Likelihood of Achieving Budget Goal/Kickstarter?

I think you have to be realistic about your circumstances and the project. I have four close friends and family. There's no way I'd get a project funded through people I know, because those four are not that rich. The project would have to be amazing, to get people with a passing interest in my work to consider donating.

The same wouldn't be true for someone with 50-100 close friends and family (I always boggle when people say self-publishers sell that many copies of books to friends/family... I'm evidently anti-social in comparison). Minimal effort will hit the target, regardless of how poorly the project is presented and how little demand there is for it.

I can't answer how hot your project is or how many people you know. But thinking about it will give you some idea of your chances at success.

Just as an example, for Disciple, Part I I budgeted and Kickstarted about $2,000. Note that I saved money by being able to do the design & ebook coding myself.

What Polenth said is absolutely true: the success of your Kickstarter, if you're starting from scratch, depends entirely on how many people you already know and how generous they are. If you don't have an audience, Kickstarter will not find one for you.

Have a backup plan on hand.

As for when you're ready... your betas will tell you that.

Kickstarter might not be the one to try since you don't get any money if you don't reach your goal. Indiegogo has a flexible funding plan where you keep all your funds minus a fee. I think it's 9% if you don't reach your goal and 4% if you do. There's more info at indiegogo.com.

There's also Pubslush, which is specifically for books. I believe they also have flexible funding, which allows you to keep what you make (minus a fee) even if you don't reach your goal.

I haven't used either and I'm not sure what their "drive-by" traffic is like, but they might be worth a shot!

Just wanted to jump in and say that I agree with what the others have said. My Kickstarter project was successful, but of my 35 backers, five were strangers, two were friends of friends, so 28 were friends/relatives. I wouldn't have met my goal if I didn't have people I knew I could count on going into the project.

Indiegogo would be something I'd look at because of the flexible funding if I thought there'd be an issue with finding backers. The Kickstarter site is huge, with tons of projects going at once, making it tough for a potential backer to "find" you. They'd have to really be scouring the site looking for projects to fund, unless you're lucky and your project is picked by the staff and given prominent placement on the site.

Here's my project, if you're interested to see what I did.

Best of luck if you do end up going forward!

I'd also recommend a different site like IndieGoGo that lets you keep the money even if you come up short. I've known a few writers who have done crowdfunding campaigns, and sometimes, it was pretty close. If they had gone with Kickstarter, there would have been a lot more stress about whether or not they would have gotten the money (and in some cases, wouldn't have).

mfarraday said:

Wow, thanks. I really appreciate the other ideas. I didn't know about these other sites. Great.

Click to expand...

No problem!