IWSG - Kickstarter & Blog Hop Sign-up

It's time for the September Insecure Writer's Support Group!

Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the IWSG is a monthly gathering where writers share their insecurities and support each other through them. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and put your blog on the linky list.

First of all, Happy 15th Anniversary, IWSG!

The co-hosts this month are: Kate Larkindale, SE White, JS Pailly, Olga Godim, and Natalie Aguirre. Be sure to drop by and say hi.

The optional question this month is: Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?

I don't think so, so I'm skipping the question this month.

I guess I'll just pop right into this month's insecurity: funding on Kickstarter. I had an opportunity to jump in with a great group of people called Learnable Peers, all of whom are doing a fall Kickstarter in darker genres, which meant giving myself a crash course on everything Kickstarter. It also meant my husband, who designs my covers, had to move reaaaaaally fast to get cover art ready for me to put up online since it turns out Kickstarter is a very visual medium. He also went buck wild and made me a bunch of fun images for my marketing stuff!

I've set my Kickstarter funding goal quite low since I'm learning this time around and it would be horrifying to not fund. Given, in my research it's been said plenty that not funding your first time around isn't rare, and that most who don't find that they fund their second time around. Still...

Some things folks on here might be interested in:

1. Some folks use Kickstarter as free marketing.

2. Kickstarter uses algorithms similarly to Amazon, meaning you're more discoverable if you're getting more attention. So the more people following during prelaunch (where my Kickstarter is now) and supporting once it's live, the more your Kickstarter will be bounced up in the algorithms and show up when people search for publishing campaigns.

3. Links are customizable so you can tell how people found you (the links on this blog are specifically for the blog - social media forms will have their own links).

I plan on doing a post (or several, depending) on how to use Kickstarter after my campaign is done since people expressed interest. I'm always happy to help people not have to do as much research and testing as I do!

To get some eyes (and hopefully some follows) on my Kickstarter campaign, I'm doing a Kickstarter Launch Tour instead of a book launch since campaign supporters will be getting their books before the official launch date elsewhere (it's a general expectation). Plus, I'll be able to put the preorder information on my campaign page when I've got the book loaded everywhere, so that will hopefully help advertise the book in both places.

If you have a moment, I'd love it if you'd hit "follow" on my campaign! It is not a commitment to bid, but it will bump the Kickstarter up when it launches (and it gets you notified upon launch in case you do want to bid). You can sign up to host me on the blog tour HERE.

Side note: If you want to check out other Kickstarter campaigns from Learnable Peers to satisfy your Halloween reads, you can visit the website and look at the Midnight Market. There should be three in prelaunch or active at the time of this post, with one closing soon after.

Now I'll be needing to research setting up Book Funnel to deliver the ebooks (which will also mean I can sell ebooks right here from my website!), plus possibly Book Vault if a particular stretch goal is met. Another stretch goal will require me to learn how to format for hardcover (and my husband will be learning how to make the cover for that), which is good because I've had that on my list to learn for a bit, anyway. Loooot of learning going on!

Other than that, I'll be appearing on two panels (possibly three, but I haven't heard on the third yet) at Colorado Festival of Horror and working the Denver Horror Collective table sometimes. 

Submission stats are sparse for August (for obvious reasons):

2 short story submissions

4 rejections

9 stories on submission

And that's all for this week! Myth Stalker novel writing has paused while I was working on the Kickstarter, so I'm looking forward to getting back into that.

Have you done a Kickstarter? Are you considering it? What are your insecurities? Have you been submitting?

May you find your Muse.