Kickstarter Pledge Manager

Hi everybody. I just posted this to Kickstarter:

Hello FSM Supporters!

Thank you for funding our Kickstarter. Because of YOU we have launched the redesigned website at www.filmscoremonthly.com. It's not done, and we are making improvements daily, but it is up and running.

All donors should have received the Kickstarter “pledge manager” yesterday, asking for your address and to collect postage and (for non-U.S. donors) duties as well. 

I have an explanation, a favor, and a promise...

The explanation: Some of you noticed that your shipping costs seemed high. (For others, it’s actually too low—overseas rates are crazy nowadays.) Kickstarter's pledge manager was not smart enough to understand when something can be sent via media mail in the U.S., or exactly what donors are getting...because not everybody is getting the same thing. I was aghast when I started to use it because it simply didn’t allow for the things I thought it could do.

Namely: We plan to print the Best of FSM Book with Amazon, but Amazon is definitely not smart enough to understand that we have already collected the money. They require YOU to order the book, directly from them. I can't order the book and send it to five hundred addresses. (Or maybe I can, but I have yet to understand how.)

So this is driving me batty, and I've gotten a number of messages by concerned donors.

The favor: Can all of you please just go ahead and use the pledge manager to pay for whatever Kickstarter asks you to pay? I do not have editorial access to the pledge manager to adjust people's rates while it is going on. But I need everybody to fill it out so I can close it and proceed with the fulfillment.

The promise: Anybody who needs to make special arrangements, or feels they’re being overcharged for the postage and it really is a problem, either for your own financial situation or just the principle of the thing, can write me at LukasKendallMV@gmail.com and I will methodically take care of each and every one of you. It’s within my discretion and power to refund anybody for any amount—and I’ll do so. I PROMISE.

But I need to do that LATER. Until people go through with the pledge manager, it’s incomplete and I’m stuck.

I just want to add one thing, and I hope people understand it... This is not a store. I have a store, it’s at www.FSMCDs.com. (I’d love for you to buy from us, we just went live with new stuff yesterday.)

This is a fundraiser. This is about building a new FSM site, which, as it turns out, is going to need more work than I budgeted, and I’ll be using the aforementioned FSMCDs.com to fund ongoing improvements to the site. (I’m probably going to be underwater well into next year.)

This is about giving film music fans a community where they can talk about our favorite music. That was why I created FSM in the first place, as I’ve spent a lot of time remembering for the foreword to the Best of FSM book. 

It looks like we “made” a lot of money on this Kickstarter, but after producing the CD, printing the cards, printing the book, manufacturing the mugs, paying FSMOnline their subscription money to pay their writers and costs, and financing the website—plus paying Kickstarter and the credit card fees—and dealing with labor and supplies for the fulfillment... we’re really not. 

I got into this and I’m prepared to sell as much stuff as I have to at FSMCDs.com to finish all of our obligations. 

And what I ask of all of you is that, if you can afford it and it doesn’t clash with your principles, just pay what the stupid system is asking for the postage...please?

I’m truly overwhelmed by the support, as I have been every since this started in 1990 when I was 16. This issue with the Pledge Manager is one of many problems that has popped up in 35 years where we just have to deal with and I have to ask everybody to put up with it.

So that’s today’s update and we’ll see how this goes. We’re over 55% complete in the Pledge Manager and here’s to getting to 100%. 

THANK YOU!

Lukas