Kickstarter Postmortem – Part 1

A deep dive into the Lump Dog campaign

Between the end of a Kickstarter campaign and when the money pledged is deposited in your bank account is when I like to touch grass, tackle the neglected “Honey-do” list, catch up on email, and generally reacquaint myself with the real world. This time, I was smart… I deliberately scheduled this downtime when I knew my wife had time off. It was great to spend some quality time together without Kickstarter promotion opportunities and ad ideas rolling in my brain behind my eyes.

This downtime is also a great time to do a campaign postmortem or should that be prenatal. My comic is launching into life after all. Credit where credit is due, I learned this tactic from

Tyler James

at ComixLaunch. The basic idea is to critically examine your campaign and really think about what went well, what you tried that you’d do differently next time, and things you would not do again. The goal is to learn from your experience and record your findings so you can use that information to inform your next campaign.

As a former teacher, and one obsessed with data and spreadsheets at that, I really enjoy the process. There is power in self-reflection.¹ (Every so often, Tyler does or says something that reminds me that he is a former teacher, and this is one of those things. It is just great pedagogy.)

In this post, I want to present the final numbers and highlight a few things about the Lump Dog campaign that I haven’t already discussed in my previous journal entries/blog posts.

The Data Dump

What follows are the key data points from the Lump Dog campaign.² 

Campaign Overview

Start Date: 9 Apr, 2024 - 9 May, 2024 (31 days)

Goal Amount: CA$ 2,000

Total Pledged: CA$ 2,307

Funding % of Goal: 115%

Total Backers: 83

Average Pledge Amount: CA$ 27.80

Project Followers: 213

Converted Followers (%): 21%

Average Pledge Amount Per Day: CA$ 74

Pledges & Rewards

Most Popular Pledge Levels:

1. CA$ 7 Lump Dog™ Digital Deluxe PDF (18 backers)

2. CA$ 25 Print Catch-up – Lump Dog™ & TLSS#01 (17 backers)

3. CA$ 10 Digital Catch-up – Lump Dog™ & TLSS#01 (13 backers)

Pledge Levels with Most Funding (without bonus $):

1. CA$ 425 Print Catch-up – Lump Dog™ & TLSS#01

2. CA$ 300 DeGen Ghosty (Lenticular Cover; Max 100) (CA$ 60)

3. CA$ 250 RAHMAAN HAMEED (Pop Art/Max 75/CGC 9.8) (CA$ 125)

Other Information

Returning Kickstarter Backers: 31 (46%)

New Kickstarter Backers: 52 (54%)

Total Books Ordered: 49 Lump Dog + 17 TLSS (from inventory)

Digital: Backers 37%, Revenue 12%

Physical: Backers 63%, Revenue 83%

Kickstarter Page Traffic

Percentage of Pledges via Kickstarter: 52%

Percentage of Pledges via External and Custom Referrers: 48%

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Looking over the data, there are so many things to be grateful for. Here are just a few.

Lump Dog Funded. Proof of Concept Affirmed.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I cannot tell you how grateful I am for your support of my quirky sci-fi comic.

But is the amount raised enough to cover all the costs associated with creating Lump Dog? No. Absolutely, no. But that was never the point.

Without giving away the exact details about how much I am paying my art team, suffice it to say that the amount raised in this Kickstarter is a welcome, albeit small, fraction of the total costs involved. Frankly, there will be precious little leftover after Kickstarter fees, printing and shipping, never mind paying page rates.

But if covering costs was never a realistic goal, why bother? Why put in the effort? This question goes back to my recent article about setting your Kickstarter funding goal, specifically the “Proof of Concept“ strategy.

As stated in that post, I love what I have planned for The Lump Sum Saga. It will be made eventually. It is a story I need to get out of my system.

But even the best stories resonate differently with fans at different times. So, for me, this Kickstarter was a test to see if now was the right time to put this story out into the world. If yes, it followed that backers would be willing to support Lump Dog by voting with their wallets. My Kickstarter funding goal was a litmus test about the suitability of publishing this story at this time. And the answer came back a resounding yes.

Thank you for that!

I See You! The Power of Community

Reading my backer list is like reading my comic industry contact list. Over half of my backers and almost two-thirds of pledges came from people I interact with personally online. The comics community can be incredibly supportive.

The charts above clearly show the value of being involved in the community.  (Many of my top supporters appear in several of the communities listed. For those people, I counted them in the group where we interact the most.)

Storytelling Without Manufacturing

Something new this campaign was being able to sell back issues from inventory. A full 18% of the amount pledged came from the sale of comics I already have printed. I can see this percentage becoming increasingly valuable the more campaigns I run.

Beyond this, 37% of backers pledged toward digital-only tiers, representing 12% ($281) of the raised amount.

Then, to top it all off, a staggering 5% of the money pledged came from people who didn’t even want a reward! This art patronage is an unexpected blessing.

There is a lot to digest here that ultimately leaves me feeling a sense of gratitude for each and every backer.

In part II, I will do my best to address the elephant in the my room - this campaign did not raise as much as my last. I will present a few ideas about why this was the case and suggest a few ideas about what I might do differently next time.

1. See “Don’t Underestimate the Power of Self-Reflection” by James R. Bailey and Scheherazade Rehman.

2. Consider yourself lucky. I forgot to download the advanced analytics before the campaign ended (it illogically disappears after the campaign ends!), so this data is just the key summary data available on the various campaign dashboards. Lesson learned.