So museums are in this boat as well, especially small ones, usually relying on a donation from a benefactor to be able to publish a small catalog. In these situations, while I am seriously grateful to the benefactor for their largesse, the number of photos and page count is usually limited.
Everyone knows that I run Thistle Threads with creativity in fund raising to be able to make all the threads and boxes, etc that we want. I have often told people from the outside that I developed my own kickstarter method to get my products made. So it was with great excitement that I got two emails this week. One, I will discuss in my next blog post, is how a business like mine is trying to get back up and running again making needlework supplies. The other, was sent to me by Wendy White (Plimoth Jacket fame) to let everyone know about.
The Massachusetts Historical Society is going to be mounting an exhibition on embellished clothing and their stories in late 2018 and would like to publish a book to go with the exhibition. To raise the funds for the exhibit book, they launched a Kickstarter campaign yesterday to raise the basic funds needed to publish the book. Mainly the 'rewards' for this kickstarter are a copy of the book, but there are some really neat tours as well.
If you aren't already a frequenter of Kickstarter, then you need to know how it works. You sign up for a reward and back the project. The project has set a goal and if the goal is met during the time frame they have set, you are charged your backing amount. The funds are then released to the organization and they go to work getting the product or project underway. If the goal is not reached, you aren't charged and they get no money - and the project was essentially deemed by the 'crowd' as not worthy of being done. Then you wait for the project/product to be done and get your reward. Depending on the complexity of what is being crowdfunded, this can be timely (likely a book will make schedule) or not so timely when lots of manufacturing engineering has to be done. I run into this all the time with our threads and it drives me nuts but it is part and parcel of doing things this way.
This is almost what I have been doing, except that I work out the numbers to know that I can make it and I take on some risk that no one wants those threads or classes because I have to start before I promote and take orders/reservations.
I think this is a fantastic way to fund a book and I encourage you to go to the Kickstarter website and review the proposal, video and rewards. Hopefully you will decide you want the book and will back the project. If something like this gets backed, I might just think about trying it with a publication someday myself!!
They are doing pretty good, 13% of their goal in only 24 hours. If they keep up at this rate they will make it and we will have another good book on our shelves.
If anyone is in 'the area' and wants to think about doing that $2500 level reward with the exhibition, books, tour behind the scenes, and all that - let me know at tricia@alum.mit.edu and I will contact them about setting something up and grabbing that reward. It would work out to about $250 a person and might be a really fun day (we need to get them to put in a few more books).They are also putting neat stuff up on their blog in the month of February to promote this - keep looking back!
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