I like the idea of a kickstarter. It seems like a good way to build hype and get people interested. But for some reason it doesn't go as well with writing projects as it does with say, video games, or other media. That's what's stopped me so far from trying it myself.
As far as your swag list, I like it. Maybe you can add some more author-things, like notes, or old drafts, or character sheets? People love 'extra' material like that.
Not that I want to discourage you trying a Kickstarter because those can be super awesome. But have you heard of Patreon - maybe that might be more your thing?
I don't particularly care for Unity because it looks like the Canonical devs took a look at GNOME 3 and caught a nasty case of NIH, but on its own merits it isn't terrible. But I've been using Openbox for a long time because it works well for me.