As “crowdfunding” continues to emerge as a way to fund comic book material, the next step in its evolution is taking place. Crowdfunding, typified by websites like Kickstarter and IndieGogo, is similar to a PBS pledge drive. A project (typically creative projects like comics, music and film) is proposed and explained on the crowdfunding site and interested people pledge money, usually receiving an escalating scale of items, starting with a digital copy of the work, then a print copy and then scaling up with premiums like original art or being drawn into the story for larger pledges.
At a certain level, crowdfunding starts looking like a form of direct-to-consumer distribution. After all, these pledges are pre-orders. Up until recently, there has been no retail distribution aspect to the crowdfunding comics movement. That all changed last month when Alex de Campi listed her Ashes graphic novel project on Kickstarter.
In what appears to be the first of its kind, de Campi has offered a “retailer pack” of the graphic novel: 5 limited edition, numbered hardcover graphic novels (suggested retail price: $30) for $105, which works out to a 30% discount. The offer also includes an “art card” that can be sold immediately and also contains a password to read the digital edition of the graphic novel, which will be serialized at comiXology as the book is being produced. The participating stores will be the only retail locations selling Ashes in 2012.
"The folks from Little Shop of Comics contacted me,” says de Campi of the idea’s origin. “And then a couple other retailers did. All were like, ‘what about us?’ So we chatted for a while and came up with the retailer bundle concept which apparently is a first on Kickstarter."
Ashes is written by de Campi and drawn by Jimmy Broxton (a.k.a. James Hodgkins), who’s recently worked on Knight and Squire and The Unwritten for DC/Vertigo. The book is a sequel to Smoke, a 2005 limited series written by de Campi and drawn by Igor Kordey that was nominated for an Eisner.
If this proves successful, this would represent a significant removal of the direct market distribution system from the publishing process. While a direct market softcover edition would likely follow in 2013, the initial publication would be entirely routed through Kickstarter and be subsidized by the crowdfunding fanbase. Up until now, crowdfunding has been more about paying to get a comic ready to be printed and sold in the direct market through normal channels, with direct to consumer pre-sales to the fanbase as the vehicle. With the collapse of Haven Distributors leaving independent creators with very few options other than Diamond, this is a potentially significant development.
So far, 8 retailers have signed up for copies, with Thwipster placing the largest order at 4 bundles/20 books. 50% of the retailers are in the United States, 50% are in England. This is, perhaps a side effect of a British artist and an American writer who spent several years living in England. de Campi reports commitments from 3 more retailers that should be coming online shortly.
Publishers have long bemoaned how hard it is to get retailers to order out of the back of Diamond’s catalog. de Campi reports a couple more wrinkles when co-mingling crowdsourcing and the Direct Market: “We have a west-coast retailer who keeps asking us to send him 10 books and an invoice but I can't get them to understand they need to order via Kickstarter.”
This shift in distribution is not yet a done deal. Producing an original 250 page graphic novel is an expensive matter. In order to fund a 1,000 copy print run and pay for the art, de Campi needs to raise $27,000 dollars by mid-December. Per the regulations of Kickstarter, if she only has $20,000 pledged, the credit cards will not be rung and she will receive no funding for the project. $27,000 would be the 7th-highest funded project on Kickstarter. With a bit under a month left in its funding period, Ashes is 52% funded. Roughly on track, but not leaving much margin for error.
Managing the Kickstarter campaign takes de Campi 4-6 hours each day, making it a bit more than half-time job all by itself. The most effective promotion, thus far, has been a retweet by Ed Brubaker, writer of Captain America and Criminal.
Ironically, de Campi has been having some initial conversations about selling the media rights to Ashes—originally she was selling these rights via the Kickstarter campaign, but the site required it to be removed from the premium items list. Theoretically, the media rights could be sold and not counted against the money required for Kickstarter to pay out, adding a touch of irony to the process.
What happens if the funding level isn’t met?
“First I go have a big cry,” quips de Campi. “Then vodka will be consumed in quantity. Then I'll probably have another big cry.”
Then, after reflection, she guesses they’d try to serialize chapters on comiXology, though “we'd have to charge a fair amount per chapter,” and speculates a $4-$5 price point.
Will this further change distribution? It’s far too early to tell, but de Campi has a history of being ahead of her time. Her Valentine series (currently available for free at comiXology) was an original paid digital download before such things were fashionable, and an early digital comic on Amazon before their download fees scrapped the business model.
