It’s the LAST week that The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1 is on KickStarter. The campaign ends March 27!
The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1 collects the first 4 chapters, plus bonus content, in one volume. If you love genderqueer protagonists, pirates, dragons, magic, and adventure, this is the story for you!
Early Bird rewards may be all claimed, but there are still other rewards. Like…
$1 – you get a copy of Jamie and Friends’ map made as a desktop background.
$2 – you get the above PLUS the minicomic The Legend of Norsa mailed to you.
$10 – you get the digital background PLUS a PDF copy of The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1.
$25 – get the above PLUS the copy of the book with a custom autograph
alternately, $25 – get the digital rewards PLUS two copies of the book are donated in your name to your local library.
Can you back the campaign? Then check it out BEFORE MARCH 27!
Broke? Share the link to the campaign (tinyurl.com/jamie-v1) far and wide with your friends!
As far as platforms go, Ko-Fi and Patreon have similar goals: make it easy for fans to support creatives. I get the impression that some folks use one but not the other. I DARE to use both. So how do I do it?
Well, let’s cover the similarities and differences first:
Ko-Fi (I think it’s pronounced ‘coffee,’ and you’ll see why) is a platform that lets you donate the price equivalent of a cup of coffee (get it?) to your favorite creative person. By giving, you support the creative, AND you get access to some supporter-exclusive posts.
Patreon lets fans subscribe to their favorite creatives by pledging a specific amount of money, to give either each month, or for each project. You get rewards in exchange for how much you give. The more you give, the more rewards you get.
Ko-Fi also has an option to let folks subscribe to their favorite creatives with a monthly donation, but this option is only available if the creative pays for a Ko-Fi Gold plan. Otherwise, it’s just one-time donations.
Patreon grandfathered me into a particular package deal, because I had been on the platform for so long.
As of this writing, Patreon has 3 plans, depending on how big your team is. If it’s just you, you get a simple button and you don’t break down your rewards like tiers (like KickStarter does). If you’re a handful of people, but not a huge team, you can get on the Founder Level, which is what I have. This allows patrons to select their level of patronage from the options you provide just like you would with KickStarter. Patreon also has a level above Founder, but that’s intended for creative teams that are 10+ people, or folks who run a business with subscription boxes that ship.
In the indie comics verse, I’ve seen some folks use one platform, but not the other. More often, I see both. I decided to be kooky and use both platforms, as well.
So how am I using them?
Admittedly, I sought out using Ko-Fi to fund a side project. Then the side-project fell through. So then I thought, “Maybe I’ll offer this as an alternative to Patreon! I’ve seen some people’s eyes roll at the mention of Patreon. Maybe they just need an option that’s different.”
But after having received a few donations through Ko-Fi, and after having been on Patreon for many years, I’ve discovered this in my experience:
The support I get from Patreon is for my art. The gifts I’ve received from Ko-Fi come with notes thanking me for my blog.
So – I’ve decided that Patreon will fund my art…and Ko-Fi will fund my writing.
Yes, I DO write. I’ve done the National Novel Writing Month Challenge two years in a row, and I’m hoping that this year will be my third.
And obviously I write blog posts. And, curiously, I’ve had patrons on Patreon ask me to make poetry for them.
So that’s the plan moving forward!
If you would like to support the art-side, check out Patreon. Heads up – I will be revamping the reward tiers and promotional art soon.
If you would like to support the blog, check out the Ko-Fi. I have new rewards available that are writing-specific. You can give once OR give monthly (I opted for the Ko-Fi Gold).
The following is something I originally wrote for my email newsletter, but this is urgent – if you love the work I do (or even if you love someone else’s work), this WILL impact you:
So here’s my concern – I currently work making comics here in the United States. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC)’s chairman, Ajit Pai, is a former Verizon lobbyist and is REALLY keen on getting rid of net neutrality – net neutrality is the principle that all websites and all data be treated equally.Continue reading “The Battle for Open Internet”
“Hold on a second,” you might be thinking. “You just had a KickStarter campaign, and you’re running another one so soon?”
Yes – the previous KickStarter was to get funding for Validation buttons, to have something for sale at conventions. That KickStarter ran in June for a week and raised just a little over $800 (holy banana pants!). Since that campaign was so short, the rewards were not super hard to fulfill. In fact, all the rewards for the backers are taken care of for that campaign.
I like to make sure loose ends are tied up before moving to the next KickStarter, thank you.
So, with previous campaigns taken care of, I’ve launched a new one: Witches: The Sketchbook is looking for $500 to get its first print-run going.
Witches: The Sketchbook is a compilation of sketches I made during Inktober, featuring nothing but witches. Why? Well, in promotional posts on KickStarter I say “because I love witches” and leave it at that. But there’s a little more to it than that.
The reason I drew witches is not just out of a fascination for them, but because as a Pagan person, I like seeing witches of all stripes and backgrounds. There’s not much representation of witches, Wiccas, neo-pagans, or the other branches of Paganism in art unless they’re super-sexy or the Macbeth variety of wrinkled cautionary witches.
I wanted to see something different – witches rooted in the old Gaelic traditions, witches of African descent, witches that could spring from old lore, modern-day witches, and witches of other backgrounds. And my method is usually, “Huh. I can’t seem to find anything like that. Time to draw it myself!”
There was also the desire to have a book of character designs and concept art, because I love those types of books and wanted to make one of my own. And a book of witch concepts is a good place to start, I think.
The KickStarter is still running – in fact, it has 11 days left in the campaign and ends on November 21st. Check it out and see what you would like. (Also there’s a ton of original sketches left to claim and they’re priced reasonably well, so be sure to get those before they run out).
If you can pledge, that’s fantastic! If you’re broke, please share the link with your friends. Every bit helps.
One of the people I met at 3 Rivers Comic Con this year mentioned a podcast called ComixLaunch and recommended I give it a listen. So I did.
This is going to sound like product placement or a sponsorship, but let’s be clear, it isn’t. ComixLaunch is a podcast entirely about making comics and art, and running successful KickStarters to fund said comics and art, and how you can make a living as a working artist.
