My My First Kickstarter Campaign – Day 14, I’m Doing the Best I Can (Post2)

I’m mid-way through my Kickstarter Campaign and feel like I’m not doing this right.

• I didn’t bring “followers,” as my full-time speech therapy practice has not afforded me much time on social media.
• My rewards feel ‘blah’ rather than exciting.
• Current data suggests December is the worst month to launch a Kickstarter campaign.
• Illustrators keep disappearing on me.
• Yikes, I just completely changed my book. I haven’t run this by my editor, but my gut is telling me it’s the right thing to do.
• And in the background is my more than full-time business, which is busier than ever (and paying for my publishing efforts thus far), plus 30 clock hours of continuing education which I must watch and pass quizzes for by December 31.

Now, to break it to the people who have already backed my original graphic novel, the entirety of which is visible on my Kickstarter page: They’ve backed one book about grief and now I’m switching it out for another, possibly. Welcome to my world. But don’t worry about my backers. They have the option to change their pledge any time before the campaign ends on January 3rd. Most of them are supporting me and the general intent of the book, and my revision would not change that.

On a positive note, whether or not my campaign gets fully funded, this has been an exciting growth experience:

• It has forced me to get many things finished, such as a professional website, an email gathering system, getting pages to an editor and improving the manuscript, soliciting beta readers’ input, etc. Having to describe my book over and over to lots of different people has helped me in many ways.
• I’ve done things with technology that I thought I could never do. Seeing what a gargantuan effort this is has me thinking about ways I could birth this book with less of my time, energy, and money. Since launching the Kickstarter page 14 days ago, I have discovered that “lettering” is not included in the illustrator’s high price-tag (which is actually low for illustrators in general), realized first-hand how much work will be on me to do, submitted this manuscript to three traditional publishers, purchased software to learn to illustrate it myself, and spoken with a 13-year-old in town who self-published and did everything herself, except editing. I’m learning in real time and with MY money and my FRIENDS’ money how a 42-page graphic memoir that I want to see in thousands of people’s hands can cost $1,000 or $40,000.

This has been an eye-opener and a wild ride… thus far!

Chris Buchanan

Chris Buchanan, MA, CCC-SLP is a nationally certified speech-language pathologist with over 20 years of experience learning from children and young adults with special needs. She knows how they think, talk, learn, and live, and they usually crack her up!