My First Kickstarter

Early in 2014 (in February if all goes well), I will launch my first Kickstarter to help me publish my Cthulhu Dark scenario He Who Laughs Last. Over the past few months, I have been doing a ton of research on running a successful Kickstarter campaign, and while success is by no means guaranteed, I think I do have a handle on what is needed to help make it as successful as possible.

First has been the research itself. Hoo boy, have I done a bunch of research. It’s tough to find time for writing when I’ve been doing so much research. But so much has already been written on what makes a successful KS campaign, I think it’s better to share some of the resources than reiterate everything they’ve said. So here are the steps I’m taking to build a successful KS campaign. You can check in with me after my campaign is done and see whether it worked:

  • Start with Kickstarter: Look at KS campaigns, lots of them – no, ALL of them. Really, especially in the specific genre. In my case, both Cthulhu and RPG are searches I run on a regular basis, always checking out what other people are doing. Watch the videos, read the funding levels, and begin to see Kickstarter in your sleep. By now, I’ve seen so many KS campaigns, I can kinda tell if someone’s campaign is going to choke or not.
  • Read blogs: Again, my purpose here on the web isn’t to be an expert on Kickstarter, as so many others have done it better. So I’ve been reading and reading and reading, again, so much I don’t seem to be writing as much. Blogs like Stonemaier Games, James Mathe, and Richard Bliss are all must-reads and have given me great ideas and perspective on this journey.
  • Funding the Dream: Speaking of Richard Bliss, if you don’t do anything else to prepare for your KS campaign, you MUST listen to his podcast. All of it. I’ve been catching up on episodes all summer and is by-far the most important resource for Kickstarter I have seen (heard). Start now.
  • Support KS campaigns: How many campaigns have you supported? Right now I’m at 17, but I support another every 2-3 months and will continue to do so. Supporting KS campaigns is important for two reasons: 1, it gives you perspective on how/not to run a campaign and 2, it shows you’re part of the community. Seriously, you need to back some campaigns before you go ask people for money. I’ve decided not to fund what otherwise looks like a good game just because the person has never backed any campaigns.

So those are all resources on running a successful campaign, but then there’s a whole other thing: social media. You need a social media strategy. Actually, *I* need a social media strategy. Or at least did need one. I like Facebook fine, but so much of my effort is taken up in life (work, family, health), with some drumming and gaming with friends thrown in, that there’s no way I could decide on a social media strategy on my own. Know what I did? I found someone to help me.

Gregory Geiger is a friend, yes, but he’s also a nerd and a photographer and web designer and social media knowitall. You need to find someone like Gregory to help you figure this shit out. He has helped me figure out how to manage both a personal and public FB profile (which I’m still working on), as well as how to build a sympathetic relationship between my blog, my public FB persona, and my Twitter feed. Fortunately, I just have to pay Gregory in lunches, which is a super cheap way to get great info from someone who is focused on these sorts of things. If social media ain’t your thing, then go find yourself a Gregory.

Finally, as most importantly, you need to produce. This is the most important lesson that seems lost on most of us when we look at cool internet people like Wil Weaton, Scott Sigler and Chris Hardwick and wonder how we can get there. You know the one thing these guys do really, really well? They produce shit ALL THE TIME. Have you seen their Twitter feeds? Their FB posts? Their podcasts? They are constantly online sharing funny and informative stuff, like just about every day. You have to give the people something. All the time.

Long gone are the days of just sitting at your desk for months and years, typing away at your masterpiece until your editor comes and takes it away and you can start your next book. Today, you need to be out there producing at least five days a week. You need blog posts, Twitter posts, FB posts, updates to your web site or G+ or LinkedIn profile or whatever it takes. You need to be giving the people something all the time. ALL THE TIME.

A good friend of mine is writing his YA masterpiece and he has worked very hard at it, but he doesn’t even know that his real hard has yet to begin. Yes, Stasey has a blog and that’s a good thing. But the climb up to get your social media strategy enabled is long and takes being on your phone ALL THE TIME. How do I know this? Because I’ve used Twitter more in the past month than in the rest of my life.

Speaking of which, the rest of my life is calling, so I must go. But I want to hear your story about your social media strategy, or what steps you’ve taken to get your Kickstarter campaign prepared. Well?

Interview with Chris Livingston

Way back in 2001 I interviewed Chris Livingston, who was just finishing his long-running temp web site Not My Desk. This is the interview in its entirety, and look for a new update some time soon…
Pie Driver Interviews Not My Desk

PD: So I’m going to interview you for my site. we’ll do one question at a time, and it will be this cool email string that we can go back and edit and make even cooler. Cool?

NMD: BRING IT.

PD: What made you start a web site about temping?

NMD: Allow me to set the stage for you. The year: 1942. The city: Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The writer: 13 year-old Anne Frank, hiding in her attic, writing faithfully in her diary. Powerful. Poignant. Unforgettable.

Funny? Mmmm… no. Not a lot of humor, almost no mention of fiendish fax machines, vengeful copiers, or unpredictable office chairs. Little talk of nose-hair issues or ties getting caught in paper-shredders or male co-workers’ nipples showing through their dress shirts. No essays, not a single one, about fart noises.

Obviously, there was a niche, just waiting to be filled. That’s where I came in.

Okay, seriously, I had been writing essays about my temp jobs and sending them (unsolicited) to my family and friends. One day it occurred to me: why should only they suffer, when I can hurt others with my immature and predictable stories? There’s a world of strangers out there, and I can reach them, and annoy them, through the internet.

PD: What sort of disease did you contract that made you want to eschew the full-time job-thing for the uncertainties of the temping world?

NMD: Well, for a while there, it wasn’t so uncertain. There were jobs galore out there. I could pick and choose. I could specify what I was looking for, be picky about location and pay. I could wear nothing but big cotton briefs to my jobs and no one would complain for fear of me quitting. Many of my interviews ended with me forcing the interviewer to do a little dance for me and shower me with fresh-baked cookies. It was a temp’s market. The tables have turned these days. Now they’re wearing the big cotton briefs, so to speak.

PD: Now that the boom is over, and George W. is firmly planted in the White House, is finding work become easier or harder?

NMD: It’s definitely harder. Back when Clinton was running things, he’d call me every few days to make sure I was finding work. Nice guy. But does Bush do that? No. Of course not. He calls maybe once every two weeks. What a jerk.

PD: Are you, as rumored, the Uber-temp? Or more of the Anti-Temp? Or just a plain, old Generic Temp?

NMD: I’d have to go with Anti-Temp. Definitely not Uber-Temp. An Uber-Temp would be a Jack-of-all-Trades, completely proficient at everything, like Lara Flynn Boyle is in the film “The Temp”, before she freaks out and starts killing everyone in predictable ways. I’m not a Jack-of-all-Trades. I’m more of a Jerry-of-a-Couple-Things. I can do a few things okay, but I have to fake the rest.

Also, it’s rare that I really take advantage of the resources the Generic Temp has at his or her disposal. I hardly ever call in sick, or skip work, masturbate in the lobby, or walk away from jobs. I’m also not really looking for anything permanent, like a lot of temps are.

So, I guess I’m the Anti-Temp. I care a little too much about what my employers think of me to be a complete pill. And I don’t steal as much as I should.

PD: What came first: the employed temp or the unemployed temp?

NMD: This is a silly question. Too silly to bother answering.

Although…

No, it’s silly.

But…

Hm. I mean, to be an employed temp, you need to sign up at a temp agency and get an assignment. Between the time a temp signs up and gets assigned, I suppose they are officially a temp, yet not employed. So, it would seem that an unemployed temp would have to come first. But then, let’s say the “temp” decides he doesn’t want to temp, or is so droolingly incompetent or surly or ugly that he never does get assigned… was he ever a temp? AGGGGGGHHHHHH NOW I WON’T SLEEP!
DAMN YOU, DAVE OF PIEDRIVER!!!!

PD: What’s the competition like in the “Web sites about temping” world?

NMD: Well, the wonderful thing about the World Wide Superweb Interhighway is that there are so many “lanes” or “avenues” that each “traveler” or “surfer” can “go” where they “want” with little or no “hassle”. This means the competition is nil. People can read my website right along with their other hundred or so favorite semi-daily temping humor journals.

Still, I pretend I’m in fierce competition with other sites, just to add a little excitement to my life. I also pretend there are agents of a shadowy branch of the government after me, when in reality, they’re just after my neighbor.

PD: Do you see any way of amassing large amounts of wealth by running your web site? People have got rich on less, you know.

NMD: The way I see it, I have a few options for getting rich. 1) Let people read the first paragraph of an article, then charge them for the rest, like Salon.com does. 2) Put up tons of pop-up ads, as well as placing full-page ads between the front page and the articles, like Salon.com does. 3) Change my site name to salom.com, and get bleed-off traffic from people trying to visit salon.com. And charge them for it.

The fourth (and best) option would be to charge money to people who want to interview me, like you are. Say, about $75,000 per interview. Deal?

PD: If Notmydesk becomes a Hollywood blockbuster, who do you see playing yourself? Who would be your as-yet-nonexistent girlfriend? Who would play me?

NMD: Look, if we’re talking NMD the Motion Picture, there’s really only one answer. Who could play me? Who could capture the innocence, the playful mirth, the wide-eyed wonder? Who could bring the pain, and power, and promise to the screen? Who could emulate the joie de vivre, while at the same time mirror the despondency and desolation? Really, only one man. Michael Winslow, the sound-effects guy from the Police Academy movies.

As for my girlfriend, she could be played by a digital amalgam of Christina Ricci (body, limbs & head) and an anklosaurus (powerful, heavily-armored club-like tail used for smashing enemies). And you could be played by Haley Joel Osment.

PD: What if they wanted Paul Verhoeven to direct and Joe Eszterhas to write it?

NMD: Hey, Verhoeven did RoboCop, and I’m down with that. As far as I know, Joe Eszterhaus is incapable of ‘writing’ anything.

PD: What if Episode Two sucks just as bad as Episode One?

NMD: Thing is, hombre, it don’t matter none. If Episode II sucks, we’ll go to III with the everlasting hope that it will somehow save the prequel trilogy. If II is good, we’ll hope III will continue the trend. Either way, we (Star Wars fans) are gonna be in the queue on
opening day. Sure, we would like nothing more than to wash our hands of the whole affair. But who are we kidding? And besides, wasn’t bitching about Jar-Jar (and the rest of the Episode I suckiness) a lot of fun? You might say we are the Gundark, and Lucas has got us by the ears, and no amount of wrestling will get us free, and holy shit what a giant fucking dweeb I am for having said that.

PD: And so Not My Desk heads into oblivion with only a temporary name badge to keep him employed. Ah, NMD, you are my hero…

What is Weird 8?

Fake it until you make it. That’s been my motto for 2013.

Weird8 is my new home on the web.

Yes, I have a twitter account (@SokolowskiDave), and will be opening up a new Facebook page, but I need to have a place on the web that is application-neutral. A home away from home.

I’ve had blogs before, in various states, and I know what it takes to make them work. For better or worse, I really have no have choice other than to make this blog work.

This blog has three main components:

  1. Serve as a home for all writing things by Dave Sokolowski (that’s me). Starting next year, I will kick off a series of Kickstarters to produce gaming and non-gaming materials that I have written. This is the main place where I will talk about them.
  2. This will be a place for me to go “meta.” I will talk about why I’m writing things and, more importantly, how the whole social media thing applies to building a readership. If you want to learn first-hand how a writer goes from zero to hero (nice cliche’), then this is the place.
  3. I will just write about whatever I want, which will mostly include music reviews and interviews with other writers. The most important component of writing is to keep writing, so when I’ve got nothing specific to write about, I will write music reviews and interview other writers. Both will be fun and interesting.

So here we are at ground zero. If you’re reading this, then things are going much better than I would have anticipated. Everything flows from here.

Lastly, a huge set of thanks to Wade, who helped me get this thing up and running. Glad to have him as a friend, and more on his awesomeness later.

Onward.