What a Day! And Pondering: “What if…”

What a Day! And Pondering: “What if…” January 4, 2014

Yesterday was pretty remarkable in the life of our campaign. Not only did we meet the match challenge; we obliterated it by raising more than two thousand dollars We have just over $1,500 left to go to meet the final goal and make this project a reality. Wow!

A few folks have asked what will be done with any funds above and beyond the projected budget. As I though about this, I figured I had two viable options:

  • Luxuriate in a bathtub full of pennies, or;
  • Put those resources to use in getting this book into the most possible hands.

At this point, more than two-thirds of the first printing of hard-copy books are claimed through the rewards here on Kickstarter. And of course, if we make the goal, more will be committed and sent out. So it would be fantastic to be able to increase our first printing from 300 books to 500 so we can have some on hand to get in the hands of our TWO sales and distribution teams, already committed to helping push this book out the door.

Second, at this point I’m depending entirely on word-of-mouth and social media buzz to build interest in the story. It would obviously be great to have a built in marketing budget for things like website and blog ads, podcast sponsorships, blog tours, etc.

So, sadly, no penny bath in my future (sigh).

What would an ideal, pie-in-the-sky budget look like? In a perfect world, we would commit about $3500 to marketing and another $1500 to printing. So if I had my ruby slippers handy and could click them three times, I’d wake up on January 8th to a campaign having raised a total of $16,000. This would put us on par with many publishers who have such resources at their disposal when putting out a new title.

Will I be happy if we simply squeak by and meet the $11,000 goal? I’d be thrilled. But any visionary project should be willing to cast impossible goals and dreams, so this is mine. But first things first: lets make absolutely sure that we make the $11,000 goal by the deadline, or else all of this “what next” talk is pretty much pointless, right?

So thank you, once again, to those who have backed the campaign, spread the word and challenged others to join us. And to those who have been waiting until later in the game to jump in and close the gap, now is the time!

See you at the finish line! (and if you haven’t already, check out – and share – the campaign with others HERE.)

Christian Piatt


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