FKT Book Misses Crowdfunding Goal

I posted about this effort a few weeks ago when it had first launched and made myself a note in the calendar to check in how the progress of the campaign just before its conclusion.

As it stands right now with less than a day to go there are 98 backers with $9,446 raised, but way shy of the goal of $66,019 to get the project to print. Just 14% was reached.

I’m not here to gloat, but find it fascinating that the Barkley Marathos book a few years ago had no problem getting funding but both the UTMB book last year and the FKT book now – all done using the same crowdfunding mechanism and published by the same publisher – failed to reach its goal. More so, one would think that UTMB and FKTs have a much larger appeal than the seemingly obscure Barkley Marathons book. But, before I draw some possible conclusions I wanted to share some numbers to compare:

• The FKT book ‘Fastest Known Times Records Made to be Broken‘ received 99 backers with $9,597 of the required $66,065 was pledged, or 15% to goal.
• The UTMB book ‘UTMB The Race that Transformed a Sport‘ received 243 backers, $22,091 of the required $71,946 was pledged, or 30% to goal.
• The Barkley Book ‘Finishers‘ received 715 backers, $55,064 of the required $47,964 was pledged, or 114% to goal.

The pledge goals were higher for the two failed campaign, but not significantly in a way that it would’ve made a difference and gotten the project funded.

The pledges or pre-order amounts for each book were about the same:

• FKT: $55 – $120
• UTMB: $60 – $125
• Barkley: $55 – $125

715 people backed the Barkley book, while only 243 the UTMB one, and less than a 100 for the FKT book.

Why was the Barkley one that much more popular? Is it the mystic around the event? The allure of the thing outside our reach? The fabled storylines of the few people who actually finished the event? Does a book lend itself better to celebrate such an “old school” event without livestream? And one that in and of itself uses books as a fundamental element during the race? Was this campaign marketed better? Hit the market at a different time? So many questions and I have no answers. But I truly wish I could own all three of them.