How is this better than Kickstarter? Someone can put up a Kickstarter and say that "people who pledge at level X will have their name in the acknowledgements.

How is this better than Kickstarter? Someone can put up a Kickstarter and say that "people who pledge at level X will have their name in the acknowledgements. Pledge at level Y and you'll get your name in a footnote in one of the chapters." In fact, I think there _have_ been Kickstarters for books where the author offered to write high-pledgers into the story in some fashion.