Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, deer editor, deer hunter, entertainment, kickstarter

The Perils Of International Postage – And A Solution!

Published Sat, 06 Sep 2014 13:00:51 -0500

Deer Editor is a black and white 48 tablet page mature readers comic illustrated by Sami Kivela, lettered by Nic J. Shaw, edited by Dan Hill, and written by Ryan K Lindsay. It is completely finished and ready to roll directly after the 11^th of September close of our Kickstarter campaign.

Ryan K Lindsay writes,

The book is about Bucky, the editor of the crime beat at 'The Truth' who also happens to be a deer. This journalistic crime story starts with a John Doe killing and drags Bucky down into a world of political intrigue, a wi-fi enabled grotto, and a station locker full of a story bigger than he thinks he's tackling.

In bringing this book to Kickstarter, I first greatly considered one major factor – my location. I'm Australian and so the black cloud of 'International Postage' hangs low over my head. I don't want to have to offer this single issue for $20+ just to cover postage. I wouldn't buy an issue for that price so I don't feel like offering it at that price.

So with that in mind, I've gone all digital for this Kickstarter. This means we might lose some people who are paper-only, but it also means we skim way more profit from each sale. And this Kickstarter is all about getting my creative team paid. Like I said, the book is already complete – something I was keen on because then backers know they'll get what they pledge for – and while the team has received some pay, I want them to make it rain on intergalactic yachts off the orbital path of Jupiterean party moons.

With a desire to get my team paid, I started to think on digital ways I could offer more. Here is what I came up with.

$1 gets you the TABLOID PDF – this is just the story, nothing else. I'm sick of seeing campaigns price themselves out of my money – and often success in total – because they put their download prices ridiculously high. If you are charging more than ComiXology for a single issue then you might be doing it wrong.

$3 gets you the BROADSHEET PDF – this is the story plus many pages of extras, like the script, pin ups, design pages, etc. This is the full process package and sure to be a tonne of fun.

$7 gets you the WEEKEND PDFs – this is the Broadsheet as well as the RKL SCRIPT PDF, which includes over 200 pages of scripts from various projects ranging from HEADSPACE, the series I write at Monkeybrain Comics, to FATHERHOOD, my ComiXology Submit one-shot, as well as many other cool things. This one is for the process hounds out there.

Once I had all these various PDFs organised, then I wanted to see if there was more I could do. I came up with these digital ideas, which have sold well.

$10 gets you a TALKING PIN UP – this is where I take one of the pin ups by our fantastic slew of guest artists (Robert Carey, Iain Laurie, etc) and write a sweet balloon or caption to be lettered onto it, and then I send this one of a kind digital item to you. It's a kooky idea but one I'm stoked to see over 10% of our backers choose.

And my final offering is something I'm really proud of because I haven't seen it offered before:

$20 gets you the RADIO DRAMA – which is the comic performed like a radio drama by me and the audio files emailed to you. It's an idea that's a lot of fun and one that has cooked up quite a shiny portion of our overall moneypit.

Now, I have had some people ask if the paper copy will be available for this campaign and I do adamantly say no. I'm excited to keep this run all digital and be able to spread more money between my team and I. We set a modest goal of $1000 because with a $1 option I wasn't sure how successful we'd be. I was floored to see us fund within 24 hours but we haven't stopped there.

There have been Thank You downloads at certain fundraising levels and we are now chewing through some Stretch Goals. If you back, even for just $1, you'll currently have access to download 5 short stories I've written, as well as one pitch package for all those process junkies out there assembling their own comic pitches.

It we hit our next Stretch Goals, we'll unlock another short story, then a prose short in the Broadsheet PDF, and finally at $3000 backers will be given the complete first issue to a new series I'm creating with a slew of talented writers and artists.

I'm excited to bring this story to the world and I hope you'll consider proving an Aussie writer right that a digital only Kickstarter campaign can truly flourish. Deer Editor is on Kickstarter right now until the 11^th of September. You can reach the creative team on twitter at @sami_Kivela, @shawlettering, @dan_hill, and @ryanklindsay.

Thanks for your time, and DOWN WITH INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE PRICES!

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!