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Happy Monday!
Hope you enjoy this week.
Kickstarter…
Okay. So I’ve plotted out the start date for the next Kickstarter campaign to pre-order Book Six.
Assuming we go for a 60 day Kickstarter drive… And again going for about $9,000 minimum to get the book printed (though with shipping and all it’s closer to $13k)…
…I’m thinking I should start August 01.
This will have the Kickstarter drive end at the end of Chapter 18.
Now…
Some questions:
1) Do you think I should do a video this time?
2) If so… do any of you have any experience editing video?
3) Seeing as Kickstarter is very popular now… what incentives have you seen in OTHER Kickstarter campaigns that you’d like to see in this one?
4) Any other advice?
As always…I am so thankful to all of your support over the years. And I NEVER want to seem like I’m asking too much.
All my Kickstarter drives should EVER be is a way to pre-order the books in a way that allows me to be “out of pocket” as little as possible.
So while other comics are raising hundreds of thousands (to millions) of dollars for their Kickstarter drives… I’m still QUITE happy with making enough to print the next book.
What can I do to make it a better experience?
He has given her back her dreams of old. Yeah he deserves a kiss.
The big thing I’d like to see in this campaign is an option to buy multiple books, but not just a set. Some of us have some of the books but not all of them and would like to be able to fill their gaps as it were. Just a thought and I have no idea how practical it could be, but it would be nice 🙂
On the story, yeah Dan definitely deserves at least a kiss. I’d potentially argue for more, but this is a kid-friendly story 😀
Awww… Nicole. I’m glad to see their progress.
As for Kickstarter, maybe a few incentive items as stretch goals that would be reasonable to produce and ship. I would love to see another set of the sword necklaces – I’d missed out on getting one of them and I don’t think I’m alone in wanting one. I’d also enjoy seeing incentive goals along the way where you talk about the mythos of the Dreamland Chronicles – maybe we could vote on subjects for you to talk about.
That’s mostly me just wanting to know more about the world you’ve crafted, though. 😀
Yes, choose our own extra book (or books) would be nice. While supplies last of course. 😉
After that…
Digital artwork (wallpapers)
Postcards
Wall art
Action figures/miniatures/plushies
Necklace sword (both Excalibur and the Sword of Kings)
Fabric Map of Dreamland
Kiwi Monitor Fairy. 😉
Just a few ideas.
re: advice on Kickstarter
whatever you do, for the love of mike, please do not spam the twitterfeeds of every living being in the universe and a few of the dead ones. By which is meant, don’t retweet every tweet that mentions you, and don’t retweet the retweets. It’s meant to spread out like ripples in a pond, not pile up like Tetris.
One KS that just ended and failed did that and people were not happy about the spam and kind of glad it was over. Failure is bad.
Also thank the backers often and (not that you would make this mistake, you are a gracious person, but again, the following is from failed KS) do NOT send out thank yous followed by “pledge MOAR” or “now get all your friends to match your pledge!” like some kind of Ponzi scheme.
I think if you avoid those two pitfalls you are well on the way to a successful campaign.
PS actually believe it or not Windows Live Movie Maker can make a decent video, it has a real shallow learning curve. All you need to do is load recorded stuff onto computer and play around with the title, transition, and so on. Money saving tip!
I have seen some that in the lower amount pledges say “1 book of your choice” then “2 books mix and match,” etc, up to the full set at the higher levels, rather than “book one” “books 1 and 2” “first 3” etc. People like to be able to choose their own bonuses. After that gets structured, the other goodies are like sprinkles and whipped cream 🙂
Huh? Girlfriend needs a REASON to kiss her boyfriend, now? It doesn’t work like that. Couples just kiss, you know :p
No changes on TWC.
#5: 11,567
#6: 11,258 <= us
#7: 8,946
While it's not very likely that our position changes in the few days left of June, please keep voting!
Nicole believing in Dreamland again??? Oh yeah! just awhile ago,she refused to believe in such a notion. Would she had said to Alex and Daniel, “You two clowns are gonna cost me my scholarship!!!” Is that she would’ve said if given the chance?
Thanks. I heard about that. I think I may have even gotten some emails from that person.
Definitely not my thing. I HATE selling myself.
I will ask that if I EVER sound like that…for any reason. Give me a virtual smack upside my head.
🙂
Nice. Thank you.
Great thanks.
I shall make it so!
The ideas I’ve seen so far about Kickstarter are as good as or better than anything I’d suggest, so with that in mind…
LOVE this page! 🙂 It’s über-cute!
It’s a stooopid idea … but, I saw in some KS that for high bidding you could have a secondary character of the story designed on your own ideas. Or a secondary character with your name. Or with your face.
I consider it a stooopid idea, but maybe some “rich” people, fan of dreamland, would be intrigued by that.
Just my 2 cents 😉
Tangential question: someone above mentioned having a clothe map as a goodie for the Kickstarter. Has the map of Dreamland been included in any of the books yet? Is it in all of them?
What about including a few black-and-white line pictures of major characters or scenes that kids could use like coloring book pages? Would something like be easy to create?
Thanks,
Daniel’s a bit inexperienced with the whole ‘couples’ business. Remember, Nicole had to tell him they were one… 🙂
I’ve done a few video productions; if you have a basic script or ideas for what you’d like to have in it, how long, etc. I could probably put something together.
I’d point you towards the Two Kinds kickstarter for good ideas. Had incentives offered ranging from digital editions of the various books, multiple books, print books of various styles and sizes, posters, exclusive comics, and for the really big backers, cameos. Had a very successful campaign btw. I doubt the goodies will be shipped to arrive in early Aug, but close enough that when my stuff arrives it will essentially be my B-day present to myself. :}
I also like the idea of the sword as an item. Doubt I’d wear it, more like hang from something, or off my comp kinda thing.
Your use of light, and rendering of expressions is so good. You make me feel the emotions of the characters. One, no, two attaboys.
Idiotic!
Horrible idea!
*scoffs*
The inside of every book has a map.
I’d really love to hire a real map maker because my mapping skills aren’t so hot.
But love the idea of a cloth map.
Nicole believes! Yay!
Oh and KS. I’ve been there for every other KS you’ve run. So really all you need to do is put it up and I’ll be there again. For incentives I like the idea of picking your own x number of books. I remember one time you had special deals for the first 100 backers getting your secret agent grandparents and pet dinosaur books free. I got those and I’ve been planning to buy your other non-DL books at some point. If we could choose to add purchasing your non-DL books too in our KS backing that’d be great. I also added two of the DL figures to my KS order last time, just upped my pledge and noted you when it came time to ship. I’d love to be able to buy the other 2 figures but too much “customization” on the pledge options may make the pledge levels too confusing. If you’re still open to taking and fulfilling custom add on requests to a standard KS pledge with a book pledge I’d probably do that.
As for other product/reward ideas, I’m usually a sucker for things like t-shirts (esp if they’re available in the girly cut), bookmarks, keychains, stuffed critters. I’d love to see a little plush Nic someday.
And finally don’t forget to include a lower pledge level for folks who want to help but can’t afford a lot. Usually I see these levels ($5 or $1) having only some digital copy of either the book or some wallpaper pack, or the backers name listed in a “thank you” list on the website or in the printed book.
I don’t have any new ideas for the Kickstarter campaign – I just buy your stuff unconditionally! However, on the strip today, as an optometrist, I geekily noted that Nicole’s glasses have no refractive change through the lens i.e. they are plane glass (or plastic). Is she myopic (short-sighted) or hypermetropic (long-sighted)? If short, the edge of her cheek through the lens should step in a little from the real line of her jaw and the opposite for long-sighted. Sorry – occupational risk to notice such detail!!! (I must want you to work even harder!).
p.s. the same applies to Dan’s spectacles too!
Ooh. I’ve added no refraction to either lenses as I wouldn’t know what to set it to.
And, of course, the render times.
With the newer workstations…maybe I can add this subtle thing just for you.
As to what type of eye issues they’d have. No clue.
I just think they look ‘smart’.
🙂
Advice on what to diagnose them with?
Are those tears I see? Aww . . .
I thought so too but I think what we see are the little pads that support the glasses on each side of the nose.
They both appear to be wearing reading glasses since they both wear them below their eyes and can only look through them when they look down.
No, the way the lights and shadows look in Nicole’s eyes, I thought I saw the beginnings of tears welling up in them. Not sure, though. Still, a lovely picture and moment.
I’m no expert, but I am a near-sighted geek that wears glasses. I have a fair number of friends and past/present coworkers that wear glasses, and almost without fail they are all near-sighted. I can’t claim any statistical significance – my sample size is small to the point of anecdotal – but I can say that at least in my experience near-sightedness seems to be far more common than far-sightedness.
If I were to speculate, I would say that this is probably because of the eye-strain inherent in computer use.
Hope this helps!
😎
So I hadn’t checked the comic in a few days and ended up reading the last two pages in reverse.
Well, it turns out that this page taken out of context makes it look like Nicole just slapped Dan. Which puts an interesting spin on things, I guess.
As I understand it, the difference is that people who are far-sighted have degraded eyesight, while people who are near-sighted have eye “problems”. People who are near-sighted get glasses as children, while people who are far-sighted get glasses as adults. In my experience, most people who are far-sighted only wear glasses while reading, but near-sighted people wear them all the time. For what it’s worth, I’ve always assumed that Dan and Nicole were near-sighted. 🙂
Not gonna lie…I like the coloring pages idea. 🙂 Don’t judge me and my collection of crayons!! 😛
I have experince with video making! I would really love to help.
I make videos because it is something that I really like doing.
If I can help you with my editing skills let me know.
As for a major incentive, you could offer to make the likeness of a character in that person’s image. Since you have to create and render new characters for the nightmare realm especially, they could send in a few pictures (front, profile, top) of their head and work from there?
Oh and I forgot to mention that I have Avid Studio Pro.
Amazing story, just started two days ago. I just have one question, for whoever can answer it. Earlier in the story, it said that alex appears gone sometimes for a couple of seconds, sometimes for hours. How does that work now that there is a portal to earth that they can view through? Could they (the dreamlanders) theoretically see alex in the world, and talk to him for the equivalent of an earth day, but alex is with them because (for them) alex was only gone for a 15 minutes? Can someone explain how the times work?
I, for one, like old maps. You know, not very accurate, but most colourful and beautiful. Oceans with waves, mountains with snow caps, Aeolus blowing into a ship’s sails, all that. With ‘Here there be Dragons’ and such.
Guess it’s the most appropriate type of maps for a place called Dreamland. 🙂
Time will generally work on that dilation principle. I imagine the only way for time to run at the same speed is those rare instances where the two worlds connect… otherwise they run within their normal constraints.
Scott hasn’t really explained this, though… at least as far as I recall.
That’d be useful, especially for Alex, then he’d be able to see where Nic went to…
I love this series and I love, love LOVE the characters and in a way I like Neviene even. It’s nice to see a character who is an ally that’s not all sunshine and peaches to everyone. Orion was stern teacher, so you have to have a ‘remember your original goal despite your feelings’ person and that’s her. Everyone has to remember that the goal was to restore the true king of dreamland to the throne and all of dreamland supports that goal. While I’m not saying Alex doesn’t deserve some props, the goal was to restore the -TRUE- king to the throne and no matter how much we love Alex, Daniel is the true king. Nev’s just very no nonsense about that but I agree should could have phrased things soooo much better.
Loved this scene considering I am full on head over heels in love with a glass wearing geek boy myself. I love Nicole to bits. Just have to get over this urge to ask why she sticks with that bubblegum pink lipgloss that is doing nothing for her complexion. Maybe cinnamon or blush bronze…dunno. The pink’s way garish. If that’s her natural lip color though I’ll sit in a corner and shut up but she has a skin tone close to my own sister’s so somehow I doubt it.