Crowdfunding for publication - Part 3 - During your campaign

Welcome to part 3 of Crowdfunding for publication. You can catch up posts here and here.

You've planned your campaign and launched it. Now the work begins.

Most campaigns are a month long, although you can set the time longer or shorter. This means there is a month of asking people to support you. Constant posting of "Support my campaign" on Facebook can get tedious, so you need to get creative.

During your planning process, it helps to have a calendar so you can map out the different promotions you will do.

Here are some ideas:

• Email list - if you have an email list, plan two emails to go out to your list, one announcing your campaign, and one near the end to remind people about it. Any more than that you will get people unsubscribing (unless you usually send a weekly email).
• Blog posts - plan topics on your blog related to your book and campaign so you can include links at the bottom. Topics could include: the story behind the story, information about the topics included in the book (for example, I have a blog post planned about cubing for my Cubing for CFS campaign), interview some of your characters, details of how your fans can support your campaign, thank you messages to those who have supported your campaign so far. Where possible, keep to your usual posting schedule.
• Guest blog posts - to widen the exposure for your campaign, see if you can do some guest blog posts on related blogs. These could include posts about your campaign and/or book, as well as interviews with you.
• Facebook/Twitter posts - it may be tempting to post "Support my campaign" all the time, however this is where you can get creative. Along with a link to your campaign, post some fun facts about your book or campaign. For example, yesterday was 1 year since the book launch for Swallow Me, NOW!, I posted this news along with a link for people to pre-order my next book through my campaign. Also, post regular thank you messages for those who have supported you. Remember that not all your followers are online at the same time, so schedule your posts at different times of the day.
• Offline - promotion offline can work as well as online. Create some flyers with details about your campaign that you can hand out to your offline contacts, leave in a local cafe, put up on notice boards, anywhere you can to get the word out. 
• Media - prepare a media release to send to your local paper and other media outlets. Where possible, send it out to coincide with your launch and then follow up as the campaign is gaining momentum. Even if they don't include you in the paper while the campaign is running (which would be ideal), they may report on your successful campaign and the book launch that will follow.
• Interest groups - if your book has a theme or mentions specific interests, get in touch with relevant interest groups. If there is a charity you could support, some of the money raised can be donated, just be sure to be clear this is happening. For example, I've contacted both the Chronic Fatigue Association and various cubing groups about my campaign. My campaign will also be raising funds for the association.

Spread out your message so that you continue to get supporters throughout the whole campaign. Many supporters will pledge in the first week, and again at the end.

Where possible, post updates to your campaign. This will let your supporters know how things are going. Updates could include a cover reveal (if you haven't revealed it already), update on your progress, a snippet of your book, or anything else relevant to your campaign that you want your supporters to know about. Don't go overboard with updates, it's good to have a few planned during the campaign, along with a "We did it" update when your campaign is a success.

During the campaign, remember to pace yourself. It can be exhausting, and you will get to a point around the middle where you will get discouraged, especially if pledges slow down and you feel as though you will never reach your goal. Planning your promotions will help you with this. Also, surround yourself with supporters who will encourage you and keep you going.

Last week, I launched the campaign for my second book. You can support it here. This post is part of my plan for promotion, as well as everything I've listed above.

My next post in this series will be in a couple of weeks and will look at what to do once your campaign is over.

Melissa Gijsbers lives in Melbourne and writes in between working as a bookkeeper and being the mother of two active boys. She successfully crowdfunded her first book in 2014. You can support the campaign for her second book, Cubing for CFS, here.

Follow her writing journey at www.melissawrites.com.au and www.melissagijsbers.com