Thank You So Very Much
You might have noticed that I’ve been MIA over the past week or so in terms of blog posts about Code 45, my graphic novel. It’s been a whirlwind of a week, and one that I’ll do my best to try to encapsulate with this update.
I’m going to be honest: I was nervous about our Kickstarter campaign. This was my first experience with crowdfunding, and although I spent more than a month cramming on the do’s and don’ts of a successful campaign, I couldn’t help but feel like I should have started my Kickstarter research at least six months earlier. There was just so much out there to learn, and so little time left before we needed to go live to sync with the publishing schedule we’d agreed to with Scout Comics.
Needless to say this resulted in a lot of anxiety on my part, and probably the most stressful February of my life. I knew that our book was good – that it was a story not only worth telling, but one that had been beautifully illustrated by Joe Ng – but I’ve also been in the publishing world long enough to know that quality is far from the strongest determinant of whether a project will be successful or not. The key would be getting Code 45 in front of as many eyeballs as possible, and then trusting that they would see the story and the art in the same way as our team did.
I was right about one thing: I was completely unprepared for the world’s response to the Code 45 Kickstarter. The overwhelming, humbling, and shocking level of support that immediately began pouring in as soon as I clicked the ‘Launch’ button.
Within five hours, we’d hit 80 percent of our financing goal. By midnight, we’d been fully funded. Within the next two days, our backers would push us well past the two stretch goals that we’d set up, and have us firmly breaking even on the costs associated with producing and distributing the first issue of Code 45. We still have several weeks to go on our campaign, and our hope is to keep the momentum moving so we can continue to bring cool surprises to our backers and boost the signal on Issue 1 to the widest possible audience.
The last week has seen a phenomenal outpouring of support towards bringing our story into the world. I’ve been overwhelmed not just by the generosity of those who’ve decided to believe in Code 45, but also the energy with which they’ve shared our project with as many people as possible to bring them on board, too. I can’t say thank you enough, and probably won’t ever lose this feeling of astonishment and gratitude that continues to fill me up.
It’s often said that the world has no use for art, and no time for anything that isn’t a sequel or a reboot. I’m happy to report that that’s wrong – and that anyone else out there with a dream to share the stories inside of them has just as much of a chance at success as we’ve had with Code 45.
