I sent out an email today to my Kickstarter backers unpacking the unsuccessful campaign I just ran. Since many of you have followed along for the ride, I thought I would share the email here as well.
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This is a challenging email to write on one hand, because it represents a shortcoming in one of my recent product launches.
On the other hand, I’m encouraged because each time we experience failure in something, it is an opportunity to lean in and learn. the road to success is paved with failure, and I’d like to unpack the failure of my Kickstarter campaign in this note.
What Happened?
I launched the Kickstarter for Bible Board Books about eight weeks ago, and the campaign only reached about 20% of the funding it needed to execute with excellence. Because of how Kickstarter works, if not ALL of the desired funding is raised, the project is closed and not funded whatsoever. I was frustrated. I actually had a dream a week before the campaign closed in which it got fully funded and some big orders were placed for the first volumes. Obviously that didn’t happen.
This was both disappointing and revealing. I do have a list of reasons of why I believe the campaign did not fully fund, but ultimately the reason I chose to do pre-orders through Kickstarter was to help prove the interest (or lack of) for such a product. I self-funded my first book years ago, and the route I chose to go left me with a lot of unsold inventory sitting in my garage. That’s why this time, I decided to have more of an experimental approach before moving forward.
I was at a funeral today for the father of a member of our church, and one of the family members shared something their father always said while he was alive: “Never take advantage of yourself. Life is too short. You’ve got one chance at life, you’ve got to go for it at whatever you do.”
Ultimately, I had this idea that was bouncing around in my head, and every time I had a conversation about it, the idea would grow stronger and louder in my mind. I knew I had to get it out, or I would always kick myself for not giving it a shot. That was my whole approach – I was merely desiring to throw it out into the world and what people did with it, was on them.
What’s Next
Although I am frustrated it didn’t work out (like Nacho Libre, I WANNA WIN!), I am not the type of guy to sit and wallow in disappointment too long. There is a switch in the creative idea part of my brain that’s broken, it’s stuck in the ON position and it is impossible to shut it off. At any given time, I have 3-5 pots of ideas, resources, projects simmering that are just waiting for the time and energy to execute. SO for now, Bible Board books will go to the back burner and simmer until it’s ready to try again. Then I will begin to throw my energy into other projects and see what happens there!
Thanks for your support, for backing the project, for sharing, and for just being super cool about this process. I’ll keep you updated about what’s next!
Luke Gajary