Crowdfunding to Self Publish

I want to be read. That's the reason I write things. I want people to read them, to share them, to think about them. That's what being an author is to me.

So when I talk about the impermanence of short stories, how they get their place on a site for a short time and then get put away, it makes me glad they were out there. I provide the link to friends who might be interested and I love getting their reactions. But then the stories are gone.

Publishing keeps changing in so many ways. So what I want to do is put out a couple short story collections. They would be self published, but that is not the stigma it used to be. They would be professionally edited and formatted. The covers would be done by a good artist. [I already found at least one who can work with me.]

The best part is that anyone could read these stories.

The worst part is that I can't afford it by myself at this time.

However, there are ways around my funding issues. I'm looking into crowdfunding: Kickstarter, Kapipal, IndieGoGo, Go Get Funding, and others. I'm limited in that I write erotica and I plan to give erotica away as incentives. I don't think it's a big deal, but anybody who wants to go through PayPal needs to be careful because they won't allow pornography in their incentives (along with alcohol and a bunch of other things). I probably could make the distinction that this is erotica, there are no pornographic pictures or videos, but I just want to play that part safe.

There are two ways to do crowdfunding. One puts out a goal of a monetary sort and says, "If I make this goal, the investors get their incentives and I get the cash. But if I don't, nobody gets anything." The other way allows investors to get the incentives and me to get the funds even if we don't make our goal. Some of the sites take a larger percentage if you don't make the goal, but it means I'd still have to provide the incentives if I only got a percentage and I'd get at least partial funding for this project.

Partial funding might be enough. I have options on ways to go, but I don't think I can take on the whole project without help. So I'm working on incentives and deciding which crowdfunding company will suit me the best.

Thoughts?