Are you looking to raise funds from the crowd for your comic or graphic novel?
Kickstarter is the leading crowdfunding platform for comics, with the market showing consistent growth every year.
In this article, we’re giving you all the best tips to get in on the action. Who knows—your comic might be the next great success story.
Are you ready to bring your comic project to life, literally?
Let’s find out how.
Why Use Kickstarter for Funding Your Comic
In order to get your project out there to the masses, you need funding for things like:
- Marketing
- Production
- Order fulfillment
Kickstarter gives creators like you that power, with the ‘Comics’ category raising over $127 million to date.
Over 10,000 comic projects have been successfully funded over the years, and the momentum isn’t slowing down a bit.
In fact, 2020 was a record-setting year for comics on Kickstarter.
Backers pledged more than $22 million towards Kickstarter comics in 2020, shattering the previous record of $16.9 million pledged in 2019.
Even more impressive, 74% of all comic projects reached their funding goal in 2020.
To put that in perspective, about 38% of all projects successfully get funded on Kickstarter. That means that the comic category was almost twice as successful as the platform’s average.
Those are some pretty incredible numbers.
It’s clear that the community of backers for comics on Kickstarter has a strong base, and is willing to support a wide range of projects.
So here’s what this means for you: If you run your campaign the right way, you have a pretty good chance of getting funded.
Let’s dig in and find out exactly how you can do it.
Tips for Running a Successful Comics Campaign
One of the most important steps you can take to ensuring that your campaign hits the ground running is to curate a dedicated pre-launch strategy.
To build interest before your campaign even goes live, you can do things like:
- Create hype through a great social media strategy
- Build a mailing list
- Tease the comic for free online to get readers interested
Once you’ve got some interest flowing, you can set a date for launch and get started building your campaign page.
Your campaign page is essentially a sales page that works to convert interested readers into backers of your project. This includes elements like:
- Your Kickstarter pitch video
- Images, gifs, and graphics showing off the comic
- Engaging copywriting to give logical information and promises
- Rewards and perks
In most Kickstarter projects, the pitch video is the most important element of a campaign.
With comics, you have a little bit more flexibility here. It’s hard to show use cases of a comic, as comics are much less of a traditional ‘product’ and more of a piece of art.
That means you can either use a video to kick off your campaign, or simply choose your favorite creative image as the header to your sales page.
For example, the most funded Kickstarter comic of all time used a single text-free image to ignite interest. BRZRKR raised almost 1.5 million from nearly 15,000 backers.
While they might have had a little bit of an advantage with Keanu Reeves being an author on the project, it’s still a good idea to check out their campaign strategy. Check it out here:
Another idea is to curate a comic based on your created world that relates to Kickstarter in particular. If you’re having trouble imagining this, check out this comic that was able to cleverly integrate the concept of their project with humor.
The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive
You can also go with the traditional video format to set yourself apart from the pack. This is going to differ from videos from other categories, which usually use about three minutes to show use cases and functionalities of their product.
Check out this campaign that created a 1.5-minute video to entice its backers by showing off their brand and fleshing out the concept of the comic:
Especially in the comics category, you have to do an awesome job of building the world with copy and images to get your potential backers desperate for more.
Tease your world, but don’t give it all away. It’s all about striking that perfect balance between divulging enough to spark interest, but withholding enough that they have to back your project.
How to Set Your Fundraising Goal
One of the beauties of comics is that they are relatively cheap to produce and ship out, especially when compared to tech, design, and board game projects.
So how high should you set your fundraising goal?
Set your goal as low as possible.
By doing so, you can reach your mark faster and start trending on the Kickstarter platform. If you set your goal too high, not only might you fail to get funding, but you also will have a lower chance of being included in Kickstarter’s Projects We Love program.
Keep in mind that if you need $5,000 in order to print, manufacture, and ship the project, then you need to set your goal at $5,000.
The last thing you want is to set your goal too low and then have to dip into your own pocket in order to fulfill rewards for your backers. So go as low as possible, but don’t stretch yourself too thin.
Most comics need anywhere between $3,000 and $10,000 to get off the ground. Some larger, more established projects will set their goal as high as $50,000, but unless you have a large following already established, it’s probably best to stay in the four-figure range.
After all, there is no limit to how much funding you can receive. Just because you set your goal at $5,000 doesn’t mean that you can’t raise $1.5 million!
It’s time to bust out the spreadsheet and calculate just how much you’ll need to bring your project to life.
From there, it’s all about creating desirable reward tiers that make backers feel like they are getting insider access to your creative endeavor.
Conclusions
Hopefully, you found this guide to be useful as you set out on your journey to get funding for your Kickstarter comic.
While you’re doing more research, make sure to check out my Youtube Channel and Podcast where I’m always giving the best tips for successful crowdfunding, as well as talking with industry experts who have paved the way.
Looking for some extra help getting your comic off the ground?
Book a coaching call with me.
I’ve helped tons of projects meet their funding, providing A to Z campaign launches and specialized services. Let’s make sure you are a part of the 74% of comics that get funded.
Good luck with your Kickstarter comic launch!
