KickStarter - A Way To Fund Your Project

**Favorite-N** · 07-06-2011, 10:13 PM

www.kickstarter.com

I know one o fthe main things holding many writers back is the fact they can't pay artists. Well here is a great option.

This is a website dedicated to giving your project a place to gain interest and most importantly finances. You post your project with as good a pitch as you can create and a goal set to get it funded so that you can start or finish the project and offer incentives to the investors. For instance, donate 20 dollars you get a signed copy of the first issue. 100 dollars you get your name in the issue, etc. etc. You put your project on the site and then wait 60 days to make your goal. If you make it then you get the money to do with what you want. Amazon and Kickstarter take 8% of money donated so plane on a 16% overhead. It's a great site. Check it out.

**cbikle** · 07-06-2011, 10:29 PM

Thanks Favorite-N, I'm definitely going to check this out.

**walterostlie** · 07-07-2011, 06:55 AM

This is a great site. I used it to fund the printing for my graphic novel. Not only is it a good way to raise money but it is also a good way to gauge interest in your project.

There is a bit of the built-in audience and it is getting larger, but you will still have to do your own advertising to try to bring people in to your page. It is not the easiest to find all the projects on the site and it is easy to get lost in the sea of projects. So you will have to drive people directly to your page.

Make sure you start off strong with a video and images embedded in your description. Make sure you video and description explain what kickstarter is and how the pledging for rewards works. Some people will know what it is, but there are still people who don't. I wouldn't start a project with the intentions of later adding a video/images. Just wait until all that is ready and then start the project.

There is also another site similar to Kickstarter called indie go go. The only difference is that if you don't raise the money to your goal, you still get the money on indiegogo. Kickstarter won't give you any money if you don't make the goal. There is also a difference in how much % each site takes. Kickstarter does 5% and amazon does 3-5% so total is 8-10%, not 16. so make sure you bake that cost into your goal.

**Lord Dubu** · 07-07-2011, 07:40 AM

Walterostlie, I was looking into Kickstarter as an option to raise money for my project. But I was worried if a comic could generate enough interest that it'd be worthwhile. Also I'm having trouble figuring out how to say:

"I need money to print books and t-shirts and fly to Seattle for a convention where I will sit with other artists and hawk the book which is really more designed to drive an audience to a free web-comic" in a way that people will want to actually give me money.

Actually one of the reasons I'm using mostly traditional media is for the kickstarter give-aways. I need SOMETHING tangible to offer as I doubt there will be much donation for a digital copy of artwork.

**walterostlie** · 07-07-2011, 01:52 PM

It may be kind of tricky to raise money for a webcomic since there isn't a finished product that people can get behind. There's the option of raising enough money to both go to cons and get a print version of your book. Even if it is just a small run for people who pledged. Having other tangible art or commissions as rewards would help some. If there isn't enough of the webcomic for a print edition, I don't think it matters. You can say that you are working on it currently and will do a print when you have however many pages done.

I would suggest you get your webcomic up and running with a steady update schedule before you do kickstarter or even conventions. Once your comic is up and running, you can drive traffic to your webcomic, have a kickstarter widget right on the front page. If people dig it, they will pledge, even if they have to wait months. I waited over 6 months for a book to be completed and sent to me from a kickstarter pledge.

You can always word money for conventions as promotion and advertising. I think you if make a good product and your passion for that product comes across, people will give you the money.

Comics have done really well on Kickstarter, so it is a viable option. But if you just want to toss up a project and watch the money pour in, it won't happen...unless you are Eric Canete :-)

**Lord Dubu** · 07-07-2011, 02:52 PM

Oh I'm not raising money for the web comic but the print version of the prologue (first 30 pages) which I plan to sell at the con along with cards, posters etc.

**Matt001** · 07-22-2011, 02:21 AM

If you want to raise money, you do what Kevin Smith did: max out four credit cards and hope for the best. That's what he did/. That's what I'm doing.

**SRScribe** · 07-22-2011, 08:16 PM

This seems like a cool avenue to explore, but as a writer, once again, without any accompanying artwork to promote it initially, it's prolly unlikely anyone's gonna jump on board a comic idea.

That's just my initial impression, though. Has any writer here used kickstart?

**Favorite-N** · 07-30-2011, 11:03 PM

Originally Posted by SRScribe

This seems like a cool avenue to explore, but as a writer, once again, without any accompanying artwork to promote it initially, it's prolly unlikely anyone's gonna jump on board a comic idea.

That's just my initial impression, though. Has any writer here used kickstart?

I haven't used it for comics yet but I did use it for a short film and earned the money I needed. Of course as you mentioned, without art to accompany the pitch it would make it a bit difficult. I am planning to use photos and public domain art for a graphic novel I need to earn money for. I'll let you know how that goes.