Is there a statistician in the house?

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

haikujaguar has a thread about the difficulty of getting reviews for crowdfunded projects, in this case the hardcopy edition of The Admonishments of Kherishdar (which is some of the best sociological science fiction I've ever read). Anyhow, one of the comments raised the point that people may think of crowdfunding as: "Wow, she found 60 friends to give her a buck, they probably all just wanted to prop up her self-esteem."

Observation of actual crowdfunding projects indicates that this is not true. Sometimes good projects don't attract much if any funding. But I have yet to see a bad project attract funding. I've seen some that weren't to my personal taste, but they still had some merit and I could usually spot what was attracting that audience. People just don't seem to donate unless they really like a project. So far, this publishing model seems to perform better as a "gatekeeper" than conventional publishing, in terms of indicating things that are worth a consumer's time and money.

I think it would be tremendously useful to collect and compile this information in some fashion. Math is not my forte, so somebody else would need to chip in the relevant skills. Some things that might be useful to track would include how many projects have made at least some money, how long a project runs before attracting donations, typical size of donation, how many donors a project has, how a project's pay rate compares to conventional pay rates, and the project's technical quality. Some of those would be hard to get, because not all creators keep records and some people are shy about saying how much money they make. But maybe if people got involved we could figure out something that would work for enough creators to generate some useful numbers.

Then once we had some numbers, someone could write a summary of the crowdfunding business model and use those numbers to support relevant statements, such as the observation that donations tend to indicate a high-quality project. Aim to fit that -- or a version of it -- on one paper page and it could be included with a review copy sent to magazines or a press kit sent to bookstores: "Here's what I'm doing, why it works, and how it will benefit you." This could be made available to any creator wanting to use it for promoting their work.

Thoughts? Further ideas? Is there a statistician in the house?

Comments

Hmmm

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Okay, you just gave me an idea that others could copy, I think. I can't do this for everyone, but if I can get the data for me, others can do so for themselves and whoever has the number-crunching ability can do a chart or graph or something.

As I am just starting out and I have found out that spreadsheets are my friend, I think I am going to set up a couple of spreadsheets to track contributors and what is contributed. In this I am going to keep track of not only monetary donations, but, if I am left the information, who/what ups the signal and helpful critiques that are left.

I will try to get a workable spreadsheet hashed out within the next few weeks and post (I hope) the copy of it either her or somewhere others can use it.

Does that sound like something usable/useful?

Re: Hmmm

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes! This sounds very useful. Thanks everso for volunteering to share the spreadsheet.

I am not good with spreadsheets. Instead I just MS Word to write out the information. My main cyberfunded creativity project is the series of Poetry Fishbowls running once a month in The Wordsmith's Forge. People can sponsor an individual poem or make a general donation.

These are the things I track in each month:
Hours (when Fishbowl is open)
# of Poems Written
# of Comments
# of People Sending Prompts
# of First-time Prompters
# of First-time Donors
$ of Highest Poem Bought
Prompters (who they are)
Sponsors (who they are)

$ General Donations
$ Poem Sponsorships
Total $ Received
$/Hour

# of Poems Posted Online

I also track some annual stuff, like k-fans (who donate $100 or more in a year). Then at the end of the year, I use the charting tool to compare some of the more important data lines (poems written, total donations, etc.) so I can see how they relate to each other.

Different people and projects may need slightly different tracking but there should still be a fair amount of overlap -- particularly for projects that are similar. If there are sample spreadsheets and so forth available, that should make it easier for people to decide how they want to keep records for a new project.

I definitely recommend keeping records for your own use, even if you don't feel comfortable sharing the data. It helps identify what works and what doesn't so you can make your project more effective, entertaining, and profitable.

Re: Hmmm

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

This is perfect! Your categories are what I can use to start with and perhaps tweak it a bit for my purposes and show others where it can be tweaked.

I can probably have it set by week, month or year and, since you can add more pages to spreadsheets, have them all in one place.

And I used to think that some of the silly jobs I had were useless! Ha!

Re: Hmmm

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Glad I could help.

>>Your categories are what I can use to start with and perhaps tweak it a bit for my purposes and show others where it can be tweaked.<<

Maybe include options for different ways to do a particular thing? I often describe options in my recipes and people really seem to appreciate that.

>>I can probably have it set by week, month or year and, since you can add more pages to spreadsheets, have them all in one place.<<

Good idea. *ponder* Some people may also be tracking by project or subproject rather than on a time scale.

>>And I used to think that some of the silly jobs I had were useless! Ha!<<

I've often been surprised at how many different skills I can carry over from one place to another. I've used teaching skills for editing, editing skills for writing, writing skills for ritual design, etc. Few jobs are ever totally useless.

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

I know with Fairyland a couple of people have posted reviews, and many have made comments about it in their journals--but part of the problem with in progress stories is that it's hard to review something incomplete.

With haikujaguar's case, it's hard to break the self-publishing stigma to be reviewed in traditional outlets. I do know a LOT of reviewers, but it's not always easy to get them to look--and soometimes their companies have set in stone policies against. However, the next time she has a book out, she should email me. It's just barely possible I could get her a big review.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

My last book just came out two months ago... I think it's more unusual than the next couple of projects I'm working on, which is why I'm disappointed in the lack of reviews. Would it be possible to have that one seen instead?

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

Email me? catherynneATgmail.com

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

I second the use of spreadsheets as well, since I am also not good at math (but I am a historian by training - so I do encounter stats if you count in empirical evidence...)

For me, I am only starting out and I have a couple of donors at the moment. My projects - at my own estimation - are not 'rah-rah-good' but at least, they are live and are at least garnering some form of interesting. The trick is: How are we going to monitor the level of interest? That would factor into the tracking. As I have noticed, there are people who would donate and there are people who would comment. Then again, there are the people who read but remain silent (the silent majority) - how are we going to factor them in?

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

BTW - that is one thing I like about WordPress, it tracks the number of hits/visitors per, well, right now for me it is day, but week month and/or year. Those stats will also help to gague interest in your project and perhaps give you an idea of where you can go to get people interested in your site.

I have noticed that on Make A Wish Upon Tomorrow (http://ladyqkat.wordpress.com/), they also track where you got visitors from and how many folks clicked on links from your blog.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I like that feature, and use it for Gaiatribe: Ideas for a Thinking Planet. It can be very useful to compare days/weeks/months to identify peaks.

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

Yep, I use the stats too. Nifty contraption. :)

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>For me, I am only starting out and I have a couple of donors at the moment. My projects - at my own estimation - are not 'rah-rah-good' but at least, they are live and are at least garnering some form of interesting.<<

Another advantage to cyberfunded creativity is that you can start small and grow your audience as your skills improve. Conventional publishing has largely taken the bottom rungs off the ladder: they expect books to be a big success and if the first book isn't, they won't buy a second. There used to be an expectation that it would take a few books to develop a writer's career, but not anymore. I think cyberfunded creativity does a pretty good job of getting around that. Even if you don't get money quickly, feedback is probable and that helps improve skills.

>>The trick is: How are we going to monitor the level of interest? That would factor into the tracking. As I have noticed, there are people who would donate and there are people who would comment.<<

There are various ways: count number of donors, count amount of money donated, count number of comments and/or commentors, count how many views of the webpage, etc.

>> Then again, there are the people who read but remain silent (the silent majority) - how are we going to factor them in?<<

I wouldn't go out of the way to count lurkers. They don't really contribute anything beyond their attention, and they're hard to track. They'll show up on a site counter, though, if you want to include them.

Active audience members are much more valuable. Donors contribute money. Commenters contribute feedback, energy, and ideas. Also valuable are people who post about a project on their blog, link to it, or otherwise promote it because they help attract new fans.

Re: Hmm...

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

Active audience members are much more valuable. Donors contribute money. Commenters contribute feedback, energy, and ideas. Also valuable are people who post about a project on their blog, link to it, or otherwise promote it because they help attract new fans.

*nods* I agree.

Apologies if my previous reply post came across as snarky. I am currently going through a bad emotional patch regarding Internet connections and how much faith I put on them. Coupled with the impending birth, aye carumba - my mood has been volatile of late.

Re: Hmm...

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Can you put a site counter on an LJ post? If so, how?

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

How valuable are Amazon reader reviews?

I know one thing I could (and did) do for Haikujaguar, lacking cash to send, was write an Amazon review when her book came out.

But like so many things, you drop the stone in the pond in the dark, and can't watch the ripples to see how much of a difference you made.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I think that reader reviews on any shopping site are useful. They are crucial if there's no other information about the book. If there is information, the first handful of reviews are still helpful. If there are dozens of reviews, one more isn't going to have as much impact -- unless it's very different from the others.

Re: Hmm...

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Multiple reviews are good. Not because they're read, but because they indicate to readers that more than one or two people have read the book.

Given the choice between two books with average reviews of 4 stars, for instance, the one with 12 reviews is more credible than the one with 2.

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of that, but you're absolutely right. I too give more weight to a stack of reviews than just one or two. So, reader reviews are just plain useful.

[wordslinger.livejournal.com]

I think there may be other factors at work, here.

I apologize -- I am hurrying back to other projects with a busy night ahead, but if someone will nudge me (Haikujaguar, maybe?) in a day or two, I can give some research help here. I do know some statistics, yes, and the information would be useful to me.

Statistics & Demographics

[crisismaven.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

For statisticians, educators, students and researchers: I have put one of the most comprehensive link lists for hundreds of thousands of statistical sources and indicators (economics, demographics, health etc.) on my blog: Statistics Reference List (http://crisismaven.wordpress.com/references/). And what I find most fascinating is how data can be visualised nowadays with the graphical computing power of modern PCs, as in many of the dozens of examples in these Data Visualisation References (http://crisismaven.wordpress.com/references/references-subjects-covered/data-structuring/data-visualisation-references/). If you miss anything that I might be able to find for you or if you yourself want to share a resource, please leave a comment.