I’m going to explain just how I’m going to afford my first book tour, there’s quite a few details in this post and it’s probably going to be my longest YouTube vlog, so hang tight!
By John Irvin
Today’s blog and vlog—that’s kinda funny putting it that way—is a big one. It’s all about the GoFundMe campaign my team and I will be launching 29 days from now! In the video on YouTube and this blog, I’m explaining pretty much everything about it.
I’m excited to see how this turns out and am looking forward to your help making it become a reality.
Without further adieu, here is the video and the video’s script—a tad edited to fit the blog’s parameters.
A few weeks back, I spoke briefly on launching a GoFundMe campaign next month for my first Author Book Tour in August of this year. Today, I’m officially announcing it to the world AND will be explaining it in more detail.
I’ll try not to be too detailed, so I’m not keeping you from other things. But I will ask whoever sees it, please like it and share it on your social network accounts so we can reach as many people as possible.
I may be moving to a biweekly episode on YouTube, but I’ll keep you updated the closer we get to Launch Day and beyond. Also, if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll definitely be kept up to date every Friday. Again, you should know, you also get that free copy of Book 2: When Kingdoms Arise in my Magic’s Time Split. So a win-win if you ask me.
My GoFundMe Campaign—why am I starting one?
One: If you know me, you know I’m actually an introvert. It’s always hard for me to get out of my comfort zone. But success doesn’t come to you in that zone; it comes when you step outside. So this is my stepping outside my comfort zone. It’s time I bring my books to you, my readers.
Two: We live in a scary age—with everything going on in the world today, it’s hard not getting depressed—but we also live in an amazing age of technology. Maybe 20 years ago, to start this business, I’d have to go down to the bank and pull out a loan. Then I’d be paying out the nose for the rest of my life, if things didn’t pan out.
Today, we have something called crowdfunding. It’s sorta like my Patreon profile that I plug in almost every one of these videos. Only it’s just a one time pledge for GoFundMe. I set it up and get one person to donate $25, then the two of us reach out to two more and they donate $25 each, eventually, we can reach the goal and everyone has only given so much.
Cool thing about GoFundMe, I can actually start with a team. I’ve read that starting a business with a team actually grants more validation to the business which in turn garners more success.
I have my team. I’m hoping to share pictures and even a team video soon, so stay tuned.
So I mentioned having a goal for GoFundMe. Our goal is set at $10,000. Yes, that seems like much, but, honestly, with enough people, we can do that. I’ll explain the reason we’ve set the total goal at $10,000 in a minute.
Launch Day is set for 27th of March, 2020. So we have exactly one month to go until then. Hopefully, by the time this video is out, I’ll have the time clock over on my website counting down. Check it out via the link below at johnirvinauthor.com.
You may ask, if your Book Tour isn’t until August, why are you having the campaign in March and April? Good question. The reason is to give us enough leeway between the closing of the fundraiser and the trip so we can ship out all the tier rewards.
Tier rewards? You’re probably wondering what that is. I’ll explain in a minute.
Now the campaign fundraiser will last an exact 40 days—unless we can extend it nearer to the end, if need be. So closing date is 6th of May, 2020. That will be when we gather up our entire collection and switch to the rewarding phase.
Now, the first question: Why are we setting our goal at $10,000?
I actually went through and calculated out estimates for each aspect of a Book Tour.
If you’ve been following me or checked out my books, you know I have now published 26 books. By the time August arrives, I plan to have, at least, 6 more books published. Now, most of my books are only in E-book format, so they don’t cost as much. But, my main series, the Longevity series, is in three different formats right now: Hardcover, Paperback, and E-Book. Those covers cost, not to mention the editing.
I’m in a transition period in my business life, one in which, I don’t have enough income to keep taking from my personal bank. Eventually the cost minus the bills will be too much. I’m not saying this to get pity. Just being frank.
So I’ve added in the average cost for each of the Longevity publications, I can take care of the rest of the Magic’s Time Split series on my own since they’re only in E-book format.
I have six more books to publish in the Longevity series. The average cost per book publication is $200. So that equals out to $1,200.
Next on the list is my Security Guard’s Paycheck. You may think that’s funny, but with shooting going up all over the place—I hate to put a damper on this, folks, but it’s real life.
I’m hiring a good friend of mine, who I trust, and in order to give him the freedom to leave his present regular job for the two week’s this is going to take, I’m wanting to pay him $500 per week. So that’s $1,000. I think that’s a good set price for security. Next on the list is GAS. I’ve set that estimate at $1,000. You’re probably screaming, What?! Why SO HIGH? I’ll show you why so high.
In each of these pinpointed cities, I will be calling a list of local bookstores to set up Author Events. This is why it’ll take two weeks to finish the Tour, if not a little longer.
A deeper explanation for the Gas bill, we’ll be taking a car that makes 25 miles to the gallon and with prices ranging between 2.50 to 4.00, I’m averaging that to be about 240 gallons. With the variations, I want to have a little breathing room. Even $1,000 may not cut it. Hopefully, it will. Who knows what gas will cost come August this year.
And, we will need a place to stay each night, right? Hotels can range from $40 to $400 per night. So I’ve set the average hotel price at $110 per night. Two weeks, comes out to $1,540.
Now, reality check, you can’t leave on an Author Book Tour and not bring any books or sales stock for each event. Can you? I wouldn’t think so. I mean, you could, but those potential readers who want to buy a signed copy won’t be too happy. I’m going to be stocking my Author displays with copies of all my in-print books, I have a tablet to display my E-books, and I’d like to have catalogues and business cards and brochures, etc.
So I’ve set that total of Stock Cost at $2,000. You never know how much all that will come out to be.
So, on that note, and based on the ten to fifteen books I’ve read on how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign, you always want a good size portion of the total to be set for “Unexpected Expenses.” What if, one of our donors pledges $200 and we have to deliver the full set of my Longevity series and Magic’s Time Split series to him, that could get pricey, right? Well, with that extra bit of cash at the end, we can rest assured we’ll be able to deliver them all.
More on the donation rewards—or tier rewards—in a second.
Last pieces of the $10,000 pie will be paychecks for a photographer and two artists. I have three friends who are members of my Launch Team who have been amazing and awesome to volunteer their time and work to take photos and design the t-shirts and such. I want to thank them with nice checks.
So I’ve set each of those at $250 which comes out to a total of $750.
And ALL of that wrapped up together and tied with a ribbon and bow adds up to $10,000!
So I’ve been talking about having a Launch Team. I just wanted to thank each one of you for your encouragement and your willingness to help in this endeavour. I love you, I truly do. To everyone else, there are eight of us members in this Launch Team. Our goal is to promote, promote, promote, and gather as many pre-pledges as possible. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be working with these friends in communicating and answering as well as designing some neat ideas for the fundraiser.
I’ve got this cool idea for a teaser trailer to announce the Launch Day when it comes out. We’ll see if we can throw it together. It’ll be awesome if we can.
Now, for the tier reward explanation finally!
You can’t just ask people for free money, right? When it comes to crowdfunding, that rule still applies. You should be able to honour your donaters by giving them rewards. Most GoFundMen or any other crowdfunding site tells their campaigners to set tiers.
A tier is basically a level. When it comes to donations, it’s a level of amount. Say one person donates $20 and another person donates $200 dollars, they’re both in two different levels. So each level gets a reward, adding more rewards the higher the amount.
I’ve actually drawn out pictures for my tier rewards. Here they are below. I’ve considered giving each tier level a title—like I do with my two tiers over in Patreon—but I don’t think that’s necessary here.
The dollar numbers are the amount donated and the answer after the equal signs are the rewards followed by pictoral examples.
First level:
Second Level:
Third Level:
Fourth Level:
Fifth Level:
Sixth Level:
All right, I hope that gets you pumped and inspired. Hopefully you’ll be able to see each picture too! As for me that’s going to have to be all the time I have for today. Please, think about this upcoming fundraiser, think of the impact and support you could give.
So, please subscribe, drop by my website through the link below, subscribe for my newsletter, shoot me a message—I try to always respond in a timely matter.
Until next week, have a great life.
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