A Crazy Idea...

As an Indie author, someone that has to worry about upfront costs constantly if we want to realize our dream of becoming a self-published author, I can tell you the woes of producing a book on a budget. The adage is true, you have to spend money to make money.

However, what if you don't have a wad of cash lying around to foot the upfront costs of publishing your book? Well, then, you work with what you have. What this means is that your book may not be as "shiny" or appealing as other books, or it may not be as well-marketed as other books, or maybe you have to deal with lag from others providing a service as a favor because they aren't getting paid upfront (which was a personal experience of mine).

Somethings, you decide to do on your own. Maybe you pay for a subscription and learn to navigate Canva or Adobe Photoshop and create covers and promotional edits on a range stretching from subpar to absolute perfection depending on your artistic skills. Maybe you break the bank a bit or sacrifice something not so important in your budget to pay for ads. Maybe you borrow and hope you make enough money to pay the loan back at some vague time in the future .... maybe...maybe...maybe. Whatever your strategy is, the ultimate plan is to do what you can to manifest your dreams while taking care of your responsibilities.

This reminds me of a meme I saw recently which stated, "If you don't have the money, do it broke", and I'm in full agreement. However, what if we could come together as Indie authors, and alleviate some of these financial pressures even just a little? What if we could create a grant program using crowdfunding to help indie authors who need that extra financial push? Or an award program that could help indie authors to pay for better book covers or cover marketing fees or create an audiobook etc.? Wouldn't this be grand?

I think so!

I would love to launch such a program using "GoFundMe" or "PayPal" as a conduit. The idea is to create a financial source through crowdfunding that allows one lucky applicant to receive a grant/award geared toward covering book-related costs for their already published book, at set intervals (Whether weekly, monthly, bi-weekly is to be determined and will depend on the funds available). Whether it's a marketing need, editing need, creating an audiobook, copyright costs, etc. Of course, a proper vetting system would need to be established, and my idea is just a 'crazy' idea at the moment, but I wonder, would this idea be able to garner support from the author community?

I wanted to plant this seed in people's minds with the hope that I will stoke some interest or get some feedback. I am well aware that there are fears of people being scammed, which is why I am thinking long and hard about this. This is also why, if I do attempt to launch a program like this, there will be full transparency and a careful vetting system in place, so we do not award money to people with diverging agendas since the funds will be allocated for the sole purpose of helping indie/self-published authors achieve something, they would otherwise not be able to achieve or have difficulty achieving because they lack the funds to afford the service or product (pardon the long-winded sentence).

I know many people will agree with me that such a program may be needed. This is important to me because I have been there. Being a mother of two with a mortgage, and other more important things to worry about, spending lavishly on my dreams to become a world-renown, self-published author is just something I have not been able to afford...as yet. Therefore, I do what I can to get the job done. I ask for favors, or I do it myself. However, this has created a lot of setbacks for me, and even though I am much further along today than I was starting out, I am nowhere where I want to be because I always have to financially prioritize what is most important and sacrifice to pay for book-related expenses. It is for this reason that I want to help others like myself.

Maybe some of you have even thought about such an idea yourselves. If you are interested in becoming involved or supporting such a 'crazy' idea or possess the desire to see such a 'crazy' idea, come to fruition, please comment or respond directly to this blog or send an email to charmcamwhite@gmail.com. Thank you.