Posted in: Comics | Tagged: 700 Knights, Comics, crowdfunding, entertainment, John Rapacciuolo, kickstarter

Two Crowdfunding Projects Are Better Than One

Published Sat, 04 Apr 2015 20:00:31 -0500

John Rapacciuolo writes for Bleeding Cool:

The people decide. That has always been how it works.

When millions of copies of a video game are buried in the desert it is because the people decided they didn't want that game. When a popular book is reprinted every single year for decades it is because the people have spoken and said that they really want that book.

The people hold all of the power.

You the consumer decides whether a book or video game or movie is a hit or a flop. The entertainment industries exist to serve you.

Though not so long ago a significant disconnect existed between the creators and the consumers. The product first had to be created before you the people could decide if it was a hit or a miss.

Whether or not a movie or comic or album got created was determined by whether or not the endeavor to produce it was first approved by a few influential decision makers in the industry. The fans didn't get to decide on a project until after someone else greenlighted it.

Crowdfunding has changed that formula. With crowdfunding the people themselves can greenlight a project.

That's how crowdfunding goes in theory. In reality, however, people like to get something for backing a project. They don't generally give up their hard earned money just because they think an idea is good. There in lies the rub.

The creators needs some assurance that the product will sell before it can move forward. We all have bills to pay. The backers want something tangible for their money. Are we back where we started? …with the same obstacles as before just transferred to different shoulders.

There is an answer to this dilemma.

Make two crowdfunding projects with two rewards. Offer a small, but rare, reward at inception; and the deluxe complete reward at delivery.

A producer does not need to sell all, or any, of the copies in advance. The producer just needs to know that you will want to buy copies when they are ready. Crowdfunding campaigns can be split into two fundraising campaigns. One, at the beginning that announces the project. Support for this first project will determine whether or not the project goes forward, or how ambitiously it goes forward. Plus the first crowdfunding effort signs up the supporters to receive updates while the product is being built.

Then a second crowdfunding project is launched, once the media is ready to distribute, which actually gets the product into people's hands.

This idea came to me after my first project on Kickstarter for a comic called Electromagnate Book of Rebel Nations. Electromagnate is a 240 page graphic novel. Folks on Kickstarter supported it by buying advance copies. The book isn't done yet though. It's been a few months since the Kickstarter and about 190 of the 240 pages are now complete. The remaining 50 pages are all in production now, but they will take time to complete. Despite being a Kickstarter success I felt my strategy needed to change.

Why am I asking people to pay in full for a book that won't be complete for several months? Why should they pay now to get the book later?

Well a few dozen folks did back in advance, my two brothers, my two sisters, and some folks I meet during the campaign. A significant female member of my family bought the largest reward available on the project, and without that contribution the project would've have been a Kickstarter failure. (I love you Mom!)

The folks that I meet on the web, during the crowdfunding, about 90% of them pledged for the digital reward, rather than the printed copy. This makes sense, since the printed copy doesn't exist yet.

I decided after Electromagnate that I'm going to try to align my projects more with the expectations of the folks that I'm asking to support the project. That is, I don't want to sell a book until I have the book in my hands. What I can do is sell a bookmark/postcard at the beginning of the project and the book only at the end.

That's two different Kickstarter projects for the exact same book.

I have been experimenting with this two project method on Kickstarter for the comic books I produce. First, I create a project where the reward is a simple postcard based on the final book. The postcard can eventually be used as a bookmark. It doesn't cost much to print and mail postcards, so the funding goal amount can be very low; low enough that only 4 backers are needed to cover the cost of printing the minimum amount of postcards. The funding goal on my current project is $23. Of course the real goal of the project is to announce the upcoming book to people and start streaming updates about the projects to the folks interested in it.

Since a postcard isn't such a great reward on its own I also offer the digital version of the comic book. Sign up quickly and cheaply to get the postcard/bookmark now and you will also get the full digital version of the book later. Though later the paper book will be available too, and you are welcome to upgrade to paper then, if you would like..

My latest project is called 700 Knights. It's a landscape graphic novel of no less than 48 double wide pages. That's the equivalent of 96 traditional comic book pages. 700 Knights is about the 1565 Siege of Malta. Lou Manna is the artist. Lou has decades of experience making comics, including work for Marvel and DC.

Project one for 700 Knights is live now. Please hop on board and enjoy the updates and anticipation and get a collectible postcard of the project. This card will not be available later. You only get the card in project one. Project two will be your completed graphic novel when it is ready for you.

700 Knights is an action packed and massive conflict of the Ottoman Empire versus the European Nation States.

It is also the story of two leaders, Jean de Valette for the Knights and Turgot Reis with the Ottomans. Both men were taken as galley slaves after being on the losing side of battles against the Ottomans when the two men were young. Reis was taken from Greece and de Valette from Rhodes.

Both Jean de Valette and Turgot Reis grew to become legendary leaders of fighting forces, one for the Knights of Saint John and the other for the Ottoman Empire. In 700 Knights the two men and their two armies square off at the island of Malta, which is at the center of the Mediterranean Sea. This is the point where the Ottomans must be stopped or they will own the

Mediterranean and start marching over Western Europe. After the battle cities are built in honor of both de Valette and Reis.

I would like to invite the readers of Bleeding Cool to join the 700 Knights project. If we get 100 backers from Bleeding Cool I'll send a postcard to everyone, even $1 backers. I will also send digital copies of the first four issues of Electromagnate to everyone. Electromagnate is a comic series I created and write. It is about gods from mythology clashing against titans from modern technology.

I will bundle those first four Electromagnate issues all up into a single 96 page document and send it to you. So you will get 96 pages of Electromagnate and 96 pages of 700 Knights plus the 700 Knights postcard mailed to you all for just $1.

I hope to meet you on the project.

Link to Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnrap/700-knights

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