By Zack Quaintance — I mentioned this in a blog post last week, but one of the inspirations for me to stick with it and continue promoting my Kickstarter as hard as I can has been writer David Pepose, who also launched his first Kickstarter project this month and is having tremendous success with it. Pepose’s project is called The O.Z., and you can read all about it on The O.Z. campaign page. In just a week, The O.Z. has brought in a tremendous $28,000 (and counting!) from 757 backers.

The O.Z. has fantastic art with a killer concept. It’s also been shrewdly marketed by Pepose, who has capitalized here on years of hard work he’s put in to build an audience, an audience that understands and appreciates the work he does putting new, meaningful twists on familiar IPs. All of this is to say that Pepose was kind enough to jump into a conversation this weekend with me, where we interviewed each other about our respective Kickstarters.

You can find our chat below, and, as always, you can back my book on the Next Door campaign page and you can back David’s book on The O.Z. campaign page!

David Pepose Interview

ZACK QUAINTANCE: Hey David! We’ve been friends for a little while, so I’ll just go ahead and ask — I’m sure you knew your first Kickstarter would be big...but did you know it would be this **waves hands wildly** big?!

DAVID PEPOSE: Um, literally never! (Laughs) Call me a pessimist, but I hope for the best, but often plan for the worst… but you have backup plans and backup plans, but not for 400% funding and climbing! It’s like stepping out to grab a sandwich and winding up on the moon — there’s no preparing for that whatsoever, so you’ve got to figure it out on the fly. 

Speaking of which, I know you gave me some much-needed forewarning for the environment of Kickstarter, which feels a little like its own planet with its own laws of physics. Was there anything particularly counterintuitive or unexpected to you when you launched your Kickstarter, versus the rules of the Direct Market that we’re both more experienced with?

ZACK: The concentrated intensity of the first few days hit me like a truck. (Laughs) I was told in advance by multiple people that it would be time-consuming, but from the outside, I think Kickstarter campaigns seem slower. With our campaign, though, I basically blinked on Monday and all of a sudden it was Wednesday, and I had to assess what had worked, what hadn’t, and what approach we’d take next. It’s just a quicker moving animal, and one that’s not split between announcement, final order cutoff, and release like the direct market.

One thing I’ve been wondering about your campaign is if the scope of the success has changed any of your plans for promoting through the month? I’ve seen the added stretch goals (which are very cool!), but are you pivoting at all in other ways?

DAVID: Absolutely. For me, the directive has changed substantially — five days ago, it was, “can we pull off the funding for this campaign?” Now it’s become, “how do we continue to build our readership, but do so in a way that continues to add value?” You want it to not even have the appearance of a money grab, y’know? I’m just here to keep inviting more people to the table, to build that wider consensus — it’s the reason I did Kickstarter in the first place, was to reach out to a demographic of readers I hadn’t previously engaged with at all.

So in that regard, my constraints have been what can I add to the book itself, what can I offer as an add-on, and what can I distribute digitally — all without blowing our budget or delaying the release of the actual book. I’m working in the mathematics of Gemini Mailers, Priority Envelopes and Priority Boxes, each of which offer different opportunities.

If there’s one other law of physics I didn’t expect with Kickstarter, though, it’s how publicity and buzz comes in waves. Kickstarter itself does a good job at continuing to promote both our books — every time I see an update on someone else’s Kickstarter, I usually see one or both of our books mentioned in the comments. But at the same time, those first 48 hours are your big spikes, and even by Day Three or Four, you’re seeing less on Twitter and the blogosphere.

I’ve got a few ideas in mind for how to continue to spread the word AND offer different kinds of stretch goals. For example, starting this week, we’re going to be launching a Social Stretch Goal — if we get a certain number of likes and retweets on a Twitter post, we’ll unlock a beautiful, haunting theme song that we had recorded for The O.Z., which all backers will get an audio file for. But it’s definitely all about thinking outside of the box.

As somebody else who’s been in the comics journalism (and regular journalism!) trenches like you, how have you navigated that tightrope act between marketing your book to readers, while still leaving some secrets in your back pocket? And are you disseminating that sort of info primarily through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, your targeted Kickstarter updates…?

ZACK: If I’m being totally honest, a lot of what I’ve done has been an accident. Like you pointed out, things slow down in a big way after the first three days, but we got a bump to start our second week when we unveiled Anna Readman’s hilarious and amazing variant cover. The truth is I really only withheld it for something like three days, because deciding to add a fun extra cover was a late decision.

Also, with this being the first book of my own I’ve ever marketed, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. (Laughs) Pre-launch, we prepped a nice four-page scene from the book that was kind of a microstory. My not-so-genius idea was to put it on the campaign page in pieces rather than consecutively. I didn’t even put all four pages on there. I corrected that later, and when I shared it on Twitter, the response was great. I realized my mistake after readers started telling me they’d backed my book because they like my site...but now they were glad they did because it looked interesting.

And Twitter is the main avenue I’m using to promote. That’s where the audience for my website is, so it makes the most sense. Instagram is a platform that’s always been mysterious to me, though I’ve had luck sharing art from the book on there, especially on my Instagram story, which I think lends itself well to constant promotion, especially with visuals. 

One thing I’ve noticed this week is a significant number of comics folks online talking about starting their own Kickstarter, which I think is pretty clearly a direct result of your massive success (and maybe also this guy Scott Snyder, who’s done well for himself with his first project on the platform). Have you had folks reaching out for tips, and if so, what do you think is the most valuable advice for established creators looking to run a Kickstarter?

DAVID: Great question. I’ve had a few folks reach out, and it’s going to be so different for each book and each creator. From a creative standpoint, I always say that accessibility is key — the art of storytelling is the art of making a stranger give a damn. Why should readers care? Why should readers be excited? Being able to succinctly describe your project is the first step; being able to target your specific reader demographic comes shortly thereafter. 

The other thing I’d tell creators is that (forgive me for the Oz pun), but you’re not in Kansas anymore. The metrics of the Direct Market aren’t going to work here — the emphasis on Kickstarter is for a bigger project at a higher price point, and you’ll have to work hard at establishing value for every step of the way. People who are as established as Scott Snyder or Cullen Bunn or Jimmy Palmiotti will be able to bring their fan bases with them to an extent — and I think we did that from Spencer & Locke and Going to the Chapel as well — but know that you’re going to have to hustle as hard as you did with your first indie book.

For you, what’s been your favorite part of the Kickstarter experience? And for creators who are second-guessing themselves about taking the leap, what would you tell them to inspire them?

ZACK: The thing I’m enjoying most is being part of a wave of amazing projects. I’m just blown away by the quality of books on here. Your book looks like an amazing evolution of the great work you’ve been doing for a while now, Scott Snyder’s project is innovative in the way it’s giving access to fans, and our pal Frankee White has a phenomenal mech story he’s doing for charity (more on that next week here, btw). Meanwhile, projects like Holy West from writer Seth Jacob and artist Daniel Irizarri look fantastic, and they’re both entirely new creators to me, whom I never would have found without Kickstarter. 

So that’s wild, being part of something so exciting. As far as what I would tell creators second-guessing themselves...it sounds cheesy as all get out, but if I can do this so can you. I’ve been writing prose for a good while and journalism forever, but I had no idea if anyone would be interested in a comic I wrote, and they maybe wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t gotten such great advice when building this thing from the rest of the Kickstarter community, specifically thinking of creators like Charlie Stickney and Ryan Burke, who helped me with so many things big and small. This is going to sound cheesy again, but my advice is work hard, bet on yourself, and — most importantly — don’t hesitate to reach out to others for help…you’ll do great.

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.