Posted in: Comics, Digital, Recent Updates | Tagged: kickstarter, Renae DeLiz, warren ellis, womanthology

Womanthology – Following The $100,000

Published Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:04:27 -0500

Last updated Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:10:54 -0500

Warren Ellis: Wondering if the Womanthology project, which quadrupled its Kickstarter goal, is paying its contributors now? Anyone know?

Twitter, especially thanks to a contribution by one Warren Ellis, retweeted by Wil Wheaton, has been asking where the money raised on Kickstarter for the Womanthology comic book is going. After all, they only tried to raise $25,000 and ended up with $109,000. Would the contributors be paid? Would it end up going into someone's pocket? What?

Warren Ellis: Answer: Contributors say that Womanthology, which isn't a charity project, will not be paying them money. It raised $100K.

Well that caused a little concern. We discovered that all 140 contributors to Womanthology would be getting complimentrary copies of the book.

Jess Nevins: 140 authors, $100k raised, no pay for the authors. Now *that* is a great scam. Well done, Womanthology! Con men of the pulps salute you!

Lauren Mccubbin: I'm sorry… what? We want to value the work of women in comics, by… giving them a free book? Is that book made out of bacon?

Alex De Campi: sadly it seems Womanthology editors assume that the "free" in freelancer refers to cost to publishers of creative work… I had assumed they would pay from the start, hence the need for $25k. For 100k, NO excuse not to PAY women as PROS. Image at least paid contribs royalties for FLIGHT, COMIC BOOK TATTOO, etc. Tiny checks, but at least SOMETHING.@Womanthology no royalties :(

But then more facts started coming through;

Warren Ellis: Also read: the extra $75K is earmarked for more publishing, rather than fees to Womanthology contribs. Curiosity sated, back to work now!

Warren Ellis: Popping back to happily correct: this info isn't on the Womanthology Kickstarter, but profits from the book itself go to Global Giving.

Renae Deliz of Womanthology put it on the record;

1. ALL profits from the book after it's produced go to Charity. Profits go directly from IDW to GlobalGiving when the times comes. IDW is making no money from helping us.

2. ALL work is volunteered Even my around the clock efforts. ALL work is given freely, and everyone owns their creations completely. Ladies are free to leave the project any time and no one is obligated. Women on this book are only on to help others, not for financial gain.

She also broke down where the $109,000 would be going;

$6,000 Kickstarter "errors" such as bad card numbers, faulty pledges
$9,000 Fees (Kickstarter is %5, Amazon takes another %3 – %5)
$40,000 Printing for around 5,5000 Womanthology books (may change)
$20,000 Postage for 2,000 books (overest.of labor, postage is at least $5 a book/ may change)
$3,000 Printing/postage of 1000 Sketchbooks
$2,000 Postage of other rewards
$20,000 Taxes, for me, a self employed person, overestimate, may change

That alone is around $100,000 of the $109,000. But because of overestimating, I am guessing there may be $20,000 left over, if there are no refunds, or extra fees.

We also learned that Womanthology is the most funded comics project on Kickstarter to date, and the 25th most successful Kickstarter project of all.

And Dani Jones wrote;

The anthology is great for the awareness part. It's wonderful that it's been so successful. What really needs to happen though is publishers need to get behind individual creators and start producing original stories. I'd rather see the extra money being used for making THOSE books instead of filtered back to the artists who already knew they were donating their services.

That's why I love the imprint idea. I love the fact that Womanthology has raised so much that they can even consider starting these extra projects and get some books published. I love that they are moving beyond awareness and are trying to get women paid and published. So even though this imprint falls outside of the initial book plans, all the art, time, and money that was given is going to exactly what was outlined from the start – to support women comic creators. And from what I understand, all profits from those books will go towards making even more. I don't think the artists or backers have anything to worry about or have any reason to feel cheated, IMO.

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