The clash of all things indie..... crowdfunding

Welcome to Comic Unknown! 

Today we will be going down a different road for a topic. Today we will talk about CROWDFUNDING!!!!

WHAT IS CROWDFUNDING?

 Crowdfunding  is the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowd funding can be used in multiple types of categories. Art, comics, dance, design, fashion, film and video, food, games, music, photography, publishing, technology, and theater are all categories that you would find in a crowdfunding campaign.

So how does that relate to comics?

 Like said before, comics are one of the many categories that you would find in a crowdfunding site. Crowd funding has been seen in the past to help pay for projects that we see today in indie comics. There are many reasons why a comicbook creator would use crowdfunding. From gathering funds required to print their comicbook to funds to hire someone into their production team, there are just too many reasons for crowdfunding. 

For example, when Comic Unknown had previously asked Jonathan Swinney (letterer of Man of God) why they used Kickstarters, he responded with:

"We ran out of money completing the first three issues. We overprinted issue #1 based on information that Diamond gave us and what we expected our sales to be at C2E2. This had a devastating effect on our budget for the first story arc (Issues 1-6). Kickstarter gave us the money to print the last three (3) issues of the story arc and get them into the fans' hands."

 With the few reasons of crowdfunding, supporters get incentives depending on the amount of money they  each pool in, varying from getting a digital copy or a physical copy to as big as being immortalized into their comicbook. With  many sites out there, the most popular sites for crowdfunding are Kickstarters and Indiegogo. 

Seen in http://www.giantitp.com/

Each site has its pros and cons, its strengths and weaknesses. 

 Kickstarters has a huge community and is very well known. 

The way they get funding is called the All or Nothing funding model. What that means is that if the goal the founder would set up is not reached within the allocated time, the project will not get funded. As much as that sounds a bit drastic, it is a powerful tool to help motivate backers to reach the goal. They have a set of guidelines that the project is required to abide by, and it is also more difficult to create a project outside of the U.S. (or UK) with Kickstarters. Kickstarters uses Amazon Payments as the only method of payment.

 While Indiegogo has a much smaller community, it is more lenient with the funding model let alone easier to create around the world. While they do offer an all or nothing model, the founder can choose whether or not they would want that option. Even though founders put a goal of a specific amount, the goal does not have to be reached to be funded. Indiegogo uses Paypal as the method of payment. 

Project Fees

Another main difference between the two sites are the project fees. Kickstarters charge a rate of 5%, while Indiegogo charges two different rates being 9% (if the project DID NOT reach its goal) and 4% (if the project DID reach its goal).

Verdict

 If your project is within the United States (or UK) and it qualifies for Kickstarters, go for it. Even though they have the all or nothing model, they have a huge community. When ever someone talks about crowdfunding, Kickstarters is usually the first option people go with. 

 Banana Man's creator Vincent J. Cracchiolo did not hesitate to use kickstarters. 

He said, "I never considered another crowdfunding site. There are all sorts of them now that just try to copy what kickstarter has done, and they try to put it down by saying you don't keep the money if it doesn't get funded. That is kind of the point though, if my book only got half funded I would not have wanted to keep the money because then I would be responsible for the other half so that I could get the product to the people that paid. And if you are just worried about not getting funded, then maybe you don't need to be doing the project."

That's it for today at Comic Unknown! 

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter in the top of the page to get all updates of everything C.U.!