Creative Funding Show 006 How Mary DeMuth Went From Rejected Author to Crowdfunding Success
This is the Creative Funding Show, a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love without selling out. I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr., and with me is Mary DeMuth, an international speaker, podcaster, novelist, nonfiction author, and more. She lives in Texas with her husband of 28 years and is the mom of three adult children.
How did you get started writing?
Thomas: So how did you get started writing?
Mary: I’ve always been writing, but as a career, it started after I had my first child. I felt a strong need to be published, not to validate myself, but because I had so much inside me I wanted to share, especially to help people heal from trauma. I spent about 10 years in the ’90s writing for myself. In the mid-2000s, I landed an agent, had a newspaper column, and kept working on my craft. Since about 2005, I’ve been writing three books a year for 13 years now.
What is your favorite book you’ve written?
Thomas: You started off the traditional way. Of your traditionally published books, my favorite is Thin Places. Tell us about it.
Mary: That’s my favorite, too. It’s my memoir, and it was hard to write. It tells the story of my upbringing, and when family members are still alive, writing a memoir is not easy. I knew there was power in telling the story so others could say, “I’m not alone.” I wanted to speak to those neglected, abused, or dealing with loss, divorce, or addiction in the home, which were things I experienced as a child.
What was the reaction from readers?
Thomas: You wrote about surviving sexual abuse and your healing journey. I’ll admit, I cried while reading it. It’s powerful. Did readers ask for a follow-up?
Mary: Yes, but they wanted more of the process. Thin Places (affiliate link) was simply storytelling. People wanted to know, “How do I heal from sexual abuse? What does that process look like?” I also wrote a viral post called “I’m Sick of Hearing About Your Smoking Hot Wife.” It expressed my frustration at hearing messages that wives should always be sexually available, knowing many women in the room had been sexually abused. For them, there are huge hurdles. That shame was hurting victims, and I wanted to address it. From that, I decided to write Not Marked, which began my crowdfunding journey.
Why didn’t you publish traditionally?
Thomas: You were successfully traditionally published, had an agent, and wrote a viral blog post. I bet publishers were eager to take this book.
Mary: Maybe in the #MeToo era, but not then. I pitched it to several publishers, and all of them said no. One even told me, “We don’t believe there’s an audience for this book.” I thought, “Almost half the world has experienced this, and you think there’s no market? Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
How did crowdfunding become the plan?
Thomas: Twenty years ago, that would’ve been the end of the story. But that’s not what happened. What happened next?
Mary: You’d done crowdfunding and suggested I try it. We’re both in a mastermind group, and together we figured out that crowdfunding was the way to go. I didn’t want to ask for money, but you convinced me. We set a $10,000 goal to cover editing, the cover, and a 5,000-copy print run.
Thomas: And we put it on Kickstarter because that’s what I recommended. But Kickstarter rejected you.
Mary: Yes. At the time, they didn’t allow self-help books, and mine qualified. So we switched to Indiegogo. I moved all the content over, and we did a do-or-die campaign. If it didn’t fund in a month, it wouldn’t happen. That urgency was important.
Thomas: Indiegogo is like Kickstarter’s laidback older brother. You launched the campaign and we worked out the rewards. What happened in the first week?
Mary: Besides a nervous breakdown, it went very well. Within a few days, it funded to $10,000.
Thomas: Take that, publishers! Proof there’s an audience for this book.
Mary: Exactly. We had stretch goals ready. At $25,000, we’d produce an audiobook, which is expensive. In the end, we raised just over $25,000. I poured all of it back into the project and took no personal income, but that’s fine.
Why choose offset printing over print on demand?
Thomas: You went with offset printing instead of print on demand. What’s the difference, and why?
Mary: If I had used CreateSpace, my cost per copy would have been $6–$7. Donating books to ministries would be costly. With a print run, it dropped to $1 per copy. I have a friend with a warehouse who handles shipping, so donating 500 books costs $500 plus shipping, instead of six times that.
Thomas: So sending books to a women’s shelter isn’t bank-breaking.
Mary: I just sent two cases to a church where I spoke. My heart for this book is to let people know they’re not alone and to help them heal. My husband also wrote part of it, sharing his perspective on living with and supporting a sexual abuse survivor. It’s also a good resource for anyone helping a friend through this journey.
What are you creating now?
Thomas: Let’s talk about what happened after that. Once you got a taste of crowdfunding, maybe traditional publishing didn’t seem as great as everyone says it is. What are you creating currently?
Mary: Right now, I’m creating art. This came about because of my audience. During the Lent season, I created art every day for four or five years. People kept asking if I would sell my art online. I thought it was silly, but this year I finally listened and started selling on Etsy. It’s another creative income stream; it’s not the same as crowdfunding, but it’s still valuable. The takeaway is to listen to your audience. If they want something from you, give it to them. It was the same with Not Marked (affiliate link). My audience wanted that book, so I wrote it.
How do you choose rewards your audience wants?
Thomas: That’s a powerful principle. When you’re putting together rewards for Indiegogo or Patreon, the best ones are what your audience is already asking for. Sometimes we think of something complicated, but they don’t care about it. Then there’s something easy for us that makes them say, “Give me more.” The curse of knowledge makes it hard to see what others don’t know or value, like the math teacher who forgets how confusing math can be for a freshman. It can be the same with our backers.
Mary: True. To answer your question more fully, I’m also podcasting. I hosted The Restory Show for several years, interviewing people about the difficult stories in their lives and the turning points that brought change. That show is winding down. Now, I’m doing Pray Every Day, where I walk through a book or chapter of the Bible verse by verse and then pray for listeners for five minutes. I fund the editing through Patreon, at least partially. Patreon is new for me, so I’m surprised and grateful that people are backing it.
What rewards do you offer patrons?
Thomas: Walk us through your Patreon rewards.
Mary: I wasn’t sure what to give people at first, but it connected with my art. If you support me at $5 or more, I send you an original piece of digital art each month. At $20, you get a monthly audio from me that’s not available anywhere else. I’m also considering a $10 level where your name appears on every Pray Every Day blog post 365 days of the year.
Thomas: That’s an easy reward for you and exciting for supporters. Universities have done this for centuries: give us a large donation, we’ll name a building after you; a smaller one, we’ll engrave your name on a brick. Everything is named and sponsored.
How do patrons respond to changes?
Thomas: You’ve pivoted from one podcast to another. Have you gotten any pushback?
Mary: None at all. I updated the page and made a new video, and more people joined. I mention Patreon on the podcast every 7–10 episodes since it’s a daily show. I had an idea to create a brick graphic for each post with patrons’ names on it. When someone joins at the $10 level, I’ll add their name to a brick and upload it to the page.
Thomas: That’s great. People back your art, but more than that, they back you. Changing your creative work doesn’t necessarily mean losing supporters, especially if the new work is consistent with your brand. Many creators fear that changing direction will make them start over, but that’s not always true.
Mary: Exactly. You also need to follow your joy. I loved The Restory Show for years, but recently the joy drained away, and it became a chore. I can’t fully explain it, but when I started Pray Every Day, I thought, “This is what I need to be doing.” It’s fun again. The patronage feels different too. For Restory, it was about sharing people’s stories. For Pray Every Day, it’s about getting these prayers to the world. That’s why we used funds to add the show to Alexa Skills for the Amazon Echo, which has been a major source of traffic.
Thomas: The Echo platform is growing faster than smartphones did. If you create content, think about how it can work on an Echo. Buy an inexpensive Echo Dot so you understand the platform.
Why should creators consider crowdfunding?
Thomas: Now, what advice would you give to someone thinking about writing a book but unsure where the funding will come from? They’re considering Kickstarter, Patreon, or Indiegogo.
Mary: For a book, I recommend a larger platform like Indiegogo or Kickstarter. It’s one and done: raise the money, make the book. My friend Erin Kincaid is currently funding a children’s book with amazing illustrations for $5,000, and I know it will succeed. For ongoing creative work like a podcast, use Patreon. Sponsor a few people yourself to experience the process. Look at many campaigns to see what works.
Thomas: The best way to learn is to spend a little supporting other campaigns. On Kickstarter, you can pledge as little as $1 and get no reward, just the updates. That lets you watch the process from start to finish and see how creators adapt. There’s a strong correlation between backing campaigns and running successful ones. Creators who have backed over 50 Kickstarter projects have a 60% success rate, compared to 16% for those who’ve backed only one.
Mary: And if you don’t have the time to learn, hire someone who understands it. I came into crowdfunding naive, and his help made our campaign very successful. If you can’t pay cash up front, offer a percentage of what comes in. That way, you get expert guidance without the initial expense.
Connect with Mary DeMuth
About Mary
Mary DeMuth is an international speaker and podcaster, and she’s the novelist and nonfiction author of over thirty-five books, including the latest: The Seven Deadly Friendships (Harvest House Publishers 2018). She loves to help people re-story their lives. She lives in Texas with her husband of 28 years and is the mom to three adult children. Find out more at marydemuth.com.
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