By Sierra Hill
No matter where you look these days, special edition books are everywhere. As an indie author, it’s impossible not to covet all the beautifully designed book covers, complete with their gilded foil exteriors, forced edges, custom-designed end papers and full-color illustrated interiors. Readers LOVE their deluxe edition books and will spare no expense to add them to their bookshelves.
But without a big trad publishing company behind you to fund those expensive deluxe versions, how can indie authors offer these books to readers?
The answer is: with Kickstarter.
My first foray into the world of Kickstarter happened last year. I was celebrating my 10th publishing anniversary, and I wanted to do something big and splashy. But I didn’t have the money for the upfront costs or a way to financially bring my vision to life. Thankfully, crowdfunding was an option through Kickstarter. This article is to breakdown a few things I learned along the way and what might help you if you’re interested in running a Kickstarter.
What is crowdfunding and what are the benefits to an author?
The Kickstarter platform has changed the game for indie authors, inventors, artists and filmmakers by providing a way to crowdfund projects and bring them to life with the help of pledges from backers.
Think of it like producers of a movie. To bankroll a film, filmmakers must bring in money to fund their project. The same is true for your books. You, as the author, have the vision and want to create something to offer to readers. To do that, you get financial help through the pledges from Kickstarter backers. They invest in your vision upfront to help you bring your books to life.
But be warned: While the Kickstarter platform is the tool used to get you there, this process is not a quick or easy one—even if you pay a Campaign Manager to run it. My Kickstarter project took me over nine months from beginning to end, and I did everything myself. Because of that, it took a huge toll on my writing time, and I did not publish anything new outside the scope of my campaign.
Was all that time worth it in the end? For me and so many others, yes.
Here’s what I learned during my campaign. I will also share resources below that can offer help before you run your own Kickstarter project.
3 Important Steps in a Kickstarter Campaign
1. Decide on your End Product
The possibilities are endless. This could be your debut book, and you want to use it to find your readers. It could be a redesign of an existing book or series with new hardcovers or audiobook options. Or perhaps you want to collaborate with other authors in a special series, and you want to offer special editions. Whatever you decide to go with is up to you.
I chose to update one of my favorite backlist series with new illustrated covers, added interior graphics and formatting, a new epilogue for one of the books, and a never-before-seen novella.
On top of that, I created a 3-volume deluxe edition box set with all 5 books plus the novella.
Whatever your project end goal, step one is nailing down exactly what you’ll offer to backers and figuring out how to create it before breaking down the costs you’ll incur upfront, and the budget required for production and shipping.
To get a feel for what’s out there, I would recommend creating a Kickstarter account and familiarizing yourself with some of the past and current projects from other authors. You can find all current projects on the Discover page or drill down to find publishing campaigns under the Publishing category.
For a deep dive into successful past publishing campaigns, check these out:
2. Invest in your Pre-Launch Strategy
As mentioned, running a campaign is a huge investment of your time, but if you research and prepare upfront, you’ll be far less stressed in the end. I started by reading books, blogs, following authors in the midst of campaigns, and getting tutorials from the Kickstarter Creator help page to learn about the process.
There are two options for running a campaign: 1) You can do it all on your own or, 2) hire a Kickstarter campaign manager (ex: The Inkfluence and the Hive Interactive are two such companies). Either way, there’s a lot to learn and do during the pre-launch of your campaign. This includes building an audience on social media and supporting other Kickstarter campaigns. You don’t need hundreds or thousands of followers on Kickstarter, but getting at least a dozen can help you build your backer list.
When you look through all the current and coming soon campaigns, you’ll see they all have beautiful visuals to attract backers. Because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of campaigns a backer can choose to spend their money on, you want your campaign to stand out and sell your product.
The Kickstarter platform has a formulaic tool that helps you build out your campaign with step-by-step instructions, but it doesn’t create the graphics and videos you will need. You don’t have to be flashy or high-tech, but you do want to create professionally looking graphics.
If that’s not your forte, you’ll need to invest in a graphic designer to bring your vision to life. For my project, I did create the visuals but used a video consultant to help me edit my introductory video.
The next step is to determine your Reward Tiers. These are what backers will receive depending on their backing level. You need to find the right number of rewards that work for you and your campaign.
For newbies, it always better to start small than to over-extend yourself. I created 7 different reward tiers with add-ons that readers could include if they chose to. Think of it like a small bistro menu, where you have a limited amount of main course menu items with side dishes that can be added on at the patron’s request. You want Option A but with a side of extra special sauce? You got it!
Once you have your products identified, you’ll need to set a realistic funding goal. It probably won’t be a million dollars. The goal you decide on initially should be based on the budget you determine for all the printing and production costs, as well as shipping of the books and goodies your backers will receive. Remember, your goal is to make a profit on your project. You don’t want to lose out or leave any money on the table because you miscalculated or missed details on your pricing strategy.
I had no idea how many pledges I’d receive in my first campaign, so I started with a goal of $500.
A lower goal is easier to hit. For example, I would only need 10 pledges at $50 to achieve my funding goal.
The only time you’ll be assessed fees from Kickstarter is if your campaign is successfully funded (your goal amount). In my case, if I didn’t reach the $500 before the end of my campaign, there would have been no cost to me, and I wouldn’t lose money.
3. Bring Your Kickstarter Campaign to Fruition
After months of pre-launch planning, calculating, creating, and marketing, I finally hit the GO LIVE button on my campaign. Those first five minutes, I was sweating bullets and anxious about whether I would fund the campaign I worked so hard to establish.
Luckily, within an hour, my project funded (because I set a realistic funding goal of $500) and every pledge after that was like icing on the cake.
During the 14 days my campaign was live, I amassed 29 backers whose pledges totaled over $2500. Compared to other projects, this is small potatoes. But for me, I did what I set out to do. I offered deluxe hardback omnibus sets with foil dust jackets and sprayed edges that I would not have otherwise been able to offer readers without this campaign.
I call that a success!
During the campaign, you can communicate with your backers through the Kickstarter platform. Once the campaign ended, Kickstarter collected the pledges from each backer, and sent me my proceeds (after Kickstarter and credit card fees) within two weeks of the end of the campaign.
I also received reports indicating what Reward Tiers each backer purchased so that I could fulfill those products. The beauty of this process is that I could set the timeframe in which products are fulfilled.
My campaign ended October 30, 2024. I put in orders for all the special edition books with an overseas printing company and notified the backers of the expected delivery date. It took until February 2025 to complete all the shipping and fulfillment, but all 29 backers received their goods as promised.
A Successful Ending
Seeing my first Kickstarter campaign to a successful fruition was truly a satisfying experience. It provided me the opportunity to learn something new and challenge myself to do something outside of my comfort zone. It wasn’t easy. It was time consuming. It was, at times, frustrating. But it was never dull or mundane.
The question is whether I’ll choose to run another Kickstarter campaign in the future. The answer to the question is not will I…but when?
If you are interested in learning more about crowdfunding through Kickstarter, here are resources you may find helpful.
Kickstarter Resources for Authors
Crowdfunding Your Book with Kickstarter by Reedsy (YouTube)
Oriana Leckert Head of Publishing Kickstarter
Kickstarter Publishing – See current projects.
Kickstarter for Authors by Anthea L. Sharp
Kickstarter for Authors Facebook group
About Sierra Hill:
SIERRA HILL is a RONE Award-Winning author of Game Changer, a sports romance novel, and has published over 40+ contemporary romances since her debut in 2014. Her titles include an award-winning college sports series, Courting Love, and the twice award-finalist serial, Reckless – The Smoky Mountain Trio. She also writes LGBTQ+ titles under the pen name K.C. Kassidy.
Sierra lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of 20+ years and her rescue dog. In her free time she enjoys making handmade crafts, volunteering at the local senior center and fostering dogs.
Website: Sierra Hill
I want to give Sierra a BIG thank you for sharing her experiences and tips on running a successful Kickstarter campaign!!! If you have questions or your own insights in running Kickstarter campaigns, let me know in the comments below.
