No, I didn’t forget about you all on Friday – I opted to wait a couple days until the Kickstarter finished up this morning before posting again. This has been a big week in my writerly world. I got to hold a physical copy of my own book for the first time! AND my Kickstarter campaign ended at a total that was beyond my wildest dreams! (Over six times my wildest dreams.)
I’m so grateful for every single person who backed this project, and I am so excited (and a bit terrified, honestly, as any writer would be) to get this story into their hands. There is still some work to be done before that happens, though! I am currently about a third of the way through proofreading the printed copy. Once I’m done, I’ll input those edits, do a final check on formatting, and print the final proof before ordering copies for everyone who pledged for a physical copy. I’m hoping to have those in my possession by the start of April so that I can get everything organized to be sent out.
This has been a wild ride, and I’m still in awe over the support this story has gotten. Huge thanks to you all for coming along for the ride. 🙂
Some things I learned from this process:
- Most backers seem to prefer intangible add ons (having a character named after them, naming a pet, etc.) over physical ones (bookmarks, journals, keychains – though of those, bookmarks was the most popular option). (I’d imagine someone who owned/did their own artwork would probably have success with prints, perhaps character art on things like totes, etc.)
- It’s a great way to reach folks you might not otherwise – I had NO idea there was such a large publishing community on Kickstarter. If I had come up with a list of places to market my book, Kickstarter would not have been anywhere near it. And yet – a quarter of the backers are people I don’ t know. In addition, I was surprised a bit by some of the folks I do know that backed it (not because they aren’t supportive people – just because, again, if I had written up a list of who I thought would have backed this, the list wouldn’t have been very long). Either way, this process has felt like a warm hug.
- One of the things they tell you when you are learning about goals (i.e. one of the things I discuss with my students about the research pertaining to goal setting) is that you need a realistic timeline. In this case, it was a timeline that once out there, there was no stopping it. Talk about a motivator. 😉 This turned out to be a really great way to hold myself publicly accountable (mostly to not let the imposter syndrome set in and delay the project out of fear). I first told a few friends about this, then my writing group – so I was accountable to get it started. And once it was live, everyone knew. There are legal obligations now. hehe. [averts eyes] It also allowed me to make this book a priority, which is sometimes hard to do when there are so many demands on my time.
- I set my initial Kickstarter goal low mostly because I wanted to make sure the campaign met it’s funding. I put it where I honestly thought I could meet it. I came up with two stretch goals, figuring I’d need maybe one if I was lucky. Cut to me scrambling to figure out stretch goals. My advice? Be reasonable in your initial goal – but plan more stretch goals than you think you will need. If anything, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when they are reached – but not disappointed if they don’t. (And you won’t have to scramble if things move faster than you expected. Like I had to.)
This has been such a wonderful experience so far. 10/10 – would recommend.
Ami Maxine 