This is going to feel like the longest week of my life.
You’d think I’d be talking about the fourth and final week of the Kickstarter campaign I’m running to fund the reprinting of Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire THE COMPLETE SERIES Volume 2, but it isn’t. I anticipate that week is going to be a blitz of anxiety and constant promotion to reach the final goal. No, I mean this week, the third week of the campaign. The slowest and dullest.
In my experience, a crowdfunding campaign usually sees the most frantic activity its first and final weeks. The first because of the brand new excitement that’s generated, and the last because of the mad dash to the finish line. The second week slows down considerably, as the folks who were most excited to pledge had already done so.
The second and third weeks are middling, at best, with activity trickling in and out depending on the level of excitement or success about a given project. If a campaign has hit its goal early, these weeks are usually spent pushing stretch goals. But if a campaign is still trying to hit its goal, these weeks can feel like a slog. Especially the third week.
Excitement is arguably at its lowest. Pledges by the most eager have been made, word has been spread, and activity trickles in at best. It can be a discouraging time, spent wondering if what you’ve raised is all you’re going to make, and if it really makes sense to put any effort in during this slowest part of the campaign.
The fourth week, for all its stress and frantic speed, at least has some urgency behind it. It has the finish line on the horizon. It has that feeling of “this is your last chance!” I’m looking forward to that fourth week, one way or another, because it will be time to really step on the gas and power forward.
But this third week? You usually spend it coasting, saving up for that final push.
I’m not discouraged, nor do I feel my morale being lessened. This week is going to be long, to be sure, but I’ve been uplifted by the response the campaign has received. As of this writing there’s only a little over 25% left of the funding goal left to be covered, and I’m hopeful.