It totally does! If you did only one thing right, it must be the video. Most people ONLY click on the video to judge whether or not they want to back your project. Only some actually read all the input on the page. The ones that don't look at the video just look at the pictures in the description. But the majority judge you by the video.

The video needs to grab them, and draw them into the world of your project. If you can do that, then they will go over to look at the pictures and consider the rewards. And thats where you need to have good structure and easy to understand rewards. Because it only takes a nano-second of confusion to have a potential backer click away.

But hey Wolfy, if you're ever at a loss for a video you can always bring out the nibblies and DANCE! :D :carrot:

I like those titles! I think people would like the option to pick which one their names show up on! :)

I had a few levels in my (fully written) Kickstarter project.

Digital editions, all that stuff, plus the ability to have your name appear in a list of victims of a cataclysm (rare!), the ability to have a headshot of your original character appear on the computer of a villain looking for super-humans to blackmail with notation of your ownership and URL, and the top was having your character - same legal stuff and credit - appear "in the flesh" as a super-human the "Top Secrets"* have to get something from.


*(The "Top Secrets" are like an Avengers-style group, controlled by an evildoer who knows a specific life-destroying secret about each of them. So theoretically, your character has just retrieved OR stolen something, and the team has to figure out how to get control of it.)


I would've gone ga-ga and donated for that type of thing myself, so I figured I'd run with it.

Now, there it sits in pre-launch. Foreveeerrrrr...

XD

That all sounds really neat! I like how you found various ways to incorporate backers into the comic itself, beyond plain thank you's and a cameos.

So what do you need again to make it happen (sorry if you posted that already and I missed it) ? Or did you just decide to not go the KS route?

It's a multi-tier problem.

Kickstarter doesn't work well for me > because my browser and connection aren't great > because moneys.

So essentially it's on hold until I can purchase a new computer and afford a better connection to *attempt* funding. Like the old saying, having money to make money. :P

But I'm not complaining, really. I've just been plowing along with that project through different means. Seperate issues, released digital-only unless something else comes up, etc.

Well that really stinks, I'm sorry to hear that :( I'm glad you're going further with it in the ways you can though.

I also wanted to mention that, if you ever chose to go to Kickstarter for a Unicorpse comic, I'm not kidding when I say that would be a huge success for you. People would absolutely love it. I'd draw you a pinup for the book/to give as a reward if you wanted :) It's just a golden idea. I found Unicorpse.com for the first time and I thought it was hilarious.

The cards sound pretty cool. For the 900 you have I like that you have them all ready to go (so no further costs). Because they're so easy to slip into packages, that would be an awesome addition to give to people. You could put at the top of the Kickstarter "All backers who order the $15 tier and up will also receive a free character card with their book! *Limited amount remains" The reasoning is to not clutter the reward text, but still offer that incentive to back at the $15 and up.


For you (assuming you do a Sketchbook/Production Book):

$1 Thank you in the book (be as creative as you want with this)
$10 Digital Version of the book as well as digital wallpapers and Thank You
$15 Physical and Digital Sketchbook copy plus wallpapers and Thank You
$25 Physical Book copy, plus digital copy and Thank You ( you could consider getting rid of the digital copy in this tier, and instead include the physical sketchbook, which would be a more powerful package, but save the digital versions for the $50 tier. But double check prices and added shipping weight for media mail).
$50 Physical and Digital copies of the book, sketchbook, Wallpapers and Thank you, signed (and maybe numbered)
$100-$125 All of the $50 reward plus a sketch on the inside cover of your book! *Limited*

Since you can't do Cameos, can you offer original pages or artwork at all? Or could you do a special cameo pinup? That would help me figure out the higher rewards.

And you're welcome :) I just hope I can help in some way.

You are now beholden.

I am serious guy. This is serious post. :whistlin:

Cool, thank you so much Renae. I'm obviously being little over ambitious there then.

Basically I need to be faster and cheaper.
I don't see there being a real issue getting production under 4 months, especially if (to bring costs down) I drop interior colours and go for grey scale instead, and possibly look to save on inking costs too. This in turn drops the book production price, and some of the savings can still go towards colour products.

I understand the reasons for doubling costs to get to the funding figure, but as long as costs are covered in their entirety, dropping that should cause any problems should it?

I think I'm less worried about the rewards and all the things involved there than I am getting to an achievable funding goal.

Revised 44p BW softcover book.
CREATIVE
Pencils + Cover Inks + 14p sketches - me (no cost)
Inks - £25p/page @ 28 pages (£700)
Colours - £65p/page @ 7 images (£455)
Lettering - me (no cost)
Logo - £100

REWARDS
100 copies (drivethrucomics / BW) - £140 + delivery
200 bookmarks - £75
200 postcards - £75
50 A3 card stock prints - £45
PDF copy - no additional cost
Cameo / Design-a-character / Sketches / signed copies / WIP access / wallpapers / thank yous- no additional costs (coloured @+£65 each)

PROMO (upfront costs)
10 A2 posters - £90
200 A5 Flyers - £45
QR code / Layar - ??
Website - no additional cost
Video - Basic - £250 / Fancy - £600+

Minimum costs excl. Shipping - £1975.

This kind of setup puts me in the £4k /$6k range without shipping costs, but if I drop the A3 card stock prints and go with smaller or roll tube items I may be able to make it work a bit better.

I would highly suggest to not drop the color, because color is a HUGE success factor for a book. Not just on Kickstarter, but afterwards to Publishers as well (if that's the path you choose later). I would instead drop the page count to a standard 22 pages. That would bring creative costs to £4,000 with a £8,000 campaign. That's still a high number, but the lowest you can go to get a color book according to your creative costs. (Do you have a link to your book, btw? :) )

And I would also suggest to not try to guess how many of each thing you'll sell. The way I've always done it is pretend you're ONLY selling the book and configure pricing from there. This is because it will give you an overestimated scenario to go by, which is by far a safer way to look at everything. I know it might be hard to understand, but let me try to show you with the math.

1) £8,000 campaign (assuming) with the core reward tier at £10 means you'd have to sell 800 books to achieve your goal.

2) 800 multiplied by the UK fulfillment cost per backer of £5 is £4,000

3) Add that to the creative costs of £4,000 and it brings you to £8,000.

4) That already leaves you with not enough funding for fees, a buffer (HUGELY needed for all campaigns, I'll explain later) taxes, or anything else you've mentioned. Fees for £8,000 would be around £800K, and I would suggest a buffer of at least that same amount. So already your campaign is short £1,600.

However, because of the nature of Kickstarter, there will be other things bought, so I believe that 1,600 will even itself out. International pledges will as well (just make sure you charge the proper amount!) because the amt they pledge for Int. Shipping goes towards your funding goal, which means less books needs to be printed (which means less printing cost to balance out the int. shipping cost).

I am sorry if that's hard to follow, I've done this so many times (calculating campaigns) that I am sure at this point I just run ahead with numbers and reasoning. But PLEASE trust me that you cannot wittle down your funding goal to a more pleasing number unless your creative costs safely fit into half of that goal. A lot of campaigns do that run into HUGE trouble later on from wittling down too much. They often run out of money, delaying things hugely or inevitably. You have to be realistic. You must at LEAST double the creative costs to give you a good idea of what you're looking at.

For the other rewards, all you need to do is be sure you price them at least double what they fully cost you as well. But don't bother using them to figure out what will happen in your campaign.

Assuming you go for this scenario (though I advise at least a color cover to show on the main page!) are you doing the pencils for free in this scenario or am I misreading it?

Also, what is the £600 for the video for?

And as always, if you feel you wish to try things another way, go for it! :) My reasoning is but one way. I'll be here if you have any other questions!

Haha I think drawing Unicorpse would be fun! Now get on that campaign Wolfy! :carrot:

Similarly if anyone is confused as to why their (or someone else's) Kickstarter failed/funding is stagnate I can try to help there too if you post a link. Sometimes a simple change is all it takes, and sometimes a total overhaul might be needed.

Thank you doesn't seem quite enough Renae. I'll be sure that, should I get this thing off the ground, you're getting a thank you page all to yourself. Well, maybe a shared one with my wife.

I'm going to digest that and have a thunk. I don't have much on the book at the moment. I've done some cover work (just to keep myself entertained more than anything).

There's 3 images on my site (I'm on the train home from work now, typing on my phone so I can't easily paste in images or links).

The site is www.crashedmedia.com and the covers are all on that first page. The first and then two further down the posts.

I've also sent you a PM with a link to the layouts for the first issue (only as its passworded and they are VERY rough).
Also the colourist I'm working with at the moment is 'Jets' over at www.jets.deviantart.com
That guy is talent on a stick and has turned another image from just lines into sheer epicness.

The £600 figure for the video was for a fancy pants version with a 30 second teaser for the book itself utilising some shiny After Effects wizardry like the super slo-mo Sky Sports/Movies adverts (I work at an art gallery/cinema/production house called FACT -www.fact.co.uk - so I chatted with the video guys there who gave me that figure). The £250 would be the basic video using some tasty kit to make it look good (Canon 7D, nice lenses, Arri Redhead lights etc) although I could just as easily do a super lo fi shoot on phones or GoPro's and rely on my charming personality and rapier-like wit to carry it off *snort*

Sent ya a message back about inker/colorists! :)

I cannot say if the video money would be worth it or not (I've little experience with the outcome of using one), but if you can afford it I don't see why not try it. Just please remember to avoid a video that's all glitz and no passion (I could show you a video that has amazing effects, but no content and got little backing). People want to see the art, and feel the story. Try not to TELL your audience what your book is (I.E.: This book is awesome and is like Star Wars mixed with Ben10! You will love it because it's amazing!). Show them why it's amazing instead.

There's lots I could say about the video but I feel like I'm yabbering on too much in this thread already, lol! ;p

Sounds perfect. I shouldn't have any problem putting that together.

Original artwork shouldn't be a problem. I have plenty of production sketches laying around that I can freshen up. I couldn't offer original pages because everything is done digitally, but I could definitely do things like sketch cards, or small commissions for people.