FULLY FUNDED: a Panel Discussion with Successful Crowdfunding Authors

Crowdfunding helps entrepreneurs raise billions of dollars for their enterprises, sometimes before a single item is manufactured or any employees are hired. Authors can reap the same benefits of advance fundraising for the sometimes expensive publication process, or even find the money to subsidize their writing, but it takes careful planning, strategic management, and trustworthy tactics.

On Wednesday, September 14, the St. Louis Publishers Association (SLPA) will host a panel discussion with three successful crowdfunding authors (Jamey Stegmaier, Susan Hacker Stang, and Bill Perry) to discuss their insights and observations about the unique challenges authors face in the crowdfunding arena and share advice from their own successes and failures.

Jamey Stegmaier is the CEO and co-founder of Stonemaier Games and has run eight Kickstarter campaigns, raising over $3 million. He is the author of A Crowdfunder's Strategy Guide: Build a Better Business by Building Community.

Susan Hacker Stang is an American photographer and was a professor of communications at Webster University for forty-one years. Her work has been collected by more than twenty-five major museums and libraries around the world and appears in numerous books and magazines. Her publications include Encountering Florence/Firenze un incontro; Kodachrome – End of the Run: Photographs from the Final Batches; Kodachrome Notes; and her recently published book, reAPPEARANCES, was funded by a Kickstarter campaign.

Bill Perry is an artist whose drawings, paintings, and sculptures can be seen at galleries, playgrounds, bike trails, and wildlife sanctuaries throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. He teaches drawing and painting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School. His book, Road Trip: A Fold-Out Adventure, was successfully launched through a Kickstarter campaign.