There is a big plateau in the last third of this campaign where I was simply out of action and could do nothing.
It isn’t something I could change. I could not prevent it. It is simply not worth worrying about. It is tempting to speculate if I could have reached £1,000 if I had been able to work those lat days. I would not be surprised if sending out that second DRTPG email had been enough to get me most of the way there. I had also lined up a cross-promotion with another publisher but could not send them the link/text/images to use.
I best way of looking at it is as a baseline. This is what happens if you do the minimum. Am I happy with the outcome? Yes I am. Was it hard work? No it wasn’t. Was it stressful? No it wasn’t once I was past the first hour. What more can you ask for than that?
I want 2023 to be all about kickstarters. These are the easiest way of diversifying my income away from DTRPG. I will still use them for fulfillment, but that is a marriage of convenience. I could just as easily fulfill through IndiePressRevolution, Lulu, or Amazon. IPR and Lulu would be the easiest options, but Amazon is simple but repetitive. The big gain is really that DTRPG gives me access to nearly 8000 contacts. That is not to be given up lightly.
Interestingly, my 1000 subscribers to my private mailing list provided more backing than the nearly 8000 DTRPG customers. My private list is continuing to grow, so that is another step towards independence and resilience.
The most interesting thing I learned this time around is about the value of my tiers/rewards.
The first time I ran a Kickstarter I had a $5 and $10 tiers and I was worried that people wouldn’t back the more expensive tier. This time I added a $20 and $50 tiers (or close enough) and the $20 tier proved to be the most popular. Obviously, it is easier to hit your goal with fewer people pledging more than with many people paying less.
That is something that I will try and repeat next time!