I fully believe that your first section should talk about your story. I want to know what the heck this project is about!
One of the above headers will work for your campaign. If you only have the one, it’s absolutely fine, we want to see it. If you’ve got seventeen variants, at least tease ’em!
Show me interior pages. For me personally, I’ve found that pages without text make me get more involved mentally – wondering what everyone is doing, who everyone is, etc. Unless you’ve got a sick line of dialogue that you want to entice people with, I’d go text-less samples.
Here you can tell us how many pages the book is – this is a must. The backers want to make informed decisions.
List the rewards at the absolute minimum, but pictures of each tier are the best.
Be clear, tell us what we’re getting, and what each tier adds to the previous one or why it’s different.
THERE SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE A DIGITAL TIER. Whether it’s a sketchbook, art book, prose novella, full novel, comic book, graphic novel – provide digital tiers. Digital copies are free money. I should not have to explain this.
Tell me how I can give you more money.
An opportunity that a lot of people miss out on is putting ALL add-ons on all tiers. You may not think of a tier that someone might want, so let your customers decide.
Let them decide if they want the $5 single digital copy and want to add your $20 first volume in physical, or your trading cards, or your bookmarks. If that’s not a tier that you made, you just let them make their own tier. I’ve personally gone from a $10 tier up to $50 with addons. Just because the add-ons were there.
I honestly think every campaign should have stretch goals. Come up with a few, and as the campaign gets to about 75%-80% funded, add the first one as a mystery item with the goal amount. Add further goals as the money comes in.
Examples: For comics – a B&W version of the book – perhaps with commentary? For novels – a lost chapter perhaps, with an explanation of why it was cut. If you’re printing material – increase page count with a backup story or short story, improve printing materials, add accents like gold leaf, chrome, etc.
This one’s self-explanatory! Who made this thing?
Simple again. Where’s this shipping from? How much will shipping cost or is it included?
When’s the book expected to be done? How soon after completion will it ship? Are there any things outside of your control that will affect the timeline – editing, inking, coloring, printing, etc? I want to have a real and honest estimation of when to expect my rewards in hand or in my email inbox.
Why Kickstarter? Why crowdfunding?