Running a Kickstarter – Is it for everyone?

By Guest Contributor Mason J. Torall

The Internet, in all the craziness that it’s added to our world today, has done some amazing things. Chief among them is definitely the power to network with damn near anyone around the globe. The whole world has been opened to us in the past two decades, and I hope that the positive impacts of that continue to grow.

In being a budding writer (I hesitate to call myself ‘professional’ yet), I’ve found that the crowdfunding site, Kickstarter, is a special opportunity. Kickstarter is a website where you may host a project, ask for donations, and offer rewards in exchange for pledges in order to make your project happen. In a way, it’s like a PBS telethon for the digital age but a bit more… you.
Now, speaking to my personal experience on the site, I can’t say definitively how I’ll feel, since my own project is still live, but as to my experience thus far?

That I can go into, both as a backer and as a creator.

As a backer, Kickstarter is a piece of cake. The site itself is friendly, well designed, and easy to navigate. If you know what project you’re looking for, that’s awesome, but I will say it’s a pain in the ass to try and find “that project I heard about for that thing”, unless it’s featured at the top of the searches. There are over 700 projects live in the Publishing section ALONE, so it’s obvious to say that if the project you want isn’t making waves, you better start digging.

On the flipside, as a creator, you should know that putting a project on Kickstarter—or any crowdfunding site—is serious business. Don’t take it lightly, especially if its something that means something to you, which it should. I made the mistake of announcing my Kickstarter WAY too early, and I may have suffered for it, I’m not sure yet. But what I can say is that I wish I’d held my tongue longer.

In order to launch a project on Kickstarter you have to consider EVERYTHING. You need to know what you’re offering, how you want to make it, who you want to make it through, etc. And then you have to answer all of these damn questions: Who are you working with? What rewards should you offer? How much should you ask for? What rewards should go for what money? How much will it cost to fulfill rewards and retain positive funds to actually make the project?

And that’s only the tip. Turns out, you also need to open an Amazon Payments account, which requires you to have a business entity in order to handle funds, which took me well over two months because I had no idea what I was doing. Also, if you have questions, be ready to wait. The Kickstarter staff are understandably busy, but they are also slow. The FAQ page on the site will answer 95% of your questions, but of course it’s that last one that’ll get ya. When I had a query, it took over two weeks to get a response. Granted, they were nice and informative when I heard back, it just took awhile.

Additionally, you can’t see a lot of useful stuff beyond the project itself until you actually go live, but when you do, the creator page has everything you need: names of backers, lists of pledges, on-the-fly editing to the campaign, a directory of activity, updates you’ve put out, surveys you can submit to backers regarding rewards or their preferences and/or upgrades, and statistics about where your pledges are coming from, for how much, which rewards, and other useful breakdowns.

In short, there’s a lot there. Kickstarter is a lot of work. Hell, mine took me nearly a year to get up, and I know I still probably should have waited to grow an audience of willing backers. Don’t let that overwhelm you though. I always say there’s no substitute for hard work, and I know that whatever happens with my project, I’ve put my best into it.

Ultimately though, I can say with confidence that running a Kickstarter has been a worthy experience. Getting support feels great, no matter how small, and you’d be surprised who comes out of the woodwork to support you. It’s interesting to see. Not to mention the fact that if you do get funded, you’ve proven that your idea has monetary merit, and no matter who you are or what you want to create, that’s an encouraging thought.

Finally, I’d be an idiot if I didn’t plug my own Kickstarter, so if you’re interested, check out my live project for my debut novel, The Dark Element, right here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/689142360/the-dark-element-a-debut-novel

As of this writing, I’m nearly halfway to my goal and 9 days into the campaign, so we’re doing well. Please check me out, email me with questions if you like, and support a budding author! The project will be live until December 17, and you can donate as little as $5 to get your name printed in the book!