Enter the Patreon…

Mar20
by on March 20, 2015 at 3:19 am
Posted In: Blog

And so it lives…

ship_patreon

We’ve begun the Patreon. After some back-and-forth discussions with Prettío, I’ve determined this is the best course of action to bring the series back to you. I can’t ask her (or anyone, really) to work for free, and since I promised you all that I wouldn’t charge outright for the comic itself, this seemed like the most equitable solution: we’d seek volunteers! Plus, as you can see on the page, the more you pledge, the more you get. Prettío has offered to go up to a maximum of 3x per week *IF* we can hit the goal, plus she’s prepared to do the off-pinup and sketch here and there. If we get sufficiently high enough on a monthly basis, I will also seek to find some backup artists who can create EVEN MORE amazing artwork, and perhaps some of those “bonus arcs” I’ve been promising all these years. I know it’s a lot to ask, which is why we went this route. Plus, you may also notice I left the concept of individual rewards blank at this time. I want to see, first, how much love there still is for the series. If it turns out there’s a ton, I will add a whole bunch of things such as free memberships to Frilly Pink (where you can see her other comic, Mocaccino Gang), early sketches and maybe even previews of pages yet to come.

It’s in your hands now…

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A “Legit” Project + Patreon Update

Mar17
by on March 17, 2015 at 2:38 am
Posted In: Blog

So, before we get to the old business, let’s first get to the new:

I’m trying to hire voice actors to try and help us get a dramatic audiobook going for me “legit” series, Starship Moonhawk. So if you’re interested in seeing this, as well as my other projects update, I could really use your help. We’re focusing on this before we start haranguing our readers for monthly donations. So if you would like to help us, it would be greatly appreciated, plus you will get some cool sci-fi swag.

As for Ship in a Bottle, I’ve discussed Patreon models with Prettio, and I also spoke to Keith W. (who is jockeying to be full-time artist on Starship Moonhawk), and the “monthly” model seems like the best idea. So basically, we will set a series of thresholds to update 1x, 2x and 3x a week, and then see if we hit those numbers. But before we do the Patreon, I’d like to try and get further along on the Indiegogo for Starship Moonhawk. So again, if you’d like to help re-focus my attention, please, please consider helping us there.

You won’t be sorry. ^^

~Mace

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Patreon and Such

Jan29
by on January 29, 2015 at 9:22 pm
Posted In: Blog

One of the first changes we will be making is the “Help Re-Boot Ship in a Bottle” campaign, and I think I have decided on using Patreon to help us with that. One of the blessings and hardships of running this comic is that, as amazing as Prettío is, she’s not free. And I want her to stay with us for the long-haul because, let’s face it, folks (and I think y’all agree): she “gets” this series and what it’s all about. And she’s passionate about the work because she likes doing it. With that in mind, I made the hard decision to rewrite the first three chapters of SinaB so that we can have her artwork consistently throughout (I do plan on keeping most, if not all, of Glance Reviver’s fourth chapter, but there will be changes there, too. More on that at a later date). So once I decide how to set up all of the incentives, we will probably go with Patreon and you guys can help us bring your favorite naughty genie back to the airwaves.

Keep on smiling.

~Mace

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IndieGogo?

Feb13
by on February 13, 2014 at 9:00 pm
Posted In: Blog

Would any of you (who may still be lurking) be interested in possibly doing this? So, here’s the deal:

As you all know, I don’t draw this mess myself. I contract out. Anyone who has ever read my Peppermint Saga comic knows the myriad of reasons why this is necessary, ranging from speed and skill to dedication. I’m better at writing and world-building than I am at sticking to a schedule on art. I used to draw all the time. Now all it does is make me anxious. But having a partner-in-crime (or two as was the case in chapter 5), costs some serious skrilla. This is where you come in.

After much deliberation, I have discovered the only way that I am going to get anywhere with this is to enlist the aid of those who claim to love it the most. And there’s only one question left on the table: “Do you want to see this through to the end?” Chapter 6 is a big one. It ties up all the plot points and loose ends (excluding spinoff opportunities) in Ship in a Bottle and brings this series of arcs to a close. Will it be the end of SinaB forever? That remains to be seen. It all depends on how people react to the end of Chapter 6. But in the meantime, I need to hire some talent, or this baby is going nowhere.

I need about $1500 to do this. We’re looking at around 50+ pages, is my guess. I haven’t scripted out every line of dialog just yet. I have an artist waiting in the wings. I have a colorist, same deal. I’ve been looking at cheap-as-free incentives, too. Unfortunately, 100% of the money raised needs to go into commissioning these pages over the course of the next year. So the incentive ideas range from free access to Frilly Pink for a month to several months, high-rez digital copies of Chapters 4 and 5, to cameo appearances in the final issue. These are all things I can manage without dipping into the funding. But I need some input. Will any of you use Indiegogo? (I can’t do Kickstarter for various reasons I have no desire to get into right now) Will hi-rez PDF’s and wallpapers be enough? These are some things I need to know.

Anyway, feel free to comment, and I’ll have a simple poll before long. Thanks for reading, and hope we can do business.

~Mace

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Peppermint Saga + Mastercard?

Feb03
by on February 3, 2014 at 12:07 am
Posted In: Blog

So, since I can’t afford a new artist yet for Ship, and I need to draw attention to my works, I am probably going to start updating Peppermint Saga again. I haven’t figured out when, because I am trying to get a groove going for Dillon MacKenzie over at Frilly Pink, but I can assure you, it will be soon. That’s all I can say for now.

On the Mastercard front: after much deliberation, we opted **NOT** to take Mastercard this time around. There is a good reason, though. As I mentioned in the comments to a user that asked, they now charge a massive fee for the privilege of being able to cater to roughly 1 in 10 potential members. I should explain further: basically, in May of 2013, the boys in red and gold decided that they would charge a gateway-to-entry fee for “high risk” sites such as ours, much in the same way Visa did. That fee is now $500 per year. This is in addition to Visa’s fee of roughly $500 per year. So just to get started, we’re talking about $1000 per year in fees so we can process your credit cards. This, over and above the percentage our processor takes from us to process your payments and cut us a check. With the fees being so high, and the relative percentages of market share we were facing, we elected **NOT** to take Mastercard because it was too cost prohibitive, and we were concerned that it might be months or even YEARS before we recouped the fees at the current rate (especially since we get banged with them each year, without fail). So if you are going to our paysite and are dismayed that we now take Visa, but you have Mastercard, that is the reason. It was not an easy decision to exclude that portion of the market, but it was, unfortunately, necessary from an economic one. As always, if we can start making some of our coin back, there is always the option to re-examine that decision at a future date. And there’s always the e-check option, which many of you have already opted to do. (I think 80% of our clients at the old site chose that option as they did not have Mastercard at that time…)

So anyway, that’s what’s going on. Thanks for your patronage and your patience.

~Mace

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