Aaron Diaz’s Kickstarter is doing pretty damn well. The artist and webcomic creator asked for a modest $30,000 to fund a print version of his popular webcomic *Dresden Codak, *and less than a week later, he’s pushing $250,000. But unlike most people who successfully fund projects on Kickstarter, Diaz won’t be fulfilling his obligations to backers – a daunting task involving third-party printers, pallets of books, and staggering shipping costs -- on his own.
Instead, if you scroll down to the very bottom of his Kickstarter page you’ll find a note that explains how Diaz will be producing and shipping everything from books to prints to stickers with the help of “Make That Thing,” a new production and fulfillment agency launched by web retailer Topatoco specifically for crowdfunded projects. As Diaz explains it, they help “people like me (who live in apartments) print books (which come on pallets) and ship them to you guys.”
In other words, Diaz has outsourced the very part of his Kickstarter that gives individual artists the most trouble: Producing and distributing rewards to backers.
“I think the biggest problem people run into after a Kickstarter is funded is fulfilling stretch goal rewards,” Diaz told Wired. “Often the original cost estimates are fine, but when you're in the thick of it you might start promising all sorts of things. When you realize it's more expensive than you thought to ship foam swords with 5,000 comic books, it's too late.”
TopatoCohas been in the web retail business since 2004, selling T-shirts, books, prints, and more for webcomic creators and artists of all stripes who want to offload their merchandizing to a third party. The new Kickstarter fulfillment arm Make That Thing quietly launched last month with two campaigns, Diaz’s book and a card game called Machine of Death: The Game of Creative Assassination. Make That Thing is essentially an extension of TopatoCo’s existing model — a way to help creators deal with the logistical challenges of making money off of their art.
“There are so many people who have great intentions for Kickstarters, and they just don’t realize the magnitude of work that is involved,” says TopatoCo’s David Malki. “Sometimes people will do a Kickstarter and come to us afterward and ask for help with fulfillment. We thought, rather than wait for an artist to realize that he or she is completely overwhelmed, why don’t we just help out at the beginning? Then we can do what we’re good at, which is merchandise, and they can do what they’re good at, which is make art.” (Malki should know: He’s a webcomics creator himself, as is TopatoCo founder Jeffrey Rowland.)
In the case of a project like Diaz’s webcomic collection The Tomorrow Girl: Dresden Codak Volume 1, Make That Thing’s input might include negotiating with a printer, helping plan reward tiers and goals, and physically shipping rewards to backers once the project has been funded. When left to a solo creator, these duties can prove crushing.
“I've certainly seen people get overwhelmed by success,” adds comics creator Dylan Meconis, who helmed her own successful Kickstarter last year. “I know of at least one [Kickstarter] project where they suddenly were looking at producing a number of books that their original printer couldn't handle. I don't know if they've even gotten the books printed yet, but once they do, just finding a warehousing solution is going to be a challenge, to say nothing of what it'll take to ship out all those orders.”
Make That Thing aims to split the difference for creators: Offsetting some of the risk of production and fulfillment, while taking a cut of profits. “Basically, these are our test projects to figure out how much money is left over and what the expenses are going to be,” says Malki. “The philosophy that we’re trying to have is that we’re in this together, so we want something that makes financial sense for the artists, and obviously we have to cover our expenses. In general, our cut will be a percentage of net proceeds after expenses.”
When Kickstarter creators fail to fulfill their rewards, the consequences are graver than backers not receiving the foam swords they asked for: It can degrade trust between an artists and their fanbase, which can have long-term consequences for an artist’s career and future earnings.
Diaz is adamant that he wouldn’t be running a Kickstarter without Make That Thing’s support. “I just don't have the resources to ship all of those books in a timely manner,” he says. “I suppose I could theoretically fulfill the Kickstarter myself, but I'd need employees and a warehouse, and I'm not looking to run a small business.” Instead, he’s able to focus on what he does best: making art. “We think Kickstarter is such a valuable tool for artists,” adds Malki. “We just want to keep it a little bit safer for people to trust in it.”