Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Sureshot Presents - Getting Creator Love

So i established early because i can't write or draw for shit i would try and entice creators on board to submit work. Unlike the Ozcomic Magazine days I wanted to reimburse people for their work and at the same time try and sell the concept (Goal#4).

Now Goal #5 was that i didn't want to lose too much money so i didn't want to pay for the content outright with cash. Nor did i wanted to go to the effort of selling ALL the comics, that was more work than i wanted to do.

So providing a couple comp copies was too little, giving cash was too much but what if provided a stack of comp copies. The creator could sell them as they wish - they could do the work of spreading the brand and dealing with retailers (and not just comic retailers i was hoping to go outside the normal avenues).

Again, the "Build it and they Will come" ethos of some creators is a pet peeve of mine - go sell it, go sell yourself, be proud of your work - wave into people's faces. Creating is the easy part - its being recognised which the hard part. No one will knock on your door and give you a break. Luck has nothing to do with it, its work.

Breathe, Mark, breathe. Whew.

So by suppling a large amount of comp copies to the creator they could make money from
sales they make. Ranging from $2 a copy wholesale to $4 retail.

Being the egalitarian gent, i am, i would go halves in the print run.

This impacted Sureshot by meaning i would have to print a book costing around $1 a copy, since i effectively lost half the print run. Around $1; there was always leeway because i wasn't going to only sell to retailers at $2, i'd sell at cons and zinefairs and make $4 a copy. I had some wiggle room with my printing cost.

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