So as many of you know, I ran a kickstarter campaign as an experiment to see if I could raise enough money to fund my next release, Desert Stars. Over the course of the month, about a dozen people pledged over $300, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to meet the goal.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who made a pledge or spread the word. I appreciate all of your support, no matter at what level. My biggest obstacle at this point is obscurity; without you, I’d never be able to overcome it. So thanks!
While the campaign was a bit of a disappointment, I learned a lot from the experience. My strategy going in was to set a modest goal and give a variety of high-value rewards at various pledge levels. However, I didn’t do much to publicize the project, mostly because self-promotion makes me so uncomfortable. That was probably the biggest single reason why the support never reached a critical mass.
If I were to do it again, I would work out a plan for the marketing and publicity before launching the campaign. I would also run the campaign for a longer period of time and talk about it more, just to make sure people are aware of it. Also, I would try to get an endorsement from someone with an established audience that overlaps with my own. It’s hard to tell people you’re awesome, but if someone else who is awesome tells them, they’re much more likely to believe it.
Will I ever do a kickstarter campaign in the future? Probably, but only after I’ve built my fanbase a little more. Kickstarter isn’t a good way to launch if you don’t already have a devoted following. Like everything at this point, it’s a catch-22. In order to be successful, you have to be noticed. In order to be noticed, you have to be successful. Obscurity is the biggest obstacle, and there’s no sure way to overcome it besides trying and failing until something finally works.
Fortunately, while the kickstarter campaign was a bit of a setback, it’s not going to prevent me from releasing the book. I’ve secured an alternate source of funding, and should be able to have it out by January if not before. As a gesture of gratitude to everyone who made a pledge, I’ll send you a free copy once it’s out.
Thanks so much!
Oh good, I’m so glad your book will still be able to be published! 🙂 I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to when the kickstarter didn’t pan out. As far as promotion goes, that’s a valuable lesson I’ve just recently learned from selling Avon. I have a fair amount of inventory I’m trying to get rid of, so I thought I’d hold an Open House. I let all of my customers know about it, then set up and waited. The event was 8 hours long. I only had two customers. Why? Because very few people knew about it. 😛
If Brandon Sanderson weren’t so busy, I’d recommend you asking him for an endorsement. Not because he’s well-known, but because he’s just a nice guy like that, and I’ve seen him endorse other people’s stuff before (not just writing, too).
I wish you luck!
Huzzah!
–OneBoot 😀
Yeah, that’s a good thought. I’m not sure how many of Brandon’s readers are also into science fiction, but I suppose it would be easier, as a former student, to get his endorsement.
I think the main thing I wasn’t prepared for was that the strategy for a successful kickstarter campaign is very different from my overall strategy as an indie writer. Kickstarter requires a big marketing push, in order to get your name out there and in people’s minds before the deadline passes. With indie publishing, there is no deadline; your book is always out there, always available, so you can afford to let it grow naturally into its own audience while you focus on putting out more work.
Another thing that might have helped would be to get a sketch from my cover artist and use that as the background picture, with maybe a reading on youtube. Kickstarter tends to be better set up for visual media, so next time I’ll definitely try and focus on that.
Speaking of which, it might be a cool idea to do a youtube reading sometime. Hmm…
Thanks for your support! I’ll definitely get that book out to you as soon as it’s finished.
Joe