Every successful campaign is based on a well thought out plan and a team executing on it every day. Successful Kickstarter campaigns don’t just happen, despite how it may look from the outside. We reached out to our friends and family for early backing, then approached comic websites and continued promoting the campaign through social media. How well you plan your project and how well you carry out that plan will go a long way to determining your success.Īfter failing with our first Kickstarter, we turned to Indiegogo with a single story, Samurai Chef. We know the magic of Kickstarter is allowing independent creators to gain the support and financial backing of strangers to bring their dreams to life.īut actually running a Kickstarter? That’s not magic. What you can actually produce and how much you need to get in done. So think about where you are in your creative journey. In many cases, massive successes come from creators with an already established audience, either built outside of Kickstarter or over successive successful campaigns. Impressive but still well short of the lofty goal. We set a goal of $10k to produce 4 comics…when we had never written a comic before and had no track record…and no idea what was coming! We ended up raising $4k. Our very first Kickstarter was a great example of setting completely unrealistic goals. The only question you need to worry about is what is realistic for you? But that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily raise even 0.001% of that. Yes, The Order of the Stick can raise $1.2 million and Exploding Kittens can raise $8.7 million. It can give the impression that Kickstarter is an easy route to raising lots of money. It’s an easy trap to fall into. Campaigns that raise hundreds of thousands, even millions in what feels like the snap of a finger. Kickstarter news is often accompanied by stories of massive successes. Since it’s been so long since our last Kickstarter success we’ve gone back to the drawing board, re-educating ourselves on all things crowdfunding.Īs we work up to hitting the launch button, there are some great tips we’ve picked up that you can keep in mind as you prepare to launch your own crowdfunding campaign: 1) Create a realistic project So we’re really excited to announce we’re returning to Kickstarter to launch our next graphic novel, Hot Lunch Volume 1, on Wednesday 30th May. The Complete Edition of Samurai Chef was made possible on Kickstarter a year later. Our very first manga, Samurai Chef, was brought to life by a successful Indiegogo campaign. Nervous moments aside, Kickstarter is a fantastic platform for funding independent comics and building a community around your work. Sending your creative ideas out to the mercy of the crowd, waiting for a collective thumbs up after 30 nerve-wracking days of promotion. We’re setting up to do something we haven’t done in a long time…launch a Kickstarter for our next manga. Even if you’ve run a successful campaign before this can be a daunting prospect.

Kickstarter comics