I’m putting together my fund raising page for Theater Hopper: Year Three over at Kickstarter and I’m having a problem.
As you may or may not be familiar, Kickstarter allows you to incentivize your backers with rewards they can earn depending on the amount the pledge to your cause. For an example, check out Gordon’s Kickstarter page for his Multiplex book.
My problem is, several people have already pre-ordered strong>Theater Hopper: Year Three and I don’t want to leave them out in the cold when it comes to rewards.
All of the rewards that fall under the $15 pre-order amount will be delivered to everyone who pre-ordered a copy so far. That includes their name on a special Thank You page in the book as well as a PDF copy of the book.
However, past the $15 mark, I was planning on offering incentives such as a custom sketches in the book, a special, limited-edition 1″ button set with a 3D theme, a new t-shirt design with 3D glasses on them and going so far as to offer up to 5 custom avatar illustrations for the backer’s personal use.
What do I do for those people who have already pre-ordered a copy of Year Three, but who also want to take advantage of the larger rewards?
Basically, I am very concerned about alienating anyone. ESPECIALLY the people who pledged their support early on and have been patiently waiting for the book to be produced.
The best idea I can come up with at the moment is to deal with these requests on a case-by-case basis. Meaning, if someone wants the higher level awards, then they can pay me the difference and I will send it to them. Maybe I offer them a 25% off discount of the difference as a small thank you for their patience.
Please tell me what you think in the comments below!
I would really think a custom sketch would be awesome. Although an avatar might be interesting.
There will be custom sketches available through Kickstarter for $18 – which still doesn’t get around the issue of what to do when someone asks for the button set or t-shirt at higher levels of pledges…
A sketch or similar would be cool. Anyway I think I owe something extra for postage 🙂
Though getting the book would be a great reward for my patience (dam my book nerdishness )
Tom,
I hope we’d get a free signature at the least. But I don’t know the number of pre-orders you received so that’s up to you and your wrist.
I like the % discount. I wonder if it should slide up a little as people choose better packages. Only you know your costs, profit margins desires, and what people might pay per package.
I would have gone for Gordon’s $100 pack because of the sketch. As a pre-orderer could that qualify for 30% off? That’s why I mention your costs and profits. But that is up to you. I do like the 25% off. Why don’t you figure out your pledge packages and I’ll have more input.
Thank you though for thinking of us pre-orderer’s.
The 25% discount works for me. But then again, what tiers are you going to use? Something similar to Gordon’s campaign?
I’m probably going to avoid doing a lot of sketches and custom comics like Gordon has been doing. I still owe people artwork from when my hard drive crashed and I lost all of my data last September.
So far, this is what I have worked out for the rewards:
$1 – Have your name printed on a special “thank you” page in the book.
$5 – The previous reward, plus a high-res PDF of the completed book.
$15 – The previous rewards, plus a hard copy of the book signed and numbered by the artist.
$20 – The previous rewards, plus a custom illustration inside your hard copy of the book.
$25 – The previous rewards, plus a special 3D-themed 1″ button set (5 buttons total).
$35 – The previous rewards, plus first dibs on a new t-shirt design – 3D glasses.
$45 – The previous rewards, plus TWO additional free copies of the book to give as a gift to a friend, school or library (Spike from Templar, AZ is doing this on her Kickstarter project and it has been well received)
$50 – The previous rewards, plus a custom illustrated avatar set (up to 5 different images). Backer owns the original art.
So… based on that… what do you guys think?
Tom,
I’m concerned about the $20 custom illustration reward. You say you want to avoid sketches yet it sounds like you are offering them for $20. I might go:
$20- buttons.
$30- t-shirt.
$40- custom illustration.
$45- 2 bonus unsigned books.
$50- custom avatar set.
Again, I’m just throwing those $ amounts as guesses. You know what the costs are. I’m just trying to save you from lots of sketches.
This is just for my ego but will the pre-order names get a special thanks versus the pledge thanks?
Rich,
Sketches in the book are different to me because at least they’re framed within context. Part of my problem finishing up the artwork I owe people for donating to my hard drive crash from last year is getting them to articulate exactly what it is they want me to draw them. For the book, I just just plug in a Theater Hopper character and be done with it.
I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. If I owe anyone artwork, I should probably take care of the people who donated from a year ago first.
That’s a good idea about the pre-order names getting a special call-out in the thanks section.
“If I owe anyone artwork, I should probably take care of the people who donated from a year ago first.”
As someone who contributed $175 towards your donation drive over a year ago, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that I agree with that line, Tom. 😉
I understand about the sketches. You can whip up a bunch of Tom’s quickly, I assume, in the books.
Get the Kickstarter started if you are happy with responses. Try to get hard drive recovery art done before your Kickstart end date hits. I have to look for the email detailing my hard drive art request. 🙂
I think you should give the early birds a big kiss on the lips at the next convention they meet you at. Or do you have a ‘no-kiss’ rule?
I don’t see why you can’t just honor the pre-orders as they stand, and offer new rewards as well. If people want to support what you’re doing enough to buy in to the Kickstarter program, make it clear that it’s an additional copy of the book, not an add-on to what they already pre-ordered. One copy of the book will have whatever they were promised based on their pre-order, and one copy with be their Kickstarter copy, with whatever bells and whistles come with that.
if you really want to do something to set the pre-ordered copies apart, maybe something as simple as a numbered edition and a color bookplate would do the trick.
My fear is alienating people who pre-ordered. I don’t want them looking at the people who pledge though Kickstarter and complain “Hey, he got something I didn’t get!” These are the people that have been with me since the pre-order started back in January.
Also, the way Kickstarter works, if you don’t make goal, you don’t take home ANY of the money. So if someone wants to contribute on top of what they’ve already given me from their original pre-order, I would be stupid not to take them up on it.
I’m using the signed and numbered edition for Kickstarter to stir pledges there, but what’s a color bookplate?