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So you want to produce a short film. Or design a new line of jewelry. Or manufacture a revolutionary solar-powered garden sprinkler.
There's just one catch: You need $100,000 to finance your dreams, and your checking account has barely enough to cover next month's rent.
Enter Kickstarter - a phenomenal "crowdfunding" website launched in 2009 that brings venture capital to the masses. On Kickstarter, it's not uncommon for folks to raise $50,000, $100,000, $250,000, or even millions!
Want a piece of the action? In The Kickstarter Handbook, business writer Don Steinberg interviews dozens of people who have — no kidding — raised at least $100,000 on Kickstarter. You'll learn all the strategies of an effective Kickstarter campaign. You'll learn the perils and pitfalls that have dashed many a dream. And you'll learn what to do in the event of a best-case scenario - when your product goes viral and suddenly the cash starts flowing in. On Kickstarter, it happens to a few lucky visionaries every week. Here's how to be one of them.
Introduction: What Is Kickstarter 7
…and do people really give you money?
Chapter 1 Are You Ready for This? 19
What you must know before you start to Kickstart
Chapter 2 Choosing Your Magic Number 31
How to pick the right financial target for your Kickstarter campaign
Chapter 3 Pledges and Rewards 51
The calculated art of choosing rewards for your backers
Chapter 4 Who Gives? 71
The backstory on backers
Chapter 5 How Long Will This Be Going On? 85
A brief chapter on duration
Chapter 6 Lights, Camera, Action 91
Making the all-important Kickstarter video
Chapter 7 The Kickoff! 105
Build your project and launch it
Chapter 8 Build the Buzz 119
How to get attention via mass media and social networks
Chapter 9 The Finishing Kick 147
It's time to cross the goal line, plus four frantic finishes
Chapter 10 After the Loving: Tales of Fulfillment 161
Delivering the goods to your generous backers
Chapter 11 Learning from Failure 179
Kickstarter misfires, redemptions, and second acts
Chapter 12 Resources and Kickstarter Alternatives 193
More ways to get it started
Appendix 207
Your Kickstarter Campaign Prelaunch Worksheet
Index 219
I’ve been hearing about Kickstarter for years, and I love the idea of a decentralized, grassroots, bottom-up way of funding projects. The fact that Kickstarter actually works is the testament to the viability of such funding models, and it’s another step into the much more democratized and granular economy of the future. However, from a practical point of view, I have never really looked into the Kickstarter as either a source of funding or a place where I can find some interesting and unique products. That is until I came across this book. It has definitely opened my eyes to all the possibilities and the excitement of crowdfunding websites.
This book is primarily aimed at people who are thinking about having a crowdfunded project for the first time. It’s filled with the stories of great Kickstarted success – and some equally big failures – and it definitely helps you get the general idea of what the Kickstarter experience might look like. All the stories and the interviews are very informative and to the point. They focus on some of the more popular Kickstarter funding categories: films, gadgets, accessories, and art. The book also goes into some detail on the mechanics of interacting with Kicksarter website, setting up your project there, and managing your expectations during the fundraising effort. It gives a lot of useful, and sometimes nonobvious, tips. It also explains what kinds of projects are allowed on Kickstarter and what the site doesn’t support. If you have never done anything like this kind of funding effort before, then this book is a necessary read.
The book lists many external resources, including blogs and sites where you could get some publicity, as well as some alternatives to Kickstarter. The interviews and the case studies also feature or allude to some other resources that you might need for a particular kind of project. However, for a truly comprehensive Kickstarter handbook (or even better user manual of sorts) a book would need a lot more of in-depth and detailed information on all aspects of project development: planning, promoting, finding proper manufacturing, or printing resources, finding the distribution options for your backers, etc. As Kickstarter becomes more and more mainstream a book like that would become an invaluable resource. It would, in fact, be a pretty good Kickstarter project in its own right. ¿
Overview
So you want to produce a short film. Or design a new line of jewelry. Or manufacture a revolutionary solar-powered garden sprinkler.
There's just one catch: You need $100,000 to finance your dreams, and your checking account has barely enough to cover next month's rent.
Enter Kickstarter - a phenomenal "crowdfunding" website launched in 2009 that brings venture capital to the masses. On Kickstarter, it's...