@SheltieMum asked about using Kickstarter to finish off the last of the Amulet Rampant audiobook, and my answer started getting so long (and crunchy!) that I thought I'd make it a general post. It exposes a lot of my thinking about how to assess profitability and risk, which may or may not be helpful.
The short answer: I'm not planning on using Kickstarter to raise the money to finish the PG3 audiobook, because I can't think of a way to do it that would make me money.
This is important because I can no longer do projects 'for the love.' Everything needs to pay me as well as anyone else. And audiobooks are always 'for the love.' I've made a profit off exactly one of them, thanks to the enormous Bookbub that ran on Earthrise... and even then, the audio sales paid off only the cost of that book's production, and part of Book 2. (That was a 17,000-unit sale month, so you can understand the scales required for a return on investment.)
But I ran the numbers, because it's better not to trust your gut when there are numbers are involved.
- Every finished audio hour costs around $200 that I give directly to the narrator. And that's to sell direct. If I want to sell at retailers it's closer to $375 an hour.
- After the audiobook is finished, I can HOPE to see one copy of it sell a month. (My average for all 30ish of the audiobooks I have is around 5 copies a month. That's not 5 copies of each title, that's 5 copies in total, despite having 30 titles).
So I make no money on the audiobook after it's at retail, functionally. We still have over half of the book to go, which gives me another 6 to 7 hours to buy... call it, conservatively, if I don't want the 'for sale at retailers' option, about $1250. I'd have to bump it up to $1750 to cover taxes and fees and fulfillment of prizes. So, say a $2000 Kickstarter... which would pay the NARRATOR. Not me. If I wanted to profit at all off it, I'd probably have to double the pricetag, particularly since I won't make almost any money at retail so this is the only profit I'd ever make off the audio edition unless some unicorn fell from the sky.
Now we're up near $4000, just to fund the audio edition of an older book most people already have. This is important because it limits the attractiveness of my prizes. Most readers will have e-editions of a book that's been available for years, and probably also paperbacks. Signed/doodled paperbacks of this book could be purchased on Etsy, so no guarantee those will have enough takers. Since I build my Kickstarters to use a limited number of premium prizes to make the full amount, you can see how not having access to even one of those premium prizes guts my chances of making the goal. With all my typical prizes already reduced in value, that leaves me with only the audio as a new prize, and as you can guess from the sales figures, I don't have a ton of audio 'readers.'
Which is not to say I couldn't try it, but this is the point I go into the historical data. I've run two audio-edition KSes, and both were anemic performers. The Heir audio campaign only made $1864 (which meant that I had to pay the remaining price tag on the narration... we didn't hit the stretch goals that would have paid for all of it). And the Vow and Wings audio, which was a combined KS, only made $2570. Waaaay under the amount I needed to get both narrations paid in full. Just as with the first, I paid out of pocket to finish them off.
It's possible that these did poorly because they were for my fantasy series, but the PG series doesn't sell much better in e-edition than that fantasy series. So while two Kickstarters don't provide a lot of data, if I combine it with my analysis of my audio sales at retailers, I conclude that audio editions aren't compelling to my current audience... neither as products, nor as Kickstarters.
If I had the budget for vanity projects, I'd commission the remaining hours of Amulet Rampant in a heartbeat, out of pocket... I had been, in fact, since the donations so far haven't covered the price tag for the half of the book we've finished. If I could afford to do for-fun projects, I'd see it done. But for the foreseeable future every single thing I do has to have a good chance of making a profit, and projects that I know won't, I can't greenlight. :/
We could buy lottery tickets? I'd totally do it if I won the lottery! And if you gave me some of your lottery money, I'd plow it into all the audio you could request.š
Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes
Materials:
- Pen: Moonman Starry Glass dip pen, Mars: https://www.jetpens.com/Moonman-Starry-Sky-Glass-Dip-Pen-Mars/pd/31536
- Paper: Strathmore Writing Series 500, lined: https://www.jetpens.com/Strathmore-500-Series-Writing-Pad-8.5-x-11-Lined-50-Sheets/pd/15322
- Ink: Robert Oster, Rose Gilt Tynte: https://www.jetpens.com/Robert-Oster-Rose-Gilt-Tynte-Fountain-Pen-Ink-Shake-N-Shimmy-50-ml-Bottle/pd/25170
In which I talk about the paper, the paint, and the experience of oils versus gouache. Fun stuff, will do more.
Thank you Locals supporters! Your contribution to my art war chest here is what's powering these experiments and videos. For now I'm keeping them public but I may start doing some subscriber-only videos if you all are interested.š
Thanks for your comments yesterday on the business post... all very provocative, in a good way. I'll try to respond to all of them today.
Some Alysha misc now, since I'm gearing up for the results of the Kickstarter!
Petrov is giving away coupon codes for every book in the Alysha series (and has some leftover coupons for Marda and the business book). You can pick those up here (and please do! The books are bought already, someone should use them!) https://twitter.com/PetrovNeutrino/status/1457344535843987461
Our own @JudasComplex sent along a sample of the Faith in the Service audiobook, which I've attached for your delight! I... haven't had a chance to listen to it. Don't ask me about my past week and a half or so. Putting it here will guarantee I get to it.
After hearing the amused comments during the livestream, I went ahead and added all the ship type illustrations I have inked from the 90s to the wiki. Glory in the rampant adorableness of their anthropomorphic stylings! See those ...
A little comedy today, at least in the link. Transcript follows.
Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguarās Heart.
A while back I was introduced to a comedy sketch about Cuban coffee by a Mexican comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. ( The sketch begins with him greeting all his fellow Latinos and then backing up to say ābut weāre all different, arenāt weā which is a segue into a demonstration of how different Hispanics speak Spanish.
It is hilarious. First, because I am a Spanish speaker and a linguistics hobbyist, and his portrayal of various accents resonated with my experiences in trying to make sense of them myselfā¦ Not always easy, since from culture to culture, slang and accent are often totally different (and sometimes grammar! Spaniards use a grammatical construct that has died out in many other Spanish-speaking countries, the plural āyou.ā)
I also loved it because the Cuban coffee part is real. I grew up with Cubans. I know how we are....
One of the most common things I hear (and say) right now is "the asymmetry is the story." Here's one about how none of us are innocent of the sins we hate in others.
Hi, all. Welcome to this weekās episode of The Jaguarās Heart.
Itās been weeks since the Baenās Bar incident and Iām still thinking about it... because the longer I do, the more I feel, overwhelmingly, that itās obvious that the problem is deeper than āthis forum was saying stuff that offended us.ā We have to back up to the glaring fact that people on opposite sides no longer consider each other human. Nothing I say will matter because the people disagreeing with me donāt think Iām human. They have denied my humanity; they have not bothered to listen to my beliefs, or have fake-listened to them in that way that people do when theyāre so ready to prove you wrong that theyāre only using your speech to provide talking points for their own ideas.
We have forgotten how to listen.
Increasingly, we have also ...
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Weāre just about at the midpoint of 2025, so I thought today would be a good day to do a Jaguar check-in! What a weird year itās been. Very busy, family-wise, with lots of both good and challenging changes; I am using up a lot of time on that, but how is that news? You know how it goes.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā My current major project is finishing up the second Jokka collection and mailing all the Kickstarter prizes. That should be wrapped up next month sometime, when we start the Red Honey serialization. I tell you, itās a wild to be scanning old sketchbooks, only to find sketches of the Red Honey characters from the 2000s! This story has been on the backburner a long time! I also unearthed a lot of sketches from the development of the jokka.org website, which I used the wayback machine to archive (as much as possible). Iām thinking of restoring some amount of it to my current website, which is my other major project right now: my website. I feel like ...
I want to do these badge designs for things like shirts, acrylic pins, and the quiz! What design do you like? There are four "head and bust" styles and two "full body" styles.
As you all know (she says), weāve reached the end of our last serial, Live, Love, Level, and Iāve been dragging my heels about what to do nextā¦ mostly because itās hard for me to write more than one story at a time and if a serial goes on long enough, Iāll inevitably be working on another project. But I had a brainstorm when the Kickstarter got us every stretch goal except the Red Honey novella, which some of you have been waiting for, for decades. That storyās already 5000 words toward an expected 1,5000 (I know, I know) and the Kickstarter has definitively proved that the Jokka still have fans who want more stories.
SO! Our next serial will be Red Honey, the story of how the Jokka moved out of the nomadic age into the age of settlements. Some of you might remember the seeds of that evolution in Kediilās second adventure, āNew Stories.ā And Roika and Keshul talked briefly about the first Jokku settlement during Pearl, hinting that there was some drama involved. Well, there is, ...
KICKSTARTER KICKSTARTER GO GO GO
The Jokka kickstarter launches Thursday! And runs for 12 days, so if you want any of the original art (or one of the few āget yourself drawn as one of the Jokkaā slots), go sign up to be notified of launch!
ON THE HORIZON: A LOT MORE ART
Scott Adams is fond of saying that you either want something, or you decide. That if youāre in the āI wantā phase, you donāt actually take steps; things only start happening when you have decided theyāre going to happen. And I, ariisen, have finally decided Iām sick of not scanning and archiving my sketchbooks and turning them into stuff you can enjoy, like art books and prints and wiki images! Iāve already done Sketchbooks 1-10, and Iāve made a start on the next set of ten.
My plan is to run a Kickstarter for the first art book in a month or two (so if youāre a fan of my art more than my writing, your campaign is coming!) and use that as the proof-of-concept for the process for the remaining 200 or soā¦ see where the issues are, streamline where I can, order proofs of the art book and decide what paper I like and what kinds of covers are economically feasible. Iāve timed myself and it takes about two hours to scan one sketchbook, if I stand there and do nothing but turn pages. I donāt think I can make that part go by faster, but I might be able to do something about the post-processing phase. Let the experimentation begin!
While Iām doing that, Iāll be posting some of the scans here! These posts will be separate from Back in Time Tuesday, which is for finished artwork dug out of the closet from whatever time period I feel like sharing. This means the Patreon will be getting EVEN MORE ART.
Iām debating right now whether the art sharing will be my āserialā until Iām ready to serialize new fiction. Someone also suggested writing wiki/worldbuilding entries as serial content, which might be fun. But Iām still only wanting to do those thingsāI definitely havenāt decided. Until then, there definitely will be an art explosion. Iāve montaged some things up there as demonstration of what you have to look forward to!
If you are a lurker, nowās a good time to decide whether you want to subscribe to contribute to my coffee fund. I do, in fact, literally drink a cup of coffee while trapped in my laundry room, turning pages and leaning on the drier! Or if youāre a paying subscriber, consider buying me a monthly coffee if youāre currently in the ātossing the jaguar a buckā club. My coffee capsules are closer to $2 after shipping. XD
Weāre all overloaded and looking for moments of beauty and cheer and inspiration in our days. A lot of this older artwork is silly, or delightful, or cartoonical, and I think it might be just what we need.
Seriously, check out happy bee guy there. What even was that. Lol.š
Anyway, I'm doing the things! Jokka! Art! Fun! Forth!
