Crowdfunding your next book allows you the freedom to write about you want and provides you a built-in audience before the words hit the page.

Many authors have used crowdfunding successfully. As Anna Maguire points out on Crowdfund It, the most important thing you can do is write a completely original description of the project you are undertaking. Karsten Strauss provides a roundup of successfully funded ideas in Crowd Funding Your Next Project on Forbes.com. And Jim Kukral provides crowdfunding tips on the Huffington Post Blog.

It's important to remember that any donation page can be set up as the base of a crowdfunding project. There are many advantages to integrating your crowdfunding campaign with your nation:

• donations are received as soon as they are processed - no need to wait to reach your campaign's goal or end date
• donor information is captured as part of your people database and connected to other interactions you have with your supporters, from their comments on your blog posts and Facebook page updates to their retweets.
• you can encourage people to raise money from their friends and acknowledge fundraisers with additional perks

Accepting donations requires a couple of steps.

1. Set up a bank account to act as your donation processor
2. Complete the set up of this donation page - consider including a tracking code - and delete this content

Learn more about how to accept donations, and watch this video for step by step instructions on how to setup a bank account.

Be sure to delete this information or replace it with a short reason to provide financial support for your efforts. Edit the Donate page and go to Donation settings > Intro to update the copy.