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by jeromec 5533 days ago
Several reasons. First, we're focused only on books. A talented author can build a fan base and even early market demand. Also, Kickstarter manually approves which projects are accepted (about 80 per week I believe). With StoryFunded the community decides what is worthy.
2 comments
aristus 5533 days ago
I don't think that's what the OP is asking. Why would someone take the time and effort to post on this unknown site, when there is another, much larger site with millions of dollars' worth of investors?

A talented author can build a fan base anywhere, but it's easier where there are already potential fans. This site looks like there are six (6) story pitches total, and probably as many users.

I'm not knocking the idea, I'm asking what you intend to do to compete with the incumbents. "Different features, more focus" is not sufficient.

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jeromec 5533 days ago
We're not really competing with Kickstarter. An author could use both sites, for example (if Kickstarter decides to feature their project).

We think it's pretty hard for authors to make their work stand out among so much noise, including the increase in self-published work on sites like Lulu. Our site is meant to allow great writing to be found and showcased as evident by the funding it receives.

Yes, our site is pretty bare right now as we just went live a few hours ago. However, in our short existence we've had very positive interest from authors, readers, and others.

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anigbrowl 5533 days ago
I like the idea. Do you want to do it just for fiction, or for non-fiction as well? There are alternatives for photojournalists and micropublishers, but reportage has lagged behind, slightly.

I think you should go vertical and integrate with something like OpenCalais for subject-matter tagging which you can use as the basis of a recommendation engine, and some sort of document-based CDN.

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jeromec 5533 days ago
The focus is on fiction, but we have categories for non-fiction and "other". Ultimately, contributors decide what they want to fund.

OpenCalais looks interesting. Something that advanced would be much farther down the road for us, though. Right now we just want to find and enable great written stories.

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