Why Run A Kickstarter Campaign?
Like every author, I believe in what I’m doing 110%. Creating a movement of gritty young learners and helping underserved music students, is important to me. And I know there is an audience of children and parents who feel frustrated, challenged, and even discouraged by their learning. People need to know they are not alone. I can help them process those feelings in an entertaining little picture book.
But it’s not enough.
I can write the best, most amazing book in the world and only ever sell a few copies.
A huge part of publishing is getting the word out. The most ardent potential fans can’t buy my book or product if they don’t know it exists.
Enter crowdfunding. Yes, it’s well known for helping people harness the financial might of the masses to bring their product to market. But crowdfunding is so much more. It can also help advertise, give readers special bonuses or rewards in addition to the book, raise funds to support a community cause, and provide a behind-the-scenes look at how a book comes together.
Kickstarter is a huge community of people who are actively looking for great new things so, it's a great way to reach new audiences, beyond personal networks and create a movement around something of meaning.
The catch is that you might have to educate your social media networks, friends, and family. Many people don’t understand how crowdfunding works and have never backed a project themselves.
A common misconception is that people are looking for “donations.”
In reality, crowdfunding is more like a 30-day pre-order period with rewards and a platform for a campaigner to reach a larger.
With Kickstarter, creators set a financial goal and a time period, usually 30 days, and if they don’t make the goal, they don’t get any of the money pledged by their backers.
Getting backers is up to the creator though.
Some people have friends and family with deep pockets and get funded.
Some people use paid ads to get their project in front of the eyes they’re looking for.
Some people have a robust social media presence and have educated their followers about their project ahead of time so they are poised to succeed by the time they launch.
I'm just burning the midnight oil, figuring out my reward tiers for my future backers, building my email list (slowly but surely?), attracting as many followers as possible on social media, making lists of friends to contact, networking, reworking my illustrations and formatting my book, and contacting printers.
Yep, that’s it!
Hopefully, after this campaign, I will have one less box of books sitting in my office and some child somewhere will be finding the inspiration needed to persevere through their hard.
Want to Pre-Order?
Visit my Kickstarter pre-launch page and click the green button for updates