Take a peek at this exclusive interview with Kickstarter's Oriana Leckert, from whitefox's The Ultimate Book Crowdfunding Guide.
Q. What is the crowdfunding market looking like at the moment? Who is using it effectively and what is it enabling people to do?
Considering the vast uncertainty of **gestures at everything**, it’s actually a very good time to be crowdfunding creative work, particularly if that work is in publishing, comics, or games. [Most of us spent the pandemic] at home, playing games and reading books and comics so it’s not hard to imagine that a lot of people want to make sure that there will be plenty more where those came from. It seems that in this rather dark, chaotic time, backers are more excited than ever to support independent, creative literary works, which is wonderful to see.
A platform like Kickstarter is designed for project-based, fixed funding, so you’ll have the highest chance of success if you’re creating something concrete with an achievable budget, if you can clearly identify who the audience is for the project, and if you have a reliable way to reach that audience.
Q. What are the key elements of a successful Kickstarter campaign?
The main elements are:
- A project video, which should be a teaser for your project. These are most successful when they’re short (around one to two minutes), well lit and compelling. The main goal of the video is to draw readers into the rest of your campaign.
- Your story, which is where you describe what you’re making in all its glorious detail. This can include info about who you are, what brought you to this work, where you are in the process, who you’re collaborating with, details about the final product, and more.
- The rewards, which are digital, physical, or conceptual things that you give to backers in exchange for their support of your work. This will likely include electronic and physical versions of your book, as well as things like bookmarks and prints of your cover art, tickets to a virtual or IRL launch party, a custom playlist of songs you listened to while writing, or even the opportunity for backers to be written or drawn into the book. We have put together two different roundups of unusual reward ideas to help creators brainstorm cool rewards!
- And finally, promotion. Though this isn’t reflected on your campaign page, it’s one of the most important elements of a crowdfunding campaign. It is, after all, how you reach your crowd!
Q. Who are the typical types of people utilising Kickstarter?
The kinds of creators we tend to see on the platform are relatively comfortable with digital promotion, have (or know how to pull together) a dedicated audience and support network, and are creating something that is both easy to define and has a clear demographic it will appeal to. In publishing, this is everyone from small to medium-sized publishing companies, authors working with hybrid and custom publishers, and writers in truly any genre. It also includes creators making magazines, comic books, journalism and podcasts; bookstores, bookish swag, bookish museums and bookish films; and so much more.
Q. Have you noticed that authors of a particular genre or with a certain clear goal are more likely to triumph on their
crowdfunding mission?
There’s a pretty vibrant sci-fi/fantasy community on Kickstarter, and comics projects currently have the highest success rate sitewide. But just about any kind of author working in just about any genre can do well on our platform if they’ve done a thorough and honest assessment of their financial needs, and put in the work to connect – both before and during the campaign – with the community of readers who would be most interested in their work.
Oriana Leckert is the Director of Publishing & Comics Outreach at Kickstarter, where she helps creators bring a marvellous array of literary projects to life. She’s written and edited for Vice, MTV News, Slate, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Atlas Obscura and many more. Her first book, Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture and Creativity (Monacelli, 2015), grew out of a multi-year project chronicling the rise and fall of under-the-radar creative places across New York City. Follow her at @orianabklyn on Twitter/Instagram.
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