Creator Confessions: Serializing A Miniseries For Kickstarter
by Frank Martin
One of the great aspects of crowdfunding is that it doesn’t have to be just one thing. Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms can be tailored and customized depending on what you’re launching and how you want to launch it. This is especially valuable for comic creators. Comics can take many different forms in terms size, length, and style. One-off projects can absolutely benefit. But there is also a benefit to serializing a project via Kickstarter as well. Some comic creators may think that providing an unfinished story — a single issue of a larger arc — can be detrimental to their success, but it’s actually the opposite for a number of reasons.
It might be tough for a new series in the beginning, of course, especially for a creator still building their brand. Kickstarter campaigns have a way of building momentum. By serializing a series and launching a separate Kickstarter for each new installment, a creator can craft a snowball-like effect around their book. Each new issue is an event in and of itself, which can be difficult with comics when the first issue is celebrated but subsequent installments are not.
When compared to the direct market, serializing a miniseries can have much more success. Books in the direct market can easily see drop-offs with subsequent issues. Not everyone who bought issue one will follow the story to issue two, just as not everyone that purchased issue two can be counted on to purchase issue three. And while there might be some similar readers for Kickstarter campaigns, there will also be brand new readers that are jumping on for the first time. This is difficult to replicate in the direct market because a lot of consumers won’t buy back issues, but for a Kickstarter campaign, these back issues can be readily accessible. So it’s a lot easier to see tangible growth from one campaign to the next because these launches aren’t just for a new issue, they are for the continuation of the series as a whole. That sort of snowball effect is powerful.
