Studying the Poll Data: Kickstarters

Thank you all for answering my polls! (And a lot of you did, too.) In the interest of continuing to expose my business thinking, here's what I've been mulling over since your responses. 

One of the most unexpected discoveries of this exercise has been that people want swag, enough to pay for it alone! This interests me because swag is usually a reward in a Kickstarter for other things (proving, I guess, why swag is useful--people who might not want the end product might still hop on board for the cool swag). And most of you like swag that is on the cheaper end to produce, and easy to store. This is heartening, because I am not made of storage space.

Combining this revelation with the data from the Kickstarter poll, I've come up with two possibilities. Pros and cons time!

1. The Three Jaguars business columns book got the most votes. This would seem to make it the clear winner, but looking at my other two Three Jaguars books, I find they sell poorly. (Read: almost never.) The business column book may break the mold and outsell the other two handily, but I think it's wisest to doubt that.

Some other cons: while the text for this book is already collated and ready for hand-off to the graphic designer, the art exists as a hodgepodge, at least half of which would have to be re-scanned and re-sized for print. That means a lot more work for me, and a lot more money I have to pay the designer, since the book is going to be more finicky. Plus, the e-book edition is going to be a nightmare; exact placement of graphics in e-books when they're not full-page is painful.

So, on one hand, people want it. I want it too; I like to have sets of things, and I've already done half the work by writing it in the first place. It would fell good to finish it off, particularly if I could get it done in time for Anthrocon, when I'm doing the business seminar. On the other, it would be a major pain in the tail and the Kickstarter money is likely the only money I'll make on it. Plus, I'd have to set the initial goal high to cover costs (more like $2000 than $1000), which means I'll have to work harder to find the people to fund it.

2. Various print editions, with Peltedverse books leading, got the second highest votes when combined. I have six? (I believe?) Pelted books that still need print editions. If I combine that with swag, I could potentially run a completely new kind of campaign for me: a longer-than-average one, where every week the new stretch goal would be another print edition. So I could start the initial goal low ($700 for the first print edition, maybe), and if we meet that goal we could go to the next $700 to fund another book, etc, etc, until I run out of Peltedverse books to send to the graphic designer. We'd be chaining book goals, which I think would be pretty exciting as a participatory exercise.

I like this because it gives me stretch goals that I want to do anyway, instead of forcing me to come up with entirely new things and scramble to do them. Plus, it would scratch people's swag itch, because I could make the swag Pelted-themed stickers, bookmarks, patches, notebooks, etc. Lower level rewards could be digital wallpapers I could re-purpose for the Alliance Guidebook I keep growing, or images I could use for future book teasers like the ones I've been making for In Extremis. And the end product (Peltedverse print editions) would sell better than the Three Jaguars products; even though I don't sell much print, the books that do move are inevitably in the Peltedverse.

The two big cons with this one are 1. it would be a long campaign, longer than I'm used to running, and I'm worried about fatigue on everyone's parts; and 2. (and biggest of the two), if I end up funding six print editions, I'm going to have to pay to ship them. People might not want all six, but the folks who do will have to pay a boatload of money to get them, and if I don't price it correctly I will lose a lottttttttttt of money.

So that's where I am, thinking-wise. Did I miss something? Suggestions? Comments? I am open to them all!