How to Run a Kickstarter Campaign for Authors
Kickstarter has moved well past experimental for indie authors. Thousands of authors run campaigns annually — funding special editions, foil hardcovers, illustrated editions, and reader-beloved projects that retail economics cannot support. This guide covers the complete campaign lifecycle from Kickstarter account setup through BackerKit post-campaign store configuration and physical fulfillment.
Step 1: Create Your Kickstarter Account
Go to kickstarter.com and sign up. Create your account as a creator (not just a backer). Complete your creator profile with your name, photo, and a brief bio. Kickstarter reviews creator accounts before allowing campaigns to launch — complete your profile fully and verify your identity. This verification is a one-time step.
Connect a payment method. Kickstarter uses Stripe to process backer payments. Connect your bank account through the payment setup in your creator dashboard. Kickstarter takes approximately 5% of successfully funded campaigns, plus Stripe's payment processing fees (approximately 3–5% additional, depending on transaction mix).
⚠ Kickstarter is all-or-nothing. If your campaign does not reach its funding goal by the deadline, no backers are charged and you receive nothing. Set a realistic, achievable funding goal — not the amount you hope to raise, but the minimum you need to deliver the core reward.
Step 2: Calculate Your Funding Goal
Your funding goal should represent the minimum amount required to deliver your core promised reward — typically the main book in your primary physical format. Use this formula:
Printing cost per copy × minimum order quantity (estimate from Lulu or BookVault cost calculators)
Plus: Kickstarter and payment processing fees (approximately 8–10% of total pledges)
Plus: Shipping cost for your core physical tier (estimate per-copy average across your expected backer geography)
Plus: Any fixed production costs already incurred or required (cover design, editing, interior illustrations)
The sum of these is your minimum viable funding goal. Set your public goal at this number. A lower, achievable goal that you're confident you can meet in the first 48 hours generates momentum — campaigns that fund quickly attract additional backers through Kickstarter's discovery systems.
Step 3: Design Your Reward Tiers
Reward tiers are the products backers receive at each pledge level. Design them to offer clear value at each level without creating fulfillment complexity you can't handle.
Recommended Tier Structure for a Novel Campaign
Keep your physical tier count to three or four. Every additional tier increases fulfillment complexity. Your first campaign should be deliberately simple — a digital tier, a paperback tier, and a hardcover tier is sufficient. Add complexity in subsequent campaigns once you understand your fulfillment capacity.
Physical Add-Ons
Add-ons are optional extras backers can add to any tier during or after the campaign. Common add-ons: bookmarks, enamel pins, character art prints, sticker sheets, signed bookplates. Add-ons increase average pledge value but also increase fulfillment complexity. Price each add-on to cover its production cost plus packing time. Limit your first campaign to no more than two or three add-ons.
Stretch Goals
Stretch goals are additional rewards or enhancements that unlock when the campaign exceeds its funding goal by specified thresholds. Example structure: at 150% funded, all backers receive an exclusive bonus short story PDF; at 200% funded, hardcover edition gets sprayed edges; at 300% funded, interior chapter illustrations are added.
Design stretch goals that are genuinely exciting to your readers, realistically producible, and that don't create impossible fulfillment complexity if all goals unlock simultaneously. Stretch goals drive backer sharing — readers want the goals to unlock and will promote your campaign to help reach them.
⚠ Do not commit to stretch goal rewards you cannot reliably produce. Authors who over-promise stretch goals — full-color interior art, foil covers, multiple format variants — and then cannot deliver them damage backer trust permanently. Design stretch goals conservatively based on what you can actually execute.
Step 4: Plan Your Fulfillment
Before you launch, know exactly how you will produce and ship your physical rewards. Discover fulfillment problems before you have 500 committed backers — not after.
Print Fulfillment Partners
Choose your print fulfillment platform before launching and use their cost calculators to price your tiers correctly:
BookVault — UK printing, ideal for UK and European backers; premium printing options including foil covers and sprayed edges; confirm premium feature availability before announcing
Lulu — US printing, ideal for US and North American backers; cost calculator available at lulu.com
Many experienced Kickstarter authors use both: BookVault for UK/European backer fulfillment, Lulu for US/North American backer fulfillment. This dual-fulfillment approach requires split shipping but significantly reduces per-backer shipping cost on international orders.
Shipping Estimates
Research shipping costs before setting tier prices. Shipping a signed paperback from the US to Australia or Europe can cost $15–25. If your backer base is international and you haven't factored in shipping, your campaign can generate pledges that don't cover your fulfillment costs. Use a shipping calculator (Pirateship.com is popular for US authors) to estimate costs to major backer geographies before setting your prices.
Premium Printing Confirmation
If your campaign reward tiers include foil covers, sprayed edges, or other premium finishing, confirm availability and current lead times with BookVault or your printer directly before announcing those rewards. Premium printing capabilities can have variable availability and longer lead times than standard print. Discover this before your campaign goes live, not after you've collected thousands in pledges.
Step 5: Build Your Campaign Page
Your campaign page is the sales page that converts a browser into a backer. It must quickly establish trust, generate desire, and make the backing decision feel easy and safe.
Campaign Video
Record a 2–3 minute video of yourself discussing the project. You don't need professional production — a well-lit, clearly audible video recorded on a modern phone is sufficient. Speak directly to potential backers: what you're making, why it exists, and why they should back it now. Show any physical samples or comparable products if you have them. Campaigns with videos consistently outperform those without.
Page Structure
Header: compelling project image or video
Project description: what you're making and why it's special — lead with the most exciting element (the foil cover, the exclusive bonus content, the signed first edition)
Physical reward mockups: high-quality images of what backers receive — either photographs of comparable previous editions or professional-quality mockup images
Reward tier breakdown: clear table of what each tier includes
Stretch goals: visual display of what unlocks at each threshold
Production and shipping timeline: realistic schedule for delivery
About the author: brief, reader-friendly biography
Risks and challenges: a sincere acknowledgment of what could go wrong and how you'll handle it — this builds more trust than pretending no risks exist
Step 6: Launch Sequence
The first 48 hours of your campaign determine whether it succeeds. Most of your initial funding comes from your existing audience — not from Kickstarter's discovery systems. Launch to your email list first.
Send your launch announcement email to your full list the morning your campaign goes live
Post on every social channel where you have readers
Reach out personally to author peers and ask them to share
Update your author website, social media bios, and back matter links to point to the campaign
Kickstarter's algorithm surfaces campaigns that are trending — campaigns that fund quickly and have active backer engagement. The faster you reach your goal, the more Kickstarter promotes you to its own audience. Every action you take in the first 48 hours has compounding return.
Step 7: Set Up BackerKit
BackerKit (backerkit.com) is post-campaign management software that is effectively required for any campaign with physical rewards. Set it up before your campaign ends.
What BackerKit Does
Collects backer shipping addresses after the campaign closes
Allows backers to add items to their pledge through the BackerKit store
Runs a post-campaign store where new customers can purchase after the Kickstarter window closes
Manages pledge fulfillment tracking and shipping integration
The BackerKit Post-Campaign Store
This is BackerKit's most financially significant feature for authors. After your Kickstarter closes, BackerKit continues to sell your campaign products to readers who found your campaign too late to back it. Many authors report earning 20–40% of their total campaign income through BackerKit's post-campaign period. Open the post-campaign store for a minimum of 30–60 days after campaign close.
BackerKit Setup
Create your BackerKit account at backerkit.com
Connect your Kickstarter campaign to BackerKit
Set up your survey — the questions backers answer to provide shipping addresses and any product customization choices (personalized inscription, book signing name, etc.)
Configure your post-campaign store with all campaign products and any new add-ons you want to offer
Set your BackerKit prices — typically the same as or slightly higher than campaign prices to reflect that the campaign discount has ended
Step 8: Fulfillment
When your campaign closes and BackerKit surveys are complete, you have backer shipping addresses and all order details. Now execute fulfillment.
Export your backer address list from BackerKit, segmented by physical region (US, UK, Europe, Australia, etc.)
Place your print order with BookVault (UK/Europe backers) and/or Lulu (US/North American backers) using their direct order or Shopify fulfillment integrations
If providing signed copies, coordinate receiving copies and signing them before shipping — or ship directly from POD for unsigned copies
Update BackerKit with tracking numbers as orders ship — backers receive automated shipping notifications
Post regular campaign updates throughout the production and shipping process — communication during fulfillment is critical for maintaining backer trust
Kickstarter and BackerKit campaign income tracks in ScribeCount as part of your direct revenue. For authors running regular Kickstarter campaigns alongside their wide retail distribution, seeing campaign income alongside Kobo, Apple, and Amazon royalties in ScribeCount shows how crowdfunding contributes to your total annual author income — and whether it's growing campaign over campaign.
Backer Communication
Update your backers regularly throughout the entire campaign lifecycle:
During the campaign: mid-campaign update with progress toward stretch goals; final 48-hour urgency update
After campaign closes: thank you update with BackerKit survey link and production timeline
During production: regular updates when key milestones are hit (files submitted to printer, proof approved, printing started, books shipped)
During shipping: notification when backer orders ship with tracking numbers
Backers who receive regular communication become advocates for your next campaign. Backers who receive silence become skeptics. Communication is the highest-ROI investment in long-term crowdfunding success.
Common Kickstarter Mistakes
Setting a funding goal too high for a first campaign — slow early progress kills momentum
Adding too many physical add-ons without fully costing out production and shipping
Committing to stretch goal rewards (foil covers, sprayed edges) without confirming printer availability first
Not setting up BackerKit before campaign close — missing the post-campaign store income
Not communicating with backers during production — silence damages trust
Not tracking Kickstarter income through ScribeCount — making it impossible to evaluate the campaign's contribution to total annual income
Kickstarter is not quick and it is not passive — it requires planning, execution, and sustained backer communication. But the authors who do it well are building something that retail cannot replicate: a direct reader community that funds your best creative work before a single copy is printed, proves demand before you invest, and generates income at margins that retail platforms will never match.
-Randall Wood