Hi, everyone!
As our Kickstarter campaign enters its final stretch, only one Stretch Goal remains:
OK! So, why a panel presentation? What would reaching this goal actually mean – not only for us and our project, but for our backers?
Let’s start with a story. Because, you know. We’re storytellers! 😊
(Though, feel free to skip straight to the answers if you like.)
In the long-ago days of Summer, 2023, my friend and fellow KCS Anthology contributor Sarah Steinberg and I embarked on an experiment. A crowdfunding campaign for our nature comic mystery trilogy The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky: Baffling Birds!( Clicking the link will take you to the full backstory, featuring some of Sarah’s illustrations!)
Like this current Kickstarter, our Nicki and Ricky campaign was lucky enough to achieve full funding early on. But as the final week arrived and the days played out, our last stretch goal had yet to be met.
We’d known from the start this goal was little more than a pie-in-the-sky dream. But, with only hours left in our 30-Day Countdown, the crowdfunding community came through, helping us realize our ultimate aim: attending San Diego Comic-Con, 2024!
Sarah and I collaborate from opposite coasts. I’m an author, she’s an author/illustrator, and we meet online about once a week to discuss our varied projects. Last year’s Comic-Con marked the first time we got to interact in full 3D reality; i.e., as more than chatting heads on a computer screen. Turns out, we both have legs. And feet!
More to the point, our successful project earned us a pair of Comic-Con Professional Badges, and a priceless opportunity to mingle and network with comics creators and fans from across the globe.
This, we did mostly by attending panels, where we met up with more friends from Kids Comics Unite. Friends like Patrick Lugo and Brigitta Blair!
Click here for more info on this Comic-Con adventure! [https://kids-comics-unite.mn.co/posts/kcu-at-sdcc-2024]
And here’s the pointy part of the point:
While attending panels, taking notes, and participating in Q&A sessions with the featured panelists, we noticed something.
Well, more like the absence of something.
A sense of outreach, of community connection…the kind we’ve grown accustomed to providing for each other, and our wider audience.
Which is probably why we noted the absence.
It’s, of course, inevitable that some panels will be more fun and informative than others. It’s also quite natural that many would be more about self-promotion than offering advice and practical steps to help curious creators like us get our own indie projects off the ground.
But that’s the tippity-tip of the point: the gaps we spotted in Comic-Con’s programming.
Gaps we believe our project can fill.
Which brings us to the end of this story of yesteryear, and back to this week’s Final Stretch Goal:
!!!A Panel Presentation for Our Anthology!!!
If you skipped ahead, welcome back! Too bad you missed the – well, never mind. Please, read on!
Not to boast, much, but our creative team here at KCU is something pretty special. Unique, even. Behind the scenes of this project, we have dozens of people busy herding cats and helping minds meet – creatives from around the world, representing a variety of backgrounds and a wide range of skill sets.
And that’s the thing – the value of what we want to share, even beyond this anthology. This campaign.
To make our anthology project happen, we basically turned ourselves into a publishing house, learning by doing as we created content, designed and edited our book, planned our marketing strategy, and publicized our project. Pool all that talent together, you get at least a hundred years or more of collective experiences!
That’s what our panel offers.
With this stretch goal, we’re taking all that experience, all the knowledge and insights we’ve gained producing an independently funded, quality creation from concept to marketing, and presenting it to you – first live, then as a video recording we can offer to our backers.
And not just a recording – a scalable roadmap for those of you who might be wondering how to follow our footsteps; retrace our journey with your own creative expedition.
That means hands-on blueprints that can be adapted to suit venues ranging from local book talks and gallery shows to a panel presentation at the biggest comics convention in the world!
Our live panel, video recording, and scalable blueprints would be invaluable resources, representing the collected knowledge of our one-of-a-kind team. People who’ve been in the comics industry. People experienced in crowdfunding. Seasoned writers, illustrators, designers, editors, marketers – all of whom know what it’s like starting out, and want to help fellow travelers navigate an often tricky and treacherous path. It’s a quest: to provide young readers access to varied arrays of stories and ideas, no matter their circumstances—
—and help more independent creators find ways to get their comics to them.
Interested yet?
Cool beans, because we want you to have a say. Send us your questions! Let us know what you want to learn from our panel!
While you brainstorm, here’s a partial list of the kind of behind-the-curtain insights into our collaborative process our panelists will share:
- Creating Short Form Comics
- Effectively collaborating with an author and/or illustrator
- Writing and Illustrating
- Concept and Theme Building
- Overseeing Production
- Design and Layout
- Editing
- Funding
- Budgeting and Cost Projections
- Shipping and Fulfillment
- Marketing
- Market Research
- Collective and Individual Market Plans
- Maximizing Social Media and Crowdfunding Platforms
- Audience Engagement Tips and Tools
- Demystifying the promotional methods that got our Kickstarter campaign its “Project We Love” accolade!
Our approach spotlights actionable advice for anyone who may wish to submit their work to independent anthologies like ours – or even try publishing one of their own!
Your help meeting our final stretch goal will allow us the means to –
- develop our unique panel,
- record the live event,
- and compile practical blueprints,
All designed to encourage more comics creators to create – not only stories – but independent venues where original comics can be shared and enjoyed. Comics that represent individuals, voices, experiences that cross borders, scale boundaries, and – together – make our world a little better.
Ready to make this stretch goal happen?
Let’s go!
Rowena Zahnrei is a neurodiverse author with a passion for fiction and folklore. Her work has appeared in comics anthologies, children’s magazines, and peer-reviewed academic journals, and her crowdfunded graphic novel trilogy, The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky: Baffling Birds, has been featured at comic-cons and expos across the country.