Planning Your First Tarot Kickstarter? Here’s What We’ve Learned

“Turning a tarot deck from design into reality takes more than passion and creativity. It also takes patience, a realistic budget, and careful attention to the manufacturing details beyond the screen.”

I understand the excitement of finishing a tarot deck. As your 78 cards come together, you probably can’t wait to show them to the world. But a beautiful deck isn’t the same as a well-prepared Kickstarter campaign.

Once the artwork is done, there’s still plenty to do. Is the guidebook written? Have you settled on the card size and stock? Will the packaging work? How long will prototypes take? Have you left time to revise them?

Card flexibility, how the deck shuffles, color accuracy, and special finishes all need to be judged with a physical sample in hand. If you can, make a physical prototype before you launch. It helps you catch problems early, and it lets backers see real photos and videos of the product.

Also, leave time for Kickstarter’s project review, identity verification, building your campaign page, and everything else that comes before launch. Don’t squeeze your product preparation just to launch in time for a holiday or a date you have in mind.

Say your campaign raises $50,000. That looks like a great result. But not all of it is profit.

You still have to pay for card printing, guidebooks, packaging, accessories, prototypes, platform and payment processing fees, advertising, and international shipping. If your deck uses special finishes, manufacturing costs can also vary widely depending on the print run.

Plan for international shipping early. Delivery costs, taxes, and shipping requirements differ from region to region. For example, packages sent to the EU and the UK usually involve VAT, which affects how much backers actually pay and how you set up your shipping. Even if you plan to charge shipping after the campaign ends, estimate it in advance and let backers know how it will work.

Don’t set a funding goal that’s too low to cover production and delivery just to make the campaign look successful sooner.

“Getting funded, making a profit, and successfully fulfilling a project are three different things, and each needs to be managed on its own.”

Your first Kickstarter doesn’t need to raise a huge amount. But you should have a budget you understand and that holds up when you run the numbers.

This is something I’m still learning myself.

Every time we develop a new project, we come up with plenty of fun ideas: different editions, special packaging, hardcover guidebooks, altar cloths, card bags, metal collectibles, limited-edition extras… These can make the collecting experience richer and may also raise how much each backer pledges.

But for whoever handles production and fulfillment, every new edition or add-on means more sourcing, manufacturing, quality checks, inventory, and order management.

Imagine a deck with two editions, where backers can also freely add a guidebook, a card bag, an altar cloth, and other accessories. The number of possible order combinations can quickly grow far beyond what you first imagined. Handmade items and accessories with special finishes in particular may not follow the same production schedule as the cards.

So there’s no need to keep adding extras and add-ons just to make your campaign look bigger. Start by deciding what your core product is and which extras genuinely add value. Then decide what to include based on real costs and what’s feasible to produce. Sometimes making it easy for backers to understand their options matters more than offering dozens of combinations.

This is something I’ve felt strongly in recent years. How beautiful a deck is doesn’t directly determine how many backers it will get.

Kickstarter gives you a place to show your work and reach potential backers, but launching doesn’t guarantee a flood of organic traffic. You still need to introduce your work ahead of time, build your social media, reach out to potential collectors, and learn how they respond to your theme, art style, and pricing.

I’ve had pre-launch campaigns with strong ad results and a sizable email list. But once the campaign went live, the actual conversion fell short of what I expected. That taught me that good pre-launch numbers don’t necessarily predict final sales. Backers’ budgets, your pricing, product positioning, competition, and whether the work truly resonates with people can all affect the outcome.

So set a marketing budget you can afford before you start. If results are disappointing, step back and figure out why, rather than spending more on ads just because you’ve already put in so much time and money.

This is the part I most hope creators take seriously.

When your Kickstarter page shows that you’ve hit your goal, that’s absolutely worth celebrating. But for the team handling manufacturing and delivery, much of the work is still ahead. You’ll need to confirm final quantities for each edition, the production schedule, materials, quality checks, accessory packaging, backer order details, and shipping plans for each region.

I’d also recommend keeping a reasonable amount of spare stock for after-sales support. Even when production and quality control go smoothly, international shipping can still lead to damaged packaging, lost parcels, or the occasional defective item. You can’t always prevent these problems, but having spare products and an after-sales plan ready makes them much easier to deal with.

A successful campaign means people want to support your work. Getting that work to them complete and in good condition is the job that comes next.

Finally, I want to talk about a creator’s responsibility.

We’re a tarot manufacturer and publisher, not a Kickstarter management agency. We can help creators understand prototyping, materials, finishes, packaging, manufacturing costs, production timelines, quality control, and international fulfillment, and we’re happy to share what we’ve learned from past campaigns.

But we can’t guarantee that any project will succeed, and we can’t promise that ad spend will bring in a particular amount of funding. In fact, even our own projects still involve constant learning and adjustment.

I don’t think a first Kickstarter has to be a big commercial success. It can be a creator’s first chance to reach collectors overseas, understand what the market wants, learn how products are made, and start building a brand.

Crowdfunding involves risk. Production can be delayed, costs can rise, suppliers can run into trouble, and shipping can go wrong. I don’t believe every project that misses its plan is an irresponsible one.