Kickstarter Update #3: 70% and Climbing
Thanks to the generous contribute of my college friend Patrick Mooney, I’m have now exceed 70% of my fundraising goal. I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll hit my magic number.
This begs two questions:
* What are your actual costs?
* Does Kickstarter allow projects to be funded at more than 100%?
I’ll address them here.
What are your actual costs?
Well, it depends on what I do for marketing, but actually they are going to be closer to $7,000. I mentioned before that I didn’t want to set the bar too high. I have high hopes for the first book of my publishing company (Motion Publishing). Translation: the book needs to do more than not suck.
As many have written, many self-published books lack sufficient quality control. Perhaps the most vocal is Andrew Keen, whose controversial book The Cult of the Amateur takes a less-than-kind view on music, movies, and books not produced by “professionals.” When you get The New Small, you’re going to be impressed with the book’s production. It’s not impossible for me to get the book into traditional book stores–and you just don’t do that with a shabbily written, poorly designed book. And these things cost money: Proper editing, website design, cover work, book production, and other costs add up.
Does Kickstarter allow projects to be funded more than 100%?
Well, it kind of has to do this, right? I mean, what are the odds that people fund a project for exactly 100% of its goal? Many projects on the Kickstarter site blow past their initial goals. I’m averaging $150/day in funding and, even if that drops, I might hit $6,000, covering the majority of my costs.
