If you’ve read our About page, you’ll know that book-focused crowdfunding is what led us to create PubLaunch in the first place. There are so many reasons why crowdfunding has become essential to book publishing. Here are four:

1. Market testing

There’s a reason publishers like Inkshares and Unbound have crowdfunding built directly into their model. Crowdfunding is a great way to test the market for your future project. A successful crowdfunding campaign means that people loved the book and that sales will do well. But a campaign that falls short isn’t catching people’s attention. Sadly, that’s unlikely to change once the book is out. If you find yourself in the second camp, it might be time to consider moving on from this project, or rethinking it. Either way, we firmly believe that it’s much better to learn this harsh lesson before you publish rather than after.

2. Crowdfunding is ending dependence on book sales

Publishing news has made it clear that book sales do not generate a lot of money anymore. Even the Big Four rely on 1 or 2 bestsellers each year to make a profit. Without crowdfunding, writers and publishers have to rely on constantly declining book sales to cover their costs. Now there’s the option to cover the costs upfront, with good book sales becoming the icing on your cake instead of the whole meal. Books that look less sellable to publishers can still be viable if they manage to cover their upfront costs through crowdfunding.

3. Successful crowdfunding builds engaged audiences

Where once writers had to struggle for years post-publication to build an audience, now they can come away from a successful campaign with one that already exists. A fully funded book means a writer has a crowd of people who are invested in their success. These are people who feel like they’re a part of the team. This means the writer gets to spend the next few years keeping that audience in the loop, sharing updates, and developing their personal brand with an engaged audience. Even better, when the next book comes along, writers have a place to start.

4. More books!

What’s most exciting of all is that crowdfunding allows more books to get published each year. More stories that would have gone unheard are making it onto bookshelves.