So, it's over.
As of yesterday (so, March the 1st), the Kickstarter campaign which I set up in the hope of funding the remaining pages of my comic short, Predators, came to an end.
And, unfortunately, it didn't really end on a positive note.
At the conclusion of my campaign, I ended up with £185 from 67 backers, a little bit short of the £800 I was looking for.
Now, to be fair, my target was a high one from the beginning, and certainly not helped by some of the restrictions I placed upon myself like the low price, the lack of pages to show off and (maybe) no printed edition.
However, I try not to be someone who looks at the negative on a situation (well, I do. I'm a pessimistic kind of person), but try and see what I can learn from when something goes wrong.
So, what have I learned?
Well, let's start with the numbers (because I am an Accountant). £185 from 67 backers (which, I'll confess is far better than I expected. I figured only my mum would pledge) is definitely NOT £1 per backer. In fact, the average is £2.94 per backer, meaning that nearly every backer was willing to pay £3 for what was, essentially 12 pages of comics. Now I'm not sure why. Maybe it was Rob(ert Ahmad)'s connection to my project? Maybe it was the concept? Or maybe the backers all knew me and understood my sensibilities (I mean, it could happen!)?
In the end, I'm loathe to change the price because, as I've said before, I do feel that comics are expensive and, for a hobby that was once 'throwaway' (and I do mean comics being thrown in the rubbish. Crazy huh!!!), I am forced to spend a small fortune to read the adventures of the FF, Spidey, Supes and the rest month in, month out.
That said, I think I was being over confident thinking that 800 people would be able/willing to give £1.
This brings me to my next thought. I think another flaw on my part was that I neither cast my net wide enough in terms of bringing attention to this Kickstarter and nor did I give it enough of a push where I did cast the net.
For the first part, While, I did post the link on Facebook (in a couple of comic groups) and Instagram, I primarily focused on Twitter. The reason for this is my comfortableness (yes, it's a word ... now) for this app over the other two as well as a great deal more connection with a lot of comics related folks (who I hope know that I can't thank them enough for all of their help in terms of shares and shout outs and support).
However, I guess it was a thing that I didn't want to appear too 'pushy' (although why that didn't apply on Twitter is beyond me). Still though, maybe if I had 'pushed' a little harder in these places, I'd have done a little better.
So, what has this taught me?
Well, next time, some good plans of action would be, first and foremost, ensure I get some more support. I think pushing myself on apps beyond Twitter should help considerably, but maybe also seeking help from more podcasts and comics websites in order to get the word out further.
Also, I think it might be wise to raise the price. Now, this is something I'm still hesitant to do. However, with the realisation that multiple backers offered me more than what I initially asked, it certainly is something I should consider more seriously next time.
Finally, I think (as was mentioned to me by many prior to launching. I really should have listened)'ll try and drop the limit. Now, that's one of those things which are easy to easy but not so easy to implement, because if it was, why would I have it so high in the first place. However, with time no doubt going to pass between now and a possible second attempt, I can have time to try and get more pages created in the interim.
Therefore, despite the lack of success this all brought me, it was a tremendous learning experience if nothing else as I got a better understanding of how things work as well as combating my fear and reticence to even attempt it.
Hopefully then, next time I'll have better luck. But that won't be for a while and so, in the meantime, I'll get back to what I'm best at; reading comics.
👍
ReplyDelete