Derek Miller - Six Figure Crowdfunding: The No Bullsh*t Guide to Running a Life-Changing Campaign

Book Cover Design by
Dylan Todd

Book Design and Type Layout by
Jillian Crab

Assistant Editor
Katalina Holland

Editor
Bryce Carlson

ROSS RICHIE CEO & Founder

MATT GAGNON Editor-in-Chief

FILIP SABLIK President of Publishing & Marketing

STEPHEN CHRISTY President of Development

LANCE KREITER VP of Licensing & Merchandising

PHIL BARBARO VP of Finance

ARUNE SINGH VP of Marketing

BRYCE CARLSON Managing Editor

SCOTT NEWMAN Production Design Manager

KATE HENNING Operations Manager

SPENCER SIMPSON Sales Manager

SIERRA HAHN Senior Editor

DAFNA PLEBAN Editor, Talent Development

SHANNON WATTERS Editor

ERIC HARBURN Editor

WHITNEY LEOPARD Editor

CAMERON CHITTOCK Editor

CHRIS ROSA Associate Editor

MATTHEW LEVINE Associate Editor

SOPHIE PHILIPS-ROBERTS Assistant Editor

GAVIN GRONENTHAL Assistant Editor

MICHAEL MOCCIO Assistant Editor

AMANDA LAFRANCO Executive Assistant

KATALINA HOLLAND Editorial Administrative Assistant

JILLIAN CRAB Design Coordinator

MICHELLE ANKLEY Design Coordinator

KARA LEOPARD Production Designer

MARIE KRUPINA Production Designer

GRACE PARK Production Design Assistant

CHELSEA ROBERTS Production Design Assistant

ELIZABETH LOUGHRIDGE Accounting Coordinator

STEPHANIE HOCUTT Social Media Coordinator

JOS MEZA Event Coordinator

HOLLY AITCHISON Operations Coordinator

MEGAN CHRISTOPHER Operations Assistant

RODRIGO HERNANDEZ Mailroom Assistant

MORGAN PERRY Direct Market Representative

CAT OGRADY Marketing Assistant

CORNELIA TZANA Publicity Assistant

LIZ ALMENDAREZ Accounting Administrative Assistant

SIX FIGURE CROWDFUNDING: The No Bullsh*t Guide to Running a Life-Changing Campaign, July 2018. Published by BOOM! Studios, a division of Boom Entertainment, Inc. Six Figure Crowdfunding is & 2018 Derek Miller Management LLC. All rights reserved. BOOM! Studios and the BOOM! Studios logo are trademarks of Boom Entertainment, Inc., registered in various countries and categories. BOOM! Studios does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork.

BOOM! Studios, 5670 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90036-5679. Printed in USA. First Printing.

ISBN: 978-1-68415-211-7, eISBN: 978-1-64144-026-4

List of Interviews/Contributors:

James Ashby

Salvador Briggman

Adam Clark

DBPM3

Junior Desinor

Lisa Q. Fetterman

Hans Fex

Alexandra Fine

Lisa Glover

Scott Heimendinger

Andrew Jiang

Derek Miller

Roy Morejon

Chris Muscarella

Sekai Project (Nekopara)

Noelle Pugh

Ed Pugh

Richard Reininger

Revols

Nick Seluk

Netta Shalgi

Feargus Urquhart

Zach Weinersmith

Total Value of all Projects:

$182,613,356.00

Backers and creators have been through a whole lot of hell since Kickstarters launch in 2009.

After years of failed projects, untrustworthy creators, missed deadlines, and lawsuits, backers have been burned, and they havent forgotten. Not every creator can hack it, unfortunately, leading many backers to question the fundamental concept of crowdfunding itself.

The truth is, running a campaign is equal parts excitement and narrowly avoiding being hit by a car. Your future is on the line with every decision. Choices on tiers, stretch goals, marketing, and how to communicate with your community during the campaign can have ripple effects that earn you hundreds of thousands of dollars, or give you recurring nightmares for years.

I recognized the need for this book after I ran my first Kickstarter in 2013 for The Cyanide & Happiness Show. It took in $770,000 in pledges, briefly setting the record for funding in Kickstarters animation category. Despite having a huge amount of support, we proceeded to make a mountain of mistakes. What we thought were simple, mid-campaign decisions ended up costing us months of additional work and more funds than we had initially budgeted.

Shit.

Thankfully, after a few years of consulting, education, and good ol fashioned duct-tape solutions, we learned from our mistakesor at least from some of them. By the time C&H launched the Joking Hazard campaign in early 2016, we were far more prepared, and the results showed as we drew in a solid $3.2 million in pledges.

Crowdfunding is a whole hell-basket full of hand-work. If money is all you want, crowdfunding isnt for you. Investors, loans, begging, limbo competitions, turning tricks, tricking turns, turntable tricks there are better options out there if all you want is that sweet, sweet cash.

Crowdfunding today is more competitive than ever before. Super Crowdfundingraising over $100,000 on a single campaignhas become increasingly common, and you can bet your rooty tooty fresh and fruity breakfast it doesnt happen by accident. Every day, new companies sprout up with huge budgets and massive teams, using Kickstarter as a marketing strategy for new products or riskier endeavors. These companies have their own art departments and dedicated customer service staff that can devote every waking hour to keeping fans from staging a mutiny.

Long gone are the days when you can have a crazy idea for a tabletop game, literally post your rough sketches and production estimates, and have folks back your project with little more than your idea and their willingness to follow you along on the journey, says Adam Clark, superbacker and founder of the Kickstarter analytics site Kicktraq.

What started primarily as an avenue for the little guy to get a leg up on their career has grown into an entire industry overflowing with Super Crowdfunding campaigns, predatory third-party marketing companies, and schadenfreudelicious stories of catastrophic failures.

If you want to be heard above all the noise, you must either out-spend or out-work all the other Super Crowdfunding campaigns out there. And out-spend is the much less fun option so lets focus on out-work.

Ive enlisted the minds, memories, and manatees of friends and colleagues who have all run at least one Super Crowdfunding campaign to give you the no-bullshit truth on what it takes to run a massive, life-changing campaign. Combined, all the interviewees from this book have raised over $180 million on Kickstarter.

This book is centered around Kickstarter as it is the crowdfunding platform we use and trust.same. Find eyeballs, send them to your campaign page, and convince them to back you.