Roughly one month ago I started a KickStarter campaign to sell my novels in various forms (Hard cover vs soft cover vs ebooks) in order to help fund my daughter’s medical school. I set the length of the campaign to be a 30 days and that just ended. I had no idea whether the idea would catch on and as such was not surprised when it was not successful.
What I learned from the experience is that KickStarter is no different than any other company or product launch tool. Just having a good idea doesn’t get you funding. You still have to tell people about your idea and that’s where things get interesting.
I launched the project and within hours, I was receiving emails from organizations that claimed to be able to take my idea and make it successful. The marketing machine associated with KickStarter must be enormous. I received emails from different groups for the full 30 days of the campaign in much the same way that I get emails for my android and apple apps. Most of the emails seem to be automatically generated because they often refer to speciality apps that would not be interesting to the general public.
I would have to say that my first KickStarter experience left me wanting. If I have to hire someone to do the marketing or do it myself, why would I use KickStarter in the first place?
So not getting a signed first editions hard copies of the first three books?