There are a few things you’ll need to consider when setting your crowdfunding target.

First, determine what your needs are.

Our crowdfundng platform is unique in that it allows you to set both a minimum and maximum goal on your crowdfunding campaign page. Your maximum goal is the number that will be displayed to the public on your page, while your minimum goal will be private. If your campaign doesn't pass your minimum goal, no credit cards will be charged. This way you'll never get stuck with committments to your contributers but with less money than you need to fullfill them.

To take advantage of this, you first need to determine how much money you need for your project. Use the estimate from your publisher, publishing team, or supplier as your starting number. If you're crowdfunding for a different reason (for example, your living costs while you finish work on your manuscript) determine how much you need for this goal (for example, the time it'll take you to finish your manuscript and what that time will cost you). This is the absolute minimum that you'll need to pay for your book. Use this as your minimum budget.

If you have any additional services you'd like but don't need (ex. a marketing budget, an additional hardcover edition, etc.) you can use that as your maximum budget.

Add fulfillment costs.

You’ll now have two starting numbers. Add to each of these the cost of fulfillment (i.e. producing and shipping your rewards). A safe bet is to add 15% to your budget to cover these costs.

So, if your minimum budget is $5000 and your maximum budget is $10,000, your two budgets plus the cost of fullfillment would be $5750 and $11,500 respectively (minimum budget + minimum budget X 0.15).

Add crowdfunding fees.

Add to your minimum and maximum budgets the cost of platform fees (5% platform + 2.9% Stripe credit card processing fees). Here's how to do this:

1) Figure out how much money you keep for every dollar you raise on PubLaunch.

The formula: dollar - platform fee - Stripe fee = what you keep

$1.00 – $0.05 ­– $0.029 = $0.921

2) Calculate your two crowdfunding goals by dividing your two budgets by that number.

The formula: your budget / what you keep from every dollar = your crowdfunding goal

Minimum goal: $5750 / $0.921 = $6243

Maximum goal: $11,500 / $0.921 = $12,486

This means that in order to take home $5000 for your minimum budget, you'll need to set $6243 as your minimum goal. To take home $10,000 for your maximum budget, you'll need to set $12,486 as your maximum goal.