No Experiment Is a Failure

Fear of failure is a huge problem with a lot of writers. The old publishing system was set up to feed on that fear.

• What if my story isn't perfect?
• What if I leave in a typo?
• What if I missed one of the editor/agent's rules?

But with indie publishing, the only real question is whether the reader likes your story. And the only way to know that is to get your book into the reader's hands.

Which means you have got to try different marketing techniques.

The big issue is that a particular method will work for some people and not for others. And the only to know if a particular way will work for you is if you try it. That's why I'm getting ready to launch a Kickstarter next week. 

I've supported 29 Kickstarters over the last eleven years, ranging from a spoken word artist to a stuffed animal that would be perfect for Adorable Spawn's woodland-themed nursery. My own Kickstarter is an experiment to see if I can attract new readers by promoting an entire series at one time.

If I don't fund, I know I've tried my best. I'll do a post-mortem to figure out where I went wrong. Will I try again? I won't know until after the post-mortem.

My bigger fear is the Kickstarter is too successful. I can handle sending out a hundred packages. What happens if I have a couple of thousand packages? I'll be scrambling for some help.

But I won't know what will happen until I try it. And that's what life is all about.