6 Ways Authors Are Making $100k+ on Kickstarter

Beyond the Book

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6 Ways Authors Are Making $100k+ on Kickstarter

Plus, 3 bonus bookish products that are wildly cool

Michael Evans

Mar 22, 2025

Transcript

First, I have a Kickstarter of my own happening right now! You can get 50 Author Marketing Superpowers in a beautifully illustrated deck of cards for a limited time here.

Note: the prices offered in this Kickstarter are at a heavy discount and will never be offered again.

Today, I’m back with another episode of the Beyond the Book podcast that you for sure don’t want to miss.

Oriana Leckert, Head of Publishing at Kickstarter, joins me to break down 6 different ways authors are making hundreds of thousands (and in some cases millions) of dollars on Kickstarter.

As is tradition with Beyond the Book, we share some fascinating ways you can leverage your stories to create incredible experiences for readers.

These include unique special editions, card games, interactive stories, literary-inspired chocolates, and more!

You can get the episode on Spotify here, Apple podcasts here, and YouTube here.

I know my face in the thumbnail is pretty weird… turns out not every book is made of chocolate but some are 😂.

3 BONUS Bookish Products That Can Print You Money

Sooo… I usually break down the podcast episode in detail inside this newsletter. But, this time around, I highly recommend you listen to the actual podcast to get all the juicy insights inside.

Instead, I wanted to share with you something even better as a thank you for being subscribed to Author Sidekick.

Three bonus bookish products that have succeeded on Kickstarter that we didn’t even cover inside of the podcast 🤯. I did a lot of research for this episode and fell down some Kickstarter rabbit holes that I so do not regret.

Bonus Beyond the Book Product #1: Book Baths

A subscription box full of gear for a book bath did over $3k on Kickstarter.

That might not sound like a huge deal, but here’s why it caught my eye:

The YouTube channel that the creator of the Kickstarter runs has 3k subscribers in 2025.
Meanwhile, the campaign was successfully funded in 2017. This signals that the creator likely had a smaller audience back then, but still got decent traction!
It’s created a “new category” of product. This is BY FAR why I’m intrigued most with the product.
- First, the creator made a YouTube video about their love for “Book Baths” – when they’d read a book and enjoy a bath!
- Their audience loved the video and they thought… hm… there seems to be a product here.
- Thus, they created a box full of all the supplies (bath bombs, candles, and tea) that someone needs for the perfect book bath.
By first validating the problem with their audience through a YouTube video AND THEN creating the product, they did a fantastic job creating an innovative product where they could stand out and make money.

Takeaway: Whether you are going beyond the book and expanding your IP or creating your next eBook, first validate your idea with an audience and then create it. You don’t need a massive audience or splashy launch to kick something off. Just enough cash to allow you to reinvest into more growth!

Likewise, think about your READERS FIRST to come up with new angles and entirely new categories of products and stories (i.e. book baths).

This is the first step in the beyond the book process.

What do your readers need in a story or in their lives that you can fulfill? This can be a product connected to the reading experience (i.e. book baths), a product connected to a problem your readers encounter in their lives (i.e. they are preppers that want better survival gear), OR a new tilt on a story such as a romance story in a new setting or tailored for a specific audience (i.e. could involve construction workers).

Regardless, always get interest from Readers First before you write your story or create any product. Market BEFORE writing.

You can explore BookBathBox here.

And this superpower from the Author Marketing Superpowers, Story Suit, covers how to make your story stand out using your positioning.

Image 1: The Pieces of Your Story Suit (Back of Card) An instructional card titled “The Pieces of Your Story Suit” with five essential questions for authors to consider: Packaging, Medium, Message, and Marketing Channel. Each section offers guidance on how to make a story feel familiar yet stand out to readers, focusing on cover design, format, story elements, and marketing strategies. Image 2: Story Suit Superhero Card (Front of Card) A colorful, comic-style card featuring a cartoon superhero with glasses and a red suit, labeled “Story Suit” under the theme “Teleportation Powers: Share Your Story.” The text describes how packaging, marketing, and a compelling story premise help attract readers by blending familiarity with originality.

And this superpower from the Author Marketing Superpowers, The Testing Trick, covers how to test if your story will sell before you write it.

Image 1: What a Good Test Looks Like (Back of Card) An educational card titled “What a Good Test Looks Like” and “The 3 Kinds of Book Tests.” It explains that a good test should be fast, cheap, and effective—focused on whether readers want to buy and read the book. It then outlines three types of book tests: 1. Traffic Test – checks if readers will click through to your book page using low-budget ads. 2. Packaging Test – tests if readers will pre-order your book based on the cover and description. 3. Hook Test – tests if readers finish the first few chapters, using platforms like Reader Meter to track engagement. The card emphasizes that only books with strong testing results should be completed and launched. Image 2: The Testing Trick (Front of Card) A vibrant card under the “Teleportation Powers: Share Your Story” category titled “The Testing Trick.” The illustration shows a hand pouring a glowing green substance into an open book, surrounded by laboratory beakers, suggesting experimentation. The text explains how authors can test if their book will sell—and if readers will enjoy it—before the book is fully written. It promotes testing as a shortcut to publishing success that saves time and money compared to traditional trial-and-error over years.

Bonus Beyond the Book Product #2: Book Boxes Where the Box is a Story Too

This image is a promotional one for BoxyBooks

Now this one I love 😍.

They turned the outside of a children’s book box into a story that is revealed when you unfold the box. This is brilliant!

They even made this box so that it can be experienced as a story AND store a child’s toys.

It makes for a great gift and is a brilliant way to experiment with how a story can be told.

You can check out the campaign BoxyBooks here, which raised over $10k.

As a bonus campaign, you can check out these children’s books made of cloth that raised over $8k.

Bonus Beyond the Book Product #3: Household Items Decorated Like Books

A round, shallow woven basket filled with miniature matchbox-style books. Each tiny book has a colorful, vintage-inspired cover design featuring various illustrations and typography, such as animals, historical scenes, and ornate lettering. The boxes appear to be handmade or artistically crafted, resembling collectible items or novelty mini books.

Last, but certainly not least, we have book-covered matches which raised $3k over a decade ago.

The formula: decorate a household item with literary illustrations (can even be book covers if they are yours or you have the rights to them).

That’s it!

For readers who want to make their own home feel more like a magical library escape, you can make anything in their house, whether it be kitchenware, picture frames, and more feel like their favorite genre.

Phew! That’s it for this one. Let me know if you liked these bonus beyond the book ideas. It’s truly such a big world beyond the book and I’m so excited for us all to create this future together.

I’ll be back in touch soon. I have a lot of cool bonuses to share next week for the 50 Author Marketing Superpowers on Kickstarter.

In the meantime don’t forget…

Together we are boundless,

Michael Evans

The Author Sidekick

P.S. Thank you for all the love and support. Feels like every week something life-changing hits my inbox and it’s wild to me that I’m already able to invest in growing the team here at Author Sidekick (I’m drowning and need help, but that’s all thanks to your support! 💙). We are at the beginning of a revolution in publishing. It’s time to put our Readers First and bring Power to Storytellers. It’s early days… and I’m more optimistic than ever.

P.S. I have a big article coming on Monday. It’s not long per se. But it’s my most controversial article yet. I’m okay if I get canceled, and I’m okay if you hate me for it. I love authors. And I can’t not talk about this. It’s too big to ignore. (and no, it’s not my pencil… although my BIG pencil is quite large too. You can see a video of that here 😂).

Discussion about this episode

Beyond the Book

I help authors make money beyond selling books and turn their stories into empires.

I have a big dream. The first billionaire indie author will rise this decade. And there will be 100+ making 8-figures a year and more. But it won't come from selling books alone... it's going to come from building a "mini-Disney" for your readers.

Now, I have to be honest with you. Not every author who listens is going to build a media empire Beyond the Book. BUT my promise to every one of you listening is that you will grow your readership & income as an author by learning the power of Readers First Publishing.

This means...

1. Readers First Growth: Treating your marketing as a "product" and approaching all reader discovery from a creator-first mindset so that you can leverage social platforms to grow faster than ever

2. Readers First Storytelling: Immersing fans into your stories across media formats (including but not limited to story letters, interactive stories, ebooks, audiobooks, serial podcasts, web movies, and more)

3. Readers First Products: Creating physical and digital products connected to your stories that serve your readers (merch, games, drinks, food, candles, community, and more)

Each episode, I'll be sharing with you how you can grow, create stories, and make products that rewrite the rules of publishing using the principles of Readers First. I'll feature guests that range from academic experts on specific topics to multi-seven-figure authors who have innovated and gone beyond the book in unique ways.

This podcast is perfect for both fiction and nonfiction authors, but it has a bent toward fiction authors.

After writing and publishing 12 science fiction novels, helping thousands of authors make millions beyond the books by creating a community of their superfans, and then working for the largest creator in the world, I'm ready to help YOU go beyond the book and build the storytelling empire of your dreams.

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