Category: publishing

Never Let the Right One Go – Kickstarter not funded

The Kickstarter campaign for Never Let the Right One Go ended a few hours ago. There were $361 in pledges from 14 different backers, 10 of whom pledged $30 or more and wanted the limited-edition hardcover. Unfortunately, since the goal was $1000, no funds were collected, and none of those people (currently) have per-orders in place for the book. What I expect to do is post a backers-only update, when I have the books in hand, and offer the finished books to backers at the Kickstarter price. (Or the final price, plus shipping, whichever is lower.)

The main thing this Kickstarter campaign was meant to do, which it did quite successfully, was to gauge reader interest in my new books. As I said before, if a hundred or more people would have been willing to pay $30 for the hardcover, I wouldn’t want to have limited the edition to 50 copies. If 1,000 people wanted to buy the book, I’d certainly want to do an additional unlimited-edition (paperback) and also pay the LSI distribution fee, at least for the first year, getting the paperback on Amazon &c. for that huge audience’s friends. Likewise, if fewer than 50 people expressed interest (as has happened), then my planned limited edition of 50 copies is sufficient.

Interestingly, the Kickstarter campaign’s gauge of interest showed me something else: I had nearly double the number of backers, versus my last two Kickstarters. Half of the hardback-level backers were people who found the campaign on their own, browsing Kickstarter.com, and liked my project enough (not knowing me or my existing body of work, not following my links, my friends’ links, or any other thing extended from my online presence & social network) to pledge. This speaks well to the general-public appeal of the books, I believe. Perhaps the eBooks will, indeed, find an audience.

re: Printing the hardcover edition, when I take into account all the costs of producing a hardcover print run (setup, proof, printing, shipping, ISBNs, free copies for the photographers, et cetera), if I want to keep the pricing in line with my new scheme, and start at $25 or $30 a copy, and not lose money (presuming all copies eventually sell), I can’t realistically do an edition much smaller than 50 copies. In fact, I’ve been running and re-running the math, and if I follow my current/new pricing scheme, and if I start them at $25, and if I sell all 46 salable copies, my net profit will only be about $70 for the whole publication. If I start at $30, I can double that, and if I sell all 46 copies at $30 I can net roughly $457 of profit. My current estimate puts me at having spent between 1,000 and 1,250 working hours on these books by the time I’m done, not including the hours it’ll take over the years to actually sell them. Yet here I am, trying to decide between valuing my time at 6¢/hr or 11¢/hr, and feeling bad about having the audacity to suggest I might like to earn 38¢/hr for my efforts by standing fast to a single price for all copies of the signed, limited-edition hardcover.

Actually, technically, with the latest numbers, I can’t really afford to print the limited edition without putting my company in the red for the year… I’ll need to actually sell a bunch of copies to earn the difference between my early estimates and the actual numbers I’m getting now. And/or sell a few more pieces of art soon. Ack. Not to mention, the profits mentioned in the previous paragraph are on a per-title basis, not an overall-business basis, and do not take into account my overhead costs. Like, I keep thinking/wondering/hoping about how many copies I’ll sell at Phoenix Comicon, and how much money I’ll earn that way – but showing at Comicon costs me hundreds of dollars, dollars which have to come out of “profit”, one way or another. If I price to only earn $70 or even $140 on the full print run, even the best-case scenario of somehow selling out at Comicon wouldn’t actually be profitable, after overhead. I’m terrible at business, I guess.

Of course, there’s no good way to know how many people will buy the book (or the eBook; if the eBooks sell well, it takes a lot of pressure off the hardcover edition), regardless of venue. At the last two Comicons, I sold only a couple dozen books across all my titles, including very cheap books, each. My best-selling title (in paper) has sold fewer than 20 copies in two and a half years. If I were to guess, I’d say that probably 3 or 4 of the backers will follow through and actually buy the finished book, now that the Kickstarter has failed. I have no clue how it’ll do at Comicon: Probably either really well, or like a lead balloon. It would be foolish to expect to sell more than half the print run before the year is out, based on the data I have now. That many sales would cover my accounting underestimation, but then what?

I don’t know. I’m very frustrated, right now. I probably need to get some sleep. I was hoping I could work through more of this, and come to a better emotional point through logorrhea, but I still feel quite mixed up, and my eyes are begging to be shut. Expect another couple thousand words on this, and related topics I don’t want to even begin to write about tonight, soon.

Things are going well, it seems, re: Never Let the Right One Go.

Things are going pretty well, it seems. I didn’t get as much First-Reader feedback on Never Let the Right One Go as I’d been hoping for, though I got as much as my past experience led me to expect, and after another couple passes I think the text is about as good as I know how to make it. I did a full read through of both books at the end of the week, making small changes as I went, and was very happy with how each story unfolds – even when read simultaneously, alternating chapters between the two books. I was pleasingly entertained, after a month of worrying whether the books were good enough.

I’ve heard back from one of the two photographers whose images I wanted to use on the covers, and barring an unexpected problem with getting a model release signed, have permission to use their image. I’ve begun working on the full-resolution image for the dust jacket, with it. I haven’t mentioned it here before, but I also recently found some music I wanted to use for the intro/outro of the audiobook versions (I normally compose something myself, but have been having difficulty coming up with anything I liked for this project), and this morning I heard back from the composer with permission to use it. All I’m waiting on now is permission from the other photographer (or to locate another acceptable photo for Sophia, which I can get license for) and the rest is good to go. I’ve been spending a fair proportion of my worry over the last month on the matter of getting permission from other creators, and it’s nice to have this (mostly) resolved.

The Kickstarter campaign for Never Let the Right One Go is only at about 20% with less than five days left, and unless there’s a surge of interest in the next few days (I don’t really know how to create one) it looks like it won’t be funded. This is okay, as I’ve said before: I can afford to do a limited-edition print run (probably 50 hardcovers, though I’m now considering an even smaller run) without funding, and without my business going into the red for the year. Being funded would be better, and knowing I had more than half a dozen potential buyers up front would be nice, but I’ll find the readers for these books eventually. Sadly, without funding (or more art sales) I won’t be able to afford to buy the font I want for the text. Oh, well.

I expect to begin recording the audiobook versions either this week or the next, and to send the “Beta” or “ARC” (Advance Reader Copy) version of the texts out to Beta Readers and reviewers as soon as I’m done working on the audiobook. Depending on how my voice and ears hold out, possibly by the end of the month. I still seem to be on track for getting everything together for a mid-May eBook release and hardcover availability, and I’m thinking of making the official release date 5/12/2012. (Though I probably won’t have the hardcovers in hand (and almost certainly not signed, numbered, and ready to ship) at that point.) I haven’t set down a release schedule for the audiobooks, yet, but probably I’ll be releasing one chapter of each book once a week, with (say) a chapter of Sophia on Monday and a chapter of Emily on Friday (with a couple poems from Unspecified, which I haven’t podcast yet) on Wednesdays. That would stretch it out to just over 26 weeks, not being complete until late November. I’ll have to check their policies in May, but Podiobooks.com has said they want to move to only accepting “complete” audiobooks, which would mean neither book would be available there until the end of November. Meh. If people want the whole thing sooner, they can come to modernevil.com and/or pay for it.

I think that’s it for status updates. Things aren’t as good as they could be, but they’re going pretty well. Getting more feedback, hearing from the other photographer, finding another 30 backers, these things would be nice – but I’ve gotten some good feedback, I’ve heard from some of the creatives I want to integrate the work of into mine, and I’ll be able to afford to publish something very close to the premium edition of the books I’ve been imagining. Plus: I’m aiming for finishing (if not publishing) another 3-4 books (or more) this year, and I don’t feel I’m over-reaching. There’s a good chance they’ll all be digital-only.

Never Let the Right One Go – Kickstarter is live

The Kickstarter fundraiser for Never Let the Right One Go is now live and accepting pledges/backing/pre-orders. As I think I’ve covered (if not here, then on Google+), the initial art sales from my “Blank Canvas” Art Sale have been sufficient to cover the cost of printing a 50-copy hardcover print run of the flipbook containing both full books without putting my small business in the red this year. (I’m still looking to move the rest of my art; I’ve added an art+book reward tier to the fundraiser, and I’ll still gladly take any other reasonable offer. Email me!) This means that the pressure is off; if I don’t hit my $1k goal in the next 16 days, that’s okay – the book will still be published, and even the premium paper version of it will be created, regardless of the outcome of the fundraiser. No fear of emotional breakdowns, terrible stress, or feeling like my failure to make money represents a fundamental failure in the nature of my work and the quality of my creations. Well… maybe a little of that last one, considering all the compromises I’ve made to make these books more commercial…

Anyway, the point of the fundraiser is primarily an expression of optimism. I think these books have a chance of being very popular; my most popular and commercially successful books yet. I think there’s a chance that many more than 50 people will want to buy the premium paper version of the books. By putting this out there now, in this way, I can see before I finalize the size of the limited edition what size it ought to be. If there are a hundred, or several hundred, or several thousand people who want to buy the paper books but I only print 50, that’s a problem. If there are only a handful of people who want the books right away and I print 50, that’s no problem; I can find the extra copies’ readers later. (This is so much easier with eBooks – there are always exactly as many copies available as there are readers who want them.)

I’ve set the goal higher than my past Kickstarters for a few reasons, the biggest of which is that meeting this goal would mean Never Let the Right One Go is my first release to have paid for itself from book sales alone. (Well, barring art sales being high and book sales being low, which is an odd possibility.) The thousand dollars covers the printing cost of 50 copies, plus shipping, and maybe part of the cost of Mrs. Eaves (though I don’t feel bad about paying for that from the art-sale profits if I need to), but any less fails to. It’s a bigger expense because it’s a bigger/thicker book (two titles in one) than most of my past releases, and because it’s hardcover instead of softcover/paperback. I also have a general impression that Kickstarter fundraisers with goals larger than I’ve set before have a better overall response; like, if the goal is too small, potential backers maybe think you don’t actually need their support. Like, “What? $400? I spent that on shoes this weekend! If they don’t reach the goal, I’m sure they’ll be fine. $400 is nothing!” sigh. Except, it isn’t. Not to me.

I’m rambling a bit, I guess. Not sure what I meant to be posting about here, beyond the first sentence. Please take a look at the Kickstarter page, watch the video, tell your friends about it … back it, if you’ve any interest in the stories and can afford to. I’m sure I’ll post about this again, possibly more coherently.

looking for Beta Readers

This is me getting a little ahead of myself, but I want to start looking for Beta Readers for my new books. I’ve only received feedback from about 1/4 of my First Readers, and I haven’t begun working on the rewriting, yet, but the time for Beta Reading is coming up soon: I’ll want people who can make time to read two short books (about 130k words total) in the second half of March, 2012 (or the first half of April at the latest), with an eye toward finding all the small errors. Typos. Incorrect word use. Confusing sentence structure. I’ll be doing my best to catch errors before sending the texts out to Beta Readers, but there are always more errors to locate. If you would be willing to help, please contact me.

In addition, I’m looking for people willing to review the books. Beta Readers are included. The Beta version of the book will be 99% of the way to the published edition, and suitable for reviewing. I’ll be able to deliver the eBook to reviewers in/after the same time period (mid-March to mid-April), with expected publication in May, 2012. Realistically, I’m aiming for a May Day (5/1/2012) publication date. (That’s when I figured I’d need to have the book ready to send to my printer to have the hard copies at hand in time for Phoenix Comicon.) I’ll encourage all my Beta Readers to write reviews, too, but the more reviews the better. If you would be willing to review the books, please contact me.

What are the books about? Here are the blurbs and covers I’ve got, so far:

Before she met Nicholas, Emily believed the vampires had her best interests in mind. Now she stands by his side in the fight for what’s right, while waging her own campaign in the fight for his heart. Emily follows Nicholas from the woods of Vermont to the White House and home again, putting her life and her blood on the line for a cause almost as important to her as the love she feels for him. (Cover image adapted from a photograph by Danila Panfilov.)

Sophia’s conservative Christian parents have kept her isolated from the outside world for the last ten years. Is it any wonder she wants to move out the very night she turns 18, then falls in love with Joshua, the first young man she sees? Complicating Sophia’s quest for love are her body, frozen at age 7 when she was turned into a vampire, and her faith in God, making her passions feel like sins. (Cover image adapted from a photograph by Jesse Millan.)

Sound interesting? If you want to be a Beta Reader or reviewer, please contact me. Comment, email, call, text, tweet, facebook, G+, USMail, whatever you prefer. Only digital copies will be available for this pass, but I can make the books available in most eBook formats (ePub, mobi/kindle, PDF, etc). I look forward to hearing from you.

Thinking about fundraising for NLtROG

(This post began as a post on G+, then got longer, then I brought it over here… and began adding even more to it. Also: NLtROG is a fairly terrible abbreviation.)

Already thinking about fundraising for Never Let the Right One Go. Have to figure out how to do a Kickstarter more than a handful of people will respond to, or an alternative means of raising funds. Also ought to contact those photographers & see if/what they want for high-res, commercial-use, et cetera, since it could have a huge impact on my fundraising goal. sigh.

(Note: I just sent messages to each photographer, via flickr. We’ll see what they say.)

If the photographers are awesome & generous, or at least not evil, the minimum I’d need to raise for a 50-copy limited edition paperback is around $400. Or around $800 to do it as a hardback.

Pretending I could ever sell all 50 copies, and adding the cost of shipping &c, I could price a signed, numbered, limited edition paperback flipbook (containing both texts) at $20-$25, on Kickstarter. For the signed, numbered, limited edition hardback I’d have to ask $40+, but … Hmm… How about a limited edition of either 50 or however many people pledge at that level (“to allow for more,” he said optimistically), whichever is greater, and at a quality level to be determined by the number of backers, based a little on:

The floor price for direct paperback sales (under my current pricing scheme) would probably be $10.99, and around $15.99 for the hardback, based on some top-of-the-head calculations. (And of course $2.99/eBook, though I’ll be offering them individually only.)

So, if the pledge point to get the paper book was $20 or $25, then if we only hit the minimum goal (say, $400, if the photographers are awesome), the print edition will be paperback, and if we pass a sufficient threshold (really just 35-40 backers, by my estimates), then everyone gets hardbacks instead. And if I’m wildly successful (thousands of backers, or tens of thousands) then I could afford to do offset printing of an even higher-quality book. And then die, trying to sign them all. Maybe I should limit it to, say, 500 copies?

Ah, wild, unbridled optimism. Who put that in my pessimism? I’m supposed to be all, like, “In my past Kickstarters, I’ve been successful only by the sale of one or two super-premium items, not by the accumulation of many paper book pre-sales. This time, I have no ‘original cover art’ to sell, and may in fact have to pay a significant sum for the covers I have in mind. This will never work!” Oh, well. Maybe I can find 16-40 people actually interested in paying $25 for my new books? Seriously, though. $25 for 2 books! What a great deal! I mean, if you buy new books, at all. It includes shipping? sigh.