It’s been one week since the end of the Kickstarter campaign for Dead Air #1-2, and that’s given me some time to reflect on the past 30 days and do a bit of a post-mortem on how things went, what surprised me, and how it compared to the crowdfunding efforts for our first issue in this series.
One of the biggest differences, right off the bat, was a much bigger Day One. Not only did we have 146 backers in our first 24 hours, compared to 80 backers for the Issue #1 campaign, but we also raised about $1,200 more during that same period.
This was balanced out, somewhat, by a much smaller second day this time around: 26 backers versus 28, and about 50 percent less funding.
The more robust first day made sense: we weren’t launching cold on a new series, the first campaign was recent enough that people still remembered us, and were excited to read the next chapter in the Dead Air story, and 254 backers were people who had supported our previous books—with an amazing 36 people who had been there with us since the very first Code 45 campaign all the way back in 2020!
A Return To Tradition?
I’m not quite so able to explain the next divergence between the two campaigns, however. For Dead Air Issue #1 we maintained a steady pulse of backers throughout almost the entire 30 days. There was no real lull, and although we had mid-week days where our backers were in the single digits, it was far more common to see double-digit days, especially in the final two weeks where that remained the norm.
The Dead Air #1-2 campaign was a much more traditional Kickstarter experience, where we hit a lull after the first week and never really recovered until the final 48 hours or so of funding. We got some great boosts from other campaigns that helped spread the word, as well as Kickstarter giving us a big push in their email outreach, spiking numbers for several days during our third week, but in general it was the classic crowdfunding-U, where a strong start was balanced out by a strong finish (with more last-day dollars than on our first campaign for this book).
I wish I knew why this was the case. Possible answers include February potentially being a less opportune time to launch a campaign versus May, or that this time around we soaked up our most interested backers right off the bat, versus a new book gradually finding its audience on a steady pace over the course of 30 days.
Dollars And Backers
I also am a bit puzzled as to how we managed near-identical performance in terms of funding and the number of backers between the two campaigns. The differential was a few hundred dollars, and less than 10 backers, respectively, when comparing Issue #1 to Issue #2.
I am grateful for how we funded, and the amazing support that we got, but when looking back to Code 45, our second campaign came with significant growth in both metrics. This was partly because we were offering a larger, double-size issue on top of the regular-size first issue, at that time, but with Dead Air having both issues on offer I counted on splitting the difference and ending up somewhere in the middle of the Dead Air Issue #1 campaign and the Code 45 #2 campaign.
Instead, we remained exceptionally consistent, even with an exceptional 200 new backers in the mix. I should probably face the reality that some people are first-issue collectors who may not be interested in checking out a full series, or, gasp, that they simply weren’t hooked by the story enough to come back for more.
Nothing Stays The Same
Crowdfunding is not a static thing. It’s always changing, and what proved effective on one campaign might not work on another a few months later. This time around, the biggest change on my end was moving away from paid ads on social media. I just wasn’t seeing as big a return on Facebook advertising with Dead Air as I did with Code 45, which is possibly because I am still aiming those ads primarily at the original Code 45 audience. I also no longer post on Twitter – it’s just too negative and nasty – and that may have had at least a small effect on the campaign’s profile.
That being said, I did find myself really enjoying engaging with our supporters via a more in-depth set of campaign updates. Music culture is something I am very passionate about, and connecting with people through the updates I wrote was amazing—and something I look forward to for the next campaign. It also really helped me think more deeply about the email newsletter we send out, and how I can make that even more interesting for the people who choose to subscribe.
Burnout Is Real
The past six months have been eventful, to say the least, in my personal and professional life. I’ve moved on from some long-term writing clients, left city life for a new home in the countryside, planned a wedding, listed my beloved Montreal home for sale, and started a new “secret project” that I look forward to revealing this coming April. It’s a lot of change to process in a short space of time.
Adding a Kickstarter campaign on top of all of that was like taking on a second and a third job, and unfortunately, I wasn’t cognizant enough of what kind of demands it would make on my brain and body. I should have slowed my client work over the course of the Kickstarter, but instead I piled it all on and powered my way through it.
As a result, I’m paying the price for maintaining a somewhat extreme level of focus and effort for such an extended period. I’m slowly getting back to “normal,” where I can unwind, try to relax, and expand my attention span to include things outside of my professional universe, but having experienced a more intense level of Kickstarter-related burnout in the past, I should have been better at recognizing the warning signs—or at the very least, reducing my burden prior to launch.
I can definitely say this: getting back into the swing of working on Dead Air #3 has helped clear my head as I shake off the post-Kickstarter sluggishness. Crawling into the heads of these characters Joe and I have created has really helped me get out of my own skull. There’s no denying the energy surge that comes with returning to the creative act, and I feel so fortunate to have so many people out there in the world who are willing to help me realize the stories living inside of me.
