One thing I've learned doing a Kickstarter and watching people do Kickstarters is: if your goal is to not just produce a product but launch a business, have a plan that doesn't require that business to be on hold while you fulfill backer rewards and be transparent about it.
In sweeping generality:
Any campaign that launches a viable business is likely to overperform. The more viable the business is, the greater the margin by which it will overperform. The more a campaign overperforms, the lengthier and more complicated the fulfillment will be.
Any campaign that launches a viable business is likely to overperform. The more viable the business is, the greater the margin by which it will overperform. The more a campaign overperforms, the lengthier and more complicated the fulfillment will be.
So be upfront, realistic, and unapologetic. (Not arrogant or discourteous, just not abashed.) If the Kickstarter is not supposed to be just a one-off "moon shot" but the thing that puts you in business, it's for nothing if you don't run the business.
I talked the other week about how in the wake of my mother's death, I didn't really do much to sell my book after the Kickstarter ended. That is part of it. Another part of it is that I felt self-conscious about selling it to the public when I was still delivering to my backers.
This is something I'm keeping in mind as I get ready to launch my next book Kickstarter, which I'm hoping will go live over the weekend or early next week.
For me, part of the point of putting out collections of my short story output is to create a "long tail" library that will give me recurring income over time so it's not a permanent setback to have the first one land without a big splash after a super successful Kickstarter.
And with at this point close to two decades in crowdfunding/patronage experience, I can say that your backers will for the most part be people who understand your needs and the moves you make, as long as you explain them.
My own fulfillment process was complicated by guilty thinking - it's easier to send people unsigned books but the people who paid for signed books, which had to pass through my hands and be signed, paid more. Could I really prioritize them that way?
Shockingly, wallowing in guilt and shame based spirals did not result in any progress towards either goal. Who'd a thunk it? Negative self-talk did not do anything for any of my backers.
With all that experience, I'm not usually one to fall prey to that kind of emotional spiraling. But. You know. I was in a bad place to begin with and that made it easy.
