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Hapitalist  - formerly The Author Stack

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How I used Kickstarter to right the ship after a disastrous book launch

Russell Nohelty's avatar
Russell Nohelty
Apr 19, 2024
∙ Paid

2019 was a nightmare.

Between June of 2017 and December of 2018, I wrote eighteen novels, twelve of which were part of a big, overarching universe called the Godsverse.

I had already written two graphic novels in the same universe, which had made me north of $100,000 between the two of them since 2015, and every month dozens of people came to me asking for more stories in the universe, so I went into the production of those books with a lot of hope, and a mountain of data that showed the Godsverse was both profitable and popular.

I banked ALL of 2019 on the popularity of the series, in fact. I planned to release all twelve books in rapid succession, and build with each launch, until, by August of 2019, I was easily clearing a few thousand dollars a month after advertising expenses on those books.

What do they say about battle plans? They never survive first contact with the enemy. Well, my book launches were the same.

Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

I expected the first books …

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