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Official Kickstarter partnerPre-sell your book on Kickstarter with Author.Inc. Your readers and clients fund the first edition and buy your highest-value offers months before launch day.
$210,454
Jayson Gaignard’s campaign, advised by Author.Inc, hit its goal within an hour and doubled in under a day.
Kickstarter publishing
More than 76,000 publishing projects have launched on Kickstarter. Readers come to the platform to find the next book to back, and they pay before the first copy ships.
3.5M
people have backed a publishing project on Kickstarter
$465M
pledged to publishing campaigns
85%
of projects that pass 25 backers get funded
$41.7M
raised by Brandon Sanderson for his novels, the most-funded Kickstarter campaign ever
Source: Kickstarter Publishing, 2026. Sanderson figure from his 2022 campaign.
Royalties arrive last. Backers pay first.
Cash before launch
1 to 6 months
of runway between backers paying and launch day
Campaign closes
Backers pay
Retail launch
One to six months later
Royalties
Paid out after launch
The money lands when the campaign closes, one to six months before your book reaches stores. It can cover printing, the audiobook and the launch itself.
Reader involvement
546
people backed Community Made
Backers follow every update and tell people about the book they helped make. You keep a direct line to every one of them.
Bulk orders
Offer 50, 100 or 150 copies for teams, clients and communities. Jayson and Mike both did.
High-ticket offers
Book
$20
Group
$99
Stage
$6K+
Coaching
$50K
Workshops, keynotes and coaching sit beside the book on the same page. These are Mike’s tiers.
Proof of demand
The white line is each goal. A campaign that clears it gives podcast hosts, event organizers, press and retailers a reason to say yes.
25 to 35%
Kickstarter’s own audience
Each dot is 1% of backers. Your audience starts the campaign and Kickstarter’s helps carry it. Source: Kickstarter’s publishing team.
“We launched on a whim. No real marketing plan. No paid promotion. Just an ask.”
Jayson Gaignard, founder of Mastermind Talks, on his campaign page
Campaign Author.Inc advised
Jayson wrote Community Made for founders who grow through relationships. One campaign page sold the book alongside bulk copies for companies and time with him. His average backer pledged $385, nearly five times the Kickstarter publishing average.
Apr 22, 2026
Jayson opened with a single ask to the people who already knew his work.
Within the hour
Kickstarter is all-or-nothing, so hitting the goal early locks in every pledge that follows.
Under 24 hours
276 of his 546 backers had backed a Kickstarter project before, so the platform’s own readers joined his network early.
Jun 21, 2026
CA$297,741 from 546 backers, about $210,454 USD.
Personal
CA$7 to $495
Digital and hardcover editions, plus small-group bundles with live sessions.
Mission
CA$920 to $2,070
50, 100 or 150 copies for a team, a client base or a community.
Relationship
CA$2,995 to $12,995
Time with Jayson, a keynote or workshop, and seats at Mastermind Talks 2027.
Campaign Author.Inc advised
Mike, a founder and former F/A-18 pilot, raised $65,406 from 220 backers for Be Rich Now, 327% of his $20,000 goal. The book anchored the bottom of the ladder. His existing offers filled every rung above it.
$297
Mike’s average pledge
$385
Jayson’s average pledge
$79
Kickstarter publishing average
The Be Rich Now tier ladder
Log scale · US$The book
$20 to $35
A small group
$99
A company
$650 to $1,500
Access
$3,000 to $8,000
The stage
$6,000 to $10,000
Private coaching
$50,000
The $50,000 tier bundled 100 paperbacks, twelve private coaching sessions, a year of membership and a 24-hour VIP day. Tiers as listed on the campaign page.
The brand question
The worry is that a campaign looks like asking for a favor. The authors with the most reputation on the line ran campaigns anyway, and their backers became the core of what they built next.
Author of 20+ books, founder of the altMBA
$287,342
from 4,242 backers for The Icarus Deception in 2012. Back in 2025 with Prompt Decks.
Co-founder of WIRED
$603,420
from 2,348 backers for Vanishing Asia in 2021, 805% of goal.
Bestselling author, EFF special advisor
$386,466
from 10,715 backers across Chokepoint Capitalism, The Internet Con and Enshittification
Seth Godin, Forbes, 2012
“Kickstarter isn’t a profit center, it’s an organizer and an instigator.”
Kevin Kelly puts it another way: “You own the audience, for future work.” A campaign turns readers into people you can reach, sell to and invite back.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Joi Ito (CC BY 2.0), Cmichel67 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Dominik Butzmann / re:publica (CC BY-SA 2.0).
The company you’d keep
Jayson Gaignard · Advised by Author.Inc
Community Made
$210,454 · 546 backers
Mike Brown · Advised by Author.Inc
Be Rich Now
$65,406 · 220 backers
Jay Yang · Advised by Author.Inc
Work with the Best
$32,402 · 172 backers
Charlie Hoehn · Author.Inc co-founder
Play for a Living
$35,936 · 404 backers
Source: each project’s Kickstarter page, September 2026. All figures USD.
Where to run it
You can sell pre-orders from your own site. It takes more to build, more to optimize, and more can go wrong. Kickstarter is the path we recommend.
Timing
The earlier the campaign, the longer your runway for printing and fulfillment. The campaign itself runs about a month.
Before anything
Final cover and manuscript, so the page shows the real thing.
Two weeks out
Followers get an alert the moment you go live.
About 30 days
Long enough to build momentum. Short enough to keep backers and your team fresh.
After close
Latecomers can still back it, and the pledge manager handles add-ons, shipping and tax.
Launch day
First editions reach backers. Then the book goes on sale everywhere.
Straight answers
Bring anything else to the call.
Seth Godin, Kevin Kelly and Cory Doctorow each asked, and each raised six figures. Backers get something real in return: the first edition, copies for their team, time with you. You are selling first editions to the people who want them most.
Kickstarter is all-or-nothing, so backers pay only if you reach it. Kickstarter’s data shows 85% of projects that pass 25 backers get funded, which is why we start by naming your first 25.
The campaign runs one to six months ahead of retail and ships first editions to backers. Launch day then arrives with readers already talking about the book and a sales number already on the board.
Big enough to name your first 25 backers. Kickstarter’s publishing team says 25 to 35% of backers on publishing campaigns come through its own ecosystem, so your audience starts the campaign and Kickstarter’s helps carry it.
You do, and you keep the relationship with every backer. Author.Inc advises on the tiers and the timing, and publishes the book you pre-sold.
A 5% platform fee plus payment processing, charged only when your campaign funds.
Official partnership
Author.Inc is an official Kickstarter partner. We help founders and experts write and publish a book they own, and Kickstarter gives their readers a way to back it before launch.
Plan your pre-saleFund it before it’s out
Book a call with Miles Rote. We’ll look at your book and your offers, and tell you whether a pre-sale fits.
“Bring where the book stands and a few names you’d expect to back it. On the call we’ll sketch your tiers and name your first 25 backers.”
Prefer email? miles@author.inc
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