It was launched on Monday, 5, the first platform of collective financing focused exclusively on the Brazilian publishing market. Bookstorming, a startup designed by four young people from Rio de Janeiro, aims to transform the experience of buying the book in the country by bringing to the publishing market the tool of crowdfunding. The idea, which already works successfully in the United States and Europe, is to give readers the power to bet on the books they believe in and that, in the traditional editing process, they may never be released.
"We are changing the order of production of the book", says the Rio de Janeiro Rachel Maldonado, co-founder. "Today, there is only one way to buy a book: go to the bookstore and choose one of the releases. What we do is we use the power of diffusion of the internet and invite the reader to participate in the production from the beginning, when the book does not even exist. If you believe the project, it pays for it and can interfere in several stages of editing. In the end, he receives at home an exclusive book, which helped create".
As in other types of crowdfunding, the book only starts to be produced if a minimum of supporters is reached within the deadline stipulated by the campaign. If this number is not reached, supporters will receive the money back. This eliminates the financial risk of the book production and expands the possibilities of searching for originals.
According to co-founder Arthur Granado, one of Bookstorming's objectives is to serve as a thermometer for the publishing market. "This has been one of the main crowdfunding vocations worldwide, and it is even more important on platforms that focus on just one market. Because we know Brazilian books and readers well, we always commit ourselves to quality projects. And who better than you to define whether or not they should get out of the picture? "
First book
The first startup project is already on the air. It is the book " Disorder" – an anthology of short stories by seven Brazilian authors who have already gone through the media, have won awards and praises, but – for Bookstorming editors – have not received due attention.
"We believe that this first project shows the strength of our idea", says Raquel. "Whoever we search for on the authors for the book will realize that they have everything to do with the spirit of collective funding. They are innovative and bold writers, but at the same time mature. If they have not found the success deserved to date, it is because there was still no channel to put them in direct contact with the reader".
Authors
– Natércia Pontes: is Cearense and lives in São Paulo. In 2012 he launched the book of short stories Copacabana dreams, by Cosac Naify, who was the finalist of the 2013 Jabuti Prize.
– Paulo Bullar: Bahian 34 years old, published in 2002 the book of short stories Humus by the publisher Books of Evil. After more than a decade without writing fiction, the Pirates project began: historical fictions, which should be completed in 2015.
– Cristiano Baldi: Gaucho de Caxias do Sul, published in 2002 the book of short stories Or claviculas, also by the extinct Books of Evil. He currently works on his first novel.
– Olaf Amaral: born in Porto Alegre and lives in Rio de Janeiro, where he works as a researcher in the field of memory neurobiology. He is the author of the volumes of Static short stories (IEL-RS, 2006) and Current and debris (7Letras, 2012), the latter, finalist of the 2012 Açorian Prize.
Erika Mattos da Veiga: born in Volta Redonda in 1977. In 2005, he lived in Zimbabwe, where he wrote Ressaibo, a novel published in 2007 by publisher 7Letras. In 2010, Nona published by the same publisher.
– Patrick Brock: born in Rio Grande do Sul, grew up in Bahia and now lives in New York, from where he writes for Brazilian newspapers and websites. He wrote two short stories books, Old feces (2004) and Textorama (2005), published by the collective Editions K, of which he was one of the founders.
Katherine Funke: born in 1981 in Joinville, Santa Catarina, and currently lives in Bahia. In 2013, he had a short story published in the anthology Popcorn unterm Zuckerhut, by German publisher Klaus Wagenbach. In 2010 he received the Funarte Literary Creation Grant for the unpublished Without haste and in 2012 the Funarte Scholarship of Aesthetic Interactions, with which he completed the novel Viagens de Walter (Solisluna, 2013).
Source: Press Office of Bookstorming
