This will be a SHORT campaign – it ends on November 12th.
However, there are Early Bird Special rewards that are only available until the end of TODAY, November 7. Here’s a link to the campaign to check out the early bird rewards.
I realized upon launching this that I may have put the asking goal too high, especially for a 7-day KickStarter campaign.
I DO hope we make it to the goal! But if we don’t, expect a few modifications to the campaign to lower the asking goal and a relaunch of the campaign shortly after.
Still, I DO hope you back this campaign, because if we make our goal by November 12th, the sooner this book and the rewards can be done for the holidays!
Rewards for this campaign include commissions – HOLY BANANA PANTS there are so many commission slots available!
There’s also copies of the book, prints, and something new I haven’t offered before…STICKERS.
These will be printed through StickerMule and measure roughly 4 inches each, so be sure to make some space on your sticker surface of choice.
Holy banana pants, I have so many announcements! So let’s break it up into parts.
SLEEP-OUT
This Friday I will be with Mel, co-founder of our local LGBT advocacy group, Beyond the Rainbow, to participate in the Wheeling Sleep-Out.
The Wheeling Sleep-Out is a charity event where groups of people compete to build the best cardboard fort, and then they must spend the night in the cardboard forts. The event is to raise money for Youth Services Systems, a Wheeling, WV-based non-profit working to end homelessness in the community.
Literally the day after the Wheeling Sleep-Out, I’ll be at the Pittsburgh Witches Ball to sell my wares. Find the ball at the American Serbian Club.
Unlike most events, the Witches Ball runs from 5 pm until 10 pm. I hope you can make it – I won’t hold it against you if you’re only there for a short time.
Also, one of my pieces will be available at auction. Wink wink.
ONLINE STORE
Storenvy, the platform I used for my online shop, is going to get re-purposed. Because I’m moving all my comics, prints, and other convention products to my own little store!
The new store is still a work in progress, but you can find it at shop.kelcidcrawford.com. Some of my patrons from Patreon have tested it and it’s working well.
So the comics and art are moving to shop.kelcidcrawford.com, which means Storenvy is getting retooled – it will now be home to handmade crafts and one-off products, like the paper bead bracelets, handmade journals, and (coming soon) watercolor greeting cards.
KICKSTARTER
Now that the Validation’s Final Push campaign has wrapped up, it’s time for a new campaign.
This time, we’re looking to get Gods & Spirits: A Sketchbook to print! This book collects all the sketches done during Inktober this year, PLUS includes new illustrations and never-before-seen sketches.
Expect it to launch this coming Monday, November 5 – email newsletter peeps and patrons on Patreon will be the first ones to hear the news. So sign up for one or the other to jump on those early-bird tiers (because there will be at least one early-bird reward level) (Also Patreon peeps get bonus goodies).
COMMISSIONS
Well, I’m now making comics full-time – I WAS working at my local comic shop. NOT ANYMORE. (Long story.)
So now I have time to make commissions. These will make great gifts for the holidays (hint hint, wink wink). Rates start at $20 for a black-and-white character sketch, and varies from there.
Ok, here’s the deal: I’ll be taking the Storenvy shop down very soon. As in, closing its doors.
Why? Because I want to build my own online store for my website, instead of having it under the Storenvy name.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved working with Storenvy! They were certainly more agreeable than most online stores (ahemEtsyandRedBubbleahem).
However, I’ve kind of outgrown Storenvy – they’re starting to ask for subscriptions out of me in order to do things like email abandoned carts, offer discounts, and have my own domain. Just looking at the math, it would be easier and cheaper for me to host my own dang store.
(To be honest, there would probably be more eyeballs on my store if I hosted it myself.)
With all of this in mind, I want to give the Storenvy store one last hurrah:
From today until SEPT 30, buy anything from the store, and get a free piece of original art from my bin included in your package!
This is a $10 to $30 value – free with your purchase.
Fantasyville Productions, LLC is my business that I filed into existence back in February.
It will now be my label for the books I make and publish. In the near future I intend for Fantasyville Productions to be the publisher of fantasy-themed stories made by other creators, as well as me.
There’s also a podcast in the works, and when it’s ready to go, Fantasyville Productions will be its home.
I have realized that freelancing and having day jobs just isn’t for me. They have helped me get a financial cushion for sure! But I’m at the stage in my life where I’m ready to jump full-time into making Fantasyville Productions (meaning my comics and art) actually pay my bills and get me sandwiches.
It took me a while to realize this, but here’s the thing…
Kia (my little sister and co-creator of Seeing Him) and I are not only back to speaking with each other, but she made me realize a truth I was denying myself:
The truth is I don’t really want to freelance.
Don’t get me wrong: I want to collaborate with folks to make comics. I want to make art in collaboration with folks that resonates with an audience, and get paid for my skill.
The life of a freelancer, though, is based a LOT on multiple gigs – and not just finding multiple illustration gigs.
Freelancing is a lot of skill juggling. For example:
“Ok, Monday and Tuesday I’m cleaning these folks’ homes, Wednesday I’m drawing caricatures at this business party, Thursday and Friday I’m working behind the desk at this store, and Saturday I’m playing ukulele solos at this bar.”
I’ve never really been good at this freelancing thing. It stresses me the f@$k out.
What I AM good at, though, is making stories.
I make my own, I collaborate with folks on theirs, and I find folks to help me with mine.
I’m also very good at going to conventions and selling these stories.
And on Monday, I was talking with Kia about out respective careers, and I was asking for an outside opinion: I needed to know if I should just go full-time on my own pursuits or keep my current “day job.”
I said, “Well, back in April, I managed to make enough money through KickStarter, convention sales, and Patreon to pay off $1000 on my credit card – “
“HOLY SH*T Just do THAT,” said Kia.
Because holy banana pants, she helped me realize that at the rate I’m at now – and the rate I’ve been at for the last year – I’m making more doing my comics than I am working at a “day job.”
(It doesn’t really help much that the only “day jobs” available to me around here are part-time, minimum wage jobs.)
The truth, though, was that I was second-guessing my own ability to make Fantasyville Productions, LLC a feasible full-time endeavor.
I have realized that, especially in the last year, I’m second-guessing myself WAY TOO DAMN MUCH.
I think, too, at a deep level I fear failure. “Yeah we all do,” you might say, but for me it’s different…
I grew up in a family where my mom and dad ran and owned their own business. However, if dad was employed elsewhere, the business would slump. If the business was ok, dad was unemployed. As mom often said, if both dad and the business did well, things would have been a lot better.
When my parents got divorced, mom then got the business. But through a combination of encroaching competitors (coughWalMartcough), the death of one of our suppliers, and just plain old sexism against a single mom running a business and raising 3 kids on her own, the business closed before I was 13 years old.
I saw that failure early, and it left an impression on me that instilled in me the Voice of Professional Doubt.
The Voice of Professional Doubt is the voice in my head that says things like:
“This business will never get off the ground. Keep your day job.”
“You need this day job. Your fantasy business won’t pay all of the bills.”
“You will never have a good day job and a thriving side business if you live here.”
I have realized that by listening to this voice, I was suffocating Fantasyville Productions. I was denying this creation the chance to grow into something that could not only pay for itself, but pay me.
I’m not saying, “Quit your day job and do your own thing!”
Everyone’s situation is different. If you have a side gig, it may not be ready to support you full-time yet.
But Fantasyville Productions is ready to support me. So I need to be ready to support it.
I took a mini-vacation (or “staycation,” since I didn’t travel) from Sunday to Wednesday. During that time, I meditated on these fears, realized what I was doing to sabotage myself, and made vows to myself to make this thing work.
Today, I’ve been working on comics I’m making for clients, plus I finished a new Mr. Dino print, AND I emailed a handful of zine distributors asking if they would like to carry any of my work.
I also heard back from Genghis Con – I’ll be exhibiting there again this year!
I hope to keep this momentum going! I want Fantasyville Productions to succeed! I want more and more people to have my comics in their hands and my art in their hearts.
This website layout has been in use for…I don’t know…3 years? Probably longer. It’s nice on desktop or laptop, but on mobile it can be kind of a pain in the ass to maneuver with.
That’s one reason I want to do a website redesign.
Another reason is: man, I’m kind of out of things to blog about.
Blogging was a hobby. There’s a lot of people (mostly those wanting to make a quick buck) who are like, “you can make money blogging!”
That might have been true in the early 2000s, but the internet commerce model has shifted – away from advertising and towards patronage, sponsors, and well-designed merchandise.
To that end, I have been putting more effort towards my email newsletters and Patreon posts, and less on doing blog posts for this site.
Another reason for the redesign – this website needs to put more emphasis on my art and comics, not just my words.
When I apply for conventions, galleries, etc, and they ask for an online portfolio, I use THIS website. The art needs to be front and center.
So, with all of that said, I don’t want to delete my blog posts. There’s still posts I’m proud of, plus there’s resources, interviews, etc buried in the blog archives. Deleting the blog would delete those resources, and that would break my little librarian heart.
So I need a website that puts my art and comics at the forefront, while still having an archive for blog posts – but still has the ability to track my appearances and the stores that sell my work.
It may take a while before a design is settled on, so bear with me while the dust is up in the air.
