I understand they have upfront costs, but they could work out a campaign where the cost per unit goes down as they reach certain sales goals.
"a campaign where the cost per unit goes down as they reach certain sales goals."
That's an interesting idea. It gives purchasers an incentive to promote the campaign, as opposed to "early bird" specials which incentivises early purchasers, but almost disincentivises later purchasers.
This has been done on Kickstarter and software bundles like MacHeist in the form of "unlocking" additional rewards, but I don't think I've ever seen them actually lower the price if they hit certain goals.
This phenomenon, where people wait until the last minute to go in on a product, is already pervasive on Kickstarter. (I'm not entirely sure why, but the most obvious reason is that people want to ensure that the project will definitely be funded or will attain some sort of stretch-reward before buying). Dynamic price-lowering will only exacerbate this trend, discourage initial purchases, and likely produce more failed projects.