(image of Jamie Roberts, a genderqueer young person with messy blonde hair climbing the side of a mud-brick building. They look out at the sea with a soft smile on their face. Text next to them reads The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1 – Funded in the 1st 24 hours)
Jamie is neither boy or girl – they’re a PIRATE! The Legend is about Jamie and their two best friends, Thomas and Daniel, as they uncover an unfinished map to a land they’ve never seen.
So what do they do with this map?
(A picture of Jamie, a genderqueer human with messy blonde hair and green eyes, gesturing with excitement, saying, “Go treasure hunting, of course!”)
So they leave their life on the seas and go adventuring for treasure! Along the way they find magic, dragons, and an ancient history bubbling back to the surface once more.
Right now, the story is on KickStarter to get chapters 1 through 4 – plus bonus content – in one shiny paperback book.
If you back this campaign, you’ll get:
a custom-signed copy of the book,
the map Jamie, Thomas, and Daniel found, complete with their notes and doodles,
your very own orb (make sure it never breaks, or Ranki will escape his prison!)
and more!
Some rewards are ONLY available until March 12, so check out the campaign and back it if and while you can.
“Wait!” you might be thinking. “You’ve already reached your funding goal! So what’s in it for me if I support you?”
Well, we still have stretch goals!
If we can get to 30 backers, then everyone who supports the campaign will get a FREE sticker sheet included with their rewards.
And if we get to 40 backers? I’ll make a NEW minicomic for all backers, The Legend of Azu-Mi.
Plus, I have a NEW gift…
(a black and white line drawing of a dragon roaring into the void. The title, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, is printed along the top)
If 5 people color this page, and use the hashtag #thelegendofjamieroberts on Instagram or TikTok, then I’ll add a bookplate to each book! (Up to a maximum of 50 books.)
Broke? Share this link far and wide with your pirate-loving friends:
http://tinyurl.com/jamie-v1
Some rewards are ONLY available until March 12. The campaign as a whole wraps up on March 27.
By the way, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Chapter 2’s KickStarter IS STILL GOING. You have until 11:59 pm EST on Feb 21 to back this project.
Not gonna lie – I’ve had 11 successful KickStarter campaigns. Once you’ve had so much success, you fall into a rhythm.
But I HAVE had one KickStarter campaign fail. I learned a lot from that failure, which makes it true that you learn more from your failures than your successes. Because when you’re successful, you develop a groove.
The thing about grooves, though, is that it’s easy to get comfortable inside of those grooves. It’s like when you walk in circles in the dirt – after a while, there’s an obvious path of where you’ve tread.
And if you want to grow, you have to take a step outside of that dirt circle.
Ever since the demise of Project Wonderful, I’ve written off the power of ad spots on blog sites and webcomic sites. It’s easy to write it off, since it can be difficult to make money from posting ads in this era of ad-blockers.
Yet the original reason these became ads were to signal-boost SOMETHING. Someone wanted their product known, so they made a promotional image and paid someone to post it.
Well, I don’t (yet) have a network of peeps to reach out to and ask about posting an ad on their site and paying them for it.
So I made a button to promote the KickStarter, posted it on the sites, and VOILA – insta-ad. I’m still getting traffic on these sites, so the ad spots are seen by the peeps who go to these sites.
Reach Out to Folks Who Are Adjacent To What You Do
I have to thank Jamie (no relation to Jamie Roberts) for this one. I had almost written off this particular tactic.
The Legend of Jamie Roberts is about a genderqueer pirate. So Jamie (no relation) suggested I reach out to LGBTQ centers, and ask for their help promoting this KickStarter campaign. He sent me a list of LGBTQ centers in Ohio (which you can find here). This resource includes contact information for these sites.
I also had a flier for another LGBTQ center, from when I went to Flaming River Con. (One of the few positive things to come out of that show). So I reached out to this center, as well.
All told, I reached out to 5 or so of these centers, and only heard back from 1: the center whom I had a flier for. I think it helped that the contact spoke with me at the show, so they had a face to connect to the email.
So while perhaps blind contacting doesn’t work – what DOES help is keeping your rolodex of peeps you meet at comicons, festivals, and other shows. Reach out to those who are adjacent to what you do and ask if they can help signal-boost you.
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Fliers
I made a flier for my local comic shop to promote my KickStarter campaign. Then I sent it shortly after launch. I asked if they could print up copies and set them with their other fliers, and make a social media post, as well. And they agreed to help (I’m very fortunate that the folks at my local comic shop are cool dudes).
I DID notice that a few days after I did that, the number of backers and money raised went up a good 20-25%. Pretty dang good!
So don’t underestimate the power of fliers. Share them with comic shops. They’re usually more than happy to help indie comic creators succeed. If not? Find someone else who’d be happy to share your flier.
Those are what I’ve re-learned in promoting a KickStarter campaign into success. Next time I’ll make a post about how to run a successful campaign. I just realized I don’t have a post about that (yet).
You come across a LOT of junk mail and bull-crap whenever you run a KickStarter campaign, whether it’s your first time or your tenth.
As it turns out, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Chapter 1 is my tenth campaign on KickStarter. And, true to form, I’ve been getting messages from total strangers saying that they “can help boost this campaign to millions of people” and that they know “the best outlets to promote this KickStarter to” so I should “reply to this email ASAP to jump on this unique opportunity.”
But there was ONE email that I got recently that stood out to me… for all the wrong reasons.
First, this is not the first time this guy emailed me. He had sent a previous email starting with, “I get it. You’ve seen thousands of messages from people saying they can help your campaign” (which I have). But the difference was this NEW guy emailing me called himself “a guru in crowdfunding.”
Pro tip: never call yourself a guru of anything. You sound pretentious and it’s step number 1 of making sure I delete your email.
But shortly after that one, he sent me a NEW email.
Here, I’ll show you a screencap of this thing. Don’t worry, I’ll censor out the guy’s email, name, and face. Just pay attention to the email text:
In case you can’t see it, the email says, “we’ve chosen The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Chapter 1 as our weekly “what could this campaign be doing better?” round table discussion.”
Already off to a bad start. I know what I can do better. This is my TENTH campaign. And I already made the fixes before this dude sent me this message.
And he adds, “We choose one very lucky campaign and go through it top-to-bottom to see what you can do better.”
This is the most slimy sentence I’ve come across.
And I’m saying this as someone who’s sat through brutal art class critiques and read thousands of pages of copy other people have written to promote their work.
I’m saying this as someone who studied marketing and promotional materials during college AND after. That sentence is slimy.
Why is this sentence slimy? Because it is preying on the email recipient’s insecurity about their campaign.
Whether you’re running your first campaign or your hundredth, there will always be a bit of insecurity that you feel when you launch. Will this thumbnail stand out? Did I make enough rewards? Did I overprice one of these tiers? Etc.
That sentence in that email is designed to snag onto that insecurity and make the email recipient feel like they NEED help.
Trust me: you do not need help from a guy like this.
I’ve had better luck getting help from ComixLaunch, and I found that program to be very hit and miss for me. Again, I’ve run ten successful KickStarter campaigns, and The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Chapter 1 is looking to be my eleventh successful one.
Never trust a dude who would use sentences like that, no matter how professional or “well-meaning” the rest of the email sounds.
I hope this helps you if you’re looking to start crowdfunding – or even if it helps you spot similar emails in the future. I hope this blog post has helped you spot what kind of language to watch out for and what to avoid.
HOLY BANANA PANTS, it’s finally here – The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Chapter 1 is now on KickStarter, looking for funding to get to print!
Patreon support has helped make the production of each individual page possible. But KickStarter will help cover the gap to get this first issue to print.
The book will include a never-before-published short comic about Captain O’Malley (just how DID she lose her arm?). Plus there will be behind-the-scenes sketches showing how pages for the comic are made.
Among the rewards available for backers, there’s commissions, WANTED poster-style mini-prints, and even a new 11 x 17 inch print!
So if you can back this KickStarter campaign, please do so BEFORE JUNE 20.
Broke? Share this campaign with your friends. Every share helps.
Want to back the campaign, but don’t see a reward you like? Hit me up via email at kelci(at)kelcidcrawford.com and I’ll work with you.
