In our first video spotlight, I talk to Sarah Cooke, winner of Mad Caveâs 2023 Talent Search and the 2023 Negative Space Womenâs Comic Book Writing Competition. She's the co-creator of the award-winning sci-fi web series My Human Experience. Her published works include No Spell Lasts Forever, Olive and the Ogre, and an essay in How to Analyze & Review Comics: A Handbook on Comics Criticism. As a comics reporter, she has written for Marvel, DC Comics, Women Write About Comics, CBR, Voice of Youth Advocates, WTAP Television, and more.
Substack:
 sarahlindseycooke.substack.com
Social Media:
Instagram:Â @sarahcookewriter
Twitter:Â @sarahcookewrite
Follow Sarah on Kickstarter:
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He knew his campaign for FERAL #1: THE BEAST WITHIN would be very different from his previous Kickstarter. For one, this would be the first in a series, not a standalone book.Â
Secondâand more importantlyâit was for a single issue floppy rather than a full trade.Â
Mike knew he needed to price it so the numbers made sense, but every time he crunched them, he came out closer in price to the trade than felt comfortable.Â
Worried about how his returning backers would feel about it, Mike wonderedâŚ
âHow much should I REALLY charge for my single issue comic?â
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The decision to serialize a comic on Kickstarter wasnât made lightly by Mike...
Serializing his comic, BULLET ADVENTURES, on Kickstarter was a constant juggling act.Â
Social media posts, always trying to reach a wider audience, balancing family life with two young kids and a full time job outside of comics... it never felt like he had enough time to put into promoting his projects.
And with only so much time on the clock, and so many hours in the day, Randy was left wonderingâŚ
âHow can I do it all?â
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Despite the stress, Randy was keenly aware of the benefits of serializing his comic through crowdfunding.
âOne big benefit is that you start to build a back catalogue where people can add-on previous issues (or back catch up t...
His sixth Kickstarter campaign, for two prose novels in his MANDRILL P.I. series, had gotten off to a hot start, but a few days in, the Dead Zone had already settled in.
As the days went on, he realized he was in for a longer dry spell than usual, and if he wanted to inject some life back into his campaign, heâd have to get creative.Â
But all the while, he couldnât help but wonderâŚ
âIs this the new normal?âÂ
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Chris had heard the chatter from other creators online:Â
The Kickstarter Dead Zone was hitting faster and lasting longer these days. He chalked it up to a few different possibilities.
âCreators in general have gotten better about driving traffic on day one of launch, so ...
Of his four Kickstarter campaigns, the latest, for his prose novel REBELLION, was his worst-performing.Â
He did not reach his stretch goal.Â
Itâs the first time he didnât earn a Project We Love badge.
He lost quite a few email subscribers during the campaign.
And he had very few returning backers.Â
In fact, his fans REALLY did not respond to this campaign at all across social media.Â
So why did Tom feel like this campaign was a success?Â
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REBELLION was never meant to be a high pressure campaign for Tom.
He deliberately set a low bar for the goal, and he capped the campaign at 15 days, both of which allowed him to bypa...
Heâd never run a Kickstarter before, and as he prepared his campaign for AMBER ATOMS, he realized just how much there was to learn about the platform. Â
But Kelly doesnât give up easily.Â
And if he had to learn the entire Kickstarter process from A to Z, so be it.
He would persevere.
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One of the first things Kelly realized was that heâd have to bring the crowd to the crowdfunding platform. The only problem? Â
He didnât have a way to contact past customers.Â
âI wish Iâd started my subscriber list years ago. Iâve met a lot people at conventions, but I never captured any of their information along the way. I could have had a substantial subscriber list at this point. Lesson learned!â
He jumped righ...
It had been four years since his last Kickstarter campaign. And because all conventions were canceled due to Covid, he let his newsletter atrophy during the pandemic.Â
So as he readied his campaign for the directorâs cut of TINSELTOWN: LOSING THE LIGHT, David couldnât help but wonderâŚ
âIs anyone still paying attention?â
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David had built his mailing list over the years the old fashioned way: through a lot of hard work.
âMostly doing sign ups at conventions and in-store signings. I also had a landing page, and an email signature with a link to it. I participated in a few group giveaways too, to funnel even more people onto the list.â
Wh...
Heâd done the groundwork, made a great book, prepped his audience, and now was certain his campaign for TRIBAL FORCE would fund quickly.Â
Then he hit launch.Â
After a decent first day, momentum slowed. By day 4, the pledges had run dry and he was scared.
And with a long month ahead of him, Gene wonderedâŚ
âIs Kickstarter the right place for me?â
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Gene started in comics in the early â90s. At the time, Image Comics had just exploded onto the scene, and independent publishers could put their books up for sale in the direct market and get orders in the 3,000 rangeâa number which seemed âbottom of the barrelâ then, but now seems like a huge print run for indie...
He was about to hit launch on his fourth Kickstarter campaign in ten months, and the only "breaks" heâd taken in between were for fulfillment.Â
So as he readied himself for yet another go at crowdfunding, he wonderedâŚ
âHow can I keep up this pace?â
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Fortunately, Scott had already started thinking about ways to combat burnout before he began working on the book. One way he decided to lighten his load was by hiring someone else to draw it. Â
âThis was my first issue of The Crimebusters working with an artist, as I drew the first four issues myself. It was actually a very smooth process (which I have learned from other...
Heâd just hired a well-known marketing company to help spread the word about the second campaign for his comic IMMORTALIS, but the results werenât what he expected.Â
In fact, the experience left him questioning everything he thought he knew about crowdfunding.Â
And as he pored over the analytics, he wonderedâŚ
âIs social media really that important?â
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In thinking about his experience with the marketing company, Shawn came to some difficult conclusions about why it didnât work out.Â
âI assume itâs because we donât have that name recognition to stand out on social media, so the analytics didnât have a big enough sample size to get any ...