let's consider Kickstarter done

[littlebum2002]

Fiscally, the strategy of the Kickstarter didn't make much sense to me. The proceeds were over $1 million! Assuming people mostly donated to support Rich and get the goodies, he could have lived comfortably off that for the rest of his life with no work except writing the comic and the goodies, and sold the books as PDFs rather than hardcopy. (Since shipping costs more than the books, those of us who aren't from the US won't buy hardcopies anyway.)

Getting over $1 million and ending up without a net profit of at least that much seems like a poor business model, especially when it loads you down with an unmanageable pile of work in the bargain.

You're right, taking people's money for a product then never giving them that product is an excellent way of making money.

Unfortunately, it's also extremely immoral and illegal. But, you know, who has time to worry about all the fiddely details?

(I mean, you do realize you are advocating Rich steal from his most ardent fanbase, right? You're saying he should have promised people books in the kickstarter then just never printed those books and kept the money. Can you please explain how this was a good idea in your head?)