It’s time to celebrate, y’all: after a successful campaign, the Group Chat Kickstarter is now over! Thanks to the support of our contributors, loved ones, and backers, we’ve raised $13,802 from 437 donors over the past 30 days. Now that we’re funded, here’s a look at what’s next for Group Chat.
A Group Chat Recap
We launched Group Chat back on April 9th and reached 25% of our funding goal in the first day alone! Shortly after that, Kickstarter added Group Chat to their list of Projects We Love, and with 10 days left in the campaign, we reached our funding goal.
During the campaign, Group Chat got a shoutout from two of our favorite publications: Women Write About Comics and Comics Beat. As big fans of both sites, we’d be putting it mildly if we said we were thrilled about these plugs.
By the last day of the campaign, we reached 138% of our funding goal. All of our editors are big criers anyway and have been crying pretty much nonstop for the past month. This crying has only increased as we inched closer to — and then exceeded — our goal. We are now collectively crying all the way across the continent as we pack up for our next big Group Chat milestones: TCAF and VanCAF.
What’s Next for Group Chat?
The POMEmag Editorial Crones are heading to TCAF and VanCAF! Catch us at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival May 11-12 and the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival May 19-20.
Many of our contributors will be selling Group Chat at shows across the world! We’ll keep y’all posted about each one over @pomemag on Twitter, so follow us to keep up with all the Group Chat news.
We’ll be mailing out physical copies of Group Chat to our backers by the end of June. We’ll keep y’all updated once the books are on their way!
How Can I Buy Group Chat If I Missed the Kickstarter?
Fear not! Preorders for a physical copy of Group Chat are now open on the POMEmag Store, and we’ll be posting details about digital preorders soon. We’ll start processing orders for our second Group Chat printing on July 31st, 2018.
You can also purchase Group Chat directly from POMEmag or any of our contributors at any show you see us at.
We are currently exploring the option of using a distributor for Group Chat and we’ll keep y’all posted on this as well.
What’s next for POMEmag?
Mostly, sleeping! But after that, we’ll continue working hard to promote Group Chat as we brainstorm our next big project.
If you liked Group Chat, we hope you’ll check out the strange and sincere content here at POMEmag! Every day on this site we publish comics and words for sensitive weirdos that explore topics from friendship to fandom to spells in our articles, comics, listicles, and podcasts.
And if you enjoyed the feeling of giving your hard-earned cash to internet crones, we encourage you to check out the POMEmag Patreon, where you can turn your dollars into gentle horoscopes and crone murder mysteries, and the POMEmag Store, where you can purchase all our other print content and merch.
Final Thoughts: What We Learned from Group Chat
We learned a lot of lessons along the way! Here are a few of the things we learned while creating and promoting Group Chat and the Group Chat Kickstarter.
1. Livestreaming is fun!
Hanging out with everybody during the livestream just reminded me of how much I love and miss the POME crones every day.
-CC
If you are doing a livestream, hire CC to write questions for you because damn if that wasn’t the most fun I’ve had being video recorded, other than the time I played Peter Pan in the 5th grade.
-Ashley
2) It takes a lot of focus and dedication to promote things every day!
I will never make fun of social media managers again.
-Jenny
I was very surprised to learn that I live for this, so no worries, Jenny; I got your back.
-Ashley
3) Connecting your site’s Google Analytics with your Kickstarter page will goof up your data a little bit.
We felt like internet celebrities as the Kickstarter grew. Our content was so popular!!! What a great tie-in the Kickstarter was!!! Turns out that the bulk of our traffic during those days was mostly in relation to the Kickstarter. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-CC
Analytics is a myth and nobody can prove to me that it’s real.
-Rachel
4) Shipping is confusing and expensive! And also weirdly hard to figure out!
Even if you charge for shipping, those funds are included within your Kickstarter goal. Also, international shipping is Wild and the cost of doing so varies a whole lot. Thankfully, our wise and experienced pals at Sparkler Monthly gave us good advice about this early in our campaign and we were able to make some needed adjustments.
-CC
I feel like once we actually ship out all these books I will have gained the experience of a true postal witch and can finally ascend.
-Rachel
5) So many people were willing to take a chance on us, even though we’re a small publication!!!
Crying about the love and support we’ve received from our contributors and friends is like, 80% of what’s been making us cry for the past few weeks. I’m still crying. Dang it. Now I’m legit crying. Damn.
-CC
Our little community gives me hope for the world. Not exaggerating.
-Ashley
But In Conclusion
We love y’all so much and we’re floored by how y’all have supported this dream of ours. We’ve worked so hard on Group Chat and can’t wait for everyone to read it and enjoy it.
Tearfully yours,
the POME crones