Kickstarter

gigeee

Hi guys

I'm currently producing a new design for a tarot deck. I've seen others using cloud funding for this, is this the correct approach. Also, how much does this usual cost. I'm using an illustrator and figure came up to around 8k dollars
 

gregory

Crowd funding is a perfectly good way to do it. DO run with Kickstarter - it is possible for backers to be badly burned on indiegogo, so many (like me !) avoid it.

I don't know percentages, but kickstarter takes a cut of your money. So allow for that when estimating how much you will need.. If you have to pay an illustrator, the other obvious option (having gamecrafter or printerstudio print and sell on demand) isn't going to work for you.

But don't spend the money till you get the funding - if you then don't make your target, you won't get any money, and you will be out all you have spent....
 

gigeee

Thank you very much for your reply. Sorry about the delay.

Should be live soon
 

geoxena

DO run with Kickstarter - it is possible for backers to be badly burned on indiegogo, so many (like me !) avoid it . . .
How so? I am very curious!

The only difference I know of is that Indiegogo doesn't require a set amount to be met by a deadline. Since there's a possibility that no money goes toward the project if the monetary goal isn't met by the deadline, the way Kickstarter does it, Indiegogo is more appealing to many people I've known (mostly media-makers and filmmakers).

So, I'd be very interested to learn more about how tarot deck creators have burned people with Indiegogo. Are there any threads about this? I did a search but did not find any specifically about Indiegogo campaigns burning their contributors. Thanks!
 

gregory

I don't know about threads, but I do know of cases where people started to receive money, started to work on the deck and spend it, didn't get their target amount and couldn't afford to complete. I also read of a shocking scam where one creator set up an indiegogo to pay their rent so they could carry on. Neither they nor the money was ever seen again. It is dangerous to give out money in a way that let's people start and not be able to complete. Money is never returned from either platform unless the creator is actually honest enough to do it.

I only know of one, fully funded kickstarter where the creator spun a sob story - here among other places. The deck was funded way over target, but he has vanished and although people have said he is on KS most days,no one got a thing.

So I do mostly avoid ig projects, as being too risky.

Oh there was tarot pink, where they didn't get full funding and to get the deck out - laudable - they saved money by changing the finished product in ways that everyone here hated....
 

Sar

I never give to these projects. I pay when I can get my hands on the deck.
 

geoxena

I've googled around and found numerous stories of scams on Kickstarter, too, where people used the funds for their rent and disappeared with the money. Not, it seems, in tarot card projects, but with games, electronics, etc. So, Kickstarter is just as susceptible in that way. However, it does seem that, overall, most projects that get funded are completed, in both platforms.

The thing about Indiegogo that I like is that it allows a creator to work on a project in stages. It would be frustrating not to be able to do much until a set date in the future. I've backed several film projects on KS which never came to fruition because their goals weren't met by the deadline. If they had been funded in stages, the partial projects could have been used for marketing and to obtain more support to complete the project.
 

GothicArt

There would be many beautiful Tarot Card decks that would never have been produced if it wasn't for Kickstarter and other crowdfunding, I think its great. Learn about how to spot the scammers
 

gregory

I've googled around and found numerous stories of scams on Kickstarter, too, where people used the funds for their rent and disappeared with the money. Not, it seems, in tarot card projects, but with games, electronics, etc. So, Kickstarter is just as susceptible in that way. However, it does seem that, overall, most projects that get funded are completed, in both platforms.

The thing about Indiegogo that I like is that it allows a creator to work on a project in stages. It would be frustrating not to be able to do much until a set date in the future. I've backed several film projects on KS which never came to fruition because their goals weren't met by the deadline. If they had been funded in stages, the partial projects could have been used for marketing and to obtain more support to complete the project.
But in those cases, you were not charged. If a kickstarter project doesn't meet its target, no money changes hands.

I am NOT happy with the staged payouts on indiegogo. If the person doesn't get enough in the end and has started work - the money is gone AND the project fails. I feel much safer with kickstarter, where only one paid project has totally failed and was clearly a scam - and one is rather in limbo, but I still think it will make it. And I agree it gets a lot of decks out there that otherwise wouldn't have been created. But it's so easy to say learn to spot the scammers. That guy who did the Symbolist and let us all down even posted here a lot and didn't seem to be a scammer, but...