(Topic ID: 201960)

Kickstarter campaign for new pinball book: not funded

By unigroove

6 years ago


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    There are 56 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.
    #1 6 years ago

    Kickstarter main image v2 (resized).jpgKickstarter main image v2 (resized).jpg
    As already announced at Pinball Expo, Pinball Magazine just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new coffee table photo book by Argentinean photographer Santiago Ciuffo. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary The new book is called Pinball Road Trip and features photos of pinball machines located in California and Las Vegas.

    The Kickstarter campaign background story informs those interested on how the idea for the book came about during a road trip that was set up to take photos of as many Wayne Neyens designed games, to be featured in the upcoming 5th issue of Pinball Magazine. Besides photos of pinball games, the new book also includes photos of the sights and cities encountered during this trip, which adds a bit of a story to the book. It also further shows Santiago Ciuffo’s talents as a photographer in other settings.

    Pinball Magazine published Santiago Ciuffo’s first coffee table photo book, PINBALL, in 2014, which has been a steady seller ever since in the Pinball Magazine webshop. For those who don’t have that first book yet, it is offered as part of a package deal when supporting the current Kickstarter campaign.

    While the first book wasn’t funded via Kickstarter, as editor of Pinball magazine I decided to take the Kickstarter route, as it would indicate how much demand there will be for the book, as well as potentially reach a wider audience for the book than solely pinball enthusiasts. Contrary to many projects on Kickstarter the book is almost finished and should be taken to print within a few months after a successful funding campaign. All photos have already been taken, selected and prepared for the new book. The only thing currently still being worked on is the story for the various chapters.

    The Kickstarter campaign launched November 5th and will run for 30 days, until December 5th, 2017. The goal of the campaign has been set at 25,000 euro. The campaign can be backed by pledging 35 Euro or more plus shipping. To fund this campaign, please visit the Kickstarter campaign page now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary

    Thanks for your support!

    #2 6 years ago

    Hey Jonathan, good luck with the Kickstarter.

    My constructive feedback about your "if you can't beat them, join them" usage of Kickstarter is you are treating it as a pre-order system (and giving them 10% for that) and not fully maximizing the "pass the hat" or "charity" aspect of Kickstarter.

    It's sort of like, if you're going to do this, might as well sell your soul, right?

    So, stuff like:

    -Cheaper pledges, starting at $5 or $10 for people that want to kick in something but not actually buy the book, or commit to buying it at this time. Some sort of "digital" reward for those low pledges, like a high quality photo as wallpaper.

    -Bigger "benefactor" pledges. $500 and they get an acknowledgement in your thank you page. $2500 and they are "executive producer" and get their own page to say thank yous.

    stuff like that. Maybe those pledges sell, maybe they don't, but if you don't offer them you lose your chance at that "easy" money.

    There's probably a lot of ways you can totally maximize your kickstarter.

    I'm with you, in principle, about previous misgivings about kickstarter, and I hate the whole "pass the hat" mentality of current entrepreneur funding. But I understand if there's opportunity there, why not take advantage? So, all I'm saying is if you're going to do it, might as well go balls deep .

    Good luck.

    #3 6 years ago

    Thanks Frolic. There's always the option to add more tiers

    #4 6 years ago

    36 backers so far and several requests for a hardcover edition

    #5 6 years ago

    I have bought 1 book.

    Quoted from unigroove:

    36 backers so far and several requests for a hardcover edition

    Yes but in order to reach the goal (25000 $) you will need to have more than 626 new backers. I am not sure it will be possible.
    For example on the other campaign for the stern pinball book they only have 444 backers...

    #6 6 years ago
    Quoted from citerne:

    I have bought 1 book.

    Yes but in order to reach the goal (25000 $) you will need to have more than 626 new backers. I am not sure it will be possible.
    For example on the other campaign for the stern pinball book they only have 444 backers...

    Thanks for your support. The Stern book was $55 + shipping. This book starts at 35 euro (about $40) + shipping. As it is less expensive there may be more interest in it. Adding a few higher priced exclusive tiers may also help, which I'm currently looking into

    #7 6 years ago

    Piggy-backing on frolic here are my thoughts from someone who has back a number of Kickstarters in the past:

    - The “A Kickstarter campaign for a pinball book? I’m still waiting for another pinball book that was funded last year.” title was not necessary and was a little off putting. I am surprised Kickstarter even let that through, to be honest. Let your book stand on its own merits.

    -It really isn't a Kickstarter in its truest sense and that shows pretty clearly. The plain basic pre-order rewards speak to that. The lack of campaign goals is even more unusual, I do not remember a Kickstarter that I have pledged that had no goals the were trying to hit past the successful funding of the item. Goals are one of the big drivers for successful Kickstarters, more pages or special features. It really gets people vested in the product and checking back often to see how it is going. One of the last Kickstarters I backed exploded that last couple of days as they kept adding goals that were being met, it was a fun time following the progress.

    The first five days and the last five days of a Kickstarter are where most of the backers make their pledges, hopefully you can get some momentum and get this book out, it looks interesting and would be another nice addition to the pinball library.

    #8 6 years ago

    Any plans for digital copies of the book at a lower tier?

    #9 6 years ago
    Quoted from Matesamo:

    Piggy-backing on frolic here are my thoughts from someone who has back a number of Kickstarters in the past:
    - The “A Kickstarter campaign for a pinball book? I’m still waiting for another pinball book that was funded last year.” title was not necessary and was a little off putting. I am surprised Kickstarter even let that through, to be honest. Let your book stand on its own merits.
    -It really isn't a Kickstarter in its truest sense and that shows pretty clearly. The plain basic pre-order rewards speak to that. The lack of campaign goals is even more unusual, I do not remember a Kickstarter that I have pledged that had no goals the were trying to hit past the successful funding of the item. Goals are one of the big drivers for successful Kickstarters, more pages or special features. It really gets people vested in the product and checking back often to see how it is going. One of the last Kickstarters I backed exploded that last couple of days as they kept adding goals that were being met, it was a fun time following the progress.
    The first five days and the last five days of a Kickstarter are where most of the backers make their pledges, hopefully you can get some momentum and get this book out, it looks interesting and would be another nice addition to the pinball library.

    Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it. More tiers will be added once I send out the monthly Pinball Magazine newsletter.

    #10 6 years ago

    What would the approximate cost be if it were a hard cover? Such amazing quality pictures and print quality in everything you guys have done makes it very nice idea to have a hard bound.

    #11 6 years ago
    Quoted from pacmanretro:

    What would the approximate cost be if it were a hard cover? Such amazing quality pictures and print quality in everything you guys have done makes it very nice idea to have a hard bound.

    Thanks for your compliment I've been looking into doing a hardcover edition. Since it will likely be a very small print run the costs are unfortunately pretty steep. A hardcover edition with 20 extra pages in a print run of 100 copies would result in a 75 euro tier (plus shipping). Tomorrow I hope to add some extra tiers and rewards. Some people suggested some very interesting high priced tiers that are being considered and some await approval of other parties...

    #12 6 years ago

    Here's a brief update on my Kickstarter campaign for Santiago Ciuffo's Pinball Road Trip book:
    At the moment the campaign is being backed by 69 people, who pledged 4,660 Euro in total. Thank you all so much!

    Following some of the suggestions mentioned above, I just added two lower-priced tiers as well as some extended tiers based on already existing tiers but with more premium pinball prints printed on think glossy paper. Take a look at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary.

    Next week I will look into some digital tiers as well as tiers for multiple books as requests came in for that as well. I'm looking into doing a limited hardcover edition as well. As I felt it would be nice to make such a hardcover edition extra special, other than it being a hardcover, so Santiago is going through his photos again in order to add some more pages that will only be available in such hardcover edition. I also received some interesting suggestions for some very high priced exclusive tiers and I'm looking into that as well.

    This weekend the book will be promoted at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo. A preview copy will be available to take a look at. Hopefully, that will result in some more support. If you would like to see this book become a success as well, please pledge now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary.

    #13 6 years ago

    I'd like a tier for multiple books as I can give them away as gifts.

    #15 6 years ago

    Is there a tier for a hard cover plus the 3 glossy prints??

    I didn't see one and already have the Santiago hard cover.

    Thanks!!

    #16 6 years ago
    Quoted from pacmanretro:

    Is there a tier for a hard cover plus the 3 glossy prints??
    I didn't see one and already have the Santiago hard cover.
    Thanks!!

    Added. Also added a tier for both hardcover books + 3 prints. Thanks for your support

    #17 6 years ago

    Hardcover with glossies pledged.

    Thanks!

    #18 6 years ago

    For what you are getting, the 2 hardcover books, and 3 large framable photos isn't that bad for about $95. It's reasonable actually which is shocking saying that about a KS project. That being said the S&H is as I would imagine how an Australian or European feels buying stuff from the USA. It's roughly the cost of the book itself, $30. Can you print the books in the USA possibly to bring costs down? I mean if so I'm all game for that top tier.

    #19 6 years ago

    Good luck with the project. I'm afraid there may be many potential buyers who, like me, are still waiting for another pinball book Kickstarter and are therefore reluctant to also commit to this one. Especially since the other book has taken so long and the communication has been so poor. To be honest id prefer to have my money behind this project because Pinball Magazine is such a class act and his previous book with the same artist is beautiful, but I'm not willing to play the kickstarter lottery twice.

    #20 6 years ago
    Quoted from cooked71:

    ...I'm not willing to play the kickstarter lottery twice.

    Oh man, your loss.

    #21 6 years ago
    Quoted from Matesamo:

    Oh man, your loss.

    You're probably right. But I'm 0 delivered from 2 projects so far (2nd one is not pinball related). I'll wait at least until I get one before I commit again.

    On the other hand, if Unigroove just produced a hardcover book for sale I would buy one.

    #22 6 years ago

    Hopefully what's going on with the other kickstarter won't hurt your ability to get this out. They have soured some people here. The pinball magazines are really well done. I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

    #23 6 years ago
    Quoted from hool10:

    For what you are getting, the 2 hardcover books, and 3 large framable photos isn't that bad for about $95. It's reasonable actually which is shocking saying that about a KS project. That being said the S&H is as I would imagine how an Australian or European feels buying stuff from the USA. It's roughly the cost of the book itself, $30. Can you print the books in the USA possibly to bring costs down? I mean if so I'm all game for that top tier.

    Shipping is 30 Eur not 30 USD.

    As a US Citizen, I buy made in USA products over chinese etc all I can; However, the print quality of these books (along with other European printed literature/photos) is so far superior that I cannot explain the joy I feel to be able to have these available to me.

    Sorry to say, while the U.S. has many good products, I am happy these are printed where they are.

    If they were printed state side to try to save a few shipping dollars, I would expect to most likely see lower print quality.

    Basically what it appears you are saying is that, while no these are not "cheap", you are not willing to pay for exceptional quality.

    Really, even with the shipping cost, this is not the most expensive hard cover book out there; and, considering it would be a book NOT mass produced...the price is as fair as could be expected.

    To each their own.

    #25 6 years ago

    Thanks for all the comments and support

    Earlier on I had a comment in my campaign about another pinball book that hasn't been delivered yet and I took that out because some people found that inappropriate. Originally my reasoning for putting that in was that else someone else would bring that up, so thank you for proving me right on that one That being said, the biggest difference between that project and this one is that the other project had to get started after the campaign funded. For my campaign all the photos are already taken, photoshopped and layed out. The only thing still being worked on is the copy for the various chapters. In theory the book can go to print right after the campaign ends (if funded).

    As far as printing in Europe goes: it's economically not interesting to print a part of the print run in the USA. First of all the costs per book on a smaller run will become more expensive and printing in the USA is usually more expensive too, so that alone would make the book more expensive for everybody. For Pinball Magazine I also looked into printing in Europe and then shipping books to a USA distributor. In that scenario there are shipping costs involved to ship te books to USA. Then there's shipping costs involved in USA as well when ordered. These are less as it would qualify for the Media Mail rate, but add the shipping to USA costs and we're almost up to the same price level. Plus it would require a distributor who stores the books and they don't do that for fee either. Taking all that into consideration it made it easier to just ship from Europe

    Thanks for the link with the projections for the remaining time of the campaign. Based on that it appears your support is much needed to make the book happen, so please pledge now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary

    #26 6 years ago

    Common pinside!!! Support this! These publications are among, if not THE best out there!!

    I have no affiliation to this in ANY way...Just a pinballer who LOVES their work!

    #27 6 years ago

    Update: I just added several tiers for multiple copies of either the hardcover, or the softcover, edition of the book. The added tiers are for either 5, 10 (plus 1 free copy) or 20 (plus 2 free copies) of the book. When pledging 10 copies or more your name or logo will also be added to a special High Volume Backers-page in the front of the book. Shipping costs per copy drop significantly when the books are shipped in bulk via UPS. Note that I currently added only Germany and USA as shipping locations. In case you're interested in bulk shipping for other territories, just let me know so I can add these.

    I'm still looking into digital only tiers and hope to add these soon as well.

    As for the campaign itself, the current expected outcome is that the goal of the campaign won't be reached. That would be a pity, so feel free to urge others to back this campaign as well. We can make this happen! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary

    #29 6 years ago

    Small update: I just added 1/4, 1/2 and 1/1 regular advertising pages in Pinball Magazine No. 5 to the tiers of 5, 10 and 20 books.

    #31 6 years ago

    I backed hope you will able to produce this book !
    Got a hardcover version but if only a softcover will be made I'll be happy with that too

    #32 6 years ago

    Pledged. Humor me if the projects succeeds. Just ship those books in a crate hahaha! I do appreciate your quick and sincere reply.

    #33 6 years ago

    This project deserves a front page sticky.

    #34 6 years ago
    Quoted from robin:

    This project deserves a front page sticky.

    Much appreciated, thank you

    #36 6 years ago
    Quoted from unigroove:

    I've added a Digital Download tier for the complete book

    Thanks. I've pledged to the project now.

    I have no interest in owning physical books anymore, so the other pinball book kickstarter left my money on the table by not offering a digital tier.

    #37 6 years ago

    Im in too. I love all pin books and now Im in on two kickstarter pin books, inc. this one and drop target zine.

    #38 6 years ago

    Thanks for the support! I backed the DropTarget Zine book as well, even though I already have all 7 issues of the magazine. Good to see they are already reached their goal multiple times. 8 Days to go for Pinball Road Trip: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary

    #39 6 years ago

    I received some emails from people who would like to combine shipping of the book with Pinball Magazine No. 5. That is ertainly possible and I will refund any overpaid shipping costs. Want to get in? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1532002338/pinball-road-trip-a-photo-documentary Hurry! Time is running out!

    #42 6 years ago

    Unfortunately, the project didn't reach its goal, so for now it will not be taken into production. I'll be contacting those who backed through Kickstarter as well.

    #43 6 years ago
    Quoted from unigroove:

    Unfortunately, the project didn't reach its goal, so for now it will not be taken into production. I'll be contacting those who backed through Kickstarter as well.

    That really is too bad. If it ever winds up being produced in the future, count me in still!

    #44 6 years ago

    How many more folks need to sign on to make it happen?

    #45 6 years ago

    I was so close to pulling the trigger for 12,000 USD, but just couldn't justify it at the end after two beers and nearly 10 minutes of serious thought on what I would do with all those hard covers and paper backs.

    #46 6 years ago

    Too bad, neat idea that got hamstrung by another company abusing Kickstarter and the pin community.

    #47 6 years ago
    Quoted from Phat_Jay:

    Too bad, neat idea that got hamstrung by another company abusing Kickstarter and the pin community.

    Yep; would have made it easily but for the other kickstarter book that has many people (me included) in the dumps on all things kickstarter.

    #48 6 years ago
    Quoted from Phat_Jay:

    Too bad, neat idea that got hamstrung by another company abusing Kickstarter and the pin community.

    This 1000%

    #49 6 years ago

    Bummer, Jonathan! I think it's already impressive that you managed to raise over $10k in this difficult climate. I mean, Kickstarter and Pinball haven't exactly been a good match this year.

    On the other hand, another cool pinball project I backed did make it!

    #50 6 years ago

    Thanks guys I guess I'll be focusing on finishing Pinball Magazine No. 5 now, which hopefully will be available by March 2018.

    Quoted from robin:

    Bummer, Jonathan! I think it's already impressive that you managed to raise over $10k in this difficult climate. I mean, Kickstarter and Pinball haven't exactly been a good match this year.
    On the other hand, another cool pinball project I backed did make it!

    Thanks. I backed the DTZ book as well. Happy to see they got funded early on.

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