In the past year, crowdfunding platforms helped generate a staggering $34 billion dollars in funding. But the harsh reality is that the majority of crowdfunding campaigns fail-only 40% meet their goals. And failing means failing hard. If you fall short of your goal by the deadline, not only won't you see any of the money you've worked so hard to raise, but you might actually tarnish your shiny idea. Alex Daly is a hugely successful crowdfunding expert who has run some of Kickstarter's biggest campaigns, from TLC's new album to Neil Young's music player to Joan Didion's documentary "We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live." In this book, she shows you how to: * Build a deep fan base prior to launch * Understand the psychology of why people give and create the right narrative around your project * Find the right platform on which to raise funds * Deal with unfulfilled promises and angry backers * Create intimacy and promote shareability of your project * Best use influence and exclusivity to get funded. Woven throughout is Alex's own entrepreneurial story-the unconventional career path she took to ultimately start her business, Vann Alexandra, thanks to crowdfunding. And she will take readers deep into her most successful campaigns, showing them how she helped them get funded. As someone who's spent lots of time in the trenches, she has learned the hard way how to communicate and connect with people on the Internet-and offers tangible tools to run your own crowdfunding campaigns. Above all, this is a book about how to fully connect with the crowd, get people to pay attention, and inspire them to act.