There is no doubt that Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites have changed the face of how comics are promoted and produced. In October of last year, comicsbeat.com reported “Comics on Kickstarter have their biggest year ever with $22 Million in 2020,” showing that this may well be the future of independent comics.
The concept behind Kickstarter’s proven success is to allow creators to market their books through a variety of tools and an easy-to-use interface. Filmmakers, designers, game developers, musicians, comic artists, and other creatives now showcase their projects to a wide, global audience. People can then “back” these campaigns at various tiers to help them reach their funding goals by pledging money. If the project reaches its funding amount by its deadline, then pledges are collected. If not, no one is charged when the project falls short.
I’ve not only seen the titanic rewards reaped by both local and nationally known creators that have used the platform, but also run campaigns myself. Since 2015, I’ve been a proud backer (term for people who have pledged) of over 73 different projects and have run three successful campaigns totaling around five thousand dollars. Quite soon, I’ll be launching a fourth campaign.
Crowdfunding your own comics comes with a whole host of pros and cons. I thought I’d provide a rundown of a few tips for those of you interested in starting your own campaigns. Kickstarter is by no means the only crowdfunding platform, with options including Indiegogo and Patreon, but for the purposes of brevity and simplicity, we are only going to focus on Kickstarter in this article. I encourage you to research them all to see what works best for you.
Rewards
Deciding what rewards you are going to offer is crucial to setting up your cost structure. Typically, most people offer a digital reward, and why not? It costs nothing to ship and the supply is unlimited. A physical book shipped to backers is almost always included. Other rewards are all over the map including t-shirts, trading cards, stickers, custom prints, variant covers, or even being drawn as a character in the book. A good rule of thumb is that the majority of people will usually pledge at the $20 or less tier, so I’d recommend having a variety of tiers at different price points. When thinking about your rewards, consider that, if it’s a physical product, it will also have to be created and shipped. If that additional cost isn’t accounted for, it can eat into your funds. Shipping something extraordinarily heavy without accounting for the added price, such as customized bowling balls, would be a rather poor choice.
Budget Your Costs
Knowing the full amount of your costs will help you set the price of each tier. It’s best to get as close to the actual cost data as possible. When researching print costs, try to get an estimate from a company that you will want to use, but keep in mind that many charge an addition for handling, shipping, and taxes. The closer you can get to defining the total cost, the better chance you have at determining an accurate price per unit. Shipping is often the hardest thing to estimate as you don’t have the product in hand to account for weight. It may sound relatively easy, but can have major effects, especially when shipping overseas. There are other costs often not considered such as taxes and Kickstarter’s fees. I typically plan for 10% in fees between Kickstarter and credit card processors. As this money is considered income, it should be reported and taxed appropriately.
Video
A video is optional, but highly recommended. When looking at other videos for reference there are many approaches to choose from. The most typical is to record yourself talking passionately about the project you want to create. It’s low cost, requires little video editing skill, and it works. If you have the means and capability, providing images, narration, and insight into the story will better your chances at selling your idea.
Setting a Goal & Deadlines
Deciding your goal can make or break your campaign before it even starts. If you set your goal too high, then your core group of supporters won’t be able to elevate you to your goal and you’ll be dependent on outside help. If you set it too low, you may go digging in pocket for shipping fees and product creation. Try to keep your goal realistic and practical. Also, note that funding typically assumes an inverted bell curve with the majority of people pledging at the beginning and end of the campaign.
Updates
It’s very important to give your supporters updates throughout the campaign, both before and after it has been funded. These updates will keep supporters engaged and rooting for you. If, for any reason, you can’t make the delivery date you originally proposed, it’s okay. It happens all the time. A creative venture can always run into unforeseen hurdles and people are generally accepting of changes. However, you must communicate with your supporters or risk abandonment from the very people who pledged to support you.
All of this can be overwhelming. There are so many things to decide on and consider, but the more you study it, the better you can use this crucial tool to launch your brand and future books to the next level. It’s true that not all Kickstarters get funded. I was terrified I might fail on a publicly viewed forum. But even failing allows you the opportunity to learn what works and what doesn’t and can help you ensure your success for future launches.
If you need any more convincing, the Columbus Scribbler was a project that was Kickstarted and is still available to view online.