Just wanted to post up a little update on the progress of my art book, Ozmosis Chills 3.
It has been a week since I launched the book campaign on indiegogo. As of writing this I just made my goal of $3500, so I guess that is not bad! It is going pretty much as I had hoped so far. With a little luck and hopefully more people interested in my book and my art, I will be able to get together slightly more than my target amount, and create an even better finished product. For anyone wanting to see the campaign, please follow this link here: CLICK and feel free to share it with anyone you think might be interested.
I have begun work on the perks for the campaign, so people who have paid for art are starting to see what they will get. I will post a couple of them here for you all to check out.
CLICK THE IMAGE TO MAKE THEM BIGGER:
Head sketch bundle: 17 of 20 left
Chibi bundle: 1 of 10 left
9x12 inked and toned commission: 1 of 5 left
Bigger commissions are also available. I will try and update the numbers here as I can, but your best bet is to check out the actual site.
A question that has popped up a couple of times is "why did you go with indiegogo rather than kickstarter?" It's a really good question, because the logical choice for anyone looking to crowd-fund a creative project is kickstarter. They have the brand, and they have the traffic numbers to back it up (ranked 800). The number one reason why I went with Indiegogo (ranked 5000), was simply because I live and work from Australia, and Kickstarter does not allow people from outside the US to set up campaigns. The next best choice is Indiegogo, and I must say it is not a bad alternative.
I found out that kickstarter is trying to open up to the rest of the world, but so far no luck. I guess they havn't figured it out yet. So, the next best option for us non-US creative types is Indiegogo. You will find mostly comic projects on there from Canada, Australia and the UK, and I'm sure from many other countries. As far as traffic goes, kickstarter wins, but indiegogo is a close second, so I don't feel that I am at too much of a disadvantage. The thing I have learnt with crowd-funding so far is that you will get most of your traffic through your own hard work and letting others know about your project, and then word-of-mouth, so whether I am posting a link to kickstarter or indiegogo, it's all the same. If people are interested, they will click that link, and if they like what they see, they will pay for it. I really do have to say a big thank you to everyone who has been facebooking and tweeting about my project. You guys have been a massive help!
One advantage that I think IGG has over KS is the flexible funding. With IGG you can set it up so that no matter how many contributions you get, you will still get the funding. With KS, if you don't make your goal you get nothing. I think the flexible funding is great for people doing comic and print projects. Particularly those where all the work is already done. Essentially what we have is a pre-order system, which allows you to guage exactly how many copies of a book you should get printed. I would advise that it is wise to set your goal at the minimum amount you can work with, and then see what happens. With IGG, if you don't reach your goal, you will be charged a higher fee (9%) than if you do make your goal (only 4%). I believe KS takes 5% from successful projects. With flexible funding, any contibutions made can be considered sales. Just make sure you can do a very small print run as a back up plan.
So that's the long version of why I went with Indiegogo. Don't hate it just cause it's not as popular! There are some cool projects from all around the globe on there, so don't be shy. Both KS and IGG work much the same, and both sites will give you results.
Hopefully this info will be usefull to someone out there, in a similar boat to me, and if not, at least you get a little bit of pretty art to look at!.
Now go buy a copy of my book, yeah? :) cheers!
Jon.
