Kickstarter Books Have Arrived and are Looking Great!
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Mar 09, 2022 at 04:30:56 PM
Quick update: I received the Kickstarter books Friday afternoon! They were on a pallet and needed a special delivery truck, hence the several days of delay.
I spent Friday opening every box and examining 300 books to make sure everything was in order. They look great!
I’ve been getting the books packed this week and expect to ship the first of them on Thursday, March 10th (tomorrow). There are several hundred to pack, so it’s taking some time. I’m hoping to get most of them out by the weekend.
A few special things about this version of the book:
- It’s a first edition (obviously)
- The books feel awesome with a special satin coating and thick inner pages. I went a little extra on the paper because I was curious and using Mixam for the first time. The books will NEVER come close to this on KDP or IngramSpark, because the paper weight on those platforms is waaaay lighter and there are no coating options.
- We were able to presign book plates for them at 20Books, so these books will be signed by both of us and that is unlikely to ever happen again (unless we’re both at the same conference and someone carries their book there)
Here’s how the book is getting packaged, so expect your brown mailer soon.
I have more to share about this process and hope to do a bigger write-up soon, but I want to focus on getting the books out right now. You can expect to hear from me again next week with an update after all the books are sent.
In the meantime, BackerKit addresses are locked and if you need to change yours, email me ASAP at [email protected]. There’s still a little bit of time but not a ton.
The Kickstarter Accelerator
Most of you know that we ran a small(ish) group of 70 authors through a Sprint With Us tier for the Kickstarter. It’s been incredibly successful, and so far everyone we know of who has launched with us has a) funded and b) crossed at least $1000 USD. That means that so far we have a 100% success rate on people who used Russell’s system to launch their Kickstarter project. We know that won’t last forever and we also know that numbers like that are almost unheard of in most industries, and especially in publishing. Who else in publishing can say that EVERY person who followed through on the thing they were teaching made at least $1000 USD on their book project?
Russell had already tested his system on comics, anthologies, novels, and nonfiction. So far, the projects we’ve helped to launch also include poetry, children’s books, book boxes, and tarot/card decks. We’ve also helped launch many genres, including romance and cozy mystery. The system is working across a broad variety of projects!
We obviously don’t want to keep something that’s working to ourselves. We wanted you to be among the first to know that we are going to run the program again as a 4-month cohort accelerator, and it starts soon(ish) (we’re still figuring out dates). The Kickstarter Accelerator will help you plan, market, and launch your book on Kickstarter. The four months cover planning, pre-marketing, launching, and fulfillment, so you are supported through the entire process. Plus you get all of Russell’s Kickstarter training videos, and we have an active and supportive group where you can ask questions and get mentoring by Russell and others who have run publishing projects before.
We’re still working out the details but we can’t wait to take more people through the system. If you’re interested in being in the next cohort, leave us a comment so we know!
You’ll hear from me again next week about the books!
Sincerely,
Monica
Projects Highlight: Our Kickstarter Crew is Launching and Funding!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 05:39:53 PM
In this update:
- Our Kickstarter Sprint With Us crew is seeing success on Kickstarter! Highlighting their projects
- An update on Russell's campaign and Monica's campaign
- An update on print books
Highlight: Kickstart Projects From Our "Sprint With Us" Crew
One of the biggest reasons that we wrote this book is to build a community of authors on the Kickstarter platform. We are excited to announce that several of the projects from our Kickstarter "Sprint With Us" crew are launching this month! Many of them are funded already (and funded within their first few days) and several of them are at over $1k too. We tried to work tightly with our Sprint With Us crew to get their projects ready, so we're so thrilled that Russell's system is working for them... And we hope it's working for you too, as you read the book!
If you'd like to study and support the campaigns that our Sprint With Us crew is putting out, check them out below:
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(10 hours left!) My Pocket of Fears - "On Love, Depression, and Other Mental Disorders" - A collection of poems and short stories written by Jonathan C. Ashline. - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonathancashline/my-pocket-of-fears
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Epic Blade - a Fantasy LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure - An epic fantasy series with classic RPG elements including character progression, battles, quests, dragons, and fighting monsters. - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fairfieldpublishing/epic-blade-a-fantasy-litrpg-gamelit-adventure
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Graceless: Gift of Grace Urban Fantasy Novel - An urban fantasy action adventure full of forbidden magic, monsters, & war as outcasts try to save a dystopian world invaded by demons. - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/estherjones/graceless
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My Dawg Koa: Duke the Deaf Dog ASL Series - A hardcover picture book featuring Duke the Deaf Dog and his friend Koa. Readers will learn 11 American Sign Language signs! - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kellybrakenhoff/my-dawg-koa
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Sundered Throne: Epic Fantasy With a Sense of Humor - A battle between worlds is about to unfold ... and humanity is far from united against its foes. - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phix-publishing/a-sundered-throne-epic-fantasy-with-a-sense-of-humor
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Badlands Born Special Edition - Jasmine passed into the afterlife to find her brother, but the hereafter is a little too killer. - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wadepeterson/badlandsbornspecialedition
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Legends of the Realm #1: The Floated Dream - The mage Camriddeon finds a city in the clouds. But is this a dream, or a nightmare? Legends of the Realm continues! - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcaneinkdustries/legends-of-the-realm-1-the-floated-dream
Russell's Campaign Passes $10k!
Additionally, Russell's newest campaign has passed the $10k mark, lengthening his track record of $10k fiction campaigns and proving that his system works and is repeatable. Check out his epic fantasy trilogy campaign (featuring dragons!) and support it here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/dragonstrifetrilogy
I'm personally very excited for and proud of my dear friend for having another successful campaign. It really never gets old to see those numbers going up and up!
Monica's Campaign + February Launches
If you've read the Kickstarter book, you'll notice that we got a bit intense with it, with nearly 400 pages of content for you to implement. Because it was a lot for our sprinting group to take in, a number of the crew decided to launch in February instead of January. I decided to launch with them so I could spend the month of January talking and teaching more about marketing and sales. We'll be sharing those projects with you soon. If you'd like to follow along with my project, you can follow it here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lovelightlioness/angelfantasyseries/
Print Books
I'll have an update on the print books in the next few days—sorting one insurance issue right now. Apologies for the delay. I'm excited to start shipping these out, and in the meantime I'll be signing about 300 bookplates so you can have my signature and Russell's in the book, if you want. (Russell signed his back in November at 20Books, and they're sitting on my desk now waiting for me.)
Thanks for supporting this campaign!
Sincerely,
Monica
