Moose River Zero, Massive Stapler and SacAnime
July 12th, 2007MOOSE RIVER ZERO:
Since I’ve started to doing these conventions, I’ve learned a lot about how to sell my work and what of my work sells well. One of the big lessons I’ve learned is to not divide my selling power between a whole lot of titles and to stick with something really specific, preferably a “showcase” title. Obviously my showcase title is Moose River, so all my small-time mini-comics have been shoved off to the side. At the last APE, I felt that even Moose River Deluxe diverted my selling power away from the main series and, because of which, I felt that I should phase out Deluxe in favor of focusing in on the main series. However, there were a massive number of people who loved Deluxe at FanimeCon and, in turn, ended up buying more of my stuff. A lot of other people loved the “3 for $5” deal. I eventually sold out of my Deluxe supply. All of that was a good thing. In fact, it was enough to convince me to do up another print run of Deluxe rather than push it aside. However this time, in an effort to sort of tie it in with the main series, I renamed it Moose River Zero and added in a new page featuring Avery and Anne (you might recognize some of the IM text from this page). The rename of “Zero” obviously gives it the distinction of being the prequel of sorts of Moose River book one or either of the Moose River main series minis (one and two). So that’s that.
MASSIVE STAPLER:
To anyone who bought a copy of Moose River book one at FanimeCon, you’re the only ones who’ll ever get ones that I actually hand sewn. Future copies will be stapled together, after having bought a huge ass stapler that can go through all the pages of my book with ease. As much as the sewing adds a bit more of a personal touch to each book, the actual process is a real pain in the ass. Stapling it saves me so much time and it’ll allow me to crank out more books (which is all that I want to do).
Speaking of the books, here’s a fun little tidbit for you. Straight up, it costed me about $6 a copy to get the first run of my books printed up, although I think I can get the next run for about $4.50 a copy. (This doesn’t count how much I think the actual bookbinding labor is worth.) I went into Kinkos earlier today to see if they have a book binding service. They did, and I got a price quote on it. Long story short, it’ll cost me about $30 a copy to do it through Kinkos. It $6 per copy alone for them to just bind the books, and that says nothing about the cost of them to print the books. Hahah fuck them. Now of course if anyone knows of a printer where I can get perfect bound copies of my book (130 pages, b/w pages, color cover) for under $6 a copy from start to finish AND allow me to order only about 50 copies, then I’m alllllll ears!
SACANIME:
Oh yeah, and don’t forget guys, I’ll be at SacAnime this upcoming weekend. Come and stop by me booth if you can!!
That’s it.
July 23rd, 2007 at 00:55
TOM: Sticker route? For what? If you mean just having to stick up around town… that never occurred to me to do, but it might be a worthy endeavor.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:06
Well… yeah… I mean, as you’re no doubt aware, there are cartoonists who not only sell their comics but also try to diversify / Build The Brand, so to speak. Y’know, some sell stickers, buttons, T-shirts AND comics. Like that chick who does Stuff Sucks, the guy who does Diesel Sweeties, and any number of others. Just a thought.