whitefox: helping brands, thought leaders and writers create beautiful bespoke books
James Hoffmann is a coffee consultant, influencer, and businessman. After writing for his blog since 2004, he decided it was time to compile all his best writing into a beautiful cloth-bound coffee table book The Best of Jimseven, and offer it as part of an exclusive one-off print run for his dedicated fans. Due to the highly bespoke format of his book, James needed to raise the funds in order to cover the cost of the print run. To do this, he turned to crowdfunding platform Indiegogo.
In order to garner support, James created and embedded a YouTube video on his Indiegogo page, in which he explained why the book was interesting and unique, talked about it’s high-end finish, what topics it would cover and who exactly it was for. He asked for people to help fund the project by buying the book, ebook, or simply telling people who might be interested. Those that backed the book through a £25 purchase were then guaranteed to receive a physical copy of the highly exclusive book, or an ebook version for a lesser cost.
Through crowdfunding via Indiegogo, James managed to raise £24,000 from 806 backers. As a result, he was able to cover the costs of the entire project, from editorial, to design, print, and beyond. When asked about his experience crowdfunding and any advice he’d offer to others, James said:
‘Crowdfunding was a fun experience. The advice I got is that it is important to meet your stated goal quickly. Campaigns that don’t get to their goal quickly rarely ever get there. People like to feel like they’re backing a winning campaign and so I set my target lower than I actually needed, but quickly hit my target and was able to take that momentum up to where I really needed it to go.’