‘Three years ago Rebecca’s project got a pledge from Scott. This year they got married.’
That’s from Kickstarter’s look-back in handkerchieves at 2014.
My associate at The Bookseller Charlotte Eyre has ably written up the attractive annual report that Kickstarter creates to regale us with how well things have gone.
Her story, Kickstarter publishing projects raised $22 million in 2014, tells us that “22,252 Kickstarter projects reached their funding goals thanks to $529 million of pledges from 3.3 million backers.”
Important to us here in The FutureBook digital community, Eyre notes that in 2014:
Publishing was the third most common type of project on Kickstarter, with 2,064 successfully funded ventures worldwide, after music (4,009) and film and video (3,846). Another six categories – art, design, food, games, technology and theater – had more than 1,000 projects.
Not for nothing does Kickstarter open its 2014 review with:
In 2014, creativity was blooming everywhere.
All told, we learn in the company’s Medium-esque wide-screen click-through, people were pledging $1,000 per minute in 2014. Contributors were able to “save a neighbourhood taco joint” and Neil Young “made a hi-fi music player” and LeVar Burton’s Reading Rainbow “made a huge comeback” and “a band delivered a pizza to space.” Marriages, tech innovations, and the Museum of Modern Art and so many others found ways to utilise crowdfunding.
New ideas, big and small, came from people everywhere. And millions of people worked together to make them a reality.
There’s a nice heart at the end of the presentation.
By Porter Anderson
The FutureBook: #FutureChat Friday: Kickstarter issues its annual greeting card
Read the full post at: TheBookseller.com/futurebook
