Thoughts on Kickstarter?

[tlbodine]

I was wondering whether anyone here had any experiences with using Kickstarter to launch a writing project? I brought this up once on another writing forum and got some (unnecessarily) vitriolic responses, but you guys all seem much more reasonable

Here's the thing. I'm working on a collection of dark fairytale retellings, specifically focusing on the "beastly bridegroom" trope. I had approached an artist-friend of mine about doing the cover art, and in our mutual excitement we got to thinking about how cool it would be to do individual illustrations for each story as well.

I was thinking of launching the project on Kickstarter for a few reasons:

-- I could pay for the illustrations faster (otherwise, the release would be delayed until I could save up for them)
-- We both have friends/fans (well, she has fans, I have "enthusiastic friends") who I think could be easily mobilized by the excitement/urgency of a campaign
-- It would give the project a bit of "release buzz" thanks to the sharing of that aforementioned bunch of enthusiastic friend-fans.

It will not be a very big campaign. She's being extremely kind and charging me her day-job hourly wage rather than her illustrator rate, so I'm getting quite a discount. I'm not looking to make a huge profit from the campaign or give myself an "advance" -- I just want to break even so I can get the book released right away.

What I had planned to do is release a digital edition (no internal art) and a print edition (with art). I was also tentatively thinking of doing a limited-edition hardcover with some extra bells and whistles for KS-backers only, but I'm not sure on the logistics of doing that. KS backers at certain levels will also get prints of the art itself.

If I don't do it through KS, what I'd probably do is release the digital edition, then wait til I earned enough through sales to subsidize the print edition. (I haven't seen enough illustrated e-books to know if that platform would really do it justice). My only concern in doing that is I suspect most of the people who'd be super-interested in the print edition would have already purchased the digital copy, and it'd be pretty mean to make them buy it a second time.

Of course, the other option is to just defer the release entirely and save up the cash from ye olde day job, but then I wouldn't have any of the possible buzz-building benefits (say that three times fast) of a campaign.

Anyway. Any thoughts?

EDIT: Incidentally, here's the artist I'm working with. She is made of awesome: http://jillianlambert.blogspot.com/

 

[Chilari]

First of all, wow at that artwork. I can see why you want to work with her.

When I started reading this thread I thought "this isn't really the sort of thing Kickstarter seems to be for, exactly." I see Kickstarter as something for getting money to hire a recording studio for an album, or hire a programmer to help create a cool indie game. Basically, paying for things that can't be avoided, that without which the project cannot happen in any shape or form - you can't release an album unless you record it or a game unless someone programmes it. With novels it's a bit different - a novel can be self-published without any money spent (though there are things you would want to spend money on - not least cover art, plus other things like editing etc).

But if what you want to do is have illustrations inside that's a different matter. However, asking for people to pay an illustrator to produce pictures for the interior of the book but then, for the lower level rewards, not actually giving the readers those illustrations is probably not the best option. I would suggest either putting the images into the ebook, or if that can't be done, sending a postcard-sized print as well as the ebook, with larger prints and more of them for higher levels of donation.

If you go ahead with Kickstarter, though (or indiegogo, which offers a similar service - check it out as it might be a better option), go the whole hog: ask for enough to do a small print run, and offer print editions for the higher donations (as well as prints, ebook editions etc).

Good luck.

 

[Devor]

Kickstarter is nice, but . . . you need a much clearer idea of what fans and friends will be willing to help out with if that's something you want to do. "Buzz" is extremely hard to pull off, and there are experienced marketers who would struggle with making a campaign into an event.

For the most part, you need to appreciate that if you use Kickstarter, upwards of 80% of what you earn will come from the people you reach out to directly. You need to have a good idea of who you can contact, how you can best reach them, and whether your solicitations will have any effect, before you really think about Kickstarter.

 

[saellys]

We Camlann writers are planning a Kickstarter next year in order to be able to afford a professional editor and an illustrator as well. All our print copies will be POD so there's no up-front cost, which is great because our Kickstarter goal can be that much lower and more attainable. It's true that Camlann will still happen if we don't make our goal, but it will take longer (so we can save up for an editor) and look less awesome.

Like Devor said, you can start a Kickstarter, but it won't go anywhere unless you promote the heck out of it, everywhere you possibly can, and even then it probably won't go anywhere unless you already have a relationship of some kind with those potential supporters. Look at this list, for example: 5 Of The Most Successful Kickstarter Projects Ever . Three of those five are tangible products, and the other two were started by established people who already had a broad following to support them. Build relationships now and get people interested in your project (which sounds awesome, by the way!), and then start promoting your Kickstarter.

 

[Chilari]

Take note of the article When Kickstarters Fail, also on the same website, too.

 

[tlbodine]

Thanks guys Good points all around. I've been on both sides of the Kickstarter fence before, but in the gaming industry, not book-writing. You're right that there's a big difference between them.

Does anyone know of any illustrated e-books? I'd imagine illustrations would be hard because of scaling to the variety of screen resolutions/sizes across all the e-book readers, but maybe I'm assuming that's more of a problem than it is. I will definitely peruse the links and ponder strategy.

EDIT:
Ahh, here's another thought. Do short stories sell better on Kindle than anthologies? Because what I could do, maybe, is release each short story individually (using its art as the digital cover), then collect them all in a print anthology.

So many brain-wheels....

 

[saellys]

Does anyone know of any illustrated e-books? I'd imagine illustrations would be hard because of scaling to the variety of screen resolutions/sizes across all the e-book readers, but maybe I'm assuming that's more of a problem than it is. I will definitely peruse the links and ponder strategy.

You might get something useful from this article. Platforming Books

 

[Devor]

Ahh, here's another thought. Do short stories sell better on Kindle than anthologies? Because what I could do, maybe, is release each short story individually (using its art as the digital cover), then collect them all in a print anthology.

So many brain-wheels....

It all depends, but that sounds like a reasonable plan. I'm pretty sure anthologies from a new author don't sell well at all, while releasing several short stories helps you to use new ones to promote old ones, and sales on the old ones to promote new ones, and so on. Then, if you run the first few with your own money, you could try Kickstarter to fund the last few (y'know, if you plan ahead and manage to build that kind of network in the meantime).