Kickstarter Lessons Learned Part One
I have been looking for an opportunity to crowdfund a project for some time. I have tried to use Inkshares for a few different novels and never could get enough pre-orders. I learned a great deal in each of those attempts but that was a lot of failure to have to deal with. I knew I was not a marketing expert and asking friends and family is something I am not comfortable with. Some of it is do to lessons learned as a younger me: if you won't sell to your family and friends, then you clearly do not believe in your product (thanks Vector Marketing). In my case that is pure bull****; selling your product is a professional relationship and has nothing to do with my family and friends. Even though I reject that kind of logic, truth is that it affects how I think about asking for folks to back my novel or game idea.
Then came ZineQuest. Actually let me back up a bit. I began networking with many of my fellow EN World columnists, one of whom was Egg Embry, and Egg is very good at encouraging people to do their creative thing. We came upon the Kickstarter ZineQuest announcement (I am not sure which of us saw it first) and decided that this was something that we A) wanted to cover Zinequest for EN World and B) participate in. So we both set about forging our ideas for our respective zines(1).
Back in 2014 (I think) I created a page on Facebook called D.I.R.G.E. It is an acronym for Diversity in Role-Playing Game Experiences. I had realized I was a terrible ambassador for the hobby I loved and wanted more cultural (as well as other kinds) of diversity. Indeed I would love to turn DIRGE into something educational and far greater than the sum of its parts. However, not much had been done with DIRGE. Indeed, nothing had been done. Life happens and I continued being mostly all talk. I would get to being this person who acted against bigotry one day.
ZineQuest at last allowed me to get a start on this project. I realized that I could reach out to and encourage contributors from marginalized and underrepresented groups to share their creative talents. And pay them for it. I had dreams of a huge groundswell of support that would make is all fabulously wealthy, much like Matt Colville's success with Strongholds & Followers. It may have been a bit unrealistic, but I had hopes.
The Hard Lessons
I began my Kickstarter by going to Kickstarter and not reading a damn thing about it. I just followed along their creation process and did what I could, realizing that I should have read a lot more before doing so. At this point I even had a few moments of "this is going to fail" and considered backing off. I was not sure that I could stand yet another professional failure. Never the less I did believe in what I was doing and several people gave me encouragement, so I kept going. I am glad that I did.
- Lesson One: Do not be Intimidated
- Lesson Two: Do your Preparations
Every time you trip, you get back up again. It is human nature to do so. This is true both for physical trips and career disappointment. Let past failures be a road map on what not to do or on what to change, not a predictor of future success or failure. One of the best lessons I have learned is doing the prep work really pays off, because the small amount of prep I did, really helped us get off to a good, not great, start.
Prep Work
- Talk to people who have done it before
- Talk to people who might be interested in contributing well before you begin the campaign.
- Build relationships with others who are in a similar situation.
- Learn to do basic photo and audio/video editing. You do not have to be an expert, but having some banners and a video are good things.
- Read over the process before beginning the process. There are plenty of resources available out there for you to prepare your Kickstarter before even getting to Kickstarter.
In Part Two, we will talk more about where I think I failed in my preparations and then get into the campaign itself.
~SMH