Kickstarter?

[bobtheenchantedone]

Due to extreme lack of funds, I'm considering doing a kickstarter to help fund the production of the two tutorial books my sister and I were planning to publish this year. I'm still studying the information the website gives, but does anyone know of any good outside resources about setting up a kickstarter?

[Whistler]

so, I have seen (and backed) a LOT of videogame Kickstarters and I can tell when one will definitely be successful. It's hard to see failed Kickstarters, but at The Kickback Machine you can do so! http://www.thekickbackmachine.com/ It's useful to learn from failures.

Be prepared to invest a LOT of time into PR, especially if you're successful. People will whine that you update too much or not enough and some people will have specific ideas that they think you should take since they've backed you with money (hint: you don't have to listen to them, but if you do it will make at least that person happier with you).

It sounds like the distribution of your Kickstarter rewards (the tutorial eBooks) will be pretty easy. Inevitably someone will probably ask for a hard copy version, so you should know now if you want to do that or not. Also, it might be tempting to offer some kind of other physical reward for a higher tier... but I would suggest making as much of it digital as possible. If there's some kind of duct tape that is super-rare and you can order in bulk and then give out, that might be cool. All the articles I've read about Kickstarter have been for videogames, so you might want to look for tips from your field of interest.

I HAVE MORE OPINIONS: 1) get someone awesome to edit your (only a few minutes) video and make it look good (and of course, include lots of close-ups of the duct tape crafts) and 2) show some sort of excerpt to whet potential backers' appetites for crafting.

[bobtheenchantedone]

Thanks so much, Whistler! Your information and advice is perfect.

[Katya]

I've listened to a few episodes of Funding the Dream ( http://www.buzzsprout.com/4646 ), which is a podcast about Kickstarter for game designers. That's a different specialty than you're looking at, but I think a lot of the overall advice and issues would still be applicable to your project.

[bobtheenchantedone]

Thanks, Katya!

[Whistler]

let us know when/if you decide to do the Kickstarter (or Indiegogo or fundme) route!

[bobtheenchantedone]

Oh, I will. I'm fairly confident that I can get funded, but I'll still be letting EVERYONE know to up my chances. : )

[bobtheenchantedone]

I JUST FOUND ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS.

Someone tried a kickstarter, failed, tried again, succeeded. I get to look at them side-by-side. Kickback Machine is awesome.

I also discovered that I can guess with about 70-80% accuracy whether a book succeeded or failed from the picture and title alone.