Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come - Post-Kickstarter Thoughts

Yesterday, the Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come concluded, having raised 152% of its original funding goal. If you helped make that happen, thank you. If you were late to the party, but would still like to place a Late Pledge, you can do so here.

I have now run 16 successful Kickstarter campaigns, but I have never done things quite the same way twice. I am always trying to refine the process, hoping to find the key that will unlock the greatest crowdfunding success. This time, that involves forking out a not insubstantial amount for targeted Facebook ads.

I don't feel I quite have the handle on such ads yet. Some appeared to do much better than others but I have no idea whether that was reflected in the actual amount raised. I still did a lot of promotion myself on social media and I wonder whether the Kickstarter might have raised just as much as it did even if I hadn't paid for any ads at all.

Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come is my most funded ACE Gamebooks Kickstarter to date, in terms of both money raised and number of backers who came on board, but Dracula: Curse of the Vampire comes a close second, and managed to make almost as much money with close to 100 fewer backers. Is that a reflection on the source material for the adventure, or the economic pressures of the times? I don't know.

What I do know is that my ACE Gamebook Kickstarters haven't gone viral yet, but neither am I willing to shell out thousands of pounds to a marketing agency on the off chance that their input might make a significant difference. When I spoke to one marketer, everything he said that his company would do were things I was already doing myself, although I would hope that they would do a better job with targeted Facebook ads than I did.

I will need to think carefully before I settle on what will be my next ACE Gamebook Kickstarter, but I have a couple of ideas that are both things I haven't done yet within the series.

However, for the time being, I have a new ACE Gamebook to finish and some artwork to commission.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die."