\u200bI\u2019m a lifelong comics, art and story lover. Comics have always been very special to me. I can remember be very young and learning to read, sitting on the couch with my mom reading \u201cSnoopy and the Red Baron\u201d out loud to her. I kept saying \u201cworld war eye\u201d instead of \u201cworld war one.\u201d It was written \u201cWorld War I\u201d and I didn\u2019t quite understand Roman numerals yet. But comics made me want to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From that point forward, I read comics whenever I could. In elementary school, every time the opportunity came to order books from the Scholastic Book Clubs, I would order Peanuts books \u2013 and any other comics that looked good.I always read the comics in the newspaper. And as I grew older, I found superhero comics, and the indie comics like Groo, Bone and Cerebus the Aardvark. There\u2019s something about the combination of a good story and wonderful visuals that\u2019s just magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was young, I drew all the time, and when I ran out of paper, I would draw inside the fronts of book covers (this didn\u2019t go over too well). But the visual imagery of comics is only half of the equation. I also fell in love with stories. I really loved watching things like Dr. Who, Thunderbirds, Land of the Lost, Captain Harlock, Star Blazers, Speed Racer \u2013 any kind of serialized story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I finally put all these elements that I loved together in my first project, \u201cMarooned \u2013 A Space Opera in the Wrong Key!\u201d which ran for 5 years from 2007 to 2013. I followed that with my second graphic novel “Rock & Tin” in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u200bIt’s really difficult\u2014and you forgot to add family in that equation. I have to be okay with the fact that I cannot promote and market the way full-time creators\/companies. I make time during my lunches at work, or early in the morning\/late at night when people are sleeping. I also carve out a couple hours on the weekend each day (generally early in the morning) to get some writing or drawing done. This means my progress is generally slower, but you find out that if you just keep plugging along, you can get a surprising amount of work done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Kickstarter is an additional stresser, however. So for the second one, I drastically simplified the campaign, and cut it down to 3 weeks from 4. This really helped a lot, and the campaign was still very successful. And since this was my second one, I was able to jump right in and not have to learn everything about running a campaign first. For example, I took my planning spreadsheet I used for Marooned, and just copied it and used it for Rock and Tin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u200bYou absolutely must have an established audience before attempting a crowdfunding campaign. Kickstarter isn’t a magical place where people will just buy your product. It’s very much driven by people who initially will back you and help spread the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secondly, you must spend a lot of time planning down to the last detail, or you will find yourself in financial trouble. I use Google Sheets to plan my campaigns (I wrote an article about that too). \u200bCarefully planning shipping expenses is key. When you read about people who lose money on their campaign, it is often poor handling of shipping costs – especially international shipping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, use ShipStation to keep your sanity while fulfilling your orders!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u200bIt has given me precious time back in my life. I used to spend so much time handling orders: copying, pasting, writing them out, printing and cutting out labels, etc. \u200bAnd I spent way too much time standing in line at the Post Office. Now my fulfillment process is so streamlined it almost feels like I’m cheating. This means I can handle more volume, do more business, and make more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u200bIt’s definitely the fact that I can just price and print my own postage at home and paste it right on the box. This has SO many advantages. Not only is packing so much faster, again – there’s no waiting in lines at the Post Office. I just drop the packages off and go home. This is especially awesome with the international packages, which used to be a real time sink (to the point where I was considering not shipping worldwide anymore.) Now the customs form is printed right on the label, and there’s no extra work. \u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tom Dell’Aranga managed to juggle creating his own comics, working 40 hrs\/week, spend time with his family, AND run 2 successful Kickstarters. See how!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":9878,"menu_order":88,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"story-cats":[251],"class_list":["post-9867","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","story-cats-storeenvy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n