MASS ≠ WEIGHT

To best understand the amount of mass in our solar system, you have to understand the difference between mass and weight. For example, I might have 84 kilograms of weight, but how much mass does my body have? And my car? My house? My neighborhood? I could say 10,000 or 100,000 10,000,000,000,000 kilograms, but that’s not the most efficient way of expressing it mathematically nor does it even explain what that means in a way our puny brain can grasp the true scale of the measurement.

How much mass is 1 gram? About one regular paperclip. Thus, 1,000 paperclips = 1 kilogram of mass.

This is where things get a little tricky. Mass and weight are often confused, but it’s easier to grok if you think about it like this: mass measures the matter in an object, while weight is how much gravity pulls on that mass. For instance, our 1 gram paperclip might weigh conveniently weigh 1 gram here on Earth, but on Jupiter—a celestial body with a far greater gravitational pull—this same paperclip could weigh as much as 25 Kilograms!

The exact formula is to determine mass is:

Mass = Earth Weight / Earth Gravity

Earth Gravity is measured at exactly 9.80665 meters per second (m/s²), or about 32.17405 feet per second per second.

Weight on Earth is also measured in Newtons. So, on Earth, if I weigh 84 Newtons (i.e., what we know as “84 Kg of weight” but which science measures in meters per second per second), then the formula to determine my mass would be:

84 N / (9.80665 m/s²) = 8.5656 Kg

Hey, I don’t feel so fat anymore.

SOLAR MASS

The short answer to the question, How much mass in in our solar system? is 1.0014 Solar Masses.

Okay… so what’s a Solar Mass?

The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as clusters,nebulae and galaxies. It is equal to the mass of the Sun, about two nonillion kilograms:

Wait, what? Nonillion? What the hell?

ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE

Here’s a quick refresher on orders of magnitude:

• Million = 10⁶ = 1,000,000
• Billion = 10⁹ = 1,000,000,000
• Trillion = 10¹² = 1,000,000,000,000
• Quadrillion = 10¹⁵ = 1,000,000,000,000,000
• Quintillion = 10¹⁸ = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
• Sextillion = 10²¹ = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
• Septillion = 10²⁴ = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
• Octillion = 10²⁷ = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
• Nonillion = 10³⁰ = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

If the total mass of our solar system is 1.0014 , then the exact answer would be:

Total Solar System Mass =

(1.98855 ± 0.00025) x 10³⁰ kg ) x 1.0014 =

(1.99133 ± 0.00025) x 10³⁰ kg =

1,991,333,970,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg ± 250,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg = 

~ 1.99 nonillion kgs =

~ 1.99 quintillion quintillion kgs.

Thus, the number of kilograms in our solar system is still way larger than the 456 trillion trillion atoms in your head.

It would gratifying to calculate exactly how many atoms are in our solar system, but that kind of precision is dependent on knowing the chemical composition of all matter in our solar system, which at this point is largely unknown.

MY BRAIN IS FULL. MAY I LEAVE NOW?

Ha ha. Not quite.

After you check out the mass of the all bodies in our solar system, you can see Earth’s mass is 5.9742 x 10²⁴ kg. As a percentage of the whole solar system’s mass, it’s only 0.0003% (5.9742 x 10²⁴ / 1.99133 x 10³⁰), but the total mass of the solar system is the equivalent of 333,322 Earths.

Now that’s something to bend you brain, no?

This post is part of the Hex Feature Film Research Project. Anything posted here does not necessarily imply it will end up in the final film, but it should be considered the backdrop against which the feature film is being created.

This post is part of the Hex Feature Film Research Project. Anything posted here does not necessarily imply it will end up in the final film, but it should be considered the backdrop against which the feature film is being created.

Well, there’s another theory doing the rounds. There’s this massive region of space with no galaxies in it and one scientist who thinks it might be a clue about a parallel universe:

A controversial claim by Laura Mersini-Houghton is that it could be the imprint of another universe beyond our own, caused by quantum entanglement between universes before they were separated by cosmic inflation. Laura Mersini-Houghton said, “Standard cosmology cannot explain such a giant cosmic hole” and made the remarkable hypothesis that the WMAP cold spot is “… the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own.” If true, this provides the first empirical evidence for a parallel universe (though theoretical models of parallel universes existed previously). It would also support string theory. The team claims there are testable consequences for its theory. If the parallel universe theory is true there will be a similar void in the opposite hemisphere of the Celestial sphere (which New Scientist reported to be the Southern hemisphere; the results of the New Mexico array study reported it as Northern hemisphere).

A sophisticated computational analysis (using Kolmogorov complexity) has derived evidence for a north and a south cold spot in the satellite data: “…among the high randomness regions is the southern non-Gaussian anomaly, the Cold Spot, with a stratification expected for the voids. Existence of its counterpart, a Northern Cold Spot with almost identical randomness properties among other low-temperature regions is revealed.”

These predictions and others were made prior to the measurements (see Laura Mersini). However, apart from the Southern Cold Spot, the varied statistical methods in general fail to confirm each other regarding a Northern Cold Spot. The ‘K-map’ used to detect the Northern Cold Spot was noted to have twice the measure of randomness measured in the standard model. The difference is speculated to be caused by the randomness introduced by voids (unaccounted-for voids were speculated to be the reason for the increased randomness above the standard model).

via CMB cold spot – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This post is part of the Hex Feature Film Research Project. Anything posted here does not necessarily imply it will end up in the final film, but it should be considered the backdrop against which the feature film is being created. Also, it’s just plain cool.

Here’s the skinny:

I’m slowly working towards writing and directing a feature film to be funded on Kickstarter. The film won’t have a huge budget, but just enough to make it an interesting story. The film will also not be released with egregious DRM, copyright entanglements or concerns with selling territory rights; instead, the final film will be released into the public domain, for free, forever. Yes, I’ll still sell copies of the film (and make those offerings extremely compelling), but the main goal is to make this film widely seen, and something which people can do whatever they want to do with it. This is the new model of filmmaking, in my mind, so I’m hoping you join me in making it happen.

So, from the moment I start writing the script—from the very first stages of drafting an outline, creating the characters, working out plot problems, etc.—you’ll get to follow along with a series of video blog entries. Until that phase starts, though, I’ll be blogging here every Friday at 10:00 AM PST with varios pieces of research I’ve found that’s pertinent to the story. When it finally comes time to ramp up pre-production, I’ll be referring to this series of blog posts as a kind of “research notebook” so we can all speak the same language.

The film’s topic? Astrophysics, a personal fascination of mine. I often come across a lot of blow-your-mind research, and it seems a pity not to share it with you all, too. Comments are more than welcome!

It’s an exciting time for me and I really want you to come along for the ride…

First up? A controversial theory about a huge empty area of space that could be signs of a parallel universe.

Ziggy:  You’re writing short stories based on each of the six core films of Revelation.  What draws you to this project?  What is it about Revelation that speaks you, both as a writer and as a whole person?

Ross Pruden:  I was intrigued when I first heard about Revelation because many filmmakers only make short films with the hope of parlaying them into a paid gig at a studio, or at least to make a bigger budget film.  There’s no market for short films, and part of why Revelation is so appealing is that “cinema as allegory” is shamelessly experimental.  It knows what it is.  It need not impress big studio execs, because there is no market for feature length allegorical cinema.  So that’s a huge mark of respect in my book.

As for the vignettes themselves, like all good allegories, Revelation’s stories bounced around in my head like pinballs for weeks after watching them.  There’s something… pure about expressing meaning without a context based in reality.  As I watched each of the stories, what really spoke to me was when each of the women look directly into the camera, in sharp color.  That moment is shocking; it feels the characters are looking right at me.  By far, it’s my favorite part of each film.

There’s a sharp distinction between how language is used in poetry vs. science.  In science, language is used in one narrow meaning to prevent ambiguity.  In poetry, the opposite is true.  You want to use words that carry as many meanings as possible.  Revelation is cinematic poetry, and as a writer, it thrills me to be involved in helping create something that could compliment each of the stories.

Ziggy:  As you write these stories, are you aware of the backstories already created by the actresses themselves as they developed their vignettes, or are you approaching these strictly from your own interpretations of what you see?  What is your process here?

Ross Pruden:  Initially, I was going to tackle the stories without any feedback, but then I thought I might have a terrible misinterpretation.  When I called up Wonder, I had no idea that the actresses had helped create their own vignettes, so she helped me get inside the stories and offer clues on how my stories might best integrate with the vignettes.  My process now is to re-watch the vignettes all at once, then each one separately before I do a first draft of each story.  After all the stories are written, I’ll go over all of the stories to look for ways I can link them together with words or themes, or some other aspect.  I’ll probably watch the vignettes one more time to add any final touches.

Ziggy:  Your perspective on the notion of “copyright” is very different from what has been the general groupthink.  Please explain your position.

Ross Pruden:  My previous position on copyright, in 1999, was as a strong supporter of copyright.  As time passed, I had a good friend who was an avid gamer, and we had frequent discussions on game piracy, but also all forms of media piracy.  He bought many games, but I remember one time when we wanted to play Unreal, and their stupid DRM was so egregious that we resorted to piracy to just sample the game.  That started me on a long mental journey of how effective copyright really is in stopping media piracy, and if stopping piracy is the wrong focus after all.  Is it more important to stop piracy or to get people to buy more?  After all, I ended up buying two copies of Unreal in subsequent years, which I’m sure I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t initially pirated it.  What good is enforcing strict copyright if it doesn’t effectively encourage customers to buy more?

Around 2006, I had the epiphany that there would never be a final way to stop people copying things online.  It’s a global game of Whac-A-Mole, and the mole always wins in the end.  Sure, you can pull the argument that we regulate car traffic, so why not regulate media piracy?  That’s a wholly inappropriate analogy, because everyone understands why we regulate cars: if we don’t, people’s lives are at stake.  But there’s a whole generation of people who see nothing wrong at all with media piracy.  When 76% of today’s 18 year olds freely share media with their friends and family, no amount of “reeducation” is going to reverse that tide.  File sharing is mainstream now.

Not long after that, I started looking at using Lawrence Lessig’s Creative Commons license.  The problem with copyright, as it currently exists, is that is forces us all into a “permission culture” where even quoting someone means we live in fear of being sued.  By contrast, the Creative Commons has more nuance, and invites others to share your work, or even resell, if you wish.  Compared to the Creative Commons, copyright looks like a bungling broadsword.

And then this last year, I was about to launch Dimeword, and I thought: “Wait… what if I really set these stories free?  What if I remove all licensing restrictions by putting all the stories into the public domain?  If my goal is to get these stories to be spread as widely as possible, isn’t the public domain the ideal way to push them out into the wild?”  The idea was to stop worrying about what people will be doing with my stories, to let them copy and remix, and even sell new copies.  It doesn’t make me stop being the author.  It doesn’t mean I can’t still sell books of the Dimeword stories.  What it does mean is that I never to have to spend money on lawyers trying to play IP Whac-A-Mole.

Writing for the public domain is still one big experiment.  One thing I’ve noticed, though: it’s a radically different feeling when you know you’re writing with the hope that others pick up your work to reuse it.  I’d rather live in hope than fear any day of the week.

Ziggy:  Tell us about the Dimeword campaign.

Ross Pruden:  The campaign originated from a discussion with novelist Suhail Rafidi.  We were brainstorming new ways authors could make money and take advantage of – instead of use DRM to dissuade – the internet’s ability to infinitely distribute media.  Suhail is a great writer, and I felt such an overwhelming sense of gratitude in knowing him, that I reached into my pocket to see what cash I had.  I had a $10 bill.  I was willing to pay him that $10 if he’d write me a super short 100 word story.  At 100 words, $10 works out to 1 dime per word.

I talk a lot on Twitter about good and bad crowdfunding campaigns, but I’d never run my own.  Dimeword seemed like a cool idea that didn’t need to raise too much money, and in keeping with the decimal theme, I thought if I could get just 100 people to give me $10, I only needed to raise $1,000.  I raised over $1,000 in less than 60 hours, and over $2,700 by the end of the campaign, which was astonishing.  I had five $100 backers, and one $500 backer, which shocked the hell out of me.  I’d been enumerating all the reasons why people give to campaigns for over two years, but actually seeing it happen was a pleasant surprise.

If I’d not had two kids constantly interrupting me, I’d have done a lot more for the campaign, like more frequent backer updates.  Every day that went that was a day without an update, I felt guilty.  I had so many things I wanted to talk about, and an awesome perk video that had to be jettisoned before the campaign went live.  Alas, the whole campaign was a learning experience for me, so I credit that as one very valuable lesson: plan in advance whenever possible.

Some people have congratulated me on raising so much money, thinking that I might spend $430 on creating the perks and keep $2000 for myself ($2430 after Kickstarter & Amazon fees).  The reality is that, from the beginning, I wanted to spend almost all that money on creating the perks.  My goal with this campaign wasn’t to make money; that was my secondary goal.  The primary goal was to find out who my fans were, and see how committed they were, and then build on their trust by creating something great.  My $100 backers get a paperback book of the Dimeword stories.  I can print copies for just $8 each and pocket the rest, but that would destroy their trust in me forever.  I want fans to walk away from the campaign feeling like they’re getting something super-special that they can’t get again once the campaign is over.  That’s why the $100 backers are getting a pimped out paperback with premium paper that costs $62 to print… in addition to all the other lower “waterfall” perks they get.  The $500 backer gets a hardbound edition, a handmade paperback edition, as well as everything else.  I prefer to not worry about increasing my profit margin by pushing down unit cost – it helps me focus on creating something truly exceptional for my fans.  And that’s as it should be.

Ziggy:  What kind of cheese and recreational beverage would you say that you pair well with? 

Ross Pruden:  A sharp Chevre with pear cider, or a near-melted Camembert with a Beaujolais wine.

Kickstart A Book For A Buck

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2012

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10 Lessons That Made Dimeword’s Kickstarter Campaign A Success

from the an-overnight-success-takes-years dept

As of this writing, my Dimeword campaign to fund public domain literature has more than doubled its funding goal and is still rising. 10 hours from the publishing of this article, the Dimeword campaign will end and I can finally start writing 100 stories for the public domain. Boat drinks!

I wish I could take all the credit for its stunning success, but most of Dimeword’s success roots from years of reading Techdirt. Through Techdirt, I’ve learned from the likes of Gerd Leonhard, Amanda Palmer, Nina Paley, Jill Sobule, Jonathan Coulton, Tim Cushing… too many to count. Techdirt keeps teaching me and all too often I find my poor brain is full.

In the spirit of the “decimal” theme of Dimeword, here are 10 things I learned — mostly from Techdirt — that supercharged the Dimeword campaign.

1. START SMALL AND START NOW

Principle: Before the internet, authors could toil away on a manuscript and gain royalties on book sales. The internet made copies easy, and the old model was upended. The only long-term solution is to build a fan base from the ground up, and that takes time. A lot of that time is unpaid. But if you reach out to fans, and give them something they really value, then they’ll tell their friends about you. Do that enough, and you hit a tipping point.

Practice: I “started small” in 2009 by creating the Infinite Distribution Panel on Twitter (the phrase “infinite distribution” is a hat tip to Masnick’s Approaching Infinity). It took me a few years to really understand how best to use #infdist, but I have a good flow now and it continues to be a great way to converse with like-minded people about piracy and digital distribution news.

Because of #infdist, Mike Masnick asked me contribute to Techdirt during his paternity leave. This was a great opportunity to increase my online presence, so I immediately accepted.

One day, I realized that if I were to ever crowdfund my own feature film, I needed to have a committed group of fans willing to throw down when I asked them to. I’d taken a break doing any kind of writing to make sense of how artists can thrive in this new economy. I knew it was time to step back into the stream so I launched Dimeword with the hope that if I could just get just 100 of my friends and followers to chip in $10, I could raise a simple $1000 goal. If I did it right, I’d have acquired my first small group of paying fans.

Results: Thanks to being a frequent Twitter user, and writing for Techdirt, and doing various writing gigs over the years (including five years of blogging), Dimeword rocketed to its $1000 goal in less than 60 hours. As of today, five backers have donated $100, and one (here from Techdirt) has donated $500. I credit this response to my non-stop reaching out to new fans, chatting with them, engaging, conversing, entertaining, and learning from them.

2. SELL THE SCARCE. SELL YOUR SCARCITY.

Principle: Whenever radical new technologies come along, goods or services that were once scarcities suddenly become abundant and industries focusing on only selling those scarcities fight tooth and nail to defend the old way. Instead, they should be understanding what new scarcities are created by this new abundance and upgrade their business model to sell those new scarcities.

Practice: When I first looked at my campaign, I tried to see it from the perspective of someone trying to destroy my own industry, er… I mean, from the perspective of an author trying to compete with a better value proposition. What is scarce now that only I could sell? In one sense, a big scarcity these days is not using standard copyright protection. So I chose to release my stories with a Creative Commons License. After thinking about it, it seemed to make more sense to go further, to push my work out into the Public Domain. That was certainly something I didn’t see anyone doing. That’s my scarcity. Then I looked at ways to incorporate other “generatives” like embodiment (creating a limited edition hardback copy), convenience (an email with all the stories), exclusivity (being among the first to get the stories), etc. I tried very purposefully to work in as many of these elements so that the “reasons to buy” were scarcities made valuable by the abundant nature of public domain literature.

Results: It’s worked. I’ve gotten over 50 people pledging $10 or more. Amazingly, I have 5 donors buying the paperback book for $100. Here’s the cool part: at $100, the book has been paid for, so I can spend $62 per unit to print it and not bat an eye. And yes, it really is going to cost that much because I’m pimping out the book to be uber-high quality. The people who pledge big get big value. That’s my scarcity.

3. MAKE FANS, NOT MONEY

Principle: Money is important, and without it, you fail. So of course you’re in business to make money. But — and this is the mind trick you must conquer – money is not the reason you are in business. You are in business to help people solve their problems. Do that better than anyone and you will have more money than you know what to do with. If you focus only on making money, the temptation is too high to make an inferior product in favor of a higher profit margin. And mediocre products breed unsatisfied, resentful customers. Great products breed devout fans willing to champion you and your work to anyone who will listen.

Practice: The goal of my campaign was first to get 100 fans to donate $10+ so I could safely write 100 stories for them. That wasn’t about the money — that was about going to people I already knew who love my work and asking them to be my patron so I could set some time aside to work. It was about finding my first small group of fans. After that, I knew the next phase would be to find totally new fans to buy in for just $1, so I set a stretch goal for a bonus story tied to the number of fans that is triggered once I meet my goal of 100 $10 donors.

Results: This hasn’t worked exactly as I expected. As of this writing, I have 59 $10+ donors and 12 $1 donors. This is mainly my fault because I haven’t been as active as I should have been to reach out and let ALL my friends and followers know about Dimeword. On the other hand, I found five $100 backers and one $500 backer, so I suppose it balances out. My hope is that I get another 100 $1 donors by the end of the campaign. If I’d worked harder and longer at this, I might have gotten 1,000 $1 backers. Still, it’s not bad for a first campaign. And my next campaign will have this campaign as part of its backstory — word of mouth about the quality of my perks should get exponentially greater as I do more Kickstarters.

4. BUILD TRUST WITH THE CREATIVE BOTTOM LINE

Principle: ”Creative bottom line” was coined by Amanda Palmer. Make great perks. Spend almost all your money if you have to. Fans will love it.

Practice: For my books, I’ll be using Blurb, which offers high quality publishing options. For the $100 book, I’ll likely be doing 8.5″ x 11″, 110 pages, super premium paper, and no Blurb logo. Per unit cost for just 7 copies? $62. Do I care? Nope. I want donors to feel like they’re reading a $62 book. They’re probably expecting a $30-$40 book, but it’s going to feel better than that. They will like what they get for $100. On the next campaign, I’ll go into it with their trust that my $100 option is sure to impress.

Results: I have no direct data on this, but I’ve always set a very high bar for myself creatively and everyone knows that when I do something, I do quality. I’m the dude who stayed up all night just to hunt for formatting errors on every page in my college newspaper.

5. $1 TIERS ARE PARAMOUNT

Principle: Whenever I see a campaign with their $1 tier offering just a thank you and nothing else, I wince. Amanda Palmer’s $1.2 million Kickstarter gave away 311MB of digital downloads for $1. And what effect do you think that has on a casual fan? For accepting just $1, you let them legally download all your digital content (which costs you nothing to copy and send to them) and they likely become a more serious fan of your music. On the next Kickstarter, they’ll happily give you more money for your $25 CD, or more.

Practice: I positioned my $1 tier to have incredible value: you get all the stories in an email eight weeks before the book comes out. If I happen to write a novel, you get a novel. Costs me nothing to copy and send, so my profit margin is 100% (well, 82% after fees and taxes). Some might argue that I’m “giving away the farm” for only $1, but my goal isn’t to make money off my $1 fans — my goal is to pinpoint who my fans are so I can more closely connect with them. Did I mention that I receive all the donor emails at the end? An email of a potential fan must be worth at least $1, no?

Results: Only 14% of my donors are from the $1 tier. I want that number to explode out to 1000%. Likely won’t happen, but I really want lots of small donations by the end. I’m still thinking of ways to entice this…

6. ADVERTISE NATURALLY WITH CONTENT

Principle: ”Buy now!” is a push sale. “Isn’t this cool?” is pull sale. The former is seen as spam, the latter is seen as conversation. However, both promote. If you strike up conversation about your project, and keep talking about your project’s value, your audience will naturally want to help you in your mission. However, it can’t be disingenuous talk about value — it must be totally authentic.

Practice: My 10 AM chats were intended to softly sell Dimeword while providing genuine perspective on Dimeword in particular, or other related topics like crowdfunding. I tried very hard to make each tweet “retweetable” by itself so that 2nd-degree readers would gain enough interest to look more closely at @Dimeword. You can’t make people share stuff — people only share stuff worth sharing. So a huge benefit was that, in addition to trying hard to connect with fans, I was also forced to create quality work. Additionally, I asked to be interviewed on Litopia, write this piece for Techdirt to be timed for the last day of the campaign, be a guest on#Scriptchat, and host a telethon. All events are opportunities for me to talk about my campaign, though I make a point to rarely ask anyone to donate. My hope is that the more others see how much energy and planning I’ve put into my campaign, they’ll convince themselves I’m a superhero worthy of some of their pocket change, amirite?

Results: I had a little traction with the 10AM chats, but not nearly enough. If I’d started sooner, say a week or two before the campaign, then it might have had a bigger following. The Litopia interview went well and was perfectly timed at 6 days before the deadline. The #Scriptchat is happening concurrently with this Techdirt post and my telethon (psssst: right now!). If my hunch is right, all the heat will converge at once and push Dimeword up, up, up…

7. DELIGHT

Principle: Delight your fans. However much money they give, give them so much more value in return that they’ll feel they got a bargain. They’ll brag about you to others, they’ll be repeat customers, they’ll become avid fans.

Practice: I felt that $1 to buy all the stories in an email would be a great bargain to many, especially since they’d get it 8 weeks before the book’s official release. And $10 for an email, PDF and the opportunity to be an author’s patron was also not bad value, especially when you consider how much time collectively goes into all the individual parts. But I’m adding more to all that. I’m including extra things, many of them small (see “8. Offer Gratitude”) which, together, should make the donor feel really appreciated. And for the higher tiers, I plan on going the distance to make the book look truly awesome. Here’s the part everyone overlooks — the packaging is as important as the perk inside. Even if I ship in a plain USPS box, I’ll write cool and fun stuff on the outside of the box and I’ll wrap the perk inside with special paper, etc. As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “Medium is the message.” First impressions matter a great deal. Apple knows this, which is why opening a new Mac is a near religious experience I always look forward to.

Results: I have no data yet on this, or how well received my perks will be. I shall report back.

8. OFFER GRATITUDE

Principle: You can definitely file this under “connect with fans”. Gratitude costs nothing but a few seconds, but it can really mean a lot to someone to let them know they made a difference in your life. I went to NYU film school and my teacher, Thierry Pathe, made a comment that sticks with me to this day: “When you send your film to the lab to get it color corrected, in the comments section, write a thank you. It doesn’t have to be anything more than, ‘Thanks!’ but it matters to them. They don’t get paid much, so a ‘Thank you’ goes a long way.”

Practice: At about half-way through the campaign, I emailed all my donors one by one to thank them. At a minimum, every perk will also have a “Thank you!” written on the outside of the package, and probably again on a special note inside. When possible, I ask for feedback, which is an interactive way of showing gratitude. This shit matters, yo. It sets you apart from everyone else. Plus, it’s just good karma.

Results: Who knows for sure if the “personal touch” worked, but after my individual emails, one donor upped their donation from $100 to $150!

9. HAVE FUN

Principle: When people see you’re enjoying yourself, it’s contagious. People respond because it’s an invitation to connect.

Practice: I had fun on this campaign because in part, I did it to learn about crowdfunding. I didn’t have to worry about missing my goal because the goal was set so low. I could try many new things to see what worked. One day, I did a Flash Story by inviting others to sift through my tweets (“Count back 10 tweets. Find the 10th word. Add the 10th letter of the alphabet to create a new word. What is it?”). For the last 10 days of the campaign, I’ve done twitter “mini-lectures” every morning at 10AM and opened it up for questions afterward. As of right now, I’m doing a telethon on YouTube… for 10 hours. See how it’s playful?

Results: I gathered 55 followers on Twitter in just a month, which is a high response rate. The @Dimeword account wasn’t set up to be an engagement account — i.e., equal followers to followed — just a “push” account for news, but I still use it to chat with others. Whenever someone asks a question, I try to get back to them asap. I ask questions back. I jibe. I try to be serious, but stay playful. My fans seem to respond well to that.

10. EDUCATE WITH TRANSPARENCY

Principle: One business strategy is to reveal more inside information than your competitor with the hope that it shames them into revealing more information so that consumers can then choose the competitor with the slimmer profit margin, i.e., you. Because transparency instills honesty, it puts you way ahead of the pack.

Practice: I’ve made little secret how much each of my perks cost, but I’m also going to release a spreadsheet that details ALL perk costs (in money and time) and the exact profit margins. My 10 AM chats are an insider view to me as a person, but also an insider’s view of Dimeword. I’m also going to use the telethon today to write a story live, and then explain how I write a 100 word story. How’s that for pulling back the curtain?

Results: I’ve always been in favor of transparency because it’s a mark of respect to your customer. Rather than dissuade customers from your product by letting them see exactly how much money you make, transparency tells them that you think they’re smart enough to see the numbers and recognize that well-earned profits are well deserved. Everyone knows Apple has a 90% profit margin, but we keep buying their computers because we get such amazing value out of their products.

The overall take home message is that one hell of a lot goes on behind the scenes to make a campaign successful, much of which happens years beforehand. And some stuff isn’t as obvious or as measurable as we would all prefer. For example, how much impact does a written “Thank you!” on a perk package make in helping to forge a stronger connection with a fan? For the indie artist without marketing resources to track the minutia of customer relations, we may never know.

What I do know is that, without Dimeword, I might have never found my highly dedicated fans. If there’s one lesson that should linger here, it’s this: the heart of business, the heart of providing solutions to customers and, indeed, any interaction with anyone for anything, is aboutconnecting. Artists aren’t in the business of making art. They’re in the business of connecting with others through art. You can connect with others 1000 different ways — Techdirt is rife with examples of exactly that — but they’re all essentially a variation of being human enough to discover what you have in common with others and then allowing them a chance to converse with you about it. From those connections, sales happen naturally.

One of my favorite quotes is from The Big Kahuna. The veteran salesman tells his young sales associate:

It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or ‘How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.’ That doesn’t make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are — just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore; it’s a pitch. And you’re not a human being; you’re a marketing rep.

Or, as someone put it to me years ago, “People like to buy from warm and fuzzy.”

Ross Pruden is a writer-filmmaker behind Dimeword, a crowdfunding campaign to fund new literature for the public domain. A live telecast is happening now until 10PM PT, and details are listed at Dimeword.com. Today is the last day of the campaign, and the lowest tier is just $1 — the best value of all the tiers. Sacrifice today’s latte and make Chris Dodd cry!

Dimeword Public-Domain Kickstarter Teaches Creator to Connect With Supporters

September 14th, 2012 by Chris Meadows · 2 Comments · content creation, publishing news

PD Content Creation Kickstarter Technically Succeeds, But Maybe Not How It Was Meant To

September 12th, 2012 by Chris Meadows · 4 Comments · content creation, publishing news

Kickstarter Campaign To Fund New Short Stories For The Public Domain

from the don’t-miss-out dept

Ross Pruden, who has written for Techdirt occasionally, is a filmmaker/storyteller who is experimenting with Kickstarter to fund a bunch of short stories for the public domain. For $10 he’ll write a short story specifically for you. For just $1, you’ll get sent an email with all of the stories before they’re officially released. As he says, this is a pretty simple experiment that he’s hoping to learn from. He’s already reached his target goal, but if you’d like to help expand the public domain for just $10, why not check it out?