Inkshares Community discussion

Please bear with my ramble here and if this needs to be moved to an appropriate topic (I read through the group and was unsure where exactly to post this) I will do so.

I've always loved short stories because even if I didn't like one, chances were there were at least two or three that I absolutely adored. And only after I started funding, I noticed that I sit in a very small genre niche on Inkshares: the short story collection.

Question: which would you pick if you could choose only one - a collection of short stories where the odds are that you'd like at least one, or a book set in the same world and featuring the same characters that you could get very easily bored and-slash-or annoyed with?
Okay, not trying to sound biased because of my current genre I'm trying to fund, but even before I knew about Inkshares, I am still prone to choose short stories over a book if I know nothing about either of them (except perhaps, the genre) because with short stories I have several to pick from in one book rather than one single setting to slog through.

The whole crowdfunding thing is throwing me for a bit of a loop, as after reading (many times over) the personal stories and shared tricks in the group, I still scratch my head over the lack of interest in books on Inkshares. What makes funding a book (especially if it's someone you know!) so hard when it's from this site and not one of the "big names" publishers and distribution sites? Based on what I've read and already gathered from my few days into funding, I know I'm going to have to pull out my reckless salesperson side to get my work the attention I would like it to have and, humbly add, I believe it deserves.

So the biggest thing is, how? Short of bugging people to death (I loathe solicitations) it seems that even if you have a big social media platform, what is the, so-to-speak, magic trick that makes people want to back your work in the hopes that they'll get something out of it? Is it a perfectly edited pitch that tickles their ears and makes them want to know more? Is it beautiful graphics? Spamming social media?

I guess what I'm basically trying to understand, is if anyone has discovered and smoothed out a blend of reader interest, mutual support, proving the world that what you wrote is worth backing, and the ability to let people know about all three. If so, I am almost desperate for advice because while I'm okay with the idea of a re-start funding goal...I really, really, really don't want to.

Crowdfunding; whether at Inkshares, Kickstarter or wherever is hard to pull off.

You can Google articles about the success rates (% of projects that reach their funding goals) at Kickstarter and Indiegogo, etc to see how daunting it is

Unless you have a product that easily gets media attention, you have your work cut out for you. I don't believe there are any magic bullets. There are however some things that work better than others and a lot of individual factors at play to figure out what mix will work best for you.

I like short story collections and I believe there is a market out there for them, so I don't believe that is a gating issue.

Here are a few stat links - of course what we are doing or trying to do is a little different than the traditional crowdfund space, where technology products have been the most successfully funded category.


https://www.fundable.com/crowdfunding...


http://www.crowd101.com/crowdfunding-...


https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats

Thanks for the advice and links, Mykl! =)