Kickstarter reaches milestone of US$100m for publishing

Crowdfunding website Kickstarter has reached a milestone of US$100m (A$132m) in pledges for general-publishing projects since launching in 2009, reports Publishers Weekly. On Kickstarter, the general-publishing category includes nonfiction, fiction, children’s and podcasts, with comics and journalism coming under separate publishing categories. Kickstarter community manager for publishing Margot Atwell said traditional independent publishers are typically crowdfunding individual books, including books with high production values, while comics publishers are funding new editions of out-of-print graphic novels. Atwell said anthologies are thriving on Kickstarter with a 65% success rate, while Kickstarter has also been used to fund a number of projects aimed at ‘people of colour and the queer community that aren’t always reflected in the mainstream culture.’ Kickstarter’s general-publishing category raised US$22.2m (A$29.2m) in pledges in 2015 (up from US$21.6m / A$28.4m in 2014), with 26% of the 7530 projects being successfully funded.

Category: International news