There are all kinds of strategies creators can take when it comes to offering up stretch goals during a Kickstarter launch. And over the past twelve years, across more than 40 successful launches, I’ve probably tried just about every one.
But for my money, as both a frequent backer and as a creator/publisher, my favorite kinds of stretch goals aren’t extra swag, unlocking new products, or even doing freebies and giveaways. My favorite stretch goals to offer are campaign unlocks that make the CORE PRODUCT even better.
For example, we’re heading into our SECOND WEEK of the CHUM Definitive Edition Hardcover campaign.
CHUM is a surf noir mini-series I published from Ryan K Lindsay and Sami Kivela, who have gone on to partner up on a number of successful, critically acclaimed series with other publishers. This dark, crime series about a series of desperate souls longing to be free from an island rotting from its core, was a critical hit for us, but we never gave it the true, deluxe ComixTribe hardcover treatment. So we’re doing it now!
FIRST, DEFINE THE MINIMUM LOVEABLE PRODUCT.
When planning this launch, we collaborated on what we thought we needed to have as features, bells and whistles in the collection to get excited about launching it. I call that the MLP.
THEN, IDENTIFY PRODUCT UPGRADES THAT WILL MAKE THAT LOVEABLE PRODUCT EVEN COOLER.
We also spend some time on the question: “What else would be super cool? What would we do if money were no object? What haven’t we ever done before that we want to try?”
This usually ends up with a list of supercool enhancements… that are definitely budget busters when stacked against our minimum funding goal.
But, that’s the beauty of Kickstarter, as one MUST hit the goal, but there’s no limit to how much funding one can raise… and that extra funding can always be applied to getting your book closer to that grand vision.
So, for the new CHUM Hardcover, we’ve already crushed our initial funding goal and have started to unlock our book upgrades. And as the campaign goes on, we’ll make additional upgrades throughout.
Our next hardcover upgrade kicks in at $16K… and we’re REALLY excited about the prospect of offering RED-TIPPED EDGED Pages. We have 2 more weeks to make the best possible version of this product.
QUICK HEADS UP: EARLY BACKER PRICING ENDS AT MIDNIGHT!
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