DJ – when you put the “me, me, me” crowd like that, that begins to sound like most writers, to be honest. Wouldn’t we all love that? But yes, I see what you mean – and the niche aspect seems to be key to a successful set-up. I’ll keep an eye out on what happens to some of the projects there.

As for the “me, me, me” crowd, I’m not so sure this appeals to them. My hunch is they want validation more than anything else. They want agents/editors to swoon, bookstores to pile up their tomes, the media to come begging for interviews. Kickstarter seems to be more about small projects achieving modest levels of funding. It’s not a shot at fame and fortune, but a chance for niche creative projects to find an audience… or determine that there really is no audience for the project.

Interestingly, I’ve seen projects by published authors barely get off the ground. And those by writers completely unknown to the publishing world come back with four or five times their funding level. It seem the successful are those who know how to harness social media, not necessarily those who have built a traditional readership.

It’s worked for them, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for fiction.

- Neil.