I wish I’d seen some of these, so here…

Learn, educate, read and don’t just dive right in. Those are some of the big ones. tips, but here are a few more, just from my brief experience. I spent three months in the FB group I joined just working on building my launch page and learning and then I was in a pre-launch (sort of like a pre-order, but for gathering followers) from the end of May (IIRC) until my campaign started around July 11.

1. Join Kickstarter for Authors if you’re not already a member. (A lot of the below will not make sense if you haven’t already started learning about Kickstarter campaigns.)
2. Tell your family your brain is going to be temporary hiatus for much of the time period. Yes, for real. If you’re used to working on deadline, think of it like that.
3. Have food you can prepare without a lot of thought/prep—both meals and snacks. And consider the length of your campaign. It’s not as bad once the first few days pass, but then the anxiety ramps up again near the end and you want to check/refresh every 30 minutes…or more. Doing that, working on other projects and/or your day job while juggling everything else is…a lot. Make it easy on yourself.
4. Don’t have it end in the middle of the day. My thinking…I really wanted a glass of wine. And mine ended at 11am.
5. Don’t plan anything extra during that time frame. Seriously. Don’t.
6. Don’t over-anticipate how much you might make.
7. Use a spreadsheet (Google sheets is simple and basic) and figure out the costs of what you’re going to need to spend to create your products AND handle shipping. Don’t forget boxes.
8. Figure out your printers/options ahead of time so you can decide which you want beforehand
9. Use  your art. It’s great for making graphics in Canva, etc. But make sure you have the proper rights to use it.
10. Read/Follow other KS campaigns. I cannot stress this enough.