—Launching a Crowdfunding Campaign—Part 2—

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. It’s also the final day of the Nightlighter crowdfunding campaign. As of this writing I’ve raised $5,312. Not the $20k I’d set as my official goal, but still more than I’d anticipated receiving. In short, if the campaign were to end right now, I’d be satisfied.

Something I failed to mention in Part 1 of this post: I launched the Indiegogo campaign officially on the night of September 30, 2023 in conjunction with my 30th birthday. It was a great success. I didn’t raise a ton of $$ the night-of, but I was able to celebrate with some 35 of my closest friends and family. I rented a rad speakeasy-esque event space in Mid City, LA and kindly requested guests to arrive in their best Matrix/David Bowie/Medieval Daft Punk attire. They didn’t disappoint. The party was a hit. We had a live DJ (my buddy from High School), spinning everything from chillwave to disco, another buddy deliver a birthday roast; and I got to read some chapters from the book. (See below for some photos.)

Like querying for the book itself, crowdfunding for the book (which technically isn’t even a book yet) is not for the faint of heart. It requires energy. Lots of it. I already talked about designing it. But you still gotta market it. Which is a bit odd: advertising an advertisement. Because that’s sort of what a crowdfunding campaign is. Elsewhere on this website, I discuss the Plight of the Unknown Artist. You can’t make money if you don’t have a platform, and you can’t have a platform if you don’t make money. It’s a conundrum. A Catch-22. A frustrating one. As a no-name artist (in my case, author), it’s an uphill battle. A grind. A hustle. The barrier to entry pretty much every day seems impossible to overcome. Every part of me believes in my vision—in Nightlighter. I feel like I work harder than others. And that’s not intended to come across as pretentious, but rather to emphasize how much time and effort I spend crafting my work. I taught myself to code (and coded this site), I hired two editors, wrote a book in 2 years, queried, received myriad rejections, adjusted (reimagined the book), launched a crowdfunding campaign, raised over $5k, and now: querying again with a night-day reimagining of Nightlighter. If given the opportunity, I’d work my ass off (more than I already have) to see the Junk Disko Universe take off. To see it catch fire, grow into sometime much bigger than myself. I just need someone to share in that vision.

The Indiegogo campaign is designed to separate myself from the thousands of other no-namers. As if to say, "Hey, agent! Look at me! I’ve actually raised some $$ and the book isn’t even (technically speaking) a book yet. Isn’t that incredible!” It’s a means to distinguish myself. I hope it can. I hope it will. But it is awkward, my case. I don’t actually have a book published. I have other cool products and perks to offer for each contribution tier, yes, but I don’t have the main thing—the product behind the campaign. Most crowdfunding campaigns, on the other hand, do. Yet I’ve still raised over $5,000. That took work. I’m proud of that.

So, if you’re reading this and you were an official backer of the Nightlighter Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, thank you. Seriously, thank you. I didn’t hit $20k, but who knows, perhaps the remaining $15k will manifest in the form of a contract advance.

That’s all for now. I think I’ll do a Part 3 sometime later and call it good.

Peace & love,

-Taylor

TJH -- 11.22.2023