How to Become A Kickstarter Success
It takes heart, a village and a Nike just-do-it mentality
by Kristi L. Kremers
I had a dream. Actually, it was a few dreams. I started having dreams of my future children. I thought about the types of conversations I wanted to have with them and the types of conversations I would want them to have with their grandparents, with their teachers, and with their classmates.
So, I started making my first children’s book, Who Is a Leader? It hit #1 in three categories on Amazon.com. Not to shabby for a first-time author. But being an Amazon.com best-seller is fairly meaningless these days. I learned that you don’t really make a profit on your books until after your third or fourth publication, and because children’s books are far more expensive to produce, I was up against even harsher odds.
I had a dream. A dream to break even.
Kickstarter was the perfect place to make this dream come true.
I also want to start a revolution in the arena of children’s books, but that’s a post for another time.
Now, I tell you all of this because I want you to know that publishing children’s books is something to do out of passion and not for profit. IF you do create a sustainable business model, that’s wonderful! I hope to do that.
But I want to keep it 100 with you — While something may look like a financial success from the outside by becoming a “best-seller”, in the world of self-publishing, books are often an entry point for other services, and/or provide legitimacy. Many first-time books only make between $100-$200. I’m envisioning your mouth dropping right now. It should.
My story is about redefining success beyond the financial measuring stick.
The Budget & Funding Goal
Because this wasn’t my first book publishing rodeo, I knew somewhat what to expect and how to budget.
I looked at other similar projects to get a feel for the types of rewards I could offer and also benchmark the price point.
The most popular contribution level is $25. Bundle together great options, but don’t overwhelm your audience with too many choices. You should have less than 10 reward levels according to crowdfunding guru Alexia Anastasio who’s launched several successful crowdfunding campaigns.
Ask for what you need because the most important thing is getting your work out of your head and into the world.
It’s easy to see the success of campaigns like Exploding Kittens which raised close to $9 million dollars and think you’re going to win the Kickstarter lottery. Approximately 60% of Kickstarter campaigns are unsuccessful.
Ask for what you need. I needed $2000 to finish my project and I put a goal of $2300 because there are ALWAYS unexpected expenses. Give yourself a little buffer but not the kind of buffer that says, “I’m going to pay off all my student loans and rent a yacht for a week in the Greek Islands”. There’s dreaming big with integrity and there’s dreaming big with greed.
Budgeting Tip: Be sure to account for the fees which will subtract about 10% of your final payout if your campaign makes it to the finish line. If your campaign is unsuccessful, you’re not charged anything so it’s a great low risk way to gauge interest in your project.
The Video
Your video is perhaps the most important element to your Kickstarter’s success. Kickstarter projects with videos are more successful than those without a video (50% vs. 30%). Plus, it’s “by far the best way to get a feel for the emotions, motivations, and character of a project” according to our friends at Kickstarter HQ.
See 5 Must Read Tips for Your Kickstarter Video
I recorded mine on my Mac with a budget of zero dollars but I did invest a lot of time in making it. Tell your story and focus on the why of your project.
The video should be between 2–4 minutes to retain the attention of your audience. For the biggest campaigns, the average video length is 3 minutes and 45 seconds (source). I wish I would have emphasized the rewards in my video. That seems to be one of the things Kickstarter looks for in their featured projects. If I could choose one thing to do differently on my video, this would be it: Focus on your rewards.
When to Launch
Launch your Kickstarter on a Tuesday or Wednesday when folks have more time to check out your project and engage. You’ll want to keep your campaign to about 30 days. Allow more time and people lose interest and your momentum fizzles. I chose to run my campaign for 28 days. It was successfully funded on the 25th day, but you’ll hear of massive launches where the Kickstarter was funded in as little as 10 hours.
The key is to get between 20–30% of your goal within the first 2–3 days. Seventy-nine percent of projects that pooled together more than 20% of their goal were ultimately successfully funded (source).
If you want to launch in a big way, this is the best resource: How to Raise 100,000 in 10 days. It includes email templates and a full step-by-step account. I knew if I tried to launch the perfect way, my perfectionism would paralyze me. So I did it the old-fashioned Nike way: Just do it. Or, to put it in Van Halen terms, “JUMP!”
Failure to Launch & Kickstart-a-phobia
Man, oh man. It’s one thing to get your rewards figured out, a budget, a goal amount, and video but then you actually have to push the green launch button.
I Nike-ed it and hit the green launch button. My stomach turned. I then posted one single message to my facebook timeline and one to my facebook page. It made me physically ill. The idea of putting myself out there, with my baby on full display made me want to hurl. And I did.
For the next week and a half, I obsessively poured myself into another project I was working on. I was afraid to even open up the Kickstarter page. Thankfully, I heard this Kickstart-a-phobia was completely normal but you have snap out of it and ask everyone you know to support you. Get over your fear of rejection, get over your fear of asking for help and do the dang thing.
As my friend Kelly says, you need to kickstart your Kickstarter. And your heart. Remember the why behind your project and the impact it will have in the world. Let that triumph over the fear.
I did nothing for a week and a half, but I was able to turn the ship around.
Simply ask. Ask friends, family and colleagues to help you spread the word. Do it. Just do it. Just do it and ask became my mantra.
If you have a list, about 5% will contribute to your project. This statistic varies widely depending upon the type of project and the level of engagement from your audience, but it’s a good rule of thumb to use.
At the time of writing this, my Kickstarter still has a couple of days to go, but you can see clearly in this graph when I started to reach out and actively ask friends to help me spread the word.
Update Your Backers
Throughout your campaign, you’ll want to post updates every 3 to 5 days. I posted updates on the progress of the campaign, provided more back story about the inspiration behind You Are Made of Stars, and shared new drafts of illustrations like Einstein and the Dalai Lama:
In retrospect, I would have posted more updates. By day 25, I had posted only four updates. It’s a balance of being sensitive to the makeup of your audience and what kind of information that would be interesting to them while also being respectful of their time.
Conclusion: It Takes Heart, a Village & a Nike Mentality
You will be amazed by who shows up for you. It was incredible to reconnect and check-in with friends from all stages of my life and from all corners of the globe.
As another benefit, you will likely inspire those around you to pursue their own their own dreams. I have two friends that will now be starting their own crowdfunding campaigns.
Launching my Kickstarter also helped me further redefine what success means. For me, success is contributing with the fullest expression of who I am. My children’s books are the closest I’ve ever come to fully expressing myself.
On those terms, Kickstarter provided a platform and the support of my community allowed me to become a success. It takes heart, a village and a Nike just-do-it mentality. When there’s a will and a dream, there’s most likely a way in our wondrous digital age.
To finding balance between dreams and a just-do-it edge,
You can find out more about my work at www.leadtolove.com and www.kristikremers.com. To view the Kickstarter campaign, and see what I did right and wrong, check it out here.
