Crowd-Requesting... a New Gatekeeping Model

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

In my continuing quest to refine new publishing models, I got stuck on how you "gatekeep" a hard-copy novel. You can't crowdfund it in advance because that's either not fair or it describes an existing model (pre-ordering). What I wanted is a way for people to gauge how much interest other people have in a project without monetary markers.

So I'm experimenting with something I call "crowd-requesting," where an author/artist/what-have-you asks for people to show a sign of interest in a project, and when enough people say "Go for it," you hit the button that makes it available.

I came up with this because if I saw that a crowd of people had requested the publication of a self-published project and that group was sufficiently large that I decided it wasn't just the author and his/her friends, I think I'd be more inclined to pick it up than if there was no such marker. So for me, crowd-requesting would be a valid gate-keeping system, something I might use along with other markers to decide whether the book was worth my time.

For my project, The Worth of a Shell, I've asked for 100 people to request the novel: have a look here. If I get that number, I'll add a line to the copyright page and marketing descriptions that "this novel was crowd-requested."

Feel free to use this model, refine it or discuss it! And if you want to sign the petition, hop on over there. :)

Comments

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

So the difference between this and pre-ordering is that the release date is based on when people hit the pre-ordained number?

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Pre-ordering implies people are buying copies in advance. Think of this more like a petition where people are requesting that the book be made available for purchase.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

It's more like market research...nobody is parting with their money, she's just finding out if enough people would be interested.

[highway-west.livejournal.com]

I'll be curious to know how this works for you.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Being still out of a day job, and my "crowd" still being small, so my crowdfunding efforts are still small as well, I have no idea when I will hit a point that I am no longer hoarding my cash to pay for necessities, I have no idea when I will be able to buy this, but

Do I want it?

Oh, absolutely!

And I'll recommend it to my friends.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! Please post over there on that entry, though, for my tracking purposes. :)

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

In a pre-order no one is supposed to be parting with their money if they product won't be shipped within 30 days. So with no date that part isn't really different then a pre-order, except no payment information is tracked/collected.

So basically the difference is that you are setting it up based on how many people "think" they might wish to buy the product.

I would be interested to see how this turns out. Especially what the coversion rate between that original number and actual purchases.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Jonathan Coulton uses this model to determine where he goes on tour.