New Directions

I know New Directions sounds like a Christian publishing company, or a storefront therapy shop in some windblown strip mall. But, dear readers, it is nothing of the sort. I think I've espoused the view that traditional publishing is dead, so I am an advocate of electronic publishing.
The new direction I'm speaking about is launching The Spy Who Loathed Me as a trade paperback. Yes, for the long run I still believe that digital publication is the way to go. But how does one establish a market to begin with? I think I've found a way. Ten years ago, the only option would have been to fork over several thousand dollars to a printer, and weeks later take possession of several crates of books which would probably remain unopened in the garage, collecting dust and spiders.
We now have Print on Demand. One buyer. One book. No spiders.
More importantly, in terms of financing and cultivating buyers, we have micro fund-raising platforms like Kickstarter.
I know several people who have successfully launched their own creative projects with Kickstarter, raising $5,000 to $15,000, and I think this system is a very exciting trend in the arts. Call it micro patronage. It returns power to the artists, but it also confers some responsibility on them. That is, if the project is not interesting to buyers, it won't get funded... so maybe it needs some work. The beauty of it is, though, that through the Internet it is accessible to virtually the entire world.
People raise anywhere from $500 to millions of dollars. I saw today that Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and others films, has launched a campaign to raise $200,000 to finance a stop-frame animation picture. He reached his goal in a couple of days. Good for Charlie.
My goals will be more modest. I'm going to be seeking under $4,000, which will finance copy editing, cover and interior design, printing, packaging, shipping, and other expenses for the publication of The Spy Who Loathed Me. At once, I will have the book published, have some readers who I hope will write reviews, and, viola, I have launched the book.
So, if you're reading this, consider yourself an insider. I'm hoping to have it up by the end of August, so keep an eye out!