome, Spotlight Visitors!" from me, "On patronage" by the_vulture, "Sharing a World for Fun ... and Profit" by Ellen Million, "Let's Discuss How Creators Can Attract Customers and Patrons" by laffingkat, and "Nightlights Is Go!" by chrysoula.

News from Mikaspace

[meeksp.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite parts of running a crowdfunding project is the inspiration that grows from interaction with, and among members of my audience, and there has been a contagion of creativity surrounding my sketches this week!

Shine On is a sketch based on a poem of the same name by ysabetwordsmith, which was inspired by audience prompts during her latest Poetry Fishbowl. The poem and the sketch in turn inspired siege to write Holy Walking Warrior.

Diapering Dragons comes from a setting created by aldersprig, and prompted a question from kelkyag about dragon sizes, which evolved into an unplanned worldbuilding discussion. Both aldersprig and I are now planning follow up pieces in response to ideas that popped up in the comments :)

Introduction

[mikalay.livejournal.com]

Hello,
I'm Marie.
I saw this comm in the spotlight, and it harkens so much to what I've been ranting about to my other artist friends of mine that I thought I ought to join and learn something from people who have put much more thought and work and experimentation into it than I thought possible. It sounds so fascinating and inspiring and amazing. Plus I didn't even realize I'd already been participating by playing in One-Card-Tarot-Draws!

I'm a visual artist, and dancer, and sort-of-writer.
As far as art - of geez - there are paintings, and line art, and digital art, and collage art, and art journaling - and the point where all of those things intersect.
And then there's bellydance (in my other LJ: miischelle ). I perform mostly, and also teach occasionally.
And the writing is just sort of experimental at the moment.

But what a wondeful idea! I'm sure I'll be lurking for awhile, and asking questions from time to time, looking for ideas and inspiration.
It's so nice to meet you all.