Times have changed since the pandemic ‘ended’. Before then, everyone felt confident and rich, during it people were scared and bored, after it everyone was scared and outdoors. Two booms out of three periods isn’t too shabby. At one time we treated Kickstarter as an elaborate advert for an upcoming book, but as audiences become scared and risk averse we’re stuck needing Kickstarters to keep the lights on. A bigger publisher with a distribution network and money and partners would be able to create their own hype machine for new books but we all have to settle for Kickstarter. It’s too powerful, and all these other crowdfunding platforms have to contend with that fact. And it’s not a matter of function, like so many people seem to assume, but with confidence and recognition. Ask any blood sucking marketing agency and they’ll tell you that when you’re advertising your Kickstarter project you’re not targeting people who like your product, you’re targeting people who like Kickstarter that just so happen to also like your stuff. It’s Kickstarter first.