We're often tempted to jump into crowdfunding — Patreon, Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, etc. — before we're ready. And that can be a big mistake in many ways. So, let's talk about getting our timing right.
It would be nice to throw our merchandise out into the ether and allow success to manifest itself. After all, who wouldn't like to be an overnight success? Realistically, however, most overnight successes have a ten-year backstory we never hear about.
But there's a deeper problem here. Let's take the case of a cartoonist who wants to launch a Kickstarter for their new book. They likely have a stack of finished comics to collect into that book. (Or at least they'd better... launching a Kickstarter without having the product ready to roll is a recipe for disaster.) So... the cartoonist ostensibly has been publishing a webcomic for a long time, and yet they know it's not reaching an audience. The traffic to their website is small. They have a meager social media following. Their audience interaction is minimal.
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