Bad News The Isis Series Kickstarter Was Unsuccessful- Moving on and Moving Forward

Bad News Isis fans: This Sunday the Isis Series Kickstarter did not get funded. I want to take a moment to thank all the brothers and sisters who took the time to pledge money towards the project. I appreciate you taking the time to support me and my project. 

Over the last two months I received donations from brothers and sisters all over the United States and as far as the United Kingdom.  From 8 backers I raised $131. Unfortunately I still needed another $379 to get the funding to hire the artist to design the cover for Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess

What does this mean for Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess? The book will still be released in paperback and eBook later this year.

But as for the cover…That’s still up in the air. All I can tell readers is that the prototype cover I drew up for the Kickstarter will NOT be final.

I’d love to hire that comic artist to design the cover. It’s always been a dream of mine to give a comic artist a job and to see my characters rendered by a professional.

I’m still working towards that goal. I know how many comic artists struggle to pay their bills. How they go from convention to convention making their money on commissions and sales of merchandise. I still want to help out an artist. I’m just still trying to find a way to pay them. Artists don’t work for free, and their time is worth money.

One of the reasons I did this Kickstarter was to promote Group Economics in the Black community. To show Black people how easy it is to support Black –owned businesses. And to Show Black people how their dollars directly impacted the expansion of a Black owned business. I planned on doing a series of YouTube videos to show readers how their dollars were going to be used towards the creation of Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess. At the end of the series of videos I wanted to show viewers their finished books before I shipped them.

The other reason for the Kickstarter was to see how serious my critics were about working on solutions. Many have complained about the art on my book covers. However, when I presented critics of my art with a solution it seemed they had no interest in being a part of it.

Why did the Kickstarter fail? I can’t speculate. I thought the rewards were fair. A copy of the finished book for $20 and the entire Isis series in paperback for $100. And I did an effective job of promoting it on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Blackbloggersconnect.com. And several of my Facebook friends helped promote it as well.

But all I can say is I’ve learned my lesson about trying to do business with Black people. Black folks talk a good game, but at the end of the day most Black people don’t back that talk up with action. For all the talk about supporting Black-owned businesses and participating in Group Economics I’ve yet to see a large majority of Black people spending their money on my books.

I’m not going to get upset about the Isis series Kickstarter failing. All I know is I gave it my best efforts. I gave Black customers a chance to help me address their complaints about the product. To take action. To participate in Group Economics. And outside of a few brothers and sisters, most Black people have decided that they aren’t interested in putting their money where their mouth is.

Now I’ve done what I can to reach out to Black customers first for the past five years at events like the Harlem Book Fair and with this Kickstarter. And after experiencing all the indifference and resistance from Black customers, I’m starting to understand why nonblack executives don’t take the time to target African-American customers. For all the time, money and effort a businessperson invests in trying to create products to target Black audiences and reach African-American customers, African-Americans rarely ever reach back to the companies trying to support them.

At the end of the day, there’s only so much money anyone can lose dealing with a demographic of indifferent customers before it’s time to move on to a more profitable audience. Watching the actions of Black people from a business perspective I understand the main reason why most companies don’t take Black customers seriously: It’s because Black customers won’t put their money on the table. For all Black people’s whining, complaining and bitching about the lack of positive Black books, movies and other forms of media, they never follow it up by taking action and buying those products in force when businesses like mine produce them and put them in the marketplace.

Here’s the deal: Talk is cheap and it doesn’t pay my bills. Business is about making money, not talking about it. And I don’t have any more time to listen to hot air.