And So It Goes…

by Mace on October 15, 2013 at 12:10 am
Posted In: Blog

I had hoped to postpone this a little longer until, say, closer to the launch of Frilly Pink, but I think this needs to come out now. Ship in a Bottle, and by extension its creator, is broke. We’re not making enough money from either donations or affiliate ads and signups to keep going at the current rate. Which is a shame, because you’ve all been so supportive of our series and art team over the past 5 years. But the simple fact is, I can’t keep an artist of Prettio’s quality, (nor, by extension, such an amazing colorist as Saint-Tail) if there’s no income. Prettio is paid on a per-page basis, and since there is no income from the site, I have run out of money to pay her. My own debt is far too high to keep leveraging this site in the hopes that it return to the “Glory Days” of 2010 when we were raking in a few hundred a month is donations or say, 2011-2012 when Glance was artist and we were pulling down another $170+ in affiliate earnings. Now, I make ZERO. The $5 here and the $20 there does not cover the almost $200/month in expenses this place was costing me.

So… does this mean…? Yes, it means I’ve had to let Prettio go because there’s not a dollar in the coffers to offer her. That also means that there will be no Chapter 6 until I get my financial situation under control. Without some help, this may be years. Unless you guys are really THAT hot to see me draw it. In which case you might see 2-3 pages per YEAR at the rate I was producing. *sigh*

This is bad. It’s VERY bad, because next month I am taking a further risk and launching a new paysite featuring my art, Glance’s art, and the stylings of one Ebenezer Splooge, plus a whole host of art by people who are no strangers to this site. So I have to shut down my one successful comic on the eve of my great triumph. As it stands, Prettio has already put out her shingle to drum up business and keep herself going. And I am kinda out of script. But Chapter 6 was going to be the big one. A year long finale to this series, and a very satisfying one at that. But now, that future is hanging in the balance. I’ll post up the last page of Chapter 5 this coming Friday and the cover to Issue 6 the following week, but if donations and affiliate signups don’t take a serious upward and permanent spike, Ship in a Bottle is doomed.

*sigh*

~Mace

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I’m at a Loss… (Crowdfunding Blues)

by Mace on August 27, 2013 at 3:33 am
Posted In: Blog

I really truly am at a loss. I very much want to start either a Kickstarter or an Indiegogo to get some help with hiring an artist full-time so we can begin “Clara Bottle: Paranormal Investigator” as I have some really great ideas where I want to go with it. But the problem is, the threshold to entry is so high, none of the money I collect will be left to pay for the swag I’d have to offer in order to entice you to buy into it. I don’t know if y’all are aware of this, but last year, Glance set up a Kickstarter for her “legit” series Lavender Legend in order to raise money for con season, and in spite of getting almost five times the money she asked for, by the time she paid for all the extras, stretch goals, etc. she actually ended up OWING money instead of making it. Artists are notorious for being lousy accountants, which is why almost none of the C.P.A.’s in the world make a living drawing. but it’s a constant battle to try and figure out what to offer when the product doesn’t yet exist.

Here’s the bottom line, though:

If I want to hire another artist for this new series who is even HALF as good as Prettio here on Ship in a Bottle, I need to come up with at LEAST $5000 in revenue to fund us at 2x a week for a year. (that’s our so-called “goal”) Which means I will have to come up with ADDITIONAL funding to the tune of say, $500-2000 in order to cover any prizes, rewards, stretch goals, etc. Given that our readership here is roughly the size of Lavender Legend’s, and they came up with about $2500 (less after the horrendous Kickstarter and AmazonPay fees), I can’t help but grimace at our prospects here. Especially since any bonuses and rewards achieved here will have a SUBSTANTIAL lag-time due to the whole “it doesn’t exist yet” problem we will have. So you could say I’m in a real pickle here trying to figure out what to do.

I’m open to ideas. Nothing is too radical to air out at this point. Yak about it in the comments.

~Mace

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