Sacrosanct
Legend
Frequently I get questions about how much it costs to run a kickstarter for a larger project like I did with Twilight Fables. For context, Twilight Fables is of a quality I think is up there with official books and bigger 3PP like Morrus, Kobold Press, etc even though I'm a very small fry.
I've been a big proponent of transparency as the owner of Izegrim Creations. If for no other reason, I hope that others can learn from me, the mistakes I made, and things that went well. There are many people out there who are creators and don't know what costs are for a large project that would rival one of the big boys in quality. Most of you probably don't care all that much about this, but some of you may find this interesting, especially if you're a creator yourself. And to show that no, us KS creators don't make a ton of money on the projects
I'm sure someone like Morrus will look at these numbers and probably think "You did something seriously wrong to get those figures."
Twilight Fables was the biggest project I've done, and I really reached high for it, as a small-time indie publisher. To walk my talk, here is the transparency for the project now that costs are finalized.
Ad costs: $8,006.50
Commissions (art): $23,354.13 (this could easily be double if I hired the quantity of exclusive art that Morrus or KP have used for similar books)
Materials (including book printing and fulfillment): $27,966.60
Editing: $4000
Total Costs: $63,327.23
Net Kickstarter Proceeds: $49,495.14
Sales since KS ended and files went for public sale (9/1/2022): $2,511
Excess Inventory Value (to be sold directly and at conventions): $13,750
Total Profit/Asset: $65,756.14
After Action Evaluation:
TL, DR version: I knew going in that I'd be lucky to break even because I knew my customer base is smaller than Morrus, Kobold Press, etc. But I really wanted to complete this project. The biggest take away here is that you really want to hit 2000 backers if you want to make money on a project like this (full color, 300ish pages, professional print quality), especially if you hire a writer (not factored in the costs above, because I wrote it myself, but at 10 cents a word, it would be an additional $20,000 or so!) It's all about quantity, because with every 500 or so backers, the physical print cost goes down, and with every single backer, the cost per book in total goes down.
Also of note is the importance of PDFs. Those have zero production and shipping costs, so the actual profit margin may be higher than the book itself. Especially if you have 2000 or fewer print backers.
I've been a big proponent of transparency as the owner of Izegrim Creations. If for no other reason, I hope that others can learn from me, the mistakes I made, and things that went well. There are many people out there who are creators and don't know what costs are for a large project that would rival one of the big boys in quality. Most of you probably don't care all that much about this, but some of you may find this interesting, especially if you're a creator yourself. And to show that no, us KS creators don't make a ton of money on the projects
I'm sure someone like Morrus will look at these numbers and probably think "You did something seriously wrong to get those figures." Twilight Fables was the biggest project I've done, and I really reached high for it, as a small-time indie publisher. To walk my talk, here is the transparency for the project now that costs are finalized.
Ad costs: $8,006.50
Commissions (art): $23,354.13 (this could easily be double if I hired the quantity of exclusive art that Morrus or KP have used for similar books)
Materials (including book printing and fulfillment): $27,966.60
Editing: $4000
Total Costs: $63,327.23
Net Kickstarter Proceeds: $49,495.14
Sales since KS ended and files went for public sale (9/1/2022): $2,511
Excess Inventory Value (to be sold directly and at conventions): $13,750
Total Profit/Asset: $65,756.14
After Action Evaluation:
- I would not spend as much on ads. Didn't seem to have a good RoI. I can definitely do better in this arena.
- The cost per book would have dropped significantly if I was able to double print backers. I just barely made the threshold to make it worth it as opposed to Print on Demand only. If I had the extra print backers, the price per book would have went from $26 each to $18 each, which of course would translate into an extra $8 per book in profit. It truly is a numbers game.
TL, DR version: I knew going in that I'd be lucky to break even because I knew my customer base is smaller than Morrus, Kobold Press, etc. But I really wanted to complete this project. The biggest take away here is that you really want to hit 2000 backers if you want to make money on a project like this (full color, 300ish pages, professional print quality), especially if you hire a writer (not factored in the costs above, because I wrote it myself, but at 10 cents a word, it would be an additional $20,000 or so!) It's all about quantity, because with every 500 or so backers, the physical print cost goes down, and with every single backer, the cost per book in total goes down.
Also of note is the importance of PDFs. Those have zero production and shipping costs, so the actual profit margin may be higher than the book itself. Especially if you have 2000 or fewer print backers.
Last edited:
