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Community for science fiction and fantasy author/artist M.C.A. Hogarth.
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
November 16, 2021
More Kickstarter Business: Audiobooks

@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.🙂

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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
October 27, 2021
Cursive Practice Video, to Relax

Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes

Materials:

00:04:27
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
July 23, 2021
Overview of the First Oil Paint Experiment

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.💖

00:03:35
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
July 17, 2021
Video Review: Oil Painting Papers

My initial review on receipt of the three oil paper products I ordered: the Canson pad, the Rembrandt block, and the Arches single sheets.

00:01:54
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
November 09, 2021
Alysha Misc

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 ...

Alysha Misc
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
April 12, 2021
The Jaguar's Heart 7: We Are Not a Monolith

A little comedy today, at least in the link. Transcript follows.

Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s 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 ‘but we’re all different, aren’t we’ 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 myself… 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 “you.”)

I also loved it because the Cuban coffee part is real. I grew up with Cubans. I know how we are....

The Jaguar's Heart 7: We Are Not a Monolith
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
March 25, 2021
The Jaguar's Heart 6: Hatespeech

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 week’s episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.

It’s been weeks since the Baen’s Bar incident and I’m still thinking about it... because the longer I do, the more I feel, overwhelmingly, that it’s obvious that the problem is deeper than “this forum was saying stuff that offended us.” 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 don’t think I’m 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 they’re so ready to prove you wrong that they’re only using your speech to provide talking points for their own ideas.

We have forgotten how to listen.

Increasingly, we have also ...

The Jaguar's Heart 6: Hatespeech
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
February 25, 2025
The Best Laid Plans of Chimerical Jaguars

I am supposed to be launching the Kickstarter for the second Jokka collection this week. In fact… my planned date for that was… yesterday.
You will note that I have not launched the Kickstarter. That would be because the Ai-Naidar showed up, and while they didn’t do anything as uncouth as punch me in the face, they’ve laid me out anyway, like a boxer down for the match. Most of you have noticed the eruption of meta-conversations on patrelocals, and probably knew before I did what this portended. But I’ve had occasional clusters of visits from the Ai-Naidar before without needing to write another story in the canon, and honestly I thought their next story was going to be written four years ago, and it didn’t happen. I have lots of notes, but no book.

Well, now I am two chapters into a book. Not a long one, I don’t think. And not the one I planned (of course). But I don’t think I’ve had an idea eat my brain this completely in years. I am once again so full up with Stuff that I am ...

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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
January 29, 2025
January Updates!

Some quick updates! First, and most notably, the next Kickstarter will launch sometime in February (late, probably) for a second Jokka collection. You can sign up here to be notified of launch: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mcahogarth/the-smell-of-intelligence-and-other-stories

Second, I’m wrapping up the writing on the gamelit novel, and have started work on the cover art, in the hopes of having that ready soon. First readers, take note! I’ll be asking for help for this one soon. I expect the book will be available direct in March, with retail launch in April.

Third, having discovered how to set up forums, the Discord now has a forum section for live-reads, for people who want to share their jaguar-book-reading experience as they’re doing it (and for people who’ve already read the books to enjoy). If that kind of thing is your jam, stop by and check it out—we have threads for Princes’ Game, Zafiil, and the Jokka books currently active.

Fourth—despite not really ...

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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
January 14, 2025
Back in Time Tuesday: The Huntress Engaged

Going back the late 90s with this color pencil piece of one of my old D&D characters. The goal at the time was to imitate a Renaissance portrait of the kind I was studying in college, which often had pastoral backgrounds with Renaissance-style architecture in the distance. I wanted to see if it could be done with pencils, rather than paint, and it was a pretty good attempt...! I liked that the dragon friend also has designs on his tail and wings.

This edition of Back in Time Tuesday is free, so share it if you wish!

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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
February 02, 2024
post photo preview
Gamelit Novel Index

The chapter titles are all a mess. But this is the proper order so far:

Gamelit 1 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4241337/gamelit-novel-first-chapter

Gamelit 2 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4255477/gamelit-novel-last-bit-of-chapter-1

Gamelit 3 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4267366/gamelit-novel-chp2-part1

Gamelit 4 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4267371/gamelit-novel-chp2-final

Gamelit 5 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4298755/gamelit-novel-chp-3-part-1

Gamelit 6 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4330428/gamelit-chp-3-part-2

Gamelit 7 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4331116/gamelit-chap-4-pt-1

Gamelit 8 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/4361942/gamelit-chp-4-last-bit

Gamelit 9 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5215305/gamelit-novel-chapter-3

Gamelit 10 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5244861/gamelit-novel-10

Gamelit 11 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5271216/gamelit-novel-11

Gamelit 12 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5301971/gamelit-novel-12

Gamelit 13 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5326625/gamelit-novel-13

Gamelit 14 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5360605/gamelit-novel-14

Gamelit 15 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5385714/gamelit-novel-15

Gamelit 16 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5418577/gamelit-novel-16

Gamelit 17 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5444360/gamelit-novel-17

Gamelit 18 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5475518/gamelit-novel-18

Gamelit 19 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5502726/gamelit-novel-19

Gamelit 20 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5530518/gamelit-novel-20

Gamelit 21 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5558728/gamelit-novel-21

Gamelit 22 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5586451/gamelit-novel-22

Gamelit 23 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5613544/gamelit-novel-23

Gamelit 24 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5642711/gamelit-24

Gamelit 25 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5668799/gamelit-25

Gamelit 26 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5693714/gamelit-26

Gamelit 27 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5722853/gamelit-27

Gamelit 28 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5747793/gamelit-28

Gamelit 29 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/5772301/gamelit-29

RECAP RECAP Gamelit 29.5 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6386873/gamelit-29-5

Gamelit 30 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6398055/gamelit-30

Gamelit 31 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6411958/gamelit-31

Gamelit 32 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6432688/gamelit-32

Gamelit 33 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6457957/gamelit-33

Gamelit 34 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6481325/gamelit-34

Gamelit 35 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6501493/gamelit-35

Gamelit 36 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6542961/gamelit-36

Gamelit 37 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6563733/gamelit-37

Gamelit 38 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6590629/gamelit-38

Gamelit 39 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6612520/gamelit-39

Gamelit 40 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6635635/gamelit-40

Gamelit 41 - https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/6662873/gamelit-41-potentials-potentialing

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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
March 07, 2025
Gamelit 44
the call
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
March 03, 2025
Meta-Conversations: History, Part 1
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