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The crowdfunding platform Kickstarter partnered with the online bookstore Bookshop.org for it to be a marketplace for successfully crowdfunded book projects – especially comic books and graphic novels. With the partnership, Bookshop.org will market and sell these Kickstarter-funded books (from various publishers) direct to its online customers – and sell them on behalf of independent bookstores as well.
“With this partnership, we want to celebrate the long literary lives books can live after being brought to life on Kickstarter,” says Kickstarter’s director of publishing & comics outreach Oriana Leckert. “By spotlighting these shining examples on Bookshop, we can help extend those lives, showcase the brilliant work that’s being done on Kickstarter, give backers a renewed sense of pride for their contributions, and support the inspiring efforts of Books Through Bars – all at once.”
Launching today, this partnership will begin with curated lists on Bookshop.org (opens in new tab) of available books from Kickstarter-funded projects including comic books and graphic novels such as Check Please! Book One (opens in new tab), Black (opens in new tab), La Voz de M.A.Y.O Rambo (opens in new tab), and Girl Genius: The Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne Volume 1: The Beast of the Rails (opens in new tab).
Launched in early 2020, Bookshop.org frames itself as an altruistic version of Amazon – offering books to order online with the opportunity to have the profits of that purchase go towards an independent bookstore of your choice. Several major comic shops set up connections to Bookshop.org during the early days of the pandemic.
While Kickstarter earns a commission for all sales like this with Bookshop, the crowdfunding platform will be donating all of it to NYC Books Through Bars (opens in new tab), an all-volunteer group that sends free books to incarcerated people across the US.
Last week, Newsarama reported that Kickstarters’ comics projects as a group are the company’s most successfully-funded company-wide – 24% more than Kickstarter’s publishing projects as a whole, and 16% more than gaming Kickstarters. In 2020, over $25 million was raised in successful comics Kickstarters – a record year.
The usage of Kickstarter by major publishers and creators has become a growing trend – an issue – for some. Newarama looked into that recently, speaking with Boom! Studios, Scott Snyder, Spike Trotman, and more.
