Kickstarter Goals: Figuring out the Overhead

I'm still studying Loren L. Coleman's book about crowd funding. I've been supporting various Kickstarters for ten years, but this is the first time I've considered doing one.

The hardest part is estimating the overhead. The Kickstarter fee is easy enough. But it's the physical rewards that are a mess.

Loren recommends keeping it simple for your first Kickstarter and only use digital rewards. The problem is I know several of my readers prefer paper. I'm not even trying to do something new like hardcovers yet. That will come next year.

I'm looking at my basic trade paperbacks. The shipping in the U.S. is bad enough right now. But there's also my overseas readers who want paperbacks.

I've already ordered magnets and stickers as promo for my new series in preparation of the Local Author Fair in November. And a part of me wants t-shirts to wear at the fair, so if I'm going to order them, why not offer them as a reward on the Kickstarter.

It's all something to consider and calculate and make sure shipping is covered.

Budgeting and accounting makes my head ache.