Table of Contents
Intro
Prelaunch for Big Smoke Pulp Vol. 1
Inks are Complete for Naked Kaiju Woman
The Crowdfunding Debrief
A Quick Preface
Early Thoughts
Backers
Dollars
Ads and Referrals
In Summary
Upcoming Posts
Upcoming Conventions
Release Calendar
Recently on the Instant Ink Comic Book Podcast
Intro
We’ve got an extra long post today as we review the aftermath of the latest campaign. Lots of lessons learned as things didn’t entirely go as expected.
Before we start, I have some updates for upcoming projects…
Prelaunch for Big Smoke Pulp Vol. 1
The original plan was to launch Big Smoke Pulp Vol. 1 on October 8th, but we’re going to push that back by at least a couple of weeks to get our ducks in a row. The formatting is nearly done and I’m going to finalize everything with the 40+ authors involved in the meantime.This means we’ll be able to launch with a completed book that’s just waiting to be sent to the printer.
You can help right now, for free, but clicking the follow button on the Kickstarter prelaunch page:
My Instant Ink Comic Book Podcast co-host, Roberto Viacava, is putting together a cover for this book. It’s exactly the pulpy goodness I’m looking for and matches the contents of the book quite well.
If you’re into pulpy sci-fi, noir, romance and comedy - you’ll want to read Big Smoke Pulp Vol. 1. There are so many great short stories in here that you won’t be able to put it down.
We’re going the old school route with a pocketbook paperback. It’s meant for you to carry around and read out in the world. To throw to a friend when you’re done, telling them they just have to check it out.
I’m excited to get this out there. I’ll, of course, keep you updated to when we land a solid launch date.
Inks are Complete for Naked Kaiju Woman
The delay in getting Big Smoke Pulp Vol. 1 up and running has also affected Naked Kaiju Woman’s release, which was originally planned for mid-November. It’s looking like this will go out in January now - allowing for a nice, long ramp up over the holidays.
Rafael Chrestani, the artist of NKW and Stay Cool (plus a variant cover for Unlimited Udo) has delivered all 32 pages plus an excellent cover for this book. JP Jordan, colourist on From Parts Unknown, has also been tapped to colour this book. Things are well on their way to having another successful series out there.
The best part is the first book should be completed before we launch on Kickstarter. I’ll share the prelaunch page as soon as From Parts Unknown #1’s campaign is closed off.
Speaking of…
The Crowdfunding Debrief
A Quick Preface
This post-mortem is partially based on a section of
ComixLaunch course. If you’re serious about launching your comics on Kickstarter, I highly recommend signing up. It’s so much more beyond the course itself, including live twice-monthly coaching calls and a community of other successful creators and crowdfunders to lean on.I’ve adapted it and changed it for my own purposes.
I’m going to break this all down into three parts:
Backers
Dollars
Ads and Referrals
If there’s something more you’d like to see, let me know!
Let’s get into it!
Early Thoughts
The campaign for From Parts Unknown #1 was very different from the others I’ve done so far. I was more comfortable and prepared than I’ve been with any previous campaign, even with this being the fastest ramp up to launch yet.
I knew what I was going to do, how long it was going to take and I thought I knew where it was going to end up. Crazy Latte Thing Called Love did up my expectations for this book, but when we look into the data, you'll see that I probably should have had a good sense of where this would land.
There's definitely reasons for all of it. It's really a comparison of apples and oranges. And truthfully, From Parts Unknown has different goals that any of my previous books, being a series.
Let’s start by looking at backers…
Backers
Day One made this the second best campaign so far. Though it was just barely that.
By the evening, we were $9 CAD short of funding and I thought I’d go to bed and wake up funded. Instead, I found the campaign in the same position, only for it to fund an hour after the 24 hour mark.
The quick launch was a relief, but the pace that it hit after that wasn’t too much of a surprise. The prelaunch for every other campaign was months longer than it was for From Parts Unknown. I did the Kickstarter recommended thing of just doing a quick ramp up and a launch and, frankly, it backfired a little bit.
Not having the hundreds of prelaunch followers that I had with Crazy Latte really made it an uphill battle to get this book out to readers who wouldn't have seen it otherwise.
That said, the number of new backers that came to this campaign versus the returning backers was very surprising. But much like the backer count, not hitting the heights that Crazy Latte did.
Both Luke Marrone and JP Jordan were instrumental in really pushing this campaign everywhere they could. They were probably marketing it harder than I did. These are two new creators that I've never worked with before, so From Parts Unknown was reaching people I didn’t previously have access to.
As usual, the US dominated. However, I don't think I've ever sent packages to Ireland before and this will be a first. I can assume those came from JP (in fact, one of those is JP), so I don't know if you could fully count that as a surprise.
Even though I'm always pushing my Kickstarters here locally in Canada, the backer count is usually people I know in some way and not anyone new that I've met cons, in stores or online.
The difference between digital and physical backers returned to the original state vs what happened with Crazy Latte. I wonder if this is a difference of me not including shipping or if it's just the difference of the types of backers I had received. Realistically, shipping actually worked out to be a little bit cheaper this time out, but all in pricing might have the psychological edge.
For digital, it proves to me that having DRM-free copies for backers and keeping that exclusive to Kickstarter is something that's critical for these campaigns to succeed. As much as I love platforms like GlobalComix, I can’t survive on the commissions there versus what I make on Kickstarter or DRM-laden versions on Kobo and Amazon.
There is some good news in all of this. Even though the backer count was the same as Stay Cool this go-round, the per backer average was much higher than that campaign. This allowed us to double our goal.
This is the kind of progress we need if these campaigns are going to continue to flourish. This is with me keeping prices relatively low for individual comics and shipping costs.
What made the per backer count so high was a lot of backers buying The Pesto Package or the Digital Pesto Package, which includes the whole back catalog. It just goes to show how important having a library of books is if for sustained success on Kickstarter.
The best performing pledge levels make it clear that the singular digital copies were the most popular. The main cover was the most popular physical item.
In terms of what brought in the most cash: The Pesto Package, which includes every variant cover of every comic. This managed to get into the top three spot just based on how pricey that package has become. I really do appreciate the backers who go for that level wanting to actually have every copy of what we’ve made.
Another pledge level that isn't listed here but had done surprisingly well is the Mystery Pack. That gets you every #1 issue that we've created plus a random variant cover from any of the series thrown in the package. I think much like the mystery boxes of the of old, people just like having a bit of thrill with what they're ordering and I'm happy to replicate that going forward.
Dollars
Let's talk dollars and cents…
Although the backer count for Stay Cool and From Parts Unknown were the same, the funding completely outstripped the the two earlier Pesto Comics campaigns. However, Crazy Latte was well out of a reach within the second day where From Parts Unknown mostly followed the trajectory of the previous campaigns.
This campaign doubled the funding goal, which I've kept consistent for three out of four campaigns.
However, the funding goal is really just an arbitrary number at this point. These funding goals aim to cover printing first, and usually do just that and nothing more.
I could arguably quadruple that goal and try to hit it, but as you can see here, I probably wouldn't hit that goal and I don't think multiple failures are going to help much either.
I'm starting to think shorter and shorter campaigns are what are key here.
If the average pledge per day stays as high as it is, we could easily hit our funding goals no problem. What dragged this average down over time was that we had a couple days where we had one backer and in one case we had a minus. Kickstarter campaigns are stressful enough without them being too long. It seems like the shorter a burst, the better the excitement.
Along with increasing the sense of urgency, it pushes some backers to support late - which includes a 15% fee for doing so.
Fortunately, none of the big ticket backers were dropped this time around. Only two digital backers.
That was a lot more of a concern with Crazy Latte , so it was nice to see that it was just a handful of digital backers that had failed cards, most of which actually fixed it once they received the notification.
Shipping prices have gone down slightly only as I’ve dropped the insurance from Stallion Express. I tried to submit a claim on one package from Crazy Latte but the burden of proof is so high that I wasn’t able to recoup that cost on the misdelivered package.
If I never paid the insurance on any of those packages, the expense saved would have covered the cost of the lost material. Consider it a lesson learned.
I’ve also taken the risk of going with a new printer, recommended to me by a couple of local creators. I had a hard time with the previous printer in getting a quote or any feedback on progress, where this new printer, Copywell, has been very friendly and extremely quick to respond.
If the product is up to standard, this may be the start of a great working relationship.
Mattia’s rate on Crazy Latte was a lot higher than other artists I’ve worked with.
Budget aside, his art is what sold the book further than I had been able to previously.
Even with a campaign that did double what this one did, I did better in recouping costs with From Parts Unknown than any project so far.
I also held back on some of the outside expenses from previous campaigns. On those, I was experimenting a lot with advertising and all kinds of other tools, including PR and that kind of thing. Now I'm doing a lot of this work in-house. I'm finding that it's making it a lot easier to recoup the costs through these campaigns.
If they continue to grow as they are here, then I think this will become a lot more sustainable. That said, losing 2/3 of what you put in right off the bat isn't something that I can do forever. I’m playing the long game, but this trend needs to continue getting better with each launch.
Ads and Referrals
I had actually launched without doing a Kickstarter video. I didn't see the value in it, but remembering that the Discover page now autoplays videos, I figured I should put something there. I was able to put together a quick 30 second ad. The short run-time helped up the level of completed views on the video, but I don't know if it actually drove any of the sales. Who knows? I don't mind putting something small together in terms of a trailer and it did give me material to put on the socials as an ad. (Though, more about that later.)
In terms of where the referrals were coming from, what I didn't get this time around was all of the bonuses that you do get at being a Project We Love. This project didn't seem to cross that barrier, so I didn't get on the home page as much, nor did I show up in the recommended page as much as I did with Latte or Stay Cool.
Therefore, most of the referrals on the Kickstarter came from Email and Advanced Discovery. In other words, if you weren't following me already, you didn't see it.
As far as Non-Kickstarter referrals go, Twitter still seems to be the king. As much as I don't love that platform, it really does bring in comic readers. I don't know how it manages to continue to do so, but here we are.
What's interesting is that there's actually a few new players on here. I have no idea how Bing ended up on there. BlueSky made an appearance for the first time as well. Although I'm always pushing projects here on Substack, I only got a couple backers from here. Plus, it looks like those who did likely just backed the digital level and nothing else.
This is my second time using Backerkit launch so I was able to compare it with Crazy Latte. Even though my list was much larger this time around, (I'm talking double what it was at the time that I launched Crazy Latte), I didn't see the same open rates that I did on that project.
It looks like this recession seemed to be across Kickstarter and not just me, so I'm trying not to take it personally.
I think there's also a risk in launching a number one in a series when you’re an independent creator. Backers want to know that they're actually going to complete the story. I understand some hesitance here, where my previous campaigns were all one-shots with a total story: beginning, middle and end.
Advertising bombed entirely this time.
I had more impressions than I ever had doing any kind of advertising on any of my campaigns. 62,592 impressions and it brought the cost per click way down and yet I had seen 0 backers from that.
That's money just down the drain at this point. I'm really going to have to reconsider whether putting any money into advertising is worthwhile. At least with a short-term campaign like this, maybe a project that is sustained and ongoing would be a little more reasonable.
Launch Experience Q&A
Here are some questions from ComixLaunch meant to reflect on the campaign…
How do you feel now that the Kickstarter campaign is over?
It's hard not to feel a little bit disappointed with the how the campaign went, given the heights of the one just before it. Again, it was a totally a different campaign in so many different ways that I can't be truly upset about it.
Still, just seeing From Parts Unknown do just a bit better than the two previous to Crazy Latte makes me feel like I'm not making quick enough progress. That said, I do feel like being the first in a series means that this can grow over time and do a lot better than this first issue did.
What was the best part / high point of this campaign for you?
The high point is this campaign was launch day. We didn't quite do it within the 24 hours, but just an hour later we were funded and that was hard to be upset about. At that point, I thought this campaign was going to do even better than anything else.
What was the worst part / low point of this campaign for you?
Crazy Latte had the benefit of not having a zero day.
This campaign did worse than that. It was a minus day.
That's obviously the low point. I was worried that the campaign was starting to flatline, but fortunately with the typical “bathtub” of campaign funding, the last couple of days were pretty good.
How are you different now that the campaign is over?
I’ll be putting a lot more thought into how the next campaign is going to be pushed. I'm aiming to get the next issue of From Parts Unknown out in February and I'll be talking about it every opportunity I get.
I have another couple campaigns that I'm planning on doing in between, including Big Smoke Pulp and Naked Kaiju Woman too.
I'm thinking that the prelaunch conversation needs to be happening at the same rate that I was doing it for Crazy Latte. I need to get people signed up and excited for campaigns rather than doing these sudden launch ones.
There's a lot of talk about the economy not being great and people really holding on to their wallets, so here's hoping that with interest rates coming down and inflation coming down, we'll start seeing a bit of a boom back on Kickstarter.
What surprised you the most about this campaign?
What surprised me most was that advertising did not work. Seeing how many clicks were coming through and the follower count grow, I couldn't believe how no one actually followed through and purchased anything. It's genuinely shocking to see a zero there. I always knew that advertising for Kickstarters was a challenge given the short time frame that you have to do it in, but this was unreal.
What’s your biggest concern now that the campaign is over?
My biggest concern is that this series doesn't grow overtime. I do think it will, and I think as people read the story and enjoy it, they'll come back and hopefully we'll get a whole bunch of new readers along with it. Not to mention those folks that are waiting to see the issues collected before they buy in.
I think there's a lot of room to grow, but I do have a fear that that won't happen and all of this will be for not.
Launch Debrief Q&A
What worked really well during this campaign?
Backers really bought into it Day One, which I really do appreciate, and made this whole campaign a lot smoother sailing.
I couldn't imagine having to chase that goal halfway through the campaign again. I'm glad to feel like those days are behind me.
Can you do it again?
I better be able to! There's four more issues to put out of this series, plus a whole different series in NKW to launch. Plus beyond comics, there are some other surprise projects that we have coming up next year.
This is the game plan going forward. I've had even less luck at conventions, so Kickstarter seems to be where things are going to be most successful for this company.
How might you do it even better next time?
I'm going to be talking about Issue 2 and beyond starting today.
I'm going to get people in on this whole process so they know that this is coming and they're ready for it. Given a bunch of these comics are actually done, they're definitely coming out, so it's just a matter of getting things together.
What did backers really seem to resonate with?
The Mystery Pack was a one of the reward levels I decided to experiment with and was happy to see it did pretty well. Not only are you getting a deal with this package, but there’s some fun in the mystery.
I’m happy backers like this one and I’ll definitely be doing it again.
What completely bombed?
My high ticket services never get a backer. I priced them at a pretty good rate, but I'm wondering if it's even worth the effort given there's been no bites on it.
Instead, the future Pesto Package will become the new high ticket as that box is getting bigger and bigger as each campaign goes by.
Right now, there’s 14 different books. That grows by 2-4 every campaign, so soon enough it’ll be considered “high-ticket” anyway.
What will you NEVER do again?
Perhaps paid advertising.
It doesn't seem to be going well for me at all. Even the last campaign I barely made the money back. This one, it backfired entirely.
That takes away from me actually being able to put the money into the books, instead giving it to these big tech companies that really don't need my extra cash.
What were your THREE biggest lessons learned or takeaways from this campaign?
Prepare, prepare, prepare.
I had everything I needed for the campaign itself more or less ready to go, but what I didn't have was backers coming with me beyond the couple of weeks of prelaunch.
I needed to be talking about this book well before I launched. Frankly, I was going to make the same mistake with Big Smoke Pulp.Getting multiple quotes.
This is more relevant for the second part of the post-mortem, but getting quotes from printers is a good idea. I could have saved quite a bit if I asked around more.Maybe being on podcasts actually does help. I actually avoided that this go around as I had just done a whole tour for Crazy Latte and launched the Instant Ink Comic Book Podcast with Roberto and really didn't feel like doing it for this campaign. Maybe I'll actually make the rounds again next time.
In Summary
I really feel like I'm hitting my stride, if I ignore the unicorn that was Crazy Latte. Again, it's all relative.
This campaign was the progression I thought I'd get before the last one. Not hitting the same heights this time out did put a bit of a damper on the celebrations.
The other thing to keep in mind is that this is a series. There's four more issues behind this. Hopefully if you're starting at issue 2, you pick up issue 1. Starting at issue 3? Pick up issue 3 plus issue 1 and 2 and so on and so forth.
Patience is key here.
To those of you who backed this campaign, I really do appreciate you doing so.
It's a story that I've been working on for a while. I think it landed somewhere really cool and it's going to be really exciting.
I don't want to spoil what's in issue one, but I think marketing it will be a lot easier once everybody's seen what that big twist is in the the back pages. Maybe that will also help get this out there.
We'll just have to wait and see in 2025.
But you don't have to wait that long to hear from me again. I'll talk to you next Wednesday.
If there’s anything I didn’t cover that you’re hoping I would, let me know in the comments.
Upcoming Posts
October 9
We’re in the Middle of It
An argument in favour of “crap”
October 16
Be Thankful
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
October 23
Don't Skimp on the Pulp
Why I admire the pulp era and how it influences my work
Post-Mortem: From Parts Unknown #1