Tom Spurgeon is uneasy with traditional publishers using Kickstarter to fund their projects:
I’m really uneasy about publishers using that mechanism, and I’m not even sure I can explain all the way why. It’s almost like that I feel the old model of doing things is being circumvented, somehow. Like these publishers are switching over to that mechanism because they’re not doing the other one well, not because the new one presents specific opportunities. I’m not sure, I’m really inarticulate on the subject and I need to firm that up because that moment in history is here. What makes it difficult is there are things I’m thinking about trying to crowdfund, too, which I’m not sure should make my opinions suspect but it should make them open to extra self-scrutiny.
The first worry with a publisher (or any other established business for that matter) using a mechanism concieved for independent creators to get funding is that it doesn’t inspire confidence in their financial state. If you have to get your readers to fund you in advance, you’re doing something wrong as a publisher. It feels like a flight forward, rather than a well thought out attempt to make use of new possibilities.
The second worry is of course how stable the Kickstarter funding model is. There is always the possibility that one or two high profile disasters will turn off people and, let’s face it, the possibility of such a disasters is always much higher in comics than anywhere else. Worse, what with fan dollars not being inexhaustible, there’s also the possibility that crappy, greed driven projects will push out more worthwhile, creative endeavours.
Which brings us to the feeling that using Kickstarter this way is cheating, that companies like this aren’t supposed to use this, that it should be kept for struggling young cartoonists. I’m not sure that’s a reasoned objection though, even if I share this feeling.
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