Thoughts and a Confession
Hey folks. With only a week left, I wanted to give you a quick update on the Bardsworth IndieGoGo campaign (for those of you who haven’t watched the latest update video), and share a few thoughts on it. First of all, as of my writing this, we are at $1,048 contributed by 14 people, which is over 1/3 of the way to the goal. I’ve been thanking the people as I go along, but I wanted to thank everyone once again for their contributions and their help in spreading the word.
Now, here’s the part of the post that is a little difficult for me to write, because I don’t want to come off as ungrateful… so bear with me. There was a partial ulterior motive to me doing this campaign, and that was to see if there was a genuine desire for Bardsworth merchandise. I opened the Bardsworth store months ago after putting in a lot of hard work to get it up and running, and to this date there have been no sales of the merchandise in there. To be fair, there might not be anything in there that anyone wants, and I haven’t actually listed everything I have in stock. So that’s an experiment that’s still ongoing. However, it was still a bit disheartening, so I launched the IndieGoGo campaign with the hope that people would be really excited about a new Bardsworth book after eight years.
That hope hasn’t quite been met. As I said, I’m super grateful for the people who have backed the campaign and for the people who have helped spread the word, and $1,048 is nothing to sneeze at, but that’s a tiny percentage of people who read the comic. And don’t misunderstand; this isn’t about the money. This about seeing how much of a demand there is for merchandise. And it doesn’t seem like there really is.
I’m not trying to shame any of you or guilt any of you into contributing. I’m trying to point out that from my perspective, it doesn’t seem like Bardsworth merchandise is something that the majority of you wants. In the webcomic world, merchandise sales have always been a cornerstone for supporting the business, and books are one of the prime bits of merchandise demanded. But this campaign is telling me that maybe that’s not the case with Bardsworth, and if that is the case, then I want you folks to tell me point blank so I can start putting my efforts into promoting other ways to support the comic, like Patreon.
If you have anything to say on the subject, my ears are open and I’m listening. Drop a line in the comments, send me an email, message me on Facebook, tweet at me, show up at my house with cookies, whatever (okay, maybe not that last one, even though I like cookies). I want to give you guys what you want, but right now I’m not sure what it is you want, other than the comic (and if that’s all you want, then we need to have another discussion down the road).
Thanks for being understanding, dear readers.
Um, to be kinda harsh, the past couple years of strips have not been all that interesting. The only reason I read it now is that I have the rss feed in my reader.
A few years ago I anticipated each new comic, nowadays I don’t.
I also think the comic suffers from the four square layout. Especially this last arc. There were several scenes that could have been a lot better if you had more room or something. ‘Course, I’m not an artist, so I could be totally off on that.
Anyway, that’s my perspective. Maybe a new plot arc will help revive interest.
Oh, as a side node, when I reloaded the captcha, it reloaded the whole page and lost my comment’s data. I only post this because I remembered to copy before hitting the reload captcha button.
Hey, it’s within your right to be harsh. What would make the strip more interesting to you? I can’t guarantee it’s in the cards, but maybe I can spice things up.
Well, the four square layout was actually started way back in the day for the purpose of someday putting the strip into books easily. However, if I’m right and there is no demand for the books, then I might as well start breaking out of that layout. We’ll see.
Yes, that captcha has destroyed many of my own posts. I intend to look into it. It doesn’t seem to be keeping out much of the spam these days anyway.
Thank you for your thoughts.
> What would make the strip more interesting to you?
Hmm… It’s so subjective, that it’s really hard to say. Maybe have more happen per strip? Lots of the past few months have only covered a second or two. I expect they’d have been more enjoyable if I was reading them one right after the other. So, add more plot to each strip? Maybe? Maybe I’ll go reread the archives and see if anything comes to me… 🙂
I actually have been quite enjoying the Francis storyline recently. As for merchandise, I guess I have an aversion to paying shipping. I’ve been kicking myself for not picking up book 1 years ago at UBCon. I guess mentally I keep hoping I’ll run into you again. I do this a lot usually only buying through crowdsourcing and cons. This is just my excuse but you asked for feedback. I’ve yet to sign up for any patreons but with the right incentive I might. Mostly I’m fascinated with the extra details that don’t make it into comics like character’s logic for making decisions. I’m the type that buys DVDs for the extras.
UBCon was on the cons I contacted recently about getting into, so maybe I’ll be there again in 2016!
Thank you for the feedback! I understand the thing about shipping. I have an aversion to setting such a high shipping price, but I have to because otherwise I have to eat the costs of packing materials and shipping costs. And my wife always yells at me for setting the prices too low.
Totally get the DVD thing (I do the same thing). Keep your eye on my Patreon page starting in January. I’ll be switching up the rewards and I think you’ll like what you see. 🙂
Of course this is the year I may not be there. I’ve been vending there for many years but things have come up. I feel hypocritical about the shipping issue since I charge the full shipping costs as well on my etsy. I’m just lucky plush is cheaper to ship. It’s a mental thing that’s stupid but I know a lot of people fall for free shipping. Many people buy enough to get free shipping or have prime on amazon. At some point in time we’ve trained ourselves to fool ourselves. Anytime my husband sells something on eBay we up the starting cost but put free shipping and it works. I know I couldn’t do that easily with my side business though. As for the patreon, I’ll be watching. 🙂
Well, I do miss the format of previous strips where there was always a hilarious punch line. Often nowadays I see the punchline coming from a mile away, or there isn’t one. But like Danielle, I enjoyed the Francis storyline! So I don’t want to say to go all the way BACK to the punchline format, either.
I don’t mind the four panel format. I think it’s a way for you to keep the same thing going on a regular schedule. If I pompously consider myself thinking about your improvement as an artist, then obviously I’d say moving into a more comic-book-y like format with different panels would be a GOOD thing, especially if you continue with the serious side of things since you’d be able to put more emotion into the page (or so my limited brain tells me) and fit more into a page. But like I said, I kinda like my Bardsworth in four, short panels . . .
As far as merchandise . . . there just hasn’t really been anything I’m super into, honestly. I’m REALLY picky about merchandise. The stuff I am interested in . . . I could make myself. On a T-shirt color I like, in a font I prefer, and my own stitching for the cookie pillows, etc. I think what you need to focus on is merchandise that goes beyond Bardsworth stuff, mostly because nobody I know reads Bardsworth, and you’d honestly get more traffic if it was something cool. I know a lot of people who buy metal band jackets because they “look cool” and know absolutely nothing about the bands themselves. Something like that. I mean everybody recognizes the Tardis, but the reason it’s so popular is because it used to be a common item and because it’s kinda cool and cute looking. Basically, maybe you should focus on what makes your pieces unique ASIDE from being Bardsworth merchandise. Why should we buy it if we can buy something similar that’s for, say, Harry Potter? Or Dr. Who? Because that’s really what you’re competing against with merchandise. And then the other problem: What’s stopping me from going to Hobby Lobby and making my own shirt based off of your design? Why do I need to buy it from YOUR store? What am I getting that I absolutely CANNOT buy at Hobby Lobby and make myself?
Anyway, just thoughts. All I got right now. Anyway, I’ve been here for years. Good luck, Pete!