Coffee Data Science
Post-Mortem on a Kickstarter for a Book
What went right, what went wrong
Over a year ago, I started writing a book. I had written 1,200 pages of coffee stuff, and I thought I should extract something for a book. My friends in the Facebook Espresso Aficionados told me that 1,200 was too many, and I should do no more than 200 pages. So I started to work around with the material, and I got it to 200 pages. I was going to publish this copy digitally, but another friend said I should do a hardback.
So I did a Kickstarter with the idea that if I raised enough money, it would cover the costs, otherwise I would publish it digitally without further editing or design.
I was very much surprised to get it funded in 7 hours, but I knew I needed more than I asked to raise. In fact, I estimated that only through sales after the fact, would I break even. I grossly under-estimated the cost of small things. So I will shared some lessons learned, and I’m grateful for the process because I did come out on the positive cash flow side.
Benefits
- The book itself: I have a nice book that I wrote. I’m glad about this work and proud of it.
- Friends: I have met a lot of new friends by writing this book. Not only did I solidify friendships by starting the book, but I made new ones along the way.
- Influence? The fact of the matter is that I gained a lot of followers and influence simply by compiling the book. I put a question mark because that wasn’t what I was aiming for, but I will take it. I don’t want that idea to change my ultimate drive towards making the best espresso.
Challenges
The amount of money needed was a challenge to estimate.
Book Costs
- Between the start of the fundraising and sending the book to the printer (6 months), the printing costs doubled due to economic changes. This moved my breakeven point significantly.
- Graphic design is not cheap, and there is a reason why book companies want to make sure their investment is worth it.
Shipping Costs
- I didn’t estimate shipping costs for outside of the US well. I originally charged $10 for shipping internationally, and it is more like $20. On top of that, I had to pay 10% of that cost to the platform. So when doing fundraising, you have to increase your shipping costs to account for the platform.
- Shipping has to include packing and storage too. This becomes an issue if you have surplus.
- I shipped the US orders from home to save me $6,000 in shipping, but that also took time in two ways: 1. I had to pack the orders. 2. The orders came by freight got delayed meaning US orders shipped two months after international orders.
- Addresses: I didn’t do a survey right away, and so I had a lot of addresses trickling in at the end. I prefer Indiegogo for In-Demand because the addresses were part of the sell.
Things to do Better
- Build excitement for a few months rather than two weeks.
- Find more businesses to do bulk buys. This was difficult because I didn’t have a book I could share with them until months later. I was able to do a few bulk orders in the end.
If you like, follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram where I post videos of espresso shots on different machines and espresso related stuff. You can also find me on LinkedIn. You can also follow me on Medium and Subscribe.
