The Big Pre-Kickstarter Post
Hey, folks!
We’re planning a Kickstarter. Not sure if it’ll be this month, next, or the following, but it’s coming. We’re doing it for several reasons:
1) To make feasible a Year Two trade.
2) To keep the lights on (Cura ain’t free for us here, alas, though we very much love doing it).
3) To see where the comic stands and reassess.
I’m honestly not sure what to ask for, or how. I’m worried I’ll set the bar too high or too low. I think Cura is worth a million bazillion dollars, but I am fully cognizant that I think about a hundred things in this world are worth a million bazillion dollars, and I’m struggling to buy groceries and couldn’t contribute to them if I want to, so maybe it’s not an issue of value so much as it is this economy. Who knows? Either way, I have to try and do something.
The last three trades broke even, but it was a huge stress for me financially. I had to outlay the costs for the trades, and then recover the costs through sales incrementally, and the end result was a trade that broke even and a Neal that got hit hard by credit card percentages, so essentially it was a net loss. I can’t do that again, not with a baby on the way. Besides, Year trades are bigger, which means more story for less, and there are enough years to justify it now (woohoo!).
HUH? Wait? What? A baby on the way? Yeah, I went and got a lady pregnant. Don’t worry, I know her, and I’m reasonably certain she’ll stick around. Her name is Arntzen, you might know her namesake here in the comic. I will post pictures, don’t worry… I am not above exploiting my baby! Especially to keep him fed.
I have done surveys in the past, and the end result of the actions I took didn’t work out. People said they wanted tees, I bought tees, and I have a few kind people who bought them and a big box of leftover tees. And more debt. This is the peril of business, and I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip, understand. You have to throw spaghetti, and when it doesn’t stick, that’s nobody’s fault. What I AM trying to do, however, is make it so that I know for sure what to spend money on, and thus this upcoming Kickstarter. Either people want to pay X for a trade, or they do not, and that will be borne out, but I will not spend the next six months being chased by chuckling credit card goons.
To that end, I am doing a little pre-work here. I have a bunch of ideas and things that I have put together that I figure people might want, and I want to give you all a chance, here and now, to say what you want the most. These are the things that will be potentially going into the Kickstarter:
Trades (Year One and Year Two, buyer’s choice of one or both)
Extra-dimensional translocator stone (regular and deluxe, with color choice and Arntzen’s jewelry box)
Tee shirts
Buttons
Postcards
Posters
Original Art
PDF of the years with script and extras
Printed paper dolls
Of these, right now, based on past reaction, I am leaning toward paper dolls, postcards, and the translocators. The tee shirt as an endeavor is a risky one in my experience, and unless people really want DINOSAUR DINOSAUR DINOSAUR in the comments, or another idea, I am inclined not to do it. That is not to say I couldn’t be swayed if that’s what would make you want to contribute.
Please, by all means, let me know what you think in the comments. Here is where Cura really needs you, because if this doesn’t succeed, I have to look sternly at number 3 on the list above, and I don’t want to do that, because Cura and you guys are, to me, worth millions and bazillions. My optimistic thought is that ideas like two pages a week or its like will never be broached, so honesty and blunt assessment would be appreciated. Also: What target should I set? What is a fair amount? I know that with 3-4 thousand bucks, I could virtually assure the next year and some of four, barring illness or Dex being scooped up by Marvel or DC or… (which would not surprise me).
Speak, world! I listen.
I know I can kick in $35 to $40. Paper dolls and postcards sound cool. I always like to have a bunch of postcards on hand for when I get bored and want to send people something–and if I had Cura postcards I would mail them to everyone I know.
The translocators may be risky money-wise; you may end up with a bunch extra. Can they be made to order, after you know how many people want them?
I’ve seen that some Kickstarters also have the option of giving small dollar donations–like $1 or $5. I’m trying to think of what kind of incentive you could provide to have people consider giving even a small amount. Perhaps you could include a “Thank You” section in the back of the trade to list the donors? Or for small-dollar donations, you could offer the PDF of INRICTI for people who haven’t already bought it.
Also, in regards to the tees: I recommend people buy them. They are comfy and stylish, and if I ever run into someone wearing a Cura tee, I will totally buy them a drink.
That’s good to know, and helps.
To clarify, yep, we’d have options from 1 dollar on up. I want to try and keep the price low and get a bunch of people to contribute a little, ideally. I’m thinking for five bucks, the PDF with extras, and for ten, Year One and Two with extras, and then with every physical product some postcards, a paper doll, etc, and that would be 25 bucks or so.
The translocators, thankfully, if we end up making them as I’m anticipating, could be produced at exactly the amount needed, because they’ll be worked by hand. The major cost would be time, but that’s worth it to me. So say five go, I can make five, or fifty, I can make fifty.
It’s not like a tee shirt, where I have to order 25 just to start (expensive!), or trades, where I have to order at least 25 (at a super high price) but if I can order 100 it starts getting cheaper, etc.
I figure tees might be a modestly low stretch goal… IE if we reach X, X number of tees will be made available on the site, etc.
Hey Neal,
I’d be willing to offer up to about $50 (possibly more depending on what’s included, and how my finances are looking by then).
I like the Year One and Year Two idea.
Also, the Translocators!! I would totally buy one of those!!
Posters and Buttons are also very cool too. Maybe stickers? I tend to put the stickers on my car windows (depending on how big they are)
GREAT one! Stickers! I hadn’t thought of that. What would you want to see on a sticker?
Maybe the Cura logo, (with the website written somewhere), and/or maybe character stickers? If you have ones left over, people could try to “collect the set” so to speak later on as you print other trades (one of my other regular webcomics Bear Nuts has stickers where you can request which character/s you want when you buy the trades, or buy the whole set and individual ones separately). Maybe request people’s favourite characters, or which poses they’d want them in if you want full body, otherwise head shots would still be awesome.
Just some ideas, but still. Hope they help somewhat.
That’s a good idea too… I’ll check out prices and whatnot. I very much like stickers, and we have a logo I’m quite proud of I think would make a great one, too.
Ok, noob question (also college student worried about money, but mostly noob). What exactly is included in one of the trades? How much do they cost (seperate and together)? I guess I’m really asking for more details and a price list. I don’t have tons of cash to throw around but I like this comic and want to support it in some small way. I also like the posters idea, but have to know which are available and how much they would cost (I do have blank space on my dorm wall but really want to keep eating as well). Essentially I think I can pitch in for $40 max, more likely $25-30. I also like the sticker idea, not sure exactly how to capture the essence of the comic (or posit some inside joke from here) that would fit on a standard bumper sticker. I do believe that even in small orders custom bumper stickers are fairly cheap, so you should be able to order some, sell for profit and decide if you need to order more.
In the trades (at least so far) you get the whole first year (page 1-160) and a nine thousand word short story set in the Cura universe, telling the story of the Dark Everett meeting a preacher and going back two thousand years for a rather sinister reason.
The second will have pages 160-340 (I may be off a number or two, but the story after Year One), and an eight page backup story featuring the ladies who have been shown on the site over the last few weeks, giving them an introduction to the larger story.
The price list will be anything from 1 dollar to 1000, because Kickstarter allows for multiple tiers, but the basic gist will be that you’ll be able to get 2 PDFs with loads of extras for the whole series for ten bucks (as things stand now), or you can get a print version for a modest amount (likely 25 bucks).
I can figure out a way to make good stickers, I would imagine, but I am WIDE open to anything you guys want to see.
I’m not that into the extras so I’d like a basic tier to get the trades without extra cost. I’m thinking something like $50 for both. I’d say $5 for buttons/a sticker, $10 for both, $15 for a poster + buttons/a sticker, $25 for just the book, $30 for the book + buttons and a sticker or a poster (or maybe $30 for a signed copy and $35 to add a poster). From there I see the price jumping to include the other trade, a translocator, and/or original art. I’d also suggest a tier that includes a cameo in Year Three (Dex has been slipping people in for a while so you might as well use it to make some money.
Honestly, I love Cura and I’ll be contributing no matter what. I hope this helps. I do not envy you having to make these kinds of decisions.
That’s great to hear, because that’s about the tiers I was looking at, examining other successful Kickstarter projects.
I’m not sure how well the posters went over with the very first trade, but I’d not be averse to doing another. That begs the question, between buttons, stickers, tees, and posters, what people might like the most…
Cameos are definitely in the works… maybe even a long term character likeness.
Obviously stickers and buttons are the least risky option for you. I’m sure they have much smaller cost associated with them, but at the same time, they aren’t nearly as big of a draw as a tee or a poster. I’m obviously not the best person to ask, but in my opinion tees and posters add more value to the higher tiers. Between the two, I feel like posters are probably less cost to you, but there might be more interest in tees. Stickers or buttons (I vote buttons for no particular reason at all) could work for the cheap tiers that don’t require as much of a commitment, but don’t really add anything special if added to a higher tier. Of course it’s hard to tell what sort of demand there would be for any of them (which I suppose is the point of all of this, but I digress…).
Another thought, just to pile more on to you all at once, is that I thought what Next Town Over did for tees in their kickstarter worked well. For the same price of a trade, they offered a tee and a PDF of the book. As Stephen H suggested below, they limited the number of tees available to backers (although they offered tees in other tiers as well so I have no idea how many they were actually producing).
I could totally do tees if I thought there was enough demand for them, and I’ve wanted more for a while. Maybe I’ll take the risk and bite that bullet and do a design. Fortunately, if I sell more than 25 (a modest goal) I can order as many as I need in any size and it’ll work out perfectly. I also like the PDF + tee idea. Any designs you’d like to see?
I also am not that much for extras, but I’d be happy to shell out $25-30 for a book.
I figure I can probably chip in $40.
I am very much onboard for the t-shirt idea. Though I can see it being a problem for mass production. Though as you say if you reach a certain target then having a limited number available does seem feasible. I like the postcards idea.
Also the script and indeed behind the scenes stuff geneerally always interests me. So anything of that ilk would be fascinating. Maybe some kind of behind the scenes pdf download, along with the script. Perhaps showing ideas you thought of and didn’t use for whatever reason.
Finally cameos dear me yes. Perhaps even memorable death scene cameos for an extra wedge of cash.
I look forward to the launch of the Cura Kickstarter. Anything to keep the lights on and keep the comic rollling.
As for the stickers, I would like to see a two-part Charlie in/ Charlie out portal. As for general kick starter stuff, I would probably be comfortable with $40-50, but if there were tiers it would personally give me reason to want to do more. I also think the posters are a good concept, but I don’t know how cost effective they would be. On the other hand, anything that people can use to inspire more readers is your most cost effective option. Hence Tees. Fans get to get their mitts on merchandise, but secretly they pimp you (insert maniacle laugh).