Almost over

We're winding down to the end of our campaign, and it doesn't look good for success. Folk would argue that I haven't harassed every single person I could have, nor taken advantage of services for promotion; my answer would be that for the amount Kickstarter takes from each successful project, it doesn't make much sense to do all the work myself.

In the end, I was curious about it, and am glad to have tried it. Like everything, the system has its flaws and it's difficult for a small fish to compete against whales.  Regardless, I don't regret our efforts, and look forward to Plan B (which we're still mulling).

I never assumed self-publishing would be easy, and nothing good is ever achieved without sweat!

Finding an audience

Kickstarter continues to be a humbling experience. I honestly thought that the all-ages appeal of Lil' Ninja would easily attract pledges, but there isn't much interest thus far in our 'baby'. 

It seems I misjudged KS on several levels: with a limited pool of members, there are so many comics fighting for attention that mine has gotten lost. At the same time, harassing folk to pledge is unpleasant for all involved, and usually results in indifference.Thousands have been exposed to the link to my project, with no results. It's rather frustrating, but strangely enough, only strengthens my resolve.

How do I explain this paradox? I'm too old to give up quite so easily on my self-publishing goals; also, my ego has been worn over the decades to withstand a lot worse than this! I'm using Kickstarter as a learning experience, I've been given much to consider.

In the end, my challenge is to find an audience. I need to have the folk who'd be genuinely interested in supporting Lil' Ninja aware of her existence; this seems incredibly daunting, but I've always felt that a grassroots approach (word-of-mouth) coupled with a great product will ultimately find success. It's just a question of time and determination.

There are still days left, and we'll see how things turn out.

Rollercoaster!

It's been a busy week, with downs and ups.

Working on our Lil' Ninja pitch made me realize that funding for Slam was trickling in at a glacial pace. Compared to other projects, it didn't look good about reaching our goals within the time allotted, so I decided (after a lot of soul searching) to pull the plug.

A depressing decision indeed, and yet with a positive upside.

It's clear to me that my cross-hatched graphic novel featuring an egg detective is a hard sell, compared to generic super-hero fare. In order to find an audience, I'd need longer exposure, and a much smaller (and attainable) monetary goal; rather than shooting for a 100 page book, I may reformat the concept as a daily strip, eventually to be collected. As a huge fan of Calvin and Hobbes, the idea is certainly appealing, and I'm looking forward to this phoenix rising from the ashes of my Kickstarter defeat.

Once Slam was out of the picture, I was able to replace it with Lil' Ninja, which I believe has much more market appeal and a smaller dollar goal. Later, I'll ask folk to check out the new pitch, and have high hopes that the first issue of our pint-sized heroine will be completed.

All in all, I'm discovering the ins and outs of crowd-funding; it's not what I (naively) expected, but the reality is that I either adapt or find alternatives. The learning process has been a roller-coaster, but well worth the experience.

Onwards!

Kickstarter: week one!

My Kickstarter experience has been pretty great, so far. I'd been intimidated to actually launch my project, but the process was relatively straight-forward. It's a thrill when new backers pop up, although the raising-money aspect has been slower than expected.

Considering this is my first experience with crowd-funding, I'm sure to learn a lot; even if we don't meet our goal, my hopes are to establish a list of interested potential buyers of our wares. At the same time, just getting one concept 'out there' is a cool feeling.

My next step is promotion; I have a list of sites to approach, and will do so as the deadline gradually rears its head.

Mulling the success or failure of this pitch only strengthens my resolve; no matter what, I will find a way to get my concepts moving forward, I have that much faith in them. The key is finding our market, which is the biggest challenge at this point.