Obviously, my latest one ends tomorrow, and I’ve been thinking about the implications of this one. Obviously I’m not an expert at crowdfunding: if I was an expert, I’d have done better than 86 microsandersons* this go-round. But, four successful Kickstarters in a row does argue that I’m doing something right. And maybe I should start thinking about putting together a presentation, for like cons and stuff.
I dunno, though. I’m not sure how successful you have to be to usefully pontificate about this topic. And whether there’d even be enough interest to justify the effort. Thoughts?
Moe Lane
*1 sanderson = $30,000,000, so one microsanderson = 30,000,000/1,000,000 = $30. Technically it’d be 86.3 microsandersons, but who’s counting?
I’d say that you have enough experience that it is no longer the case that you *should not*. The question that remains is whether or not you *should*… and the answer to that hinges on whether you feel like the experiences you’ve had with the platform have given you insights worth sharing. Something like….
– You wish you’d had them when you started.
– You’re pretty sure they’re still true, and will continue to be so for the near-to-mid future.
– They’re not easily available to anyone with an inquiring mind and access to Google.
If you can hit all three of those points, you’ve got something that it’s potentially worth people’s time to listen to… and the amount of experience you’ve had thus far suggests that it’s likely to be reasonably accurate, rather than merely a phantasm of your own mind. If you have enough of that stuff to fill a presentation, then you have enough for a presentation.
As for demand, you can again ask questions of yourself.
– Would *you* have gone to such a presentation, had it been offered? (If not, don’t bother. Younger you is basically the dead center of your target audience here.)
– Think about what traits of younger you made you the sort of person who would go to such a thing. Are there likely to be enough people like that at whatever your target con is to reach your target level of interest?
Admittedly, introspection is a somewhat crude tool on this one, and you could easily get more accurate answers by asking people who are specifically good at things like “knowing what con-goers want” but it’s a start.
I agree with the above. At the very least, you ought to try to make the Sanderson a legitimate unit of measure. It’s still fractions of a Rowling, but sounds much more scientific.
No need to work to hard, given current conditions the Sanderson will be mainstreamed within three years when you need two of them to pay for a cup of coffee.