What type of preparation, education, or research did you do before launching your first campaign?
I had no intentions of self-publishing. The more research I did on traditional publishing, the more I realized I would have to grind just as hard to market my book, but for less of a cut in the traditional model.
Each time I tried to blow off the idea of self-publishing, the perfect resource or information would show up.
For instance, I had no idea how to find an illustrator. A friend of mine happened to work for Jim Henson Productions and put me in touch with some interns in their art department.
I had no idea how to get a book printed. My cousin happened to know someone who worked for a printer in China and she talked me through the process and estimated costs.
Most of my research was focused on the process of self-publishing and the costs.
I have a rebellious streak and have a sometimes-good-sometimes-bad habit of ignoring “the way things are supposed to be done”.
For my second campaign, I did a lot of research on crowdfunding and how it had evolved since my first campaign for “Firenze’s Light”. The “Firenze’s Light” campaign happened when crowdfunding was relatively new.
By the time I campaigned for “And So Much More”, everyone and their lost dog had a crowdfunding campaign.
It felt much harder to get people’s attention.
There were also many campaigns that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars because they had a huge marketing budget to put behind it.
Rather than get discouraged by the slick, meticulously planned campaigns, I stayed simple.
As a rule, I stopped researching and worrying about too much planning, and just stuck with what worked the first time: a good story and a clear, simple campaign.
I did reach out to more bloggers and publications for my second campaign, but I almost felt like it would have been more valuable to spend that time directly approaching new potential backers.