Online magazine Covet Garden asking readers to contribute to print SIP

There has to be a better word for "crowdsourcing" when an online publication is actually passing the hat to its own readers to get enough money to publish a print special interest pub. Covet Garden, the online home and garden title, is asking its readers to pony up $18,000 between now and July 6 in order to produce Covet Garden Home, a 100+-page magabook.

The hope is to use the money it raises to pay some of the addition production costs such as paper and printing and that the difference between the $18,000 and what it really costs will be covered by selling the magazine/book in newsstands and in booksellers as well as online. So far, about $4,100 has been pledged. 

"We know you love our past features, but we also want to make the print version a new experience. Which is why we want to photograph new spaces, bring you updates on past homeowners and novel DIY projects and food and drink ideas for entertaining."

Like many such enterprises done through indiegogo.com and similar sites, contributors get varying rewards depending on the amount pledged. For $30 or more, they get a copy of the publication delivered to their door. For $1,000 (if it's in the Toronto area), their home will be featured in a CG photo shoot. For $2,000 they can get a full page advertisement in the book. 

Covet Garden has been publishing online, monthly, for about two and a half years from its base in Toronto.