An Indie-Publisher's
Kickstarter Project "The Final Three"
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| David M. Youngquist (DCP) |
The books they need to get into final production are "The Mighty Quinn" by Paula Stiles to be released on Oct. 15, "Resurrection Child" by Lee Pletzers to be released on Nov. 15, and JA Karr's "Ghostly Summons" to be released on Dec. 15.and he is turning to the Kickstarter community to ensure that this series has high production values.
Backing this project will guarantee three final books with finished product quality (editing, design, cover art, and marketing) that will rival that of a traditional publisher.
About Dark Continents Publishing
The money the backers contribute will be used to cover the costs of getting these final three books into stores and onto your e-readers. Anything beyond that will go toward advertising the books and getting word out through review copies, magazine advertisements, and sources on the internet.
4 Tips - How to set up a GOOD Kickstarter Project
David Youngquist put a Kickstarter project together for his publishing company, Dark Continents Publishing, he named The Final Three.
Here’s what David learned "how to set up a Kickstarter project":
1. Have a single, clear, concise goal. With the first, I had included everything I wanted to accomplish for the next four months, and then moved into the next year. I had in there everything I wanted to do with the money. Basically, I had a whole year’s worth of business lumped into one project. Even in the rejection, the folks at Kickstarter reminded me that their site is not a place to raise general business funds.
So what I did was sit down, sort through it all, and decide on the most important thing for us to accomplish in the rest of the year. Which is also where the title, “The Final Three” came from. I decided the main goal of our campaign would be to raise the money to get our last three books into print. Everything else we wanted to do was secondary. We had committed to these books and authors; they took precedent over everything else.
2. Offer some good rewards. We had wanted to offer zombie ducks with our company logo on them. We wanted to offer knit zombie dolls. Hey, we started as a horror company and we have four z-poc titles in our family of books. We could run with the theme. But if you read the rules of Kick Starter, the rewards have to be something your company or yourself create.
With that in mind, being a publishing company in the modern era, we decided to off our books. We have a mix of e-books and tree-books. We offer our entire library to choose from. As the donation goes up, we offer signed books, we offer up to eight e-books. We took it a little further, and for the right price, we decided to make donors characters in our books. We also offered a lifetime supply of books.
Point is, be creative and have fun with it.
3. Make a video. I thought about skipping this part for several reasons. I figured we could get by without it. I hate the way I look and hate worse the way I sound. But, it was pretty much a necessity. So I sat down with the webcam on my laptop and recorded a really crappy video.
Since a terrible video is worse than nothing, I called a friend of mine who is an indie film maker. He agreed to help me out. I picked a good location (far better than my kitchen which is where I shot the first one) sat down on a post and was talking to Adam while he and Jennifer set up their equipment. Five minutes or so later, he gave me the go ahead. I was comfortable, I was warmed up from running my mouth, and I knew what I wanted to say.
A car went past behind us once, but Adam edited it out, and the shoot is pretty seamless. Do you need a film maker to put something together for you? No. But do sit down and make a quality video. Do it somewhere attractive. Do it somewhere with good lighting. Know what you want to say ahead of time. And RELAX! Even if you go into it nervous, practice a little. Chat for a bit, and then shoot it. Also remember you can always do it over. Put the best effort out there for folks to see.
4. Set a reasonable goal for the amount you want to raise. I have seen on Kickstarter people who want to raise $25,000 and more. I’ve seen projects like that fail. We figured it up, and it takes around $1,000 to take a book from manuscript to print. We had three books remaining for the year, we wanted to cover costs. Don’t make it some crazy, high end figure. If you get more than you asked, great! It’s wonderful to have that kind of support. Tell folks what the surplus will go toward, and get the rewards out there.
This is what I learned in putting together a Kickstarter program. It’s a great organization, and a lot of projects that never would have gotten off the ground have been successful because of them. I hope yours is one of them. And if you find it in you, swing by and check out The Final Three. This might be something there you’re interested in, and hope you can kick a few coins our way.
- David Youngquist (Dark Continents Publishing)
How is the Indie Publisher's Project 'The Final Three' doing so far?
David Youngquist's project goal is $3,000 for launching 'The Final Three.' This amount or more needs to be pledged by the "End of the Pledge-Time" - October 6, 2012 - else the project will not be funded and the backers won't have to pay the pledged amounts.
Per September 25 there are 12 Backers who have pledged an amount of $436 (11 days left)
Rewards for the Backers in case the project will be funded are depending on the pledged amount. Have a look at the Kickstarter Project to find out what great rewards David Youngquist offers.
Indie Author News will update this Article and report if the project has been funded successfully. So, please, check back.
and in August also about Seeley James's Project which has also been successfully funded.
You will find the article >>> here
