This month, I’ve launched my 6th Kickstarter campaign and it’s running through the end of the month. My campaigns aren’t enormous, and part of that is the result of deliberate choices: I found setting up a campaign to be overwhelming when I first started with Kickstarter. I expected my first campaign to fund much higher than it did, so since then, I’ve stepped back to analyze results. There are some obvious take-aways from that first campaign, but today let’s talk about another key element.
Reader expectations.
Backer expectations at Kickstarter are discussed in many guides for authors using the platform. Generally, these backers are considered to be ready to spend on projects that intrigue them. The platform isn’t about bargain sales but about exclusive special editions (or other items) unavailable elsewhere. Backing campaigns at Kickstarter is about supporting creators.
This is all good and well worthy of consideration, but most authors bring their own audience to Kickstarter in addition to finding backers already active on the platform. Some categories of fiction are less well represented at Kickstarter, and so there are fewer backers to be found within the platform’s established audience. It’s not surprising, then, that most of the romance campaigns that become very popular feature the works of authors with large reader followings. To make a campaign successful, those readers’ expectations need to be considered.
I’ve been deliberately creating campaigns featuring new editions of my historical romance backlist. Historical romance doesn’t have a huge presence at Kickstarter, so these campaigns are primarily backed by my existing audience. By creating a sequence of campaigns specifically for them, I’ve been able to identify what’s important to them. A lot of that comes out of their assumptions - and they are different from the expectations and assumptions of the established Kickstarter audience.
The perceived nature of the transaction is a huge variable.
Kickstarter is about funding creativity. Backers may not ever receive a reward for which they’ve paid. Rewards may take years to be created and delivered. Part of the appeal is that backers are participating in the process of bringing creative endeavors to market and helping bring projects to life.
The difficulty is that when you bring readers to Kickstarter, they bring their own views, and one of those is that they are making a purchase. There is no doubt in their minds that they will receive their reward, and absolutely none that it will fail to be delivered in a reasonable time frame. If it is not, things may blow up on social media and/or backers may demand refunds of the creator.
They are shopping, not investing.
This is a big difference in perspective and several actionable items for creators fall out of it:
• the estimated delivery date on the reward tier must be met.
I add a month or two to my own estimates, to allow for shipping and printing delays. I am always on time or early. Any backers whose expectations have been formed by the Kickstarter environment won’t be displeased by this.
Most of my campaigns have been for new editions of existing work, but my next one will be for a new book. That book will be written and sent to my editor before I launch the campaign. The unpredictability of the creative process won’t be an issue in fulfilling the campaign then.
• My readers tend to choose, back a tier and not revisit the campaign.
They come, they shop, they move on. If my readers aren’t going to come back, I have to make it compelling for them to choose immediately. (Early bird tiers are good for this.) If they don’t choose that time, and they don’t revisit the campaign, they likely won’t back it at all.
As a result of this, I find it easiest to have the project complete, rather than building it during the campaign. This indicates against stretch goals and building projects during the campaign. I have it finished which means I can build the tiers and campaigns with all the options from the outset. I decide what art will be included and commission work from artists ahead of time. (Many of them are booked up long in advance.) I order samples of print books to show to readers/backers during the campaign. This means that I don’t do stretch goals for print books, but it also means that backers know what they’re going to get.
I don’t launch until I’ve received a sample from the printer to show them. (I make YouTube videos showing the books.) They like to know what the books will look like.
• My readers comparison-shop.
Supporting the artist doesn’t mean flinging your own money around, after all. :-) I tell backers what the retail price of the books is or will be, right in the campaign. If the editions are going to be available at retailers, I make sure the pre-orders are up so they can go look at them. I always get pre-orders during the campaign, likely from readers who don’t care about getting the books early or the extra goodies. (This may change when the books are new, rather than backlist.) If the books are only going to be available directly from me, I put up the pre-order in my online store.
I’ve also done two versions of books with the new cover imagery: a special edition with foil and all the fancy details, and a plainer one that goes through regular retail distribution. Here’s my video showing the difference between the shiny version of The Dragon Diaries Omnibus, available only from me, and the retail version, available in stores.
• Because my readers like to consider their choices, I share the details of the campaign before launch in my reader group - including the prices of the reward tiers. This means they can think about it - my campaigns to date have been for new editions of entire series, so it’s not about buying just one book. There might be six. - budget and choose before the campaign launches. I’m curious to see the influence of the new pay-by-installments option offered by Kickstarter, which I’ve enabled for the first time on this campaign.
There are a few more things I’ve learned about my readers in my sequence of smaller campaigns:
• My American readers buy print books at the big portals.
And that means they’re accustomed to free shipping when they spend over a threshold amount. (Alternatively, they might shop at a local B&N, and not pay shipping on those purchases either.) I find that physical reward tiers back better when the cost of shipping is included for US addresses - and I tell them that it is, in the campaign story and in the reward tier.
• My readers read the special edition print books.
The books aren’t just for the keeper shelf. They actually read them, which means that the interior design needs to be readable as well as legible. I’m disinclined to use black backgrounds with white type as a result, and tend generally to have black and white interiors instead of colour - that doesn’t mean they can’t be pretty inside. I put colour illustrations on vellum sheets, on stickers, on postcards or on the duplex side of trade paperbacks.
I also usually include a bookmark with foil in the campaign assets because if you’re going to read a pretty book, you need a neat way to mark your place.
This also means that omnibus editions are less popular with my readers - huge chonky hardcovers are hard to hold, after all. Many of them prefer paperbacks, because they take books with them when they run errands or travel. So, I offer single book editions, in hardcover and paperback, and often there’s a reward tier with a fabric book cover, to protect the book on its travels.
• Some of my readers are all-digital.
These backers want to support the artist (me!) but don’t want print books. I now create special ebook editions, too, with the new cover, any illustrations or additional materials, and make them exclusive to the campaign and later to my online store.
For this current campaign, I’ve created a new Reader Companion for the series, which is a digital reward for all backers - but also on pre-order in my online store for February delivery. It’s available as a trade paperback in the add-ons, too, and various elements of it (the family trees and the new series map) are also digital rewards for all backers to download and print at home. If I do stretch goals this time, they will be for added content in the Reader Companion.
Those are a lot of lessons learned from smaller campaigns! The other bonus is that even ill-fated ideas haven’t put me in the red - I’ve made some money on every campaign, which is a good thing. I’ve found and worked with a number of artists whose work I really like, and have established a rhythm for creating pretty books that still leaves me time to write. I’ve made mistakes, for sure, but there’s always something to be learned from them.
I also find the campaigns less stressful to run. Key to that was recognizing that I need to bring backers to Kickstarter (that’s especially true for niches like historical romance) rather than relying upon Kickstarter to find backers for me amongst their established backers. I now build out a schedule for promoting the campaign before it launches. I try to do at least one thing every day for the duration of the campaign to make my readers aware of the pretty books.
Making these campaigns work means that stepping into a more popular Kickstarter niche will go more smoothly - at least that’s what I’m hoping!
This month’s campaign is for new special editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia series of medieval romances. That’s a link for the series on my website, and here’s a link for the Kickstarter campaign, which runs through July 31.
Until next time, all my best -
Deborah