I hoped for 60-80 books to be pre ordered and thought it might stretch to 100 books. But it just keeps going and going and I want to share some wisdom about it.

Surpassed my dream goal
Selling more than 200 books that haven’t been printed yet wasn’t on my list. It’s actually 242 books pre ordered right now and I’m not even counting the museums planning to take it in to their shops.

Why has it gone so well?
I have sort of failed another crowdfunding event earlier and have snapped upp a few crucial things from that. Since this already is such a success it feels like I have gathered enough credit to share some wisdom.

No advertising
Olof and I have been really busy finishing the book and haven’t had time to manage the crowdfunding campaign much since it started. Some how our network fell through and went viral. I thought about putting up a Facebook ad but it only took 44 hours to achieve our crowdfunding goal so it didn’t feel necessary.

Three important crowdfunding things
Although your project is super-fantastic you have to come to terms with that no one will ever be more engaged in it than you. There are lots of people making great stuff all the time, so why should any one care about our project?

1. Make people understand why are you doing this. You have to personally engage people in what you’re doing. To manage this they have to understand the “Why?”. And you have to have a video.
   (In our case we are passionatly aiming to share our knowledge and long experience by publishing this book.)
   Check out what RocketHubs CEO has to say about “Why?” here.
2. You must have a network or be able to use some other network to spread your message. It is crucial that some one else goes out of their way to tell people about your fantastic project.
   (In our case we have some close personal friends in the viking reenactment community. About 50% of the backers have spawned from social networking.)
3. Backers need rewards! You have to offer something in return to your supporters. It doesn’t have to be a physical object although physical stuff really helps.
   (In our case we have a book and that’s great for many reasons. Every one knows a book is rather simple to produce and ship to their house. So people are confident there eventually will be a book delivered making it easier to pledge some money.)

One more thing
Make sure the message is short and very clear. The attention span of internet-people is short. We had the advantage of me (Martin) being an information designer, I know how to design information and put a lot of effort into getting it right.

What can I say? This is fantastic!

The book will now be printed in an English and Swedish edition. Just go to Kickstarter and decide how many books you need (the more you choose the less they cost). The campaign ends November 16th, after that I will sort out what languages you want and your shipping address.

Quick funding
We actually passed our goal after 44 hours of the campaign. But it goes on to November the 16th so we won’t stop now. By the way, Olof and I have lots to do before the book goes to the printing press. We need your help spreading the word about this great new book so we can focus on finishing it to perfection.

Spread this link to all your friend: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1363958503/1000-years-of-fun-and-games

This is a history book describing how to perform and the history behind over 30 different games and sports. It spans between the Viking age and the early 20th century.

IN ENGLISH
The first edition will be in English. We are right now having the book translated and adjusted from our native Swedish language.

HOW TO GET THE BOOK
It is nearly finished and the 21:St of October 2014 a crowdfunding event on Kickstarter.com (Link to the event will come soon) will begin. There you can pre order your copy that will ship to you just before Christmas.

THE AUTHORS
Olof Johansson is the Nestor of old games and sports and has gathered ancient documents on the subject for over 20 years. Martin Wande is a senior information designer and professional illustrator specialized in making ordinary people understand complex information.
Together we have spent many years performing and teaching others how to play these ancient games and sports. With our special abilities we have created this ultimate game book from our rich but forgotten cultural heritage of fun.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep up to date at our Facebook Page.

This is the first post starting off the historic game book we are making.

I Martin Wande and Olof Johansson are writing, photogaphing and illustrating a completely new and fun book about what our ancestors did for amusement. It spans all the way from the Viking age to the pre industrial age and our goal is to spread our cultural heritage of fun!

Like the Facebook page so you don’t miss the first edition at the crowdfunding event that will start in a few weeks.