That’s right — my IndieGoGo campaign is officially over! And I hit my funding goal! Woo!
All in all, it was a really fun experience. Probably my favorite part was coming up with the perks, and I think everyone’s going to be happy with what they get.
Here are the final stats:
- Total raised = $631 (126% funded)
- Contributions = 21
- Most popular perk = $25 Sign ‘Er Up, Captain! (signed copy of Imminent Danger)
About 2/3 of the contributions came from family and friends, with the rest coming from all you wonderful people who read this blog!
I don’t think I got any contributions from people I don’t know (i.e., random people who stumbled across the campaign and decided to donate). So I think the takeaway from that is that IndieGoGo campaigns aren’t a great way of connecting with random new readers on the internet. Oh well.
The vast majority of contributions came during the first two days of the campaign, with a few others trickling in over the rest of the 30 days (and a final small surge on the last day as people realized the campaign was ending). So 30 days of campaigning might have been a little long, but overall I think the time frame was good.
In terms of my funding goal ($500), I’m really glad I set it so low. The thing with IndieGoGo is they do “flex funding”, so you get to keep everything you raise, but if you don’t meet your goal, they take 9% of what you raise (as opposed to 4% if you do meet your goal). Hence why I set the goal so low — to make sure I don’t get dinged with the 9% fee. And it worked!
I’m planning on running another campaign in the spring when I publish Chasing Nonconformity, and I’ll have to ruminate over whether or not to set a higher goal. On the one hand, a lower goal makes it easier to hit. On the other hand, once you hit the goal, people might not be as inspired to contribute anymore. I really don’t know. I tried the low goal, and we did go over by $131, so clearly people weren’t averse to the idea of contributing to a funded campaign (so long as they get cool perks out of the deal, presumably). Any thoughts on low goals vs. high goals?
Those are all my reflections for now. Thank you again to everyone who helped out with the campaign — you’re awesome!
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/o0HZYid
Michelle Proulx - Author 
Congratulations! Did you ever post about why you chose IndieGoGo as your platform over Kickstarter or another? I’m always curious about these things, in case I ever run a campaign, myself.
Can’t wait to get MAH BOOK!!!
Lol!
Yeah, I went with IndieGoGo precisely because of the “flex funding” thing. Kickstarter doesn’t have that — you either meet the goal and get your funds, or you don’t get anything at all. Whereas with IndieGoGo you can flex fund and keep everything you earn, but you give a higher percentage back to IndieGoGo if you don’t meet your goal. That was basically the only reason. Heck, I might try Kickstarter next time — can’t hurt to diversify!
Yeah, why not? It would be interesting to see if a different community brought more new eyes to your work.
Congratulations, Michelle! What a great idea to fund your publishing efforts.
Thanks 🙂 I think that once I take off what it’ll cost to buy all the perks and ship them out, I’ll have made just enough to pay back the cover design cost. Hopefully, lol. Fingers crossed!
Congrats. Funny comic strip.
Thanks, and thanks 🙂
Like I said, SOOO glad that you hit your goal!! =D (And that I remembered in time to donate myself! Better late than never, right?!) I couldn’t tell you whether or not going higher would be an OK idea, but at least the first attempt went well–so who knows? I like to think that if a guy making potato salad can raise like a bazillion dollars anything is possible, but you know–the internet runs on strange things.
Anyway, I’m rambling. The point is, YAY!
Hahaha yeah, that potato salad thing was strange but awesome. I like that he actually put on a massive potato salad party. Apparently like 2000 people attended. Also, YAY!
He did! He had it in Columbus, so my friend and her BF actually WENT to the party… They said the potato salad was OK, nothing amazing. x) go figure.
Congrats on meeting and beating your goal–very smart to set it lower and avoid the higher fee!
Thanks! For my first foray into crowdfunding, I’m definitely pleased with the result 🙂 Now I just have to finish editing the darn book and send it out to everyone who bought it, lol