Thoughts from a first time self-publisher Part 12: It has begun!
Greetings from inside the land of a launched Kickstarter! Thanks for joining me!
Best Part of my week (so far): I’ve had an amazing first day after launching Super Snipers on Kickstarter! In 24 hours it brought in 7.5K (75% of the funding goal) and gained 211 backers. I won’t say much more because that will be what the bulk of the blog looks at.
Most stressful part: Before launch I posted in the Board Game Design Lab FB group about my discovery that my entire line-up for reviewers were white males and how that was not intentional but something I want to be intentional about doing better going forward. There were a handful of very loud voices extremely offended by the idea that pursuing diversity is a good thing. But there were many, many more supportive voices. I also received a large number of private messages expressing appreciation for bringing up the topic.
The Numbers: I took one last look at the numbers before hitting the “launch” button. This snapshot from Tuesday at about 8:30AM represents the launching point before going live. I will also include the original numbers so we can see the overall growth in the 3 month span. This will be the last time I track these specific numbers, as the intention was always to give a real-life example of the impacts of different types of pre-marketing and to see their results. From here on, we can look at the impacts of marketing while live.
The Big Number: Art estimates are about $600 more than previously accounted for: $23,813
FB page- Starting: 127 Followers Final: 223 (+96)
Public Group- Starting: 45. Final: 114 (+69)
Private - Starting: 59 Final: 73 (+14)
Pre-launch- Starting: 47. Final: 782 (+735)
Email list- Starting: 34. Final: 926 (+892)
Discord- Starting: 53. Final: 60 (+7)
TTS- Starting: 101 Final: 153 (+52)
YouTube- Starting: 17. Final: 25 (+8)
Galen’s Games FB page: Starting: Didn’t track at first. Final: 230 (+16 since the week before)
Pre-Marketing clearly had a large and direct impact on my Email List. I would have liked those numbers to be higher with the 3-month lead time, but I don’t fault the marketer. Pre-Marketing also had a large impact on the Pre-Launch page (there were other factors too). This number was above my expectations. The other areas were more about my ability to capitalize on the audience I had and turn them into a community of fans. I did “alright” with this where I focused and not so great where I didn’t spend a lot of time. Overall, I was comfortable with launching with a 10K goal with these numbers with hopes of funding in the first two days.
The Launch:
If you talk to others who have launched a Kickstarter, you will often hear that there’s really no way to fully prepare for what it will be like. I concur. I provide a snap shot of my Day 1 experience for whatever it is worth.
I woke up at 5am. Immediate anxiety. Did my breathing exercises and laid back down. May have dozed off for 5 or 10 minutes before waking up again. 5:40. Brain is on overdrive and I suddenly remember that I still need a “live” image (you will forget something).
Get up and do everything that I possibly can before launch time. 9am, a shaky left index finger clicks on the “launch” button….
I never even got to see a “zero” in front of “Backed”. The first number was 2, and then it just started rolling upwards like a slot machine pausing every few seconds. I was grinning ear-to-ear
In 30 minutes, the campaign was at $2,000 and I was euphoric
By 1 hour: $3,000
3 hours: $5000
By now, I am like a monkey with my phone or computer: “press the button and watch the number go up”; over and over. The fantasy of funding on Day 1 starts to seem very possible. But it starts to slow down.
4pm (7 hours from launch): the number is $5,998 and it stays at exactly that for about a half hour. Rationally, I know I’m in amazing shape and that there’s a ton of excitement, and that I have really accomplished something. But the feeling? It was despair. My monkey toy had stopped working and the dopamine hit was wearing off. Compliments and support were pouring in from everywhere but that number wasn’t moving.
10:30pm - Completely, utterly exhausted. $6,800.00. I go to sleep hoping that the other parts of the world carry me over the finish line by the time I wake up.
This morning at 7am: $7,300. Now at 11:45? $7,689
I no longer feel despair. My emotional system has regulated to the new drip feed of reinforcement and I am fully back to work on this campaign, sending updates, responding to comments, thanking backers, posting on social media, writing this blog, and working the gig. Things are looking very good for funding soon, I just need to keep grinding!
Super Saver Pledge
Before I wrap up today, I wanted to talk about one thing that I did with this campaign that I hope others will consider. I’d seen a KS campaign by Bez Shahiri where she offered a reduced pledge option for backers who would otherwise not be able to afford the game. She also offered an add-on option for backers to subsidize more of these pledges. I felt really good about backing the campaign and making that extra donation and decided to offer my own version of that in my campaign.
I started with 10 copies of Super Snipers reduced from $48 to $25. No checks, just a request for folks to make the call themselves whether they faced “financial barriers”. They were gone in minutes. I received some wonderful notes of thanks from folks that really needed that break.
Later that day, someone had shared in a FB group about the pledge option and it got a really tremendous conversation going. I gained at least 6 backers out of that post alone plus one who was inspired enough by it to buy one of the prototypes for $300! It wasn’t the reason I did it, but karma seems in effect here!
I will definitely be adding more. I hope you’ll consider something similar.
And if you want to back the Kickstarter, it is live now: Super Snipers
