Production costs for Shout Out
Shout Out was our best performing Kickstarter, and a huge step forward for us! The reviews have been incredibly positive, and it's been wonderful seeing that book connect with a hungry audience.
All prices below are in CAD, and often reflect heavily discounted services from friends and suppliers.
Creator costs
Our cover art was created by the talented Naomi Franquiz.
Promotional costs
Production costs
12pt glossy 4-colour cover, 80lb Coated Text paper, 6.75" x 10.25", 208 pages. 4 week turnaround time including delivery.
Shipping is a cost that doesn't scale, so it can very rapidly overwhelm a project.
All told, the Shout Out kickstarter cost $48,049 CAD to bring to market.
Lessons Learned:
Pledge management pays off.
We partnered with Crowd Ox for our Kickstarter surveys this year. It easily paid for itself, raising an additional $3,796 in extras and new orders. We'll continue to use a pledge manager for future campaigns.
We sell books, not merch.
While Enamel Pins, T-shirts, etc. are moderately popular in Kickstarters, they don't sell for us at conventions. They slow down packing orders, and increase the risk of human error. We'll be scaling back merch for future campaigns.
Storages costs are massive.
For 2018, I paid $3,408.84 to warehouse our books. This is a simply enormous upkeep cost. Books are sensitive, and you need to store them in a climate-controlled space.
Shipping is more expensive than ever.
Shipping for Shout Out was significantly more expensive than Wayward Sisters's campaign just two years ago. If you don't have a shipping broker to optimize your shipping, you're going to have a bad time fulfilling your campaigns.