Why shouldn’t it work for poetry?
There’s something to be said for the innovative model of publishing that Grant and O’Connell are using. They’re straddling the online and real-world arenas; the Internet is making possible a real, physical book. (Elliott, too, lives in both spheres; he tours tirelessly to sell hard copies of his books, but is also the founder of the online literary magazine The Rumpus.) A pledge of $15 or more guarantees the backer a hard copy, so essentially you’re buying the book in advance on the promise of certain content. Clearly this model won’t work for all books—poetry and certain types of experimental writing, for example—but it is perfectly suited to this book.