Maybe you’ve noticed that I have a Kickstarter running right now, maybe you’ve even backed it (thank you, you’re a STAR), but maybe you have no idea what Kickstarter is and don’t know how to back a project, or why you would want to support a campaign, or how to launch your own. So I’m going to share some information that will help you to understand Kickstarter and see if it’s the right place for you.
Backing A Project
To go and back a project is simple - you just choose the ‘back this project’ button and choose your reward. A reward is basically what you want to buy - there will usually be more than one option. You don’t get charged until the project ends and is fully funded, and each project usually lasts around 30 days. If the project doesn’t get fully funded, then you won’t be charged and the project won’t go ahead to production.
In a nutshell, when you back a campaign, you are committing to buying a product that is ready to be printed or produced. So all the planning, problem solving, editing, etc., is done. It just hasn’t been sent to the factory yet, because production costs are high and for an independent artist to commit to those production costs when they don’t know if enough people are interested in buying it, could be very damaging on the old finances. Kickstarter bridges that gap by letting creators set funding goals.
Launching A Project
Before I launched my first Kickstarter, my good friend Katie gave me some encouragement and advice that helped me to make the decision to launch my graphic novel on the platform. If you clicked that link, you’ll see that it’s now for sale in my Etsy store. So there’s the first nugget of information - once your Kickstarter is over and your orders are fulfilled, you can then sell on other platforms. Just don’t sell for less than you sold on Kickstarter, or your future campaigns might lose the trust of backers.
Make sure you have lots of pictures and an explanation of what the project is, what your backers will get, who you are, and why you made it. This helps backers decide if they believe in your project enough to want to own it or gift it.
Funding Goals
Some projects will have a low funding goal of a few hundred pounds, and others will be five figures. These are dependent on production costs and each creator has to work out their production costs carefully before setting a funding goal. If you get this wrong, it can be costly because it will eat into any profit and could end up costing you money. You should consider things like production costs, shipping costs (supplier to you), taxes, Kickstarter fees etc.. My first Kickstarter had a funding goal of £200. My current one is £1500. People can still back your project once it reaches it’s funding goal, and often have more confidence because they know the project will definitely go ahead to production.
Marketing
My personal struggle is marketing. I do not enjoy advertising my books, projects, products, or services. I will do it, but I don’t like it. I’m not a natural salesperson. This is how I dealt with that on my first campaign.
It helped me to not feel so self conscious about asking people to back me, and it was done in a way that complimented my graphic novel by using the same style of handwriting and word balloons. I’ve done similar with my current campaign and integrated similar graphics from the campaign for advertising, like this:
I hope this has been helpful to anyone wondering how it works as a backer or a creator, but if you have any questions, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer.
Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you for sharing your experience Maxine!