Kickstarter for every Author Ecosystem

Of all the platforms, Kickstarter is the one that can change the fate of a writer's career quickest, but there are specific strategies that will help you succeed depending on your ecosystem.

---

If you haven’t had a chance to take our quiz yet, I highly recommend taking it before you read this article. Additionally, if you haven’t taken a look at our membership options, I think they are pretty neat.

---

If you’ve been following my career for any length of time, you probably learned about me through Kickstarter. Not only did

Monica Leonelle

and I write the definitive guide on Kickstarter (which you can get a free copy of right here) but I’ve personally raised $490,000 on the platform, been involved in projects that have raised another $400,000, and helped authors raise over $1.2 million for their projects.

I’ve consulted for Kickstarter, who have sent me to conventions on their behalf, and written articles for their blog. I’m kind of all-in on Kickstarter, is what I’m trying to say. In fact, Kickstarter was indirectly responsible for the Author Ecosystem even existing.

It was looking at specific groups of authors who overperformed and underperformed that got us to start talking about this archetyping system. Well, that and almost blowing up our company because Monica and I were such different ecosystems.

Outside of Substack, I think Kickstarter is the best opportunity for authors to find a new audience and monetize their existing audience. In fact, for most people, Kickstarter will be much more effective, especially at injecting cash into your author business quickly.

So, what is Kickstarter? It’s a crowdfunding platform creators use to raise money for creative projects. What makes is different from most other platforms is that you must have a creative project in order to launch on their platform.

For most people reading this article, that means a book, but it doesn’t have to be a book. You can launch a board game, a play, a music album, drones, pins, or just about anything.

The thing I love about Kickstarter is that it relies on buying triggers in order to maximize attention. For somebody with an “always on” membership like Substack, Kickstarter can activate buyers to make a decision right now.

To choose a product, a customer must make a conscious buying decision. This buying decision is based on subconscious emotions and triggers. While looking for influencer buyers, you must consider their emotional mindset. Understanding human psychology and behavior is necessary to create aspects that drive required action. You need to craft better messages to position the customers better. Emotional triggers make it easy for companies to capture customers’ attention if used well. -Stanley Deepak

Specifically, Kickstarter activates the physicological trigger of scarcity. I wrote about the “Big 6” buying triggers in How to Build Your Creative Career, but here’s the relevant bit.

There are six essential buying triggers which have stood the test of time. They work in any creative field with any set of potential customers. 

Commitment – When somebody willingly commits to joining your community, they are more likely to buy your product. This is the main value to people joining your mailing list, or wearing a button, or even taking a flier. They make a commitment when performing that action. It signifies they are part of your community. The more actions they take, the more commitment they build. 

Every time they open a newsletter from you and don’t unsubscribe, they are affirming that commitment. Every time they like one of your tweets or share a Facebook post, they are affirming their commitment to your brand again and again. The more you can enforce that commitment through words and actions, the more likely you are to have an enthusiastic ambassador for your brand—one who buys all your stuff. 

Reciprocity – When you do something nice for somebody, they want to help you. That’s just human nature. Knowing this, you need to provide value for your potential customer before you ever ask for a sale. Once you have provided incredible value through advice or some sort of free content, then people will gladly give you money, because you have helped them and treated them like a human being. 

Social Proof – Human beings want to be part of the “in” crowd. If you can prove that other people are using your product, everybody else will want to use it, too. The hardest sales to make at conventions are the first ones. Once there are people running around the show floor with your product, other people are more likely to want it, as well.

Your work becomes valuable to a customer because other people saw the value in it already. People want to buy what their peers bought. They don’t want to be left out in the cold. If you can show your customer that people they like and respect use your product, then you are more likely to convince them to buy it, too.

Scarcity – When you limit the available quantity of a product, customers become increasingly likely to make a buying decision in the moment. People believe products will be around forever and that they can always buy it later. When they realize a product is in limited supply, they are forced to make an immediate decision. This works wonders for people sitting on the fence about buying your product and also for people who desperately want your product but need a little push to finally take action.

Authority – If you can demonstrate that you are an expert in your field, people are more likely to buy your product over somebody else’s. This is how you stand out above every other creative doing exactly what you do. They choose you because you are an expert in your field.

To prove your expertise, it’s important to have consistently high-selling products for a long time, and it helps if you’re able to teach other people how to do what you do. Another way is to write guest posts on other blogs, share your work on podcasts, or speak on panels. You can also use platforms like Medium and Kickstarter to build expertise, as the platform’s authority can be transferred to you. 

Liking – If somebody has a positive connection to you, they are more likely to buy from you. Think about it: You are more inclined to buy from somebody you like than somebody you don’t care about, right? Of course you are.

The truth is that 10 percent of people will like you, 10 percent of people will hate you, and 80 percent will feel nothing for you. Your job is to focus on selling to the 10 percent who like you, while nudging some of that 80 percent from indifference toward liking you. 

All of these buying triggers are essential for the long-term growth of your business. They are powerful on their own, but if you can mix them together, you will increase your sales exponentially.

Additionally, Kickstarter has optimized the sales page and checkout experience, which means you don’t have to worry about it. Their job is to analyze every campaign to make sure their creators and customers are having a great experience.

While you can create a sales page on your own site, Kickstarter also has a recommendation engine that shows your campaign to customers before and after checkout to help your campaign be found by more people.

I have several sales pages for my own books, but unless I am driving traffic to it myself, there isn’t a ton of organic reach happening there. However, with Kickstarter, I consistently get more backers for my projects without advertising.

If you want to learn more about Kickstarter, I highly recommend you read our book or check out the Kickstart Your Book Sales podcast that I cohost with Monica. For now, let’s dive into how to maximize Kickstarter for each ecosystem.

Desert

Advantages: Of all the ecosystems, Deserts seem to have the most trouble with Kickstarter. Their entire businesses rely on spotting trends and then taking advantage of them quickly. Kickstarter isn’t a platform where you can get arbitrage easily.

Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same or similar asset in different markets in order to profit from tiny differences in the asset’s listed price. It exploits short-lived variations in the price of identical or similar financial instruments in different markets or in different forms. -Jason Fernando

In terms of book sales, Deserts are looking for niches where there is considerably more demand than supply. If they can get into a trend early, then they can extract maximum value. Then, when the supply starts to outstrip demand, they move on to the next opportunity.

This is how so many Deserts can thrive without an email list or personal fandom of any kind. They are trying advantage of those gaps in the market before they become widespread.

This is antithetical to the Kickstarter ethos, which is what we call a fan-based platform. Kickstarter is great at activating fans, but the algorithm is pretty simple, and the market doesn’t change much from month to month.

In fact, a large portion of the indie fiction community has started to ask the question “Is Kickstarter oversaturated?” since throughout 2023 the average number of campaigns live in the fiction portion of Kickstarter has risen from 6-10 to 100-120.

This would not be a problem for a Forest, who now has tons more authors to share their campaigns with and expand their audience, but for a Desert this saturation of the market is a real concern.

That said, all is not lost. There are a couple of ways that Deserts can use Kickstarter effectively.

The first is when they see a gap in the market and need more money than they have access to at the moment. We know an author who saw a gap in the market at the beginning of the tarot card book and needed $10,000 in order to take advantage of it.

They spun up a campaign and was able to create a thriving business from it. They will probably never use Kickstarter again…unless they see a gap in the market again and need another quick influx of cash.

The second is to spin up a “Forest pen name”. Almost all Deserts we meet have a secret Forest penname they have trouble monetizing because it’s a completely different way of thinking. Their Forest stories are off-market and that is the kind of stuff that kills on Kickstarter.

The third is as another distribution channel. My friend runs a very successful publishing company, and launches many of their titles on Kickstarter because “there are buyers there and I like money”. Do any of his campaigns crush it? No, but he can bring in an additional $4,000-$10,000 every month to his business, and that’s not nothing either. They have a formula they use and don’t put a ton of effort into their launches. It just works for them as a distribution channel.

Challenges: The “pump and dump” strategy Deserts use to flood the market at launch with ad dollars and then let the algorithm carry them doesn’t work on Kickstarter (or wide retailers, but that’s another story). Kickstarter is all about consistent marketing, and unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of newsletters or other marketing opportunities for a Kickstarter that are hands-off. So, you’re probably going to have to get your hands dirty, at least a bit.

Deserts have problems with Kickstarter because it feels like they have to stop their business cold in order to run one, and that is suboptimal. So, if you want to run a Kickstarter, the most important thing is to find ways to make it a part of your ecosystem without draining you.

Grassland

Advantages: The hardest thing a Grassland ever has to say is “Did you know you can buy this from me?” They are perfectly happy making new content forever and building up incredible goodwill in the community by moving the conversation forward. They are also often thought leaders in their niche or one of the more popular authors in a genre. However, they rely on people just finding their work, instead of being “pushy” or doing a “hard sell”.

Here’s the thing about making money, though. In order to make sales, sometimes you have to ask for money. Kickstarter is the perfect way to “stand up a tree” as we call it and plant a flag in the ground around your topic.

Grasslands have often talked about their topic or genre for years, and often have hundreds of blog posts or several books. Kickstarter is a way to say “Hey, look at me. I have this very cool thing I’ve been working on that I think you’ll love”.

Kickstarter becomes a great way to cement your leadership on a topic or genre because suddenly for a finite amount of time, all attention turns to you. If you have trouble asking for a sale, using a time-based strategy like Kickstarter is a great way to focus your efforts for a short burst.

While Tundras give 100% effort in short bursts, Grasslands tend to work at 20-50% all the time, releasing things consistently instead of in a frantic burst. For Kickstarter, I recommend harnessing your inner Tundra to push hard on one project for a little while.

It’s a bit like popping a balloon. If you lay a balloon on a bed of needles, it won’t pop because the force is disbursed. However, if you put the same force into one single needle, the balloon will pop easily.

That said, you can use your natural tendencies to your advantage with Kickstarter, too. For instance, while I prefer 17-20 day campaigns, Monica prefers 45-60 day campaigns where she can take things a bit easier on herself. She will not push her campaigns for several days, or even a week, and then create a flurry of activity.

If you’re not one who wants to go all in for a short time, you can schedule a campaign for up to 60 days and just let it build over time with your natural rhythms.

Challenges: The biggest challenge for a Grassland is asking for the sale. Grasslands like to work under the radar, not coming up for air and announcing themselves until they “own the topic”. They are a bit like Deserts in that respect. They are looking for the arbitrage of a genre or topic, but instead of hopping off the trend when it gets popular, they surface with 30 books and suddenly they are the dominant force driving the conversation.

I don’t recommend Grasslands do more than 1-2 campaigns in a year, and only if it reinforces their topic or genre. Grasslands suffer from “shiny object syndrome” and want to follow every rabbit hole, but Kickstarter is best utilized to draw attention to their thought leadership and reinforce their position in the industry.

We often say that Grasslands are a flywheel without a sales funnel, and Kickstarter gives you a sales funnel.

When you compare the funnel and flywheel model, you’ll notice a major difference.

The marketing and sales funnel aims to convert leads into paying customers, while the flywheel focuses on converting and retaining them. 

Essentially, the flywheel approach is a more customer-centric marketing strategy. The ideal flywheel should increase customer retention and turn your loyal customers into promoters. -Airwallex

You need both in your business, and Kickstarter will help you sustain a sales funnel for the long term.

Tundra

Advantages: Kickstarter was tailor-made for Tundras, who are basically just living, breathing sales funnels.

A sales funnel is a marketing term used to capture and describe the journey that potential customers go through, from prospecting to purchase.

A sales funnel helps marketers understand a customer’s purchasing journey, while also identifying what stage of this journey the customer is at. These insights can be used to decide which marketing channels and activities will best guide the customer towards a purchase. A sales funnel also allows marketers to tailor and optimise their activities and messaging to increase conversions. -Salesforce

If you are a Tundra and you aren’t using Kickstarter, you should get on it right now. The first time that I saw Kickstarter, it immediately made sense to me. Generally, Tundras like to exert maximum energy for a short amount of time, which works perfectly with the time-based Kickstarter campaign model.

For Tundras, I recommend working Kickstarter like a fashion designer, in seasons. Pick four times a year you want to “peak” at a launch, spend 17-20 days launching, and then spend the rest of the time recovering and rebuilding your audience for the next launch.

Make sure to vary your launch lengths, too. I find I have about 90 days of launching in me a year, so I make sure to do some shorter campaigns and longer campaigns depending on the amount of money I need to complete a project. I prefer 17-20 day campaigns for most things, but if I have a marketing-heavy launch, or I’m doing a lot of swaps, then I make them 30+ days. The longer the launch, the more chances you have to build a critical mass, but the more it will take out of you.

It’s critically important you take time to rest and recover between launches, but if you build it right there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to do 4 launches a year with relative ease.

Additionally, you should consider varying your launches. Instead of only launching books, for instance, try launching pins, comics, or other formats to keep engaging new segments of your audience.

Challenges: Tundras love to launch, and they hate to build just as much. The biggest problem Tundras face is that they don’t take the time to rest and recover between launches. Tundras burn through more subscribers than any other ecosystem because they are basically one big sales funnel. That means between launches they need to be focused on building their community and finding potential customers more than any other ecosystem.

If you are not building between launches, you will end up launching to a dwindling audience. Then, as you extend out to more launches, you won’t be gaining more revenue. Instead, you’ll just be fracturing your audience more and more, but making the same money at the end of the day.

If you continue to build between launches, then you’ll always have a new audience for your next launch.

Additionally, Tundras need to spend the most time hibernating between launches. You can’t give 100% forever. If you do, you’ll burn out.

While Grasslands (and Forests) are flywheels without a funnel, Tundras are sales funnels without a flywheel. Augment your launches with either a Grassland or Forest model for your flywheel. Otherwise, you will have trouble retaining a fanbase for the long haul.

Forest

Advantages: We call Kickstarter a fan-based platform, perfect for activating fans and turning them into buyers, and Forests are great at showering love on their fans. So, Kickstarter is a match made in Heaven for them…or it should be.

However, Forests often position their campaigns like they are talking to somebody who knows all their inside jokes and has read every word they have written, which ends up being very intimidating to new and casual fans.

Forests would have better success if they considered each campaign a chance to onboard new and casual fans into their world. Whenever I check out a campaign from a Forest, my first question is always “Who is this for?”

Almost always it’s directed at superfans. That’s fine…if you only want superfan backers. However, even superfans probably don’t know every inside joke in your universe.

The best use of a Forest’s ability to connect with readers is to rely on your fans to guide you to the best kind of campaign to make, and then find a way to create an experience that both superfans and casual readers will love.

You probably have casual readers in your audience who want to go deeper with you, but your huge interconnected universe is imposing. Offering them a beautiful special anniversary edition of your book, with the option to get a cheaper option so they can try it out first, would probably satisfy both hardcore and casual fans.

Either way, make sure to use Kickstarter as a way to celebrate your audience and your fandom. Create a special experience, maybe even an event where they can pick up your books in person, so you can turn those casual readers into superfans and show how welcoming you can be with your work, and how cool it is to be one of your superfans.

Challenges: The biggest challenge to a Forest on any platform is to create low barrier of entry paths for new fans to join the fan club. Kickstarters can be a wonderful way to shower love on your superfans, but you should also use it as a way to onboard people who aren’t one of your superfans yet.

The other biggest issue with Forests is going overboard and falling into the red on a campaign because you want to give everything to your readers. Remember to use caution when launching new perks, and understand that revenue is not profit. It’s great to give a ton to your fans, but don’t fall into debt doing it.

Aquatic

Advantages: Aquatics have the highest superfan ratio of any ecosystem (even Forests), and they intuitively know how to expand to additional formats, something Tundras should learn to thrive. The one disadvantage to an Aquatic is that they need a lot of money to expand into so many formats, which makes Kickstarter the perfect vehicle to inject capital into your business from your superfans.

Aquatics almost always have one central universe and are trying to expand from there, so I would recommend using Kickstarter as a way to build out your offerings into additional formats from the same world. Aquatics see opportunity everywhere, so the most important thing for an Aquatic to learn is discipline.

Yes, you might want to direct that movie tomorrow, but since it will take $20 million dollars, maybe you should work your way up to that one by offering RPGs, choose-your-own-adventure novels, short films, pins, or other experiences that are easier to expand into than a big movie.

Also, remember that every new format requires you to build an audience from scratch again. Yes, some people will carry over (and those are your superfans), but don’t expect the majority of your audience to follow you into a new format. Your goal is to build a robust fanbase full of people who love your universe above everything else, and that will require almost continuous expansion.

Like Tundras, plan to launch in many different formats, except that you will likely only be using Kickstarter when it’s time to expand into a new format again. While for a Tundra, Kickstarter is often the end goal, for an Aquatic it should be used strategically, like a Desert, when you see an expansion opportunity.

That doesn’t mean you can’t go back to the well when you have another product in the same format, but you’ll get the most facility by using Kickstarter to onboard people into a new format.

Just remember, every new format is a chance for new fans to jump on board your universe, so don’t make it too imposing for people to join. Don’t only speak to superfans. Make sure that you are creating a low barrier of entry path for people to fall in love.

Challenges: The biggest challenge for an Aquatic is focus, or really, F.O.C.U.S.

FOCUS is an acronym for "Follow One Course Until Successful" and is a popular phrase that emphasizes the importance of staying committed to a single goal or objective until it is achieved. -Sanjay K Mohindroo

You need to be singularly focused on one new format at a time, while at the same time allowing for the other formats to grow. You’ll probably need to hire some people to keep the old formats growing as you move into others, which is why the Aquatic generally has more partnerships than any other format.

You need to keep all the plates spinning at the same time, and it’s very hard to do so and exert enough pressure on any one point to break through in a new format. Once you’ve done that, try to find other people to spin those plates while you go do the next thing.

Final Thoughts:

Kickstarter can be great regardless of your ecosystem, but if you go into it with the right expectations for your ecosystem, it can supercharge your career and take it to the next level.

If you’re looking for a low-barrier of entry way to start with Kickstarter, then there are three campaigns we recommend:

• Anniversary book - Pick an anniversary of one of your most successful books and create a special edition hardcover for it. You can offer the works (like sprayed edges) or keep it simple, but all you need is a new cover, new formatting, and (probably) a new proof since we can never have too many of those.

• “Second Chance” book - This is a book that was much loved but not much loved by enough people. Often, this is a book launched early in your career that people loved but didn’t get the attention it deserved. Now, you are giving it a second chance to succeed. Just like the anniversary book, all you need is a new cover, new formatting, and new proof to get started.

• Merch - If you already have an audience, then it’s time to think about expanding into other formats. There’s probably something fans have asked about for years, and it’s a great idea to use Kickstarter as a way to test the waters. Do enough people love the idea enough to pay for it? Set a goal, and tell them if you don’t fund, you won’t do it. You might fail, but at least then you’ll know it’s not worth pursuing.

If you’re interested in learning more, we have a Kickstarter course in our Author Ecosystem course bundle. You can get it, and all our courses, for $999. Inside the course, we have 40 hours of instruction, and detailed worksheets to help you succeed.

---

If you haven’t had a chance to take our quiz yet, I highly recommend taking it before you read this article. Additionally, if you haven’t taken a look at our membership options, I think they are pretty neat.

---