Kickstarter promotion - how/when/where?

[AnnaLandin]

Hey guys! I'm part of a scifi comics-anthology currently being Kickstarted - it's called Enough Space for Everyone Else - and I know that if we hit our goal, we're going to have a lovely anthology on our hands.

However, it's off to a pretty slow start - we've got 25 days to go and we've only nearly reached 6k out of 33k - so I thought I'd turn to the community here and ask for advice on promoting it. I'm not part of the editing team, but I am one of the contributing creators, and I want to help in any way I can.

So, Tapastic community, give me (and other Kickstarter-newbies!) some advice! What are the best channels for promoting a Kickstarter? I know that donations tend to come in two peaks - at the start and at the end - but what's the best way to keep people interested throughout the month? Are there any promotional avenues besides the obvious (social media, here on Tapastic, etc.) that I might be missing?

Enough Space For Everyone Else: An Anthology

Edited to conform to forum rules re: self-promotion and sales

[sarrowsmith10]

I dumped like a thousand flyers at local comic book stores and the local libraries. I recommend flyers with either a mini comic or something to get folks interested, so its worth looking up the kickstarter.

I also posted updates on Twitter and Facebook. Not just flat promotional ads, but like, "hey this week we worked on this or that, or check out this preview of the book, or whatever"

I was also interviewed by folks in the sciences (our comic was science based) so that helped too.

Good luck!

[shazzbaa]

[CAVEAT: I've never run an anthology kickstarter, I've just been a contributing artist!]

One thought is for whomever is running the campaign to reach out to the contributing artists about what extras they'd be willing to contribute as reward tiers! Both of the anthologies I was a part of had a lot of the $70-100 reward levels dedicated to specific contributing artists -- "Shazzbaa Backer Level -- pledge at this level and get one of the original pages from Shazzbaa's story [Title]!" A lot of contributing artists were able to offer something, whether a small commission or sending over an original page.

A good chunk of the people pledging to this anthology are gonna be people who really like specific artists in it. If I really like Anna Landin's work specifically, I'm not gonna pledge extra for the bookplate signed by random people -- but I might pledge extra if it means Anna Landin will draw something on the bookplate or offer me a digital commission.

That also gives you a chance to hype the kickstarter throughout its campaign! For Cautionary Fables & Fairy Tales, I and a few other artists were revealed as brand-new reward tiers throughout the campaign, so it wasn't just "hey guys the kickstarter is still here" but "remember that kickstarter I'm in WELL NOW IF YOU PLEDGE YOU CAN GET A COMMISSION BY ME! Check it out!!"

The other thing that seemed to help was reaching out to any blogs or podcasts or anyone interested in featuring an article or interview on what the anthology is doing -- Vertoscope wasn't specifically queer-oriented stories, but because we had so many queer creators involved, the editors reached out to a few sites that focused on queer media and a couple of them featured and talked about the anthology.... and I think that's one of the boosts that helped Vertoscope make it. The fact that you guys are really inclusivity-oriented means you could probably find feminist or queer media who'd want to talk about your work; that sort of thing can help, too!

If people who have actually run kickstarters disagree then obviously LISTEN TO THEM INSTEAD but these are my observations from the anthologies I was in! ;u; Best of luck to you guys!!!

[AnnaLandin]

@sarrowsmith10 @shazzbaa I'm definitely taking notes, and will be passing them on to the editors!

I was unfortunately without a functioning internet connection in the days leading up to the KS-launch, so I was kinda blindsided by it when it did launch, and therefore missed out on these volunteering for these extras. I'll see what I can do from now on!

[donathinfrye]

My thoughts:

Press Releases! A good press release literally tells a story, it creates a piece of news. It's not just a list of relevant information. What's the story here? An indy anthology is focused on non-violent, non-imperialist space stories? Newspaper editors don't want to research your project themselves, they want to read your press release and immediately have something that they can lightly edit and publish in their paper/blog. The key thing here is that the editor doesn't need to be the only person reaching out to press -- any of the creators can too. Your short comic might have its own "news worthy" angle. Press releases aren't so bad to write so long as you adopt the mentality of writing the article that you want newspapers to actually print. There are plenty of great Kickstarter press release samples online.

Likewise, the creators should all be doing what you're doing and helping to promote the Kickstarter as much as they can. It's a pricey KS for a comic anthology! I'm certain that a big part of that is that the editor wants to pay the creators fairly, and that's very, very important. The creators can help by coming together as a team and combining social media presence, sales tactics, media and backer contacts, etc. You guys might already be doing this.

Higher level backer rewards: Right now, the reward tiers are set up like pre-sales, which is a key part of making money on KS. But more personal rewards, more contributions from the various authors, and higher ("angel" level) backer tiers are also important. One $1,000 backer is worth more than 40 backers who are just pre-purchasing the book. How can those guys be convinced to pledge? What similar projects have seen success with high backer reward levels, and what were the rewards that proved to be so enticing?

Take a look at programs like Backer Club (which I've used for Kickstarters before and can admit is legitimately full of mid-to-angel level backers): http://backerclub.co/homepage.php -- submitting to things like this can literally do no harm, and can potentially yield a nice bonus sum.

Keep at it. : ) Running a Kickstarter feels like laying siege to a castle sometimes. You guys might not be rushing towards your goal, but $6,000+ after a few days definitely shows that there is definitely a lot of interest out there for your guys' work!