Content is key. Yes the video is important, and the prizes are too, but what you put on your Kickstarter in both the original page content and in your updates is potentially the most important. Not everyone is going to watch your video, but they might skim the page. Not everything you put on the page is going to be read but people might look over your project updates. The content you put up has to showcase your project and the reasons why other people should get excited and get on board!
With our Kickstarter we began with something catchy:
Whit Clayborne accidentally dates a soul eater and unwittingly falls for a vampire - and it's only his first week demon hunting...
This single sentence tells you
about the project and hopefully draws you in with interest. Saying something
like "I wrote a book and you might like it." won't get you very many
backers. Think of something eye catching, something different, what makes your
project unique and interesting?
Since we are promoting a novel, we used our content to
explore a couple of different things.
We discussed the book in a
section called “book summary.” While we didn’t describe the book in its
entirety, we did try to list things that would interest potential backers.
We also talked about “us” (my
co-author and I) because people want to connect with the individuals who made
the product. The video can be used to do this as well, but we explored our
background and our interest a little further in the written content.
We discussed the prizes and
shared some graphics related to this topic.
We also shared our stretch
goals (if you make more than your initial goal amount what else will you be
doing with backer’s funds?) and I tried to make these related to what we are
doing but also interesting so people would be excited about reaching them.
Lastly, I shared where people
could keep in touch with us and our future projects. Your connection with potential
backers doesn’t end with Kickstarter. Let people connect with you across the
Web and maybe they’ll buy future books/CDs/artwork – whatever you’re working
on.
My first update was a video, my
second was a link to the first chapter of the book, and my third were the cute
bitstip comics I shared in a previous post on here. These were all employed to
hopefully get new people interested in the project and to keep backers
interested in what’s to come.
Don’t use updates to tell people what you had for
breakfast. These shouldn’t be a nuisance and should only be used to thank
backers and to get backers excited. By making updates open to the public you
can potentially hook new people but if you have content you only want your
backers to see then make sure the update is not public.
Ultimately, keep your content appealing both with the text you use and the variety of media available to you to promote your project.
Want to see our content in action? Check out our Kickstarter at:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2121709675/the-beginning-of-whit-a-laugh-out-loud-urban-fanta
It's another long one, so please pull up a chair...
After ever major plot point and character is to some extent figured out in my mind and roughly outlined on paper, I finally sit down and begin writing the story.
I tend to find that the hardest thing to do as a writer is write. I don’t believe this means I shouldn’t be a writer, I think it just means I’m human – not a time traveling robot with super cool disco moves as previously believed. Story ideas are pretty easy to come by, but finding the time/ drive to chain myself to a notebook for more than 20 minutes can be hard to come by.
Last year, I took three or so months off from writing my last novel. This was partially due to my inability to just sit down and to the work and primarily due to the fact that I didn’t like where my story was going, and I didn’t know how to fix it. Ultimately, I momentarily gave up. When I finally decided that I wanted to finish the book, I was able to find the time and the drive to do the work.
Recently, I realized that my last book, which was barely up to novel length, took me three years to write. Now I was going to school full time and working 20 hours a week, so hopefully future books don’t take as long, but I freaked out at the prospect of only writing three books over the span of ten years. I decided things had to change.
Authors always tell you to write everyday. I didn’t agree with this for years but now I concede and agree that it is a good plan for any writer to adopt. In my attempt to write daily I did two things. 1). I gave myself a daily goal (only two handwritten pages which I proudly surpass on most days) AND 2). I gave myself a monthly goal (25 writing days a month). In this month, with its 31 days, I have 6 freebie days – days when I don’t have to write. I like to keep track of my writing days on my calendar. I put a star on each day that I do write and keep tally marks on the top of the calendar. This way I can see my progress through the month.
So far, I am happy with my plan and each day I write I feel good about my progress. Keeping a writing plan helps me ensure that my novel is being written and I don’t anticipate/worry that this new book will take me three years to complete.
