Indiegogo is committed to accessibility. If you have difficulty using our site, please contact support@indiegogo.com for assistance or view our accessibility notice by clicking here

This campaign is closed

Book Fight! podcast annual fundraiser

Support your favorite literary/writing podcast for another year!

You may also be interested in

Closed
Closed
Closed
Closed
Closed

Book Fight! podcast annual fundraiser

Book Fight! podcast annual fundraiser

Book Fight! podcast annual fundraiser

Book Fight! podcast annual fundraiser

Book Fight! podcast annual fundraiser

Support your favorite literary/writing podcast for another year!

Support your favorite literary/writing podcast for another year!

Support your favorite literary/writing podcast for another year!

Support your favorite literary/writing podcast for another year!

Book Fight
Book Fight
Book Fight
Book Fight
1 Campaign |
United States, United States
$5,000 USD 96 backers
100% of $5,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Short Summary

Book Fight! is a weekly literature and writing podcast hosted by Mike Ingram and Tom McAllister, both of whom are writers, college professors, and editors at Barrelhouse magazine. Every Monday since April 2012, we've posted a new ~60-90 minute episode for free.  All 100+ episodes in the archive have remained free to download.

In a review of the show, The AV Club wrote:

"Overall, Book Fight! tends to be an enjoyable chat with two dudes who get passionate about the craft, call out authors on their bullshit, shout-out great lit when they read it, and consume a lot of pop culture. Book club with these guys isn’t the tedious chore it can be when sitting around the living room of someone you don’t even like, drinking bad wine. Sometimes they fight. "

We love doing the show and have a ton of fun doing it, but it is a lot of work and there are ongoing expenses. We're asking regular listeners (and new listeners who want to support independent voices in literature) to donate to the show so that we can keep it going, continue improving it, and keep it free to download each week

We hope you'll consider your donation a small subscription fee for the 60+ hours of free entertainment we upload every week. Your donations will help us to finance equipment upgrades, cover ongoing administrative costs, and (we hope) pay for more live shows on the road. 


What We Need & What You Get

This year, we're trying to raise $5,000. Any progress toward this ultimate goal will help us to achieve a number of incremental goals:

  • Paying ongoing administrative costs: web hosting on Wordpress and file hosting on Libsyn, plus the cost of new books (only one book in the show's history has been sent as a review copy, and while we like throwing our money at authors and publishers--especially independent publishers--this is an out-of-pocket cost that does add up).
  • Equipment upgrades: we'd love to get a fourth microphone so we can accommodate an extra guest from time to time, and also higher quality mics to improve sound quality on the show. We'd also like to get equipment to improve our mobile recording capabilities so that we can accommodate guests who can't make it to New Jersey to record. This would widen our range of possible guests and allow us to bring more new and exciting voices to the show.
  • Live shows on the road! We love the community that has sprung up around this show and we'd really like to bring the show out to our fans. This past year, we hosted our first live show here in Philadelphia, and we'd love to do live shows in other cities--including yours. But touring costs a lot of money, and we are far from rich! Note that this is probably the biggest expense on this list.
  • Any cash left over will be treated as a (small) salary for our work on the show, which is posted free and receives no ad revenue of any kind. 
  • There are lots of fun perks for donors
  • If we reach our goal of $5000, we'll record another bonus episode based on a book chosen by our listeners. Last year, you voted for us to discuss Silver Linings Playbook, in an episode that turned out to be a fan favorite. What will it be this year? 
  • Because Book Fight is an offshoot of Barrelhouse, a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit literary publisher, your donation is 100% tax deductible. 

The Impact

We've been doing this show for a while now, and we think our track record speaks for itself. We've done several fund raisers, and each time we've come through for you with a better show and great giveaways. 

Look, we don't want to overstate our importance, but there's a great value to having independent literary voices in the world. We review all kinds of books, from canonical texts to works in translation to graphic novels to small press story collections, and we do it without being beholden to any corporate interests, so you know you're getting a no-bullshit take on the literary world. Agree or disagree with our opinions, you know you can trust our show to be a unique, honest voice in a lit world that is sometimes so concerned with politeness that it's hard to tell what's hype and what's real. 

Risks & Challenges

We've got a track record here. For nearly 3 years, we've produced weekly episodes, plus occasional bonus episodes. You can count on us to keep working hard to produce a high-quality show for you. Your donation is your vote of confidence in what we're doing, and it's one we take to heart. You can trust that the money you contribute will go to good use in sustaining this show. 

The greatest challenge we might face is in figuring out the logistics of planning and organizing live shows on the road. These events require lots of coordination with local venues, guests, and media. It's possible that we could try to organize a road trip and it will be a disaster. But we have experience in this area, too, thanks to the many events we've organized as part of Barrelhouse, and we have a large network of friends in the lit community, so we're confident we can count on these resources to help us make the best use of your contributions. 

Other Ways You Can Help

Even if you can't contribute, we hope you'll help us spread the word, using Indiegogo's share tools and telling your friends on social media. 

You can also support the show by rating us in iTunes, Stitcher, or whatever service you use for downloading and listening to podcasts. And explaining to your literature-loving friends a) what a podcast is, and b) why they should start listening to this one.

Thanks for your ongoing support of the show! 

Looking for more information? Check the project FAQ
Need more information
Let us know if you think this campaign contains prohibited content.

Choose your Perk

featured

You pick a book

$250 USD
In addition to the blurb, bonus episodes, and free book, you also get to choose a book that we will discuss on air. This would be the featured book of a full 60-90 minute episode and we will give it the same thorough read and careful consideration we give every book. A good opportunity to expose your work to our audience, promote a book you love, or inflict a truly awful book on us for your own sadistic pleasure.
5 claimed

Our very sincere thanks

$10 USD
You will have our gratitude and we will read your name on the show in thanks. If we ever see you in human form, we will shake your hand, provided that you're ok with us shaking your hand.
4 claimed

Blurb

$15 USD
We write a personalized book-style blurb for you and read it on air as thanks.
15 claimed

Bonus pack of Holiday Episodes

$35 USD
In addition to the customized blurb, you will receive three bonus holiday episodes exclusive to donors. Episodes will be delivered by email on the appropriate holidays (Valentine's Day, Halloween, and a mystery holiday to be named later). That's an extra 4-6 hours of literature-adjacent audio entertainment, on top of the usual weekly episodes!
27 claimed

T-shirt

$50 USD
In addition to the blurb and the bonus episodes, you will receive a Book Fight t-shirt. If you'd like to donate at this level but would prefer not to receive the shirt, you can email us and we'll ship you a mystery reward instead. We will ask you to please specify a T-shirt design and style. Specifics are at bookfightpod.com/store. Supplies are limited.
Only 1 left

Free Barrelhouse Book!

$75 USD
In addition to the blurb and the bonus episodes, you will receive a free copy of either the Barrelhouse Comedy Issue (edited by Mike) or one of the three books so far published Barrelhouse Books: YOU'RE GOING TO MISS ME WHEN YOU'RE BORED by Justin Marks, THANKS AND SORRY AND GOOD LUCK by Lee Klein, or BRING THE NOISE: THE BEST POP CULTURE ESSAYS FROM BARRELHOUSE. If you already own all this stuff--look at you, fancy pants!--just send us an email and we'll send you something else awesome.
2 claimed

Sponsor an episode

$100 USD
In addition to the blurb and the pack of bonus holiday episodes, you can sponsor an episode. We'll promote your book, organization, or message several times during the episode, read ad copy of your choosing (if you'd prefer), and post links on our website and Twitter. We won't promote hate groups/messages, but everything else is fair game. We'll coordinate the specifics with you via email.
5 claimed

Freaky Friday

$1,000 USD
You get all the other things, plus we arrange for you and a friend to engage in a Freaky Friday style body swap with us for a period of exactly 48 hours. This is all dependent on us figuring out the logistics, but it seems probably not that hard?
0 out of 3 of claimed
sold out

Signed copy of Tom's book

$40 USD
10 out of 10 of claimed

You may also be interested in

Up Caret