Aug
10th
2019
All followers/readers: final publication survey hours. (Polls close 12:01 a.m. Monday 8/12, Eastern Daylight Time) · 10:52am Aug 10th, 2019
So, one last time. As concerns the stories potentially existing in physical book form? These are your polls:
Publication poll: short stories & novellas
Publication poll: A Mark Of Appeal & Triptych
If you haven't voted, this is your final notice and chance to do so. Once the polls close, they will not reopen. Should the surveys fail to gain the necessary minimum number of responses, they will not be offered again.
As of this writing, should the polls close right now, no minimum goal would have been met and so no books would be published.
I'm expecting the same result on Monday morning, but as elimination isn't official yet, I'll play out the string.
Can't vote again, but eagerly watching this.
If you need more responses, it might be an idea to tag stories in a fresh blog. There should be a drop down box underneath the blog text box. Tagging stories there should push the blog to people that have bookmarked the story but are not following you.
I wouldn’t tag your whole library, but pushing it to Triptych and Mark Of Appeal might be worth your time.
(I always get confused when I see a blog from someone I don’t follow, until I remember that you can tag stories like that.)
Good luck, I’m hoping it works out for you.
5103216
I added tags to this one, but I don't know if that caused it to appear in anyone's feed. I'm presuming it doesn't.
And so it goes.
5103217
When you write a blog there are two boxes below the text box: one for writing tags, which is what you did here, and one for tagging stories, which I think is what 5103216 was suggesting. Doing the latter makes the blog appear in the feed of anyone who bookmarked the story, and links the story from the blog. Like this one I wrote last week, where you see the tagged story in a box top right.
5103221
5103217
Yes. Exactly this. I probably explained it poorly.
I just checked on an old blog of my own that you should see the second box if you edit the blog. (Stupid mobile site on phones. None of the menus are where I expect them. You’ve probably already fixed it by now.)
5103221
5103223
In that case, I can only tag a single story and still don't know if editing the tag in afterwards causes the blog to appear in someone's feed after the initial posting.
Regardless, I'll post one final notice tomorrow morning.
5103225
I think that might have worked. No doubt someone will correct me if I’m wrong. Here’s hoping the responses flood in.
(And there’s an ad for a self publishing service on this webpage. I’ve become blasé about how scary it is that Google knows everything.)
5103225
I just unfollowed you and it showed up in my feed. I don't know how this will play out buy I'm hoping I can get a copy of Triptych.
Isn't the entire point of print-on-demand services that your setup costs are near-zero?
The main investment is time. Unless absolutely everyone who answered the survey picked an "I'd buy it for" price below-cost, I'm having trouble seeing how this wouldn't make money for you (admittedly not _much_, but setup time is a one-off thing).
Getting a dealer table at a con is a recurring cost, but my impression was that you were never planning to do that; you'd instead stick with print-on-demand, and limit con presence to dealers that you know selling by private arrangement and to shared-table systems (as I gather occurred last con). So, your minimum number of copies to break even at-con is probably single-digit.
5103247
The main investment is art.
Said investment has to be spread across the projected number of saleable copies in a way which keeps the price point at or below the level where people will still consider purchasing.
And without enough saleable copies, the math doesn't work.
5103266
Per previous posts, I feel that you are painting yourself into a corner with art when you really don't need to.
Breakeven for decent cover art without interior art is on the order of ten copies (give or take a factor of two).
Lastly - you're talking about spending $2000-$3000 to go to a con for enjoyment's sake. Would it be worth it, for enjoyment's sake, to take a $1000 loss to have several books in print with art you like?
I'm getting mixed signals on whether this is a fundraising project or a for-its-own-sake project (or a combination of the above). Those have very different cost/benefit breakdowns.
5103266
To elaborate on the first point, three exercises for you:
- Pick three or four stories that you want to publish. Ask yourself, "what interaction between two ponies, or one pony and the environment, would best represent the heart and tone of this story?".
Not "what is the best possible image" - just "what scene of this specific type is the best fit". Chances are, you'll be surprised how good a fit the result is.
- Open your "stories" tab. Look at the title images you've chosen for your stories. How many of those count as "one figure, no background"? How many of the rest would count as "two figures with background"?
This should very quickly show that you've already done the first exercise - successfully - for most of your stories.
- Pick half a dozen or more fiction books out of your RL bookshelf (or e-reader) at random. Examine the cover art. Does the art give a good feel for what the tone and theme of the book will be? Does the art directly illustrate a scene that was on-camera in the book?
This should very quickly show that the "movie poster" approach is widely used, by books you've enjoyed enough to buy.
I hope that this exercise is useful to you (or to anyone else in this thread who's thinking about story art).
5103317
*deep breath*
I got to Baltimore via three means: two of them were Ko-Fi tips from times when BronyCon was designated as the goal and trying to save a portion of Patreon funds each month. Both of those things helped, and I am grateful for all assistance from those sources. But do you know where the majority came from?
Not spending coins (nickels through dollars) for one year while picking up every single lost piece of money I could find.
I scavenged my way to Baltimore. Here's a coin return: I will flick a finger into it as I pass. (This gets me Looks, but let's face it: they were hoping for an excuse to say something anyway.) This is a coin-counting machine: let's see if anything too rough for machine processing was abandoned and incidentally, this is a good place to kneel down and run a hand along the edge of the underside because coins bounce out. Maybe I should use the self-pay registers: sometimes there's a penny hanging around the base. Those supermarkets where you use a quarter to rent a cart? Were any carts abandoned? Oh, and if I'm walking? Driveways, sidewalks, curbs. Spot a flash of metal and pick it up -- incidentally, doing so while following the Scavenger's Code, which says that if I see you drop or abandon it, I have to give it back to you because otherwise, it's theft. Every insomnia march is a chance at incredibly petty income. Find paper money? Convert it to coins and drop them in the jar. Once a month, I can take pennies to the bank and convert them into quarters because counting pennies svcks. And I can use pennies to avoid getting more pennies, so it's fine to pay $2.04 on a $1.54 purchase.
I did this for one year. And in the end? 'Enjoyment' didn't apply, because I spent four days torturing myself.
Whee.
Today, I found seventy-one cents. The silver in that group goes into the jar. The pennies will be converted. And if I decide to go for it, the accumulation will continue for a little under one year.
This is not a casual exercise. This is self-torture on the slow drip plan. But hey, since I'm good at it...
And if I go west next August, it will not be to enjoy myself. It will be to apologize.
And part of the reason I wrote what's above is to illustrate that I can't really take a $1000 loss on anything. Spending that amount of money is not a casual exercise, because I am not rich, or comfortable, and we can keep working down the line for a fairly long distance. Could I spend a few hundred dollars on art if I had to? Yes -- but afterwards, I'd better be able to bring it back in.
I am not looking to make large amounts of profit on these books. I am also probably not going to be able to sell them for cost. If I'm lucky, I might be able to spread out the expenses to the point where I could hope for a few dollars (as in one to five) on each sale. But looking for income here on any significant percentage basis will mean raising the price point to where no one will buy.
If necessary, I could try to keep it at breaking even. But I can't afford to lose money. And that means I have to be very careful about figuring out what the market will bear, or if there's even a market at all. Because if I get this wrong, it is going to hurt.
5103437
And this is why I would recommend not trying for interior art. Don’t get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to see the stunning scenes you paint with words rendered visually. But I don’t want it if it will cause further financial stress to yourself. If you’re counting sales till you hit a break-even point, I would want that number to be as low as possible.
It’s also why I would recommend against trying to crowd fund a deluxe edition of Triptych. Again, a leather-bound and slip-cased edition would be a beautiful thing to own. But the anguish you’re currently feeling over these polls is going to be multiplied a hundredfold during the campaign. And as much as people tout crowd funding as a great way to launch an idea, most campaigns fail. I don’t want your labour of love to hurt you like that.
I really do hope this works out for you. I’d love to have a first edition Estee on my shelf. Good luck.
Already did the polls, but just wanted to give a quick aside.
I would love to see hardcovers and the whole shebang, but I’ll buy whatever gets put out.
5103437
If necessary, I could try to keep it at breaking even. But I can't afford to lose money. And that means I have to be very careful about figuring out what the market will bear, or if there's even a market at all. Because if I get this wrong, it is going to hurt.
I wonder if there is some way to price them like a humble bundle? Set the minimum price point but then anybody who wants to pay more can.
I'm not sure why it has to have such a quick cutoff date. Is there anything wrong with leaving the polls open for a week?
5103663
Because no matter how long I leave the polls open, ultimately, people vote like Americans: a small percentage shows up and the remainder complains about the results.
5103745
Idk. I still think more time would be better than less, unless there's a more pressing reason to get this going as soon as possible that I'm just not aware of.
Regardless of how many people complain, and really, how many are going to go out of their way to complain about something they bought because they cared enough to commit the money at all, that number of people who do show up and want to actually buy can only increase with more time on the survey available for late-comers.
Idk though, just a thought.
Maybe you could try do-it-yourself crowdfunding on Ko-Fi? Change the goal to "Cover art", make sure the more... enthusiastic parts of your fanbase knows about it (at least with a post on Patreon), and let it take as long as it takes.
Importantly, to keep everything as simple as possible, this would pay for art production only, not the printed books. That way, you don't need the entire Kickstarter machinery.
5103437
Yes. And?
If you can plan for Everfree Northwest, you can plan for an out-of-pocket book run. By going to BronyCon you've shown that you do spend about that level of funds on "me" projects (which is fine - it would be very unhealthy not to).
It boils down to whether you'd prefer to go to EFNW, or wait for the following con and get interior-art books in the meantime.
I am aware that you're poor - I do read your blog.
But you've directly shown that your yearly budget for luxuries is on the order of a couple thousand dollars per year.
We're not changing how much you're spending. We're evaluating which luxuries you'd want to spend it on.
5103437
We must be computing the "for cost" price differently, because it's hard to imagine you charging people less for the books than Lulu or whichever PoD service charges you for them.
Take the PoD price. Mark it up by at least 50% (you're low-volume, so you way want closer to 100%). That puts you in "sell about 10 copies to break even on the cover art" territory.
Some people won't buy them. That's because some people replying to the survey wanted to pay $15 for a hardcover that costs $25 to print. There were lots of people who said they'd be willing to pay $30 for a softcover, so "6 by 9 softcover for $30" is your sweet spot.
If you want to put $400 worth of art inside each book, it'll be a decade before you see that money back, but you'll at least have each sale getting you closer instead of farther away.
Long story short - don't charge what you think they're worth (you're one of those artists who thinks your work is worthless). Don't charge what your fans say they'd like to pay; everyone would like to get it for a song. Charge what your market research survey says they will reliably pay (the sweet spot on the price/demand curve).
5103869
Rephrase.
Ignoring the fact that the trip was my first (non) vacation in quite some time: my luxury budget frequently consists of whatever I can conjure from nothing. Found money is a luxury budget. Survey credit becomes my Amazon gift card balance. My movie tickets? Still Coke, thank goodness -- but I don't expect that to last. And for major purchases, it's slow savings, drip by drip, until the jar is full.
I don't have another year to work on this before going to print. And it would be easy to put myself in a Magi situation where I either arrive in Bellevue empty-handed or send books ahead without me.
"What's the best part about having followers?"
"You know my tendency to kick myself when I'm down?"
"Yeah..."
"I have people who do that for me."
5103847
I'll think about the Ko-fi end of it. We'll see where things stand on Monday.
5103924
Why not, exactly?
Hasbro is going to be milking FiM for as long as they possibly can. There will at minimum be another movie, and they've already started churning out specials (like they did with Equestria Girls). The fandom isn't going to die down for years.
It's only time to worry when they have a confirmed airdate for a successor series, and even then: how long has TF G1 fandom lasted?