John Biggs, East Coast Editor of TechCrunch, is using Indiegogo to raise money to publish his first novel.
He is hoping to raise $8,000, which he explains is about the price of an advance for a first novel. Though he admits that maybe he should have asked for less. Donations vary in price and will buy a supporter either a print or eBook edition of the work. The novel is called MyTro. It is a YA novel about a secret subway system, and the kids that discover it.
Rather than go through a traditional publisher, Biggs choose crowd funding because he has “been an avid supporter of both crowdfunding and new publishing paradigms for years but I’ve never put my money where my mouth is,” he explained in a blog post on TechCrunch.
Throughout my tenure at TC I’ve become increasingly supportive of the little guy. I don’t like the Sonys and Random Houses of the world, I like the mad tinkerers who create smartwatches, cameras, and guitars out of whole cloth without huge budgets or even much experience. This is the era of the informed amateur making it big, at least in hardware, software, and media. Instead of waiting to turn pro in some cubicle farm somewhere or slaving away namelessly on a trunk novel, amazing people are doing amazing things in their basements and garages.