Successfully Funded! Some Stats and Insights

The Zine Quest 3 Kickstarter campaign for The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade came to a close. It funded within an hour and had a steady growth through the 14 days. Here are some stats from my campaign. 

Backers: 406 

Pledged: $4616, of that amount $1009 was collected for postage. 

Biggest Pledge Day: $1357 (106 backers) - this was the first day of the campaign. 

Project Followers: 284 at the end. The highest number I had was 301 at one point.

Converted Followers: 124 which translated into a 43% conversation rate. Which is excellent. 

Coffee Pledge: 2 pledged the coffee level. One was my mother who pledge a $100. I can get a lot of coffee with that. Equates to 28.3% of the total pledges. 

PDF Pledge: 115 wanted the PDF. Equates to 28.3% of the total pledges. 

Print/PDF Pledge: 287 wanted the zine in their hands. Equates to 70.7% of the total pledges. 74 are from international backers from 21 different countries. 

Reduced or Cancelled Pledges: There were many cancelled and reduced pledges this time around. It happens. I'm estimating $400 to $600 pledges were cancelled or reduced. The funny thing is when Ivy would ask me the check where I was at, I'd click on my page and a few seconds later I'd lose a pledge. I kept jinxing myself. 

My Take on this Year's Zine Quest: This year I started behind. The original idea I had that was mostly written was too large. And then Jim, my artist from last year, was already booked to the gills. So I was scrambling to come up with something that was interesting that I wanted to work on for the next few months. And search for an artist at the last minute.

I got lucky and I contacted Jason Sholtis. He helped me with my first zine and was available. His style really fit the style I wanted to go with this year.

Over a year ago I did an adventure for my Patreon called The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade. I always loved the title and concept. I wanted to expand it and thought it was perfect for this years Zine Quest. 

Printing: I also chose to go with a professional printer this year instead of printing it on my own. It'll be less stressful and after doing the numbers, much, much cheaper. In addition, it's going to give me a lot more options for layout. I'm excited to play around with that.

Maps: This year I recruited Rob Conley to help me with maps. His maps are amazing and will work great on VTT. I am added his maps for VTT play.

Editing: I have my editng team from last year. Joethelawyer and my wife, Ivy, will clean up my work. Make it look good. 

Distributors: I'm going to read out to distributors this year to carry my zine. I've attempted this in the past, but haven't had any luck. Fingers crossed.

That's a look behind this year's Kickstarter. I've got to get back to writing some crypts. It's been a blast so far. 

The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade Sneak Peek

Here is a glimpse at The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade's Jason Sholtis cover. Still needs tweaks and smoothing out some of the details because of the layout I'm going for. I wanted a 50's horror movie poster look and I'm pretty happy with its progress. 

Then I've been getting maps from Rob Conley. Some folks asked why I didn't use my own maps this time. I wanted to have maps that are clear even if small. Rob's maps are always fantastic and the map pack that'll come with the pdf will be very useful with online play. 

One of Zine Quest's rules is you can have black, white, and one color. Some of my favorite book covers are by Michael Whelan. He did these series of gray scale covers for HP Lovecraft paperbacks with a splash of red mingled in. That simple splash of red made those covers amazing and something that I always remembered. That's what I wanted for this zine. The pop of red. Here's a few sample covers by Michael. 

The Kickstarter campaign is going very well. I funded within the first hour and now stand at 657% funding. Which is phenomenal. With so many projects out there it's easy to get lost in the tidal zine tidal wave. And this was just the first week!

My next post I'm focusing on the zine projects I backed. This year I've invested a chunk of money to get zines. And to get physical copies. Last year, I backed a few oat the PDF level and it's not the same. I need to have it in my hand and on my shelf.

Now for more self-promotion. Please check out my Kickstarter campaign, The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade. It's been a fun project so far. And really, how can you have too many crypts to explore?

A Zine Nudge

Zine Quest 3 is going crazy with a ton of selections, but there are two that will fund, but I wanted to give them a nudge to get them over the funding line. 

This first one is by Frank Turfler Jr. Lair of the Manticore! Barrow NO. 13. Located deep in the marshes, protected by the dangerous local fauna and nearly impassable terrain, it is rumored that a terrifying Manticore has recently made its home here.

Rumors spread fast and suddenly there is an odd stranger at the Keep offering an extremely large reward for the live capture of the beast.

Frank's only $82 away!

The second is by Jeffery Jones, Scoundrels: Making Your Game Criminal. Running games involving crimes is fun. Many of our favorite movies, TV shows, and comics center around themes of heists, robberies, gangs, bootlegging, or even acts of extreme violence. Sometimes the protagonists are criminals trying to climb the ladder for wealth and power; other times they are “Robin Hoods”, nobly fighting injustices through their own criminal acts.

When you want to run games with a criminal focus, you'll find a lack of solid tools that support this kind of play. From sandbox adventures, to side-quests, to fleshing out existing adventures, Scoundrels helps you–the GM–run a successful crime-themed game each and every game night.

Jeffery is a mere $44 away.

Please take a moment and check these two out and give them the nudge to put them over their funding goal!