Dear Insider,
I really want to do a Kickstarter but am unable to commit to a specific idea. Speaking with Cincinnati-based artist/illustrator Christina Wald, one of my objectives was to take inspiration from her multiple, successful crowdfunding campaigns.
In today’s post, read/listen to the bits about Kickstarter from our conversation in Episode 62 of the SneakyArt Podcast.
If figuring out Kickstarter is important to you too, join the comment thread. If you have Kickstarter experience, share?
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🎙️ The Good Ideas
📚 [1:40] Kickstarter is filling a space left vacant by traditional publishing, which is less and less able to meet the needs of growing, global markets of writers and readers, creators and audiences.
[Christina] And so that's where Kickstarter comes in because never at a time has there been a situation where you can do all of this stuff yourself and eventually the book will be for sale.
Christina has worked on over 60 children’s books. Her words are backed by a lot of hard-won experience!
👥 [3:16] How Kickstarter gives you access to a larger crowdfunding community, outside of your own social reach.
[Nishant] I was living in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which is a beautiful place, but it's a small place. I had never made a book before and I wanted to make a book, and somebody recommended, uh, an independent publishing press for it. And I just thought that surely not many people outside of Wisconsin, outside of North central Wisconsin, will care about Eau Claire. So I don't know how I can interest a traditional publisher in this, because I don't think I can confirm thousands of sales.
SneakyArt of Eau Claire was self-published as a limited set of 500 copies. I am currently selling the last hundred, signed and numbered! Copies of the book have found homes in over 30 US States and dozens of countries around the world.
🤳🏼 [5:16] The importance of social media promotion to reach full funding for your project.
[Christina] And they [your fans] may love you and your artwork, but they may be driving their kids in the car somewhere when they see, or hear you promote. They'll be listening to your podcast and hear you promote it. They say, oh, I wanna back that. But they're like, in the car!
Christina speaks about the practical necessity of being relentless during campaign promotion.
📸 [7:25] Things to keep in mind when setting up your Kickstarter campaign.
[Christina] People are looking at a thumbnail of something as they scroll through it. So you have to have something that's eye-catching as an image. A good video is helpful that it clearly explains the project…
Lots of excellent advice!
💰 [9:29] Should you have many tiers of support or only 2-3 choices?
[Christina] And so when you're offering tiers, I think it's smart to think about - why are people buying it?
🎯 [13:41] Goal setting and how one should think about stretch goals.
✏️ [18:24] Christina’s plans and ideas for the book after Kickstarter pledges are fulfilled. The idea that a book can be picked up by a publisher after a successful Kickstarter run, and the potentially symbiotic relationship between Kickstarter/independent publishing and the traditional path.
[Christina] And so even if you do, if I sold a manuscript today, it probably wouldn't get on the publishing list for years. And so it's kind of like, how long do you wanna wait for this? Like you said, you're probably better off doing your book.
They discuss Kickstarter as a proof of concept to give your book a second life-cycle in traditional publishing.
Dear listener, let us keep this discussion going. Share your questions. Share your ideas. Share your experience with self-publishing, crowd-funding, or pursuing traditional paths with a literary agent and publisher.
🖼️ Last Chance to catch the Summer Drop!
This is the last week of the Summer Flash Sale. At the end of the week, the entire limited edition set will be taken off inventory.
The top-selling print so far is ‘Tiny People at the Cafe’. Watch the unboxing video on IG!
Thank you, dear Insider, for your support of my work. I am glad to have a portion of your time and attention every week. Don’t forget to enter a tiny story in this week’s contest.
The Path to Kickstarter with Christina Wald