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 today is Jacqueline Isaacs. She is the strategic director of Bellwether Communications, where she crafts measurable, well-researched content strategies for clients. She is also co-author of the book Call to Freedom: Why You Can Be a Christian and a Libertarian, which I’m sure is not controversial at all. It successfully raised $8,000 through Indiegogo in the summer of 2016.
Where did the idea for Call to Freedom come from?
Jacqueline: The idea dates back to around 2012. The six of us who went on to write the book, our editor, Elise Daniels, and five chapter contributors, met in a book club in Washington, DC. The club was sponsored by a Christian nonprofit and gave young Christian professionals a place to talk about faith, culture, and how to live out our beliefs in the highly political environment of DC. Most of us leaned toward the free market side, from conservative to libertarian.
A conference called the International Students for Liberty Conference needed to fill some panel slots. They reached out to members of our group, and the six of us proposed a panel titled something like, “Is Christianity Coercive?” In libertarian circles, coercion and the proper use of force are important issues.
Thomas: Libertarians are not big fans of the use of force.
Jacqueline: Right, especially not from government or authorities. That’s where tension often arises between faith and libertarianism, since being a Christian means accepting authority from God, the Bible, and the church. Some libertarians resist that idea. Our panel explored this question. It was at 9:00 a.m. against other interesting panels, so we didn’t expect a large turnout, but we packed the room. Students asked thoughtful questions. Some were from Christian campuses where being libertarian caused conflict; others were from secular campuses where being libertarian was fine but being Christian was the source of tension.
A recurring request from these students was for a resource they could take back to campus to explain how they could be both Christian and libertarian. We could recommend books on economics or faith and culture by great scholars, but there was no single book tailored to young adults who wanted to articulate both their faith and libertarian political philosophy.
How did you turn the panel into a book?
Thomas: You had this successful panel and realized the book you wanted to recommend didn’t exist. You decided to create it. What did you do next?
Jacqueline: It took us about a year to craft our proposal and pitch it to traditional publishers. We didn’t immediately consider self-publishing because there were six of us, all with full-time jobs, and no one volunteered to take on the logistics. Eventually, we were picked up by a publisher specializing in academic publishing, which was more focused on textbooks and classroom resources. They liked that we were targeting college students, but they didn’t offer much support for promoting or marketing the book.
Why did you use crowdfunding?
Thomas: Basically, they would make the book exist but wouldn’t sell copies. What was your plan to get the books into students’ hands?
Jacqueline: That’s when we decided to crowdfund. I had studied crowdfunding academically, and 2016 was when crowdfunding surpassed traditional venture capital in funding volume. We wanted to raise money to market the book and connect with our audience before release. Crowdfunding let us generate preorders and build buzz ahead of the launch.
Thomas: Crowdfunding creates urgency with a definite end date. It triggers scarcity and popularity cues, turning a launch into an event. You were going to publish anyway, but crowdfunding made it easier to get attention.
Jacqueline: Exactly.