These days – more often than not – I feel like a car salesman or a telethon host, pitching a product to sell or looking for a few dollars of support. But the honest truth is, if I don’t engage with the hustle, it becomes a matter of being out of sight, out of mind.
I’m in my own corner of the ‘net, trying to keep the whole operation going, otherwise producing more stories and art falls into the category of being a hobby that I’ll get around to when I can as opposed to an actual business looking to release an app, the next book, the latest chapter, a new print, whatever.
At the moment, there’s other people involved that I’m also doing my best for their efforts.
So far, I haven’t had to engage in doing a Kickstarter or a Go Fund Me effort. Nor have I resorted to selling on Amazon or trying to get a distributor like Diamond to place my books and other items in the stores. The reason for that is the people who enjoy my work have been all I need to keep going, and I’d like to keep it that way.
I like personally engaging with the people buying my books and art. I read all their notes and words of support. I generally respond with a word of appreciation or an answer to a question.
So if I sell just a book or two – or a book and a couple of prints or back issues – every day of the month, that sum total accumulated every month makes it possible to move forward and plan for the long term, not to mention take care of current expenses that crop up.
When I was looking to print BEGINNINGS, I had to put down over $2500.00 as a down payment to cover the cost of the paper which enabled me to lock in the cover price of the book. That money came from pre-orders and other sales from my website store, because I had no book yet to sell, but I needed the support throughout to ensure the book made it to the finish line.
So here’s the reason I am acting like a car salesman or a telethon host:
If I sell those couple of copies of BEGINNINGS, or a copy of BEGINNINGS and a couple of prints, or the equivalent of anything else I post on my website store every day, it helps with getting the app released and starting the fund to put down a deposit on the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS until I’m ready to go with the pre-orders.
The OMNIBUS is going to cost a lot more to produce than BEGINNINGS. It’s going to cost more to ship from the printer to my place here in Los Angeles, and it’s going to cost a few dollars to store because of the size and quantity being delivered.
So if you’ve been thinking of buying something from my web store, sooner rather than later makes it easier for me to deliver the product. As anyone who buys from me can attest, I offer fast, convenient service and haven’t disappointed anyone yet. It’s a track record I’m proud of and strive hard to maintain.
Thanks for checking this out. If you’ve got the extra bucks, I appreciate the support. If you don’t, take care of yourself first. I’ll still be around one way or the other. Take care.
While I’m gratified by the reception THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS has been receiving since it’s release, and very encouraged by the enthusiasm KEN PENDERS’S KNUCKLES OMNIBUS VOLUME ONE has received since I announced the project, there’s still a lot to get done on both before they become a reality.
Currently, I’m working with Patrick, my app programmer, organizing what remains to be done in getting THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES APP completed and released.
At this time, I’m working on completing the art on the pages I took short cuts on so I could get my book THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS to the printers in time for me to have something to release at this past Comic-Con. I’m also working on elements of the text that need to be updated and/or corrected.
Beyond the work that needs to be done, there’s new material that’s going to be included with the app release. That new material includes at least 5 additional pages of the SHATTERED TOMORROWS storyline as well as an additional character added to the Data Files beyond the 6 characters already featured in BEGINNINGS. And I haven’t even mentioned updating the SPECIAL THANKS section or the Art Gallery section.
While all this is getting done, I’m supervising the recoloring of the Knuckles story pages for the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS as well as designing and illustrating Cover B that most people will receive with the copy they order.
In case people haven’t gotten the memo, the cover art shown above is a prototype for the Variant cover for the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS that only the first 100 buyers will receive. In order to be fair to everyone, only those who have purchased a copy of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS will receive an emailed notice alerting them when the pre-orders will begin. Only those with a confirmed email address on my end will have their orders accepted.
Those of you who haven’t yet ordered your copy of BEGINNINGS should do so if you wish to qualify for inclusion to the Variant cover offer. As with everything else, this is a first come-first served deal.
I’ll have further updates as events develop. As usual, feel free to email me with your questions and/or concerns. Thanks for taking the time to check this out and take care.
It’s now four days since the San Diego Comic-Con has ended. During the time since the convention started until the show finally closed on Sunday at 5:00pm has been nothing but a whirlwind of activity and interaction with numerous individuals on multiple levels. While so much has gone better than expected, there was still second-guessing on my part over some decisions made, the key one of which was the decision to move from Artists Alley to the Small Press section.
On the plus side, there was definitely more space to spread out and display my art and books, not to mention more space for Bernie and myself to conduct business. On the minus side, I was listed in the con programming as being in Artists Alley at Table II-24 instead of my new location in Small Press at Table O-01, so that made it difficult for people to find me. Still, having experienced life in the Small Press section, the pluses outweigh the minuses. When I was purchasing some acrylic paints from a vendor located next to Artists Alley, the sight of everyone so crammed in next to each other along with their prints and original art made me grateful for spending the extra money for the new spot.
Also on the plus side, people did make the effort to find me. Even better, they made the effort because they wanted to acquire my new book THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS. The numbers don’t lie. The book generated more than two-thirds of my sales during the convention.
A comparison with my convention sales from 2022 and 2023 shows the majority of my sales came from selling copies of SONIC ARCHIVES, SONIC SELECT volumes, copies of BEST OF SONIC and SONIC LEGACY, aided by sales of original art and prints featuring Sonic, Knuckles & Lara-Su along with Lara-Su T-shirts and patches.
I didn’t bring most of the items I did to previous conventions for a number of reasons. With regards to the SONIC reprint collections, I’m sold out of a number of items and getting close to selling out on the rest. With regards to SONIC back issues, I decided to bring what I didn’t use for the Lara-Su book promotion and sell at a uniform cost – $10 per book – to avoid getting into hassles over the issue of collectibility and grading. What I did bring – original art, prints, assorted Lara-Su items – made up the rest of the sales on top of what the Lara-Su BEGINNINGS book sold. With the exception of original art, everything sold to some degree. Usually one or two individuals spring for a big ticket item such as original art every convention, but that didn’t happen this year. The closest was the one commission I did on the Thursday of the convention.
This definitely was a transitional year for me. While people stopped by because of my association with and the work I did on the SONIC comic series and related projects, they definitely showed their support for THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES, whether they bought something or not. (Hard to buy an app when it hasn’t been released, and more than a few made it clear they’re waiting on the app.)
The sentiment why the stories I wrote still resonate to this day is that I respected the readers and didn’t dumb things down simply because the majority of the readers were children, and now they wanted to share those stories with their kids, or wanted to simply see the story continue in one form or another.
At this point, thanks to the convention, I’ve sold close to a third of the copies I’ve printed with orders coming in every day. I haven’t decided yet what I’ve do once I sell out, but that’s a decision to be made at a later time.
In addition to meeting with the people at the convention, I also met with Almond Ko, the man who sought me out years ago to entrust his company with the printing of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS.
True to his word, his people delivered spectacular results, the proof of which is the reaction I’ve been hearing from everyone who’s purchased a copy or even simply checked out the contents.
While enjoying a delicious meal at the Water Grill restaurant in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Village, we discussed working together on future projects such as KEN PENDERS’ KNUCKLES OMNIBUS Vol. 1 and other projects from the Floating Island Productions MOBIAN LINE.
It was Almond who suggested printing a Variant cover for the first 100 copies as an incentive for the early pre-orders.
So the image you’re looking at is under consideration for the Variant edition. I’ll have Cover B ready for viewing before I go live with the pre-orders so I have some idea what to base my final decision on.
We also discussed presenting the 3-cover format as a 1-image fold-out, which he said was doable, as well as sending us blank prototypes from which to base the decision on the final format before going to press. Our concern is weight for shipping purposes as well as cost. We don’t want to limit our audience, but we also want to grow as a company organically, rather than shooting for the moon all at once.
I also met with Andrew Pepoy, who had a table a couple of aisles down from me. He confirmed what I’ve been hearing from many freelance creators concerning the subject of royalties. Most of the publishers, and that includes Archie & IDW, are not paying anything when it comes to reprints. Todd McFarlane’s toy company just released a CAPTAIN CARROT action figure, which Scott Shaw! hasn’t seen a dime from, let alone even a hint of any potential royalties. Not even a box of complimentary figures.
Overall, Bernie and I had a great time, enjoyed meeting with everyone who stopped by, and look forward to appearing at upcoming conventions elsewhere.
A couple of quick notes before I sign off for the moment:
The cost of shipping THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS here in the states is going up an additional $2.00 starting Sunday, August 10.
The cost of shipping book rate is not worth the cost from my perspective, which shipping via Priority Flat Rate has proven to be an overwhelming success in getting the books to the customers in a timely manner with the books arriving in the condition expected upon arrival. I’ve had only 1 book per hundred sold where I had to take additional action to ensure delivery to the buyer, resulting in everyone receiving the copy they ordered.
Overseas shipments – including Canada and Mexico – will be going up an additional $3.00 on September 1, 2024. I’m happy to report everyone has received their copies outside the USA, and I’d like to keep my track record going strong.
I will be adding more items to my store page, including the new prints I unveiled for sale at Comic-Con.
I’m also trying to figure out how I’ll present later this month an advance peek at the next chapter of SHATTERED TOMORROWS without spoiling anything for those who haven’t had a chance to read BEGINNINGS yet.
As usual, if anyone has any questions or comments, send them to me at my email address. I do read everything and try to respond when I can or need to. Take care until next time.
