Yesterday I started the Spring 2025 Nix Comics Pre-Order Sale. (Go ahead. Click the link. It won't hurt much.) It was a decent first day for a non-Kickstarter.
Whaddaya Mean "Non-Kickstarter?"
Those of you who have been following along with my various publication ups and downs might remember that I'm pretty much done with third party crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. It's a boycott or sorts, though I'm not going to preach to you. Much. I just want to put the stakes in proper proportion to each stakeholder. My stakes are that it will be easier to publish not only Tales from the Crate and Sketchbook Picture Sleeves, but also grease the wheels for future projects. Your stakes are that you can feel good helping me out and get some cool record collecting literature and art. Kickstarter's stakes are... well were... 10% of my take to do lord-knows-what with. It's nice to remove them from the equation.
But I do like sharing the "inside baseball" stuff!
And I think some of you like reading about it. Maybe I have some secrets of small press publication that you want to apply to your own work. Maybe can spot something I'm doing wrong and help me out. Maybe you just like pie-charts. Anyways, here is a sort of progress report.
Day One:
Not a bad day one. Six Pre-Orders for $269 total. If my last year's pre-order campaign is any indication, orders will drib and drab in everyday instead of having the typical crowdfunding U-shaped funding path with a big start, middle doldrums, and a big finish as the clock ticks down. I'm cool with that. I plan on running this year's campaign right up until SPACE on April 26 and 17, when the I debut them. Fingers crossed that will give me some good results.
The $269 can be broken into five categories of revenue:
Shipping ($36): I have kept shipping at $6 flat for all pre-orders. This is actually pretty low these days in comparison to the cost of postage and quality mailers, but but bumping it up to $7 feels like a deal breaker... so I'll take the hit. No one on day one has taken advantage of the "free pick up at SPACE" coupon code. That's an experiment that I hope takes off at least a little.
Main thrust of the pre-order sale. The goal is to sell enough copies of each book to pay for the entire print run. Four pre-orders were for the 25% off early bird special and one was for just the Tales from the Crate individual issues.
Miscellaneous ($135):
The final category is a catch-all for Back Issues, Actual Sketchbook Picture Sleeve Art, and available Record Bundles. It's the sale of these extras that fuel the purchase of extra copies for shows/stores and future Nix publications like the planned romance comic Flipside of Love. One person ordered nine Sketchbook Picture Sleeves, but no publications. (He'll be back for more. One of my biggest boosters!)