For a long time now, I’ve wanted talk about Kickstarter. This is slightly more a marketing post than an MTM update kind of post but … I just thought the information might be useful. I have only done one Kickstarter because it takes a lot of organising and as you know I am about as much use in an organisational capacity as a chocolate teapot.
However, many of the ‘how I did’ articles I see about Kickstarter are written by people who already have a huge following (so funding is a bit more of a sure thing) or they are romantasy jugganaughts publishing something that is more akin to a work of art than a book that has cost them tens of thousands up front but with thousands of hungry fans ready to get it funded in the first minute.
This is not the profile that fits most of us, so I thought writing a wee thing about how my kickstarter campaign went would be useful. I do have an established fan base but there are less than a hundred of them and I am very much small fry. This was my first campaign and was a very small one. It was also starting completely from scratch. My existing fan base love my photos but they are there because they read my novels.
If you are starting from pretty much nothing, this post is for you. I hope the intel is helpful.
Details:
Book: Eyebomb, Therefore I Am
Genre: Publishing/Art book and Photography/Photobook
I switched the two around from time to time but usually had photography/photobook as my first choice.
Running time: Two weeks
Time in preview ‘coming soon’: about 3 months, November 2023 – February 2024.
Campaign dates: 6th – 22nd February, 2024
Funding target: £100 (about four copies).
Funding achieved: £1,015; £985 in pledges and the rest in add ons afterwards via pledgebox.
Eyebomb, Therefore I Am
Yes, I did have everything ready by October, 2023 but I actually ran my campaign in February, 2024, and because of the nature of my life (everything happens in slow motion) I’m only telling you about it now. Probate, clearing out a house, doing life laundry, sorting through family papers etc takes a loooooooong time in every sense of the word.
The book:
Eyebomb, Therefore I Am is a book my readers and social media buddies have been requesting for some time (I use my eyebombing pictures to illustrate my social media posts). Until recently it was too expensive. Then came Bookvault and suddenly it was possible.
Cat for scale (no bananas were available).
Woot!
Unfortunately, because I’m an idiot, I chose to do a square book so they could only print in the UK. Two thirds of the people pledging for your kickstarter will be American, even if you’re British like I am, so it’s worth bearing that in mind. Also size and paper weight appear to make no difference to printing costs, although they do effect postage. As a result my 21cmx21cm book cost the same to print as if it ws 12cmx12cm. The bulk of what my backers paid was to cover postage so it may be that it’s worth printing a smaller book that is lighter and costs less to post.
Investigating the postage costs for the size I’d chosen (21cm x 21cm) I discovered it was cheaper to have it shipped to me and send the books out myself, surface mail, than send via Bookvault so that’s what I did. Only one went astray.
This was a complete departure from my usual books but it was a good test and something I could do myself for eff all cash so if it didn’t fund I wasn’t out of pocket. My novels would have involved expensive artwork and drawings that I couldn’t afford, or I would have had to use AI to do drawings, with all the controvosy that entails.
Conversely, the eyebombing book involved my own photographs. I have over 4,000 and so I decided that this would be a good place to learn how to use affinity design to make a book, learn about producing print, and additionally, start my learning journey on Kickstarter.
Work on the project started in March 2023, I work slightly more slowly than the speed of continental drift, and I set myself a year to get the learning done, the book made and the campaign ready for launch.
Everything was finally ready to go in October 2023. After taking advice on the Kickstarter Accelerator and Kickstarter for Authors Facebook groups I decided not to launch in November ‘in time for Christmas’ but just keep it in preview and launch in February. This was a remarkably lucky decision as in early December, my lovely Mum died and there was rather a lot to do with organising funeral etc 3 hours away in Sussex while at the same time making sure we got to see my McOther half’s folks (one of whom is too ill to travel) 5 hours away in the opposite direction.
Postage:
Was a nightmare! I included postage to most places in the cost of the price of the book which meant the book that cost £9 or thereabouts to print sold for £30. I was going for 100% profit plus postage to the USA on each book because that was where I suspected the bulk of my orders would originate. This meant I’d make money on UK postage and lose money on postage to Australasia/NZ and the far east.
The book cost about £10 to post to the USA and £12 – £15 to post pretty much anywhere in the world except the UK (£5) and Australasia/New Zealand and the Far East (£18 surface mail). I made £3 on the Australian books I sold. Bearing in mind that what I was actually selling was some incredibly expensive postage with a book attached, I was justifiably nervous and decided that a realistic target would be selling five copies of the book at £30 a pop with various other options. I didn’t factor in a cost for my time and was extremely glad I hadn’t produced the kind of book where I’d have to recoup design fees on top.
For add ons, I did an ebook version in PDF format, up to 17 post cards in various combinations and sets, and produced a googly-eye themed piece of electronic art. I kept it simple because I am a bear of very little brain and had to fit in a lot of family stuff. So all I had was:
The Kickstarter £1 tier.
A warm fuzzy feeling £3+ a give what you want tier, basically.
Signed Card 5 Backers Signed post card plus mystery gift (another signed card)
Digital Sketch £.7.50
Digital copy of the book £10.00 (I think) 6 Backer
Digital copy of book and digital sketch £15.00 1 Backer, he wanted a bespoke sketch so I did one for him.
Paperback and ebook copy bundle. £20 4 Backers
Hardback copy of the book. £30 13 Backers
Signed hardback. £40 5 Backers
Signed hardback + card bundle £50 (I think) 2 Backers
Signed hardback + go forth & eyebomb kit £50 1 Backers
Double Trouble: £60 Signed Hardback Bundle of two: 0 Backers
The Lot : set of signed cards, hardbacks, entry into a competition to get their eyebomb in the next book
Add ons:
For add ons, I did an ebook version in PDF format, up to 17 post cards in various combinations and sets, and produced a googly-eye themed piece of electronic art. I kept it simple because I am a bear of very little brain and had to fit in a lot of family stuff.
I also set up the cards at: £5 for a set of 4 and £15 for a set of 16 or £18 for a signed set of 16. I would have loved if I could have just put them on and people could have bundled them and a discount would be applied but it was too complicated for Kicksatarter at the time (it may still be now) so I made them into sets. These are high profit items so if people added them on I earned back the a bit more on Australasian postage, for example. Quite a few peps ordered these so they were worth doing but I didn’t need to print more than 20 of each.
Video:
Yes! I did a video. This was scary but I managed to record a not too weird vid of myself saying, ‘hello, I’m here to tell you about my kickstarter!’ After that I used a phone editing suite to add photos and did the rest of my speaky bit as a series of sound files which I added over the slide show. I’ve no idea if it made a difference but I was really glad to have posted something, and it really didn’t look that bad by the time I’d finished it.
Story:
I think my pitch section was quite long but it did help that there was a good story behind how the eyebombing started and why I do it. The aim was to get people to empathise, enjoy the photos and want more, and to prepare them for the fact this was quite a weird book. I also wanted it to be amusing. All my books are humorous so my usual marketing technique is to try and be relentlessly funny at people until they cave and buy one of my books.
If you’re interested, you can read what I said in the story here.
Publicity:
Mailing list: I included news on the campaign build in my mailing list in the months running up to the campaign, indeed right from the moment I decided I was going to have a go at Kickstarter, a year before. When it went live, I mailed them and explained that if they didn’t like the idea of buying from Kickstarter but wanted to help me it would be wonderful if they shared on social media. I gave them links and I posted these on my page and in my fan group too, asking for help (I’m not proud! Mwahahargh!). I also gave them a choice of opting out of further mailings about Kickstarter in the initial email after which I sent two more emails about it. A few did opt out but a lot told their friends and a couple even signed up to the platform and used it for the first time so they could buy the book.
My mailing list peps are lovely but there are very few active ones. I’d say I have about 75 active ‘super fans’ and the list holds at about 2k on a rolling basis as there are usually about as many people leaving as there are coming in.
I wanted backers to be able to purchase add ons afterwards so I used Pledgebox to manage my pledges. It was terrifying because until the campaign had finished I had no clue what it was going to look like or how it was going to work, or indeed, if I could learn it. It was alright but it wasn’t very intuitive, the help files were worse than useless and I got in a hot mess with a couple of bits and ended up charging two people postage somehow (although luckily, not much and as I hadn’t a clue how to process a refund I was able to get round it by sending them extra sets of post cards). Forgetting to add a second book one backer had bought as an add on also turned out to be a disaster, mainly because as an add on to a tier where postage was already factored in, it made sense, but ending it singly the add on pledge didn’t cover the cost of the postage. Naturally, that extra paperback, already sent at a £5 loss was the one that didn’t get there (I paid two lots of postage on it at £11 a go and £9.40 to print it twice, for a £10 add on to a £30 pledge). I did manage to sort it out though so at least the backer got their book in the end, and using Pledgebox did get me over the line from £985 to £1013.
Social media:
I managed a few posts at the start of the preview period and folks in my fan group were really great about sharing, as well as sundry friends and the lovely bloke who reads my audio books for me. To be honest though, I didn’t do much because family stuff slightly erupted as I was gearing up to do the campaign.
Results:
The campaign funded in the first hour, which was a bit of a surprise.
However the preview and campaign period included a LOT of family stuff, as I mentioned earlier. This started with a bit of a crisis in our care for Mum, who had dementia, ergo; realising the last of her liquid assets weren’t going to outlast her and working out a plan with my brother (ie choosing a home, planning moving her there and taking the first steps to put the family house where she was living on the market). Then in early December Mum went into a hospital with a chest infection and died just over a week later, on the day she was supposed to have moved to the home. After her funeral, we had to interr her ashes, get a stone laid etc. After Dad’s funeral and memorial service Mum couldn’t really face another service to interr his ashes and told me. ‘Batch us, darling, bury us together after I’ve gone. Neither of us will mind.’ So that’s what we did. Dad’s ashes sat on Mum’s desk in a box for four years after he died and then we buried them both, together at the school where my Dad taught and we grew up.
Soggy middle while I was staying in a wi-fi free deadspot interring Mum and Dad
My brother was a teacher so we had to have the ceremony in the middle of his school’s half term which was also right in the middle of the Kickstarter campaign. It also involved taking our son out of school but they were great about it. It was actually a rather lovely experience, so I can thoroughly recommend interring relatives if you want to avoid any concerns about the soggy middle of your campaign. I missed mine completely, had no access to the internet and on the graph, above, you can see from the flat line exactly how long I was in Sussex concentrating on other things.
Fulfilment:
Fullfilment went alright. It does take a long time, but then, I did quite a carefully worked drawing in each of the signed books and I’m pretty sure no two were the same. It is possible to have large amounts of mail picked up from your house but I took them to the post office in batches. Only one book went astray and because I’d posted everything myself I had proof of postage and Royal Mail refunded me the money on the lost edition, so at least I was only £15.70 down on that particular transaction at the end of it, instead of £25.70.
Did I make a profit?
Yes. My rationale was to aim for 50% of the funds received to be profit in order to give myself a cushion for processing fees, currency conversion and stuff I hadn’t factored in. My reasoning was that if anything went wrong on top I’d probably get about 30% if I set it up that way. I had already bought the books and cards before the campaign started so once the money appeared in my account it was, kind of, all gravy. Anyway, the bulk of the costs were postage.
Future campaigns will probably still include postage, because I’m still fairly certain that nobody will pay £10-£20 ($14 – $25) for postage on a book that has to cost £20 to make a profit so I’m pretty sure that when the time comes to try kickstarter on a novel I will have to make it pretty chuffing deluxe. Either that or just charge a flat £5 or £10 rate and only factor some of the postage into the price. Other options are casebound hard back with sprayed edges and very little else so the artwork can still be done by me. We shall see.
What I learned?
It’s definitely worth planning it and taking your time. Keep the tiers simple. Use digital tiers too. In future I think I will not do a pledge manager either but will just do it all on Kickstarter because the whole Pledgebox thing was pretty scary and Backerkit looks even more complicated. Also both of them spam you afterwards and presumably your backers as well. Set your target small, £100 is about $130 at the moment so it’s worth remembering that. I will probably always set my targets small and use POD because I’d much rather the campaign fund and I send out 5 books to people who want them than try to pitch for selling 25 books and then disappoint readers who do want them by not achieving the funds I need to produce them. Digital rewards are good, and great for eating into the massive hit any UK author is going to take on postage. Also, I thoroughly recommend adding things like post cards or book marks, which can be slipped into a book and aren’t going to contravene any regulations if you’re doing printed packet rates, but will still be really appreciated by the folks who receive them as an extra.
Avoid dust jackets unless you’re printing them separately. I had to have 12 of 20 books reprinted because they were damaged. The boxes are oblong and wider and longer than they are tall. Therefore, the courier always turns them on their side to stand the box safely on our nice dry porch steps when they knock on the door. The books all slide down to the bottom and get dented and the covers torn or foxed. I think casebound would have been fine, it would have been £1 cheaper to print, too and look just as good.
Will I do it again?
Absolutely. It was a very enjoyable process and more to the point, it was a great way of reaching new readers who are interested in following me and my work. Kickstarter peps are friendly and talkative. They contacted me, asked things, we had chats and it was lovely. It also, kind of, plays to my strengths as chatting to readers and developing a relationship with them is one of the things I do reasonably well.
The plan for next year is to learn how to do the artwork for sprayed edges and find someone who is willing to do illustrations for the campaign for not much, or I’ll have to learn to draw proper comic-book style artwork for my campaign, myself, or I may do a mix of both. But if I use Kickstarter as a release strategy, I can batch the Kickstarter edition cover specs into the specs for all the other covers I order from my designer. Batching this way is always cheaper then doing them at different times.
That would mean a gap next year, so in the interim, there may be another eyebombing book. Smaller this time, perhaps.
Would I recommend it?
Yes. Wholeheartedly. It’s a great way to find people who want to support authors and are not squeamish about the price they pay for their books. Word is they also become firmer fans, if they like your work, which is good news. As I understand it, Kickstarter is also a different type of not-for-profit company and therefore is less likely to start gouging money from any creators make, through stuff like increased commission rates, exclusivety deals that punish people who raise funds elsewhere, or make creators pay for advertising in order to achieve visibility, etc, so it’s less likely to go the way Audible and Amazon have.
Take your time, plan and get lots of feedback, then have your campaign upcoming for a couple of months before you start, so people can follow and be emailed when it goes live. Otherwise, thoroughly recommended.
