Heather Antos Shares Advice on Kickstarter Success!

Heather Antos has a lot to say about Kickstarter! As a co-host of our Make Comics podcast as well as an instructor of a micro course and an upcoming full-sized course on crowdfunding success.

Ahead of the launch of her class on April 1, we spoke with Heather about her favorite tips and tricks, and she shared with us a previously-written blog post with some fantastic advice.

An Excerpt are printed here:

1) Before you settle on your goal amount, make sure you know for a fact the actual total producing, publishing, and shipping all your items will cost you. Don’t just guess. Find a similar size book, make sample packages, take them to the post office, and know for certain the cost. Take into account international shipping charges, too. Shipping can cost as much, if not more, than your printing invoice.

2) Make your video & page description count! Take a look at Kickstarters that were successful, emulate them. Look at Kickstarters that weren’t, analyze what went wrong. How did they film? What did they film? How was their page worded? What incentives were available?

3) Having a strong social media following is going to be your biggest asset. The wider your circle, the more people who are going to see your work, the more chances you’re going to have people who want to support you. If you’re asking for $10,000 and only have 10 followers, chances are you’re not going to get each person to pledge $1000 each.”

Want to know more? Heather’s upcoming course will dig deep into everything that goes into organizing, running, promoting, and following through on your campaign.

She says, “By the end of the course all participates will have created either a completed, ready-to-go-live Kickstarter for their comic projects [or] a completed Kickstarter for a ‘hypothetical’ or ‘future’ project”

The syllabus includes how to craft a compelling story to hook investors, strategies for creating the best video, marketing and PR, and the right rewards for the right projects.

“Each class will be breaking down a specific aspect of building a Kickstarter – for example, what makes a good video, or how a project’s rewards and incentives can help shape the unique identity of a campaign – using personal examples from projects I’ve ran/built/etc,” Heather says.

“That’s week’s homework will be for the participants to then create that aspect of their own campaigns for review during the first half of the following week’s class.”

Heather’s Kickstarting Your Comic or Graphic Novel course begins April 1! Sign up early to ensure your spot, as enrollment is limited. Learn more and register here.

——————————————-

If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you’ll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!