One Week Until From Parts Unknown Launches
Seven short days and you’ll be able to back From Parts Unknown: Issue 1.
I’ve been saying it every week, but your help in getting this to launch big is pivotal. This is the first issue in a five part series and we’re already working on issue three because we’re so confident that you’ll love it.
Give it a follow. Tell your friends, family and pets to do the same.
Now, onto the main topic: lessons learned from fulfilling Crazy Latte Thing Called Love
Off-Set vs. Digital
The journey with Crazy Latte Thing Called Love has been a little bit different than the past campaigns I've done.
The main thing was moving to offset printing. Unlimited Udo and Stay Cool were digitally printed, so the process was a lot more straightforward and simple. Even though their cost per issue were significantly higher - and I’ve already had to go to a second print with Udo.
I have a printer that I usually go to, Mixam, and they've been pretty great for the most part. However, getting an offset print quote took a lot longer than I'm used to.
Normally I just upload my files, submit them and I get a date for when everything will arrive at my door. With Latte, I was doing so many variant covers that offset seemed like the way to go this time. It's one cost for a book where all the interiors are going to be the same but the cover changes.
Logically, it makes a ton of sense. Financially though?
I might end up being the guy with a stack of comics in his basement that he can't seem to move.
For this campaign, I way overprinted. I usually have a few dozen extra copies for future campaigns, but for Crazy Latte Thing Called Love, I have copies in the hundreds. It's my best work to date, so I don't think it's that going to be that hard to move them, but I'll definitely be a lot more aggressive sales wise to make it all happen.
If I made a mistake, it was printing an equal amount of each cover. Some covers were a lot more popular than others. I’ll run out of those well before the rest, but I guess that also makes the remaining copies a lot more valuable. I won’t be in a rush to do a second printing.
The good news about all of this, though, is that the individual copy cost is a lot lower than it would have been if I printed digitally.
That said, I might stick with digital printing for From Parts Unknown, even though it's a #1 issue that will be sold when I do campaigns for issue 2 through 5.
Not artificially bumping numbers up to hit offset is the financially prudent way to operate. It also just means I need to sell a lot more to make that money back in the long run, but I’d rather do multiple print runs than having a bunch of inventory that I have to store.
Shipping with a P
I've mentioned many times that I work with Stallion Express to do all of my shipping. It's a great service. Even better, they actually moved their location a little bit closer to where I'm at, so I'm always happy with it.
All that said, I'm ready to move to ChitChats as soon as they're willing to bring down their rates. I was sent an email that they’d be doing so for special customers - but never received a follow-up. I guess I’m not special enough to qualify.
Right now, I save at least a dollar per package with Stallion Express. Part of that e-mail from ChitChats asked why I had decided to stop using their service. This is the reason.
When you're shipping over 100 packages to backers all over the world, even a dollar makes a difference.
The other thing that made this a little more challenging: Some backers didn't respond to their surveys. Fortunately, most did.
The challenge with that is I now have to hold on to packages for the day when this backer might fill out their survey. I don't know when that's going to be. Will shipping get more expensive by then? Maybe.
It would be great to just close off this campaign and move on to the next, but it looks like I'm always going to be juggling those handful of backers from campaign to campaign.
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Art is Expensive
I love Mattia Monaco’s art. It honestly sold the book more than anything I could have said or done. It also just looks incredible.
His use of color and style really get across the fantasy sequences within Crazy Latte Thing Called Love while adding some real weight to the story. I really wouldn't change anything about it.
The challenge is to get an artist of that caliber you need to pay. That means that Crazy Latte Thing Called Love is still not profitable even with an all time best campaign performance for Pesto Comics.
Not to mention the multiple variant covers that we went with for this campaign. So many talented artists all with their own rates (again, worth it).
That said, I don't think I'll be doing so many going forward. From Parts Unknown will likely just have three covers:
Main Cover
Variant Cover
Joke Cover
The whole goal of variant covers is to get backers to buy all of them - and we only had a few takers of that. What we got instead was people picking and choosing their favourite cover. I always appreciate how different people like different covers, but it didn't help the overall cost of the campaign.
What to Do Differently
Although I had a plan for stretch goals and pocket rewards, I didn't necessarily stick to it as closely as I wanted to. I need to budget these goals better and stick to that.
For From Parts Unknown, I have some stretch goals in mind. That includes making the book a higher quality book rather than extra stickers, magnets and things that not only make the package heavier but really don't add to the reading experience.
This doesn't mean I won't be including those kinds of things at all though - just less of it.
Another thing I mentioned in the first postmortem was that I made a mistake including the digest variant.
That goes twice over because it was also delayed in shipping which delayed everything from getting sent out. Again, I love the format, but I don't know that it's something that I should be including as a stretch goal.
What To Do Again
I absolutely love Backerkit. I didn't think I would. It felt clunky and not quite clear when I first logged into it. Now that I'm getting comfortable with the tool, I’m discovering that it provides so many features that Kickstarter is lacking.
It makes the whole fulfillment side of things so much easier that I really think this is a permanent fixture in my campaigns going forward, even with the additional cost. It's worth every penny.
I had a lot of lessons that I learned with this campaign though, everything starting to fall into a lot more of a routine than it was the first couple times around.
I think with From Parts Unknown and Big Smoke Pulp coming soon, I'll be able to really put some campaigns together quickly and start rolling things out a lot more frequently.
I'm really looking forward to sharing that all with you. Until then, talk to you next Wednesday.
Upcoming Posts
August 28
Hailing From Parts Unknown
A comic that's been lurking in the shadows longer than you know.
September 4
Let's Go to the (Fan) Expo (Canada)
The weekend at the biggest Comic Convention in Canada.
September 11
Pumpkin Spice Season
It's about comics. I swear.
Find our table at these upcoming cons:
Fun with Fulfillment: Crazy Latte Thing Called Love