When I launched this pre-order sale, I made a conscious decision to leave Kickstarter (and its ilk) behind. I wanted to be liberated from the constraints that their site presents about how I sell my comics, but hopefully bring the things I like about crowdfunding with me. This isn’t without it’s disadvantages. My quiet personal boycott of Kickstarter is a significant one to me: I have run a baker's dozen successful crowdfunders, to the tune of around $25K over the past 13 years. So basically, I know that there's a good chance I’m leaving a couple to a few thousand bucks on the table. The boycott also means that I haven't contributed to some pretty cool projects. It's a bummer to me.
On the other hand, I don’t have to make a video if I don’t want to, so my vanity doesn’t have to take the hit of broadcasting my perpetually beleaguered-looking mug to the whole internet. ------------>>>>>>>>
Anyways… Here’s how things are going so far:
As of 7:00pm on Sunday. August 15, a lucky 13 people have pre-ordered or purchased something from this site for a total of $540 plus shipping fees. That's more than I got with my first Kickstarter, which is very encouraging.
The breakdown of sales is as follows:
UNDEAD BALLADS | 10 Copies |
THE SHERIFF & THE GUNSEL | 6 Copies |
LIVING WITH EXPLOSIONS | 8 Copies |
JENNY MAE / JERRY WICK 7" RECORD | 1 Copy |
Other | 5 Sketchbook Picture Sleeves (1 Original, 4 Prints) |
According to my site’s analytics app, I’ve had 90 “unique visitors” to the site. Which I guess is good. Most of them have come from Facebook, which isn’t surprising. That’s how it always was for Kickstarters in the past.
One difference on the social media front is that after Facebook, Twitter is no longer even a distant number two referral source. I quit that site around the time it changed to “X.” All of the other social media sites are an experiment playing out through this pre-order sale. Counter.social seemed like the most promising of these new sites… Until they suspended my account a couple days into posts. I’m not sure how I busted their terms of service, and I may never know because suspension means no access to nothing.
In the coming week I plan on trying to add some special offer items, kind of like you’d see on Kickstarter. They will be first come first served and either unique very limited in availability. The first such offer is a cool lot of non-Nix rock ‘n roll comics that I expect any of my friends/fans would be interested in. I suppose its worth mentioning that these special offers also are effectively a shipping discount. I’ll mail the extra goody right away and the pre-ordered books separately in December all for the same six bucks!
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