Thread by @edebellauthor

So here's what happened yesterday with our Kickstarter, in case it helps anyone else. (start of thread) ...

First, as I've mentioned, we set the goal to the minimum we needed to make -a- book, not -the- book we wanted. That was very clear. But I wasn't going to make trans artists stress and dangle over potentially losing everything especially during Pride month. I stand by it. ...

We did get reactions to this about doing well and already being funded, when the goal we always needed was $12.5K. A secret? We really needed a little more because we underestimated the amount of international backers who would pick a shipped level. A compliment, but still! ...

The team worked so hard. If you saw our campaign, you saw that. If you didn't, go check out the updates - they are wonderful to read, and all about language and culture and art and much more. ...

And it was harder because we didn't get support from places we thought we surely would. I'll...not expound on that. ...

On the last day, we weren't sure if we'd get there. We needed more than a couple thousand dollars, that's a lot, especially given we weren't being shared out the way we thought, it was mostly (big exceptions!) the three of us singing and singing everywhere. ...

A rally started to form. We saw hope. We were emotionally exhausted. (Speaking for myself, I'm mentally disabled so doing this is very hard for me but we thought it would go easier.) We were in chat together, looking, and hoping, and so encouraged by the support. ...

So we get a $1000 backer, for our big reward level. Our first one. Something feels off; we don't know the name, we've never had a backer from this location, they don't respond to a message. Yes, googling is pretty obvious, but I did also work in intelligence a long time, so...

I find someone of the same name and location (bad at scams?) who has posted extremist Christian material. Our hearts sink. Then we see anti-LGBT posts, creepy birth rate stuff, an image of desecrating the Pride flag. ...

Meanwhile, the internet is full of friends, supporters, even an award-winning author and scholar excited to see we are so close to our needed amount; people are posting about it. We are getting private messages. It's confusing and sick feeling. ...

We start to realize we've had other suspicious backers, an unusual number of people backing out over the last two days. (I've run Kickstarters, it happens but not this much.) How do we rally in this confusion? What do we say - are our comments being broadcast in yucky places? ...

We contact Kickstarter Publishing, who contacts Trust & Safety. All in all, they get back to us very quickly, and delete the fraudulent pledge, and I presume many other pledges they've made (as their "number backed" starts dropping in real time). We're grateful for this. ...

But now the campaign is almost over. We've dropped back again. We're...rattled. Really rattled. And gut punched. And we looked at yucky posts. So I ask the team, care if I just say what happened? They have all the same weariness and emotions and say go ahead. ...

The last two hours are confusing and hard. Nice, because people took the baton from us and told people about the campaign. Hard, because now instead of enjoying each pledge it's a game of is this person real or a scammer and we feel weird and deflated. ...

I will not say they took joy from us, no, our joy is our own! - and we have more of it, for you, your support, and this amazing book we will make. But it did impact what should have been a celebration. ...

We finished at $14,182 and, while a few payments have errored, those may still be corrected (expired cards) and we're a few hundred off at worst case. So, ok, waking up to a new day: we can definitely make this book the way we wanted to! ...

I don't know what we would have done with Matt and Ava in chat, if Kickstarter hadn't acted so quickly, if I hadn't got my mind together enough to go on the offensive about it so quickly, or if people hadn't responded so quickly. Anyway, we got there and I'm so grateful. ...

I like ending later in the day; it helps make the last day worthwhile especially for the West Coast. But I may consider whether to end during Kickstarter working hours in the future. ...

So that's the story. We are - so grateful to you. And if you're just hearing about this now and would like to support, we'll be taking open pledges through July on BackerKit. More on that soon! Thank you, so much, again. ♥️ (end thread)