What I Learned from Kickstarter
Launching a book via crowdfunding.
Last June I used Kickstarter to launch a book I’d worked on for a decade, a manual for writing. I had decided to indie-publish this book—I’d learned that I could earn exponentially more doing it myself than publishing commercially.
Kickstarter is an app for introducing new products, and it had been used successfully to launch books. I wanted to give it a try.
I listened to podcasts and studied the experiences of other writers who launched on Kickstarter. I knew that a Kickstarter would be a boatload of work. I knew to have the book already written and ready to go before the Kickstarter began.
Therefore, I finished writing the book, had it edited, had it designed, had a cover designed, and sent the files off to a printer. All I had to do was proof the book and order a test copy or two.
Meanwhile, I began designing the Kickstarter launch page. I thought hard about the ad copy. I hired a videographer and made a 3-minute video. I hired a photographer to take photos of the books. I tried to make the whole thing look professional and engaging.
On June 2, 2024 I hit the button for the Kickstarter to go live. Thus Craft & Current: A Manual for Magical Writing was born.
I had set a money goal of $1962 (the year I was born). Within hours the book had reached its goal and was climbing fast.
The Kickstarter ran for 12 days. When it ended on June 14, 2024 it had earned $25,332.
$25,332
That sounds like a huge number. From this pile of cash I needed to pay an editor, book designer, videographer, printing costs, shipping costs, Kickstarter’s 5% fee and other credit card processing fees.
I have not yet figured the profit exactly, but it will be somewhere around $15,000.
What I Learned Doing a Kickstarter
Create the product first. That means, write the book and get it ready for printing. Let the Kickstarter launch be the last thing you do. Then all you have to do is order copies from the printer once you know the number you’ll need.
Meanwhile, set up your Kickstarter page. You’ll need a title & subtitle & a short description & a photo or video. When you finish the basics, you submit this for approval from Kickstarter. If they approve, go live with a pre-launch landing page. This allows people to indicate their interest in your upcoming project.
The pre-launch page can be up for weeks. Start sending people there & ask them to click to “Be Notified.” These will be your first customers. They get notified first when you launch. Their early support means that the Kickstarter algorithm takes notice and sends more potential readers your way.
Make your launch page look as professional as possible. Kickstarter’s “Creator Handbook” has a rundown of ideas.
Back other projects on Kickstarter so you familiarize yourself with the process and support other authors.
Choose a short launch period. Launches of less than 30 days do best. Mine was for 12 days. For that period I’d suggest devoting yourself to the launch. Have a plan in place for getting the word out. Notify your people. Send out personal emails. Get on podcasts during that timeframe (I can’t seem to do this.) Do guest blog posts. Line up friends and colleagues who’ll help you by getting the word out to their people.
Offer a lot of small rewards. According to Kickstarter, the most popular pledge amount is $25.
Your book won’t be for everybody. People can buy or not buy. Your job is to find the audience for this book—the people who need it, want it, and cherish it.
Work hard to overcome negative emotions about marketing and visibility. You are offering a gift to the people whose lives will be better for it.
If you meet your goal, begin fulfilling immediately. Get everything shipped and delivered as quickly as possible. You want happy customers.
Get help with shipping. You can print out shipping labels from a download, but signing and packaging and taping and delivering to the post office was arduous.
FAQS
Would I do another Kickstarter?
Definitely.
Would I try an alternate platform for launching?
Yes, I think so, if the learning curve is not too steep. Kickstarter took weeks to learn and get right. I wouldn’t want to switch immediately.
Is there any way to do this kind of crowdfunding independently?
I’m hearing of authors who are doing Kickstarter launches without Kickstarter. That means they set up a landing page about a forthcoming book, add pledge levels and rewards, and run this for a limited time. Then they fulfill.
Would I do that?
In some ways a preorder form on a website is a crowdfunding launch. I do that already. In the future I might be convinced to try something more complicated. I’m still trying to recover from immense amount of work from this Kickstarter—I mailed out hundreds of copies of books.
What if I failed to meet my goal?
I’d lick my wounds, figure out what went wrong, and start again.
My Advice
Keep the rewards very simple.
Offer fewer versions of a book. Just do a paperback, for example.
Investigate apps that will fulfill for you—Lulu, for instance. You would upload the buyer information and Lulu would ship the books. Or BookVault.
Offer only an electronic version and fulfill via BookFunnel. They take away the hard work of fulfillment and customer support.
Don’t offer coaching or 1-on-1 sessions. These require intense amounts of energy and time. Your fulfillment is not complete until everything is finished. (However, you could send a “coupon” to the people who purchased 1-on-1 sessions. Even if the session may not have actually occurred yet, the fulfillment will be complete.)
Try a Kickstarter once. If you find it’s too much work, launch a different way.
Create a beautiful, useful, meaningful book that will make life better for its people. Don’t create junk. Make a name for yourself in offering true value and connection.
See What I Did
The launch page is still viewable on Kickstarter, although the launch is closed. If you’d like to see what I offered and how I presented it, go to Craft & Current Kickstarter Launch.
The Work Is Not Done
Remember, a launch is only the beginning of a journey. A good book deserves a good life, and so I’ve kept pushing Craft & Current out into the world. How to do that is a story for another day.
From Day One, your transparency about this whole process (including $ numbers) has been amazing, and so helpful to other authors. Your generosity in sharing your experience(s) is what always stuns me ... in a good way. Thank you! Also ... I think #9 on your list of What I Learned is the most important point of all. Dispelling notions that publishing a book this way is somehow "lesser than" or greedy or non-professional is really important. The concept that you're sending a gift out into the world, to people who will cherish it, is .... IT. ❤️
Thank you so much for your willingness to be open about your process. I have such gratitude for you. And thank you for writing Craft & Current--in it, you are, again, so generous and wise. And I learned so much-- I realized that the process you describe maps nicely onto my essays that I felt really worked; and I was able to see what I needed to change in essays that were a a little ho-hum.