Independent San Francisco–based comics publisher and comics shop Silver Sprocket is marking its 15th anniversary this year with a fundraiser, which will run through Halloween. To support the effort, more than 40 creators including Caroline Cash, Michael Deforge, Alex Krokus, Lemony Snicket, Tillie Walden, and Julia Wertz have partnered with Silver Sprocket on one-of-a-kind prints celebrating the press and store.
Silver Sprocket, which employs more than 15 people, has seen a number of successes in recent years on the publishing side, taking home both Eisner and Ignatz awards this year. Its storefront specializes in stocking graphic novels, micro-press comics, local comics published by the press itself, European imports, and more in lieu of monthly comics periodicals.
“My favorite stores actually do their own publishing,” founder Avi Erlich told PW earlier this year. “They have resources to help seed a local comics community of creators.”
As its cross-country fellow, Desert Island Comics, proved with a fundraiser of its own this week, businesses that support local comics communities need the support of their communities as well. Silver Sprocket is hoping to sign up 200 new members for its subscription service through the effort, alongside “raising as much money as possible to pay a real living wage for our staff that makes this all possible!”
PW spoke with Erlich by email about the fundraiser, the importance of community in indie comics, and more. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Why choose to raise funds on your own, rather than via a major crowdfunding site?
We are using a platform called WithFriends, which is a different model than a traditional Kickstarter in that it is structured around a more long-term sustainable model of offering subscriptions to our catalog (in print and digitally), as opposed to a one-time fundraiser for a particular book or season. The drive includes exclusive items for sale from rock star comic artists to help shore up our finances in the immediate short-term; but developing a more consistent and predictable revenue stream that doubles as an exciting new distribution channel is our bigger priority.
We have a solid track record publishing comics from new creators who aren’t yet well known, who go on to win prestigious awards and do big books with houses like Abrams and Pantheon and cartoons with Adult Swim. By offering print and digital subscriptions to every single thing we publish, we hope to deliver on the trust we’ve earned, and delight readers with our incredible slate of upcoming publications while also developing a consistent and predictable revenue stream.
The Silver Sprocket crew has been working harder than ever to keep up with the needs of our catalog and roster, and I’m determined to get this business closer to paying a real living wage for our staff that makes this all possible and lower the amount of hats we’ve been forced to keep shuffling. Silver Sprocket has been growing a tremendous amount recently, but we are behind where we need to be right now.
Our subscription program is unique in sending subscribers an advance email about what books they’re scheduled to receive each month, with a chance to make changes to the items in any month’s box in case they don’t want a particular book and want to swap it out for anything else in our store, so it's also a great way to get a nice discount on fantastic indie comics from any of the 300+ independent creators and publishers that we curate beyond our own catalog.
Why is it specifically important for small, mission-minded businesses to raise funds directly from the community, rather than from other outside sources?
We’ve been growing at a somewhat alarming rate. We could get investors, but I am extremely hesitant to give up control of how we do things. We value our independence and freedom to spend money on things that aren’t necessarily aimed at maximizing profits in ways that an investor might not agree with.
This includes our focus on publishing comics by queer and trans creators, and comics that are inherently political, which put us in a calculated legal risk in ways that a bigger publisher might avoid. Other projects were printed with the deliberate goal of distributing as many free copies as we could to people who need it, which is very important to us but contrasts with an investor’s desire for a company to be focused solely on being as profitable as possible.
Sharing our resources with local artists to make their own comics and organizing events like the Pride In Panels: SF Queer Comics Festi isn’t profitable, but is a lot of fun and has value to our community, and is worth supporting even though it isn’t 'successful' in the capitalistic way of looking at things. Our goal with this fundraising and subscription drive is to shore up our finances so we can stay focused on what’s fun about making and promoting important stories and creators, taking better care of our crew, and continuing to level up our operation at a slow and organic pace in ways that stay true to our values.
While I'm super into radical transparency in oversharing details that businesses typically keep quiet about, that information needs context. If we raised $100K, it would be fantastic, but someone might see that and think that we’re rolling in cash when in our case that’s only about three weeks worth of revenue and expenses. I am a little nervous about people seeing a big number and not understanding what it actually means in the context of our operation.
Some of the creators putting together unique posters for you all are not on your roster. How did you connect with them on helping with the fundraiser?
Asking for money is inherently awkward and we didn’t want our authors to be surprised and concerned at seeing us having a fundraiser, so we kept them in the loop while reaching out to artists who are part of our community but not on the roster for support. I don’t feel right asking artists on our roster to do extra work in support of us as their publisher. It's just not how the relationship between artist and publisher is supposed to work. Our job is promoting and selling their books; they shouldn't be asked to do extra labor on our behalf outside of making great books.
At the same time, our roster is made up of dedicated team players who care about us and each other, and we’re extremely grateful to have the support of our community. We’ve built a lot of goodwill in the comics community, and it's been truly humbling and inspiring that so many of our literary heroes see value in our work and wanted to help.
Why is it important for small comics publishers and stores to place an emphasis on community building?
Our community has consistently been there for us, donating computers and tablets after we were robbed a few years ago, and helping rescue literal tons of books from our basement when it flooded last year. We are so grateful and appreciative of our community and are looking forward to continuing our work in making both the reading and the creation of comics accessible and fun.
It really is possible and wonderful to run a business that has your values, but trying to compete with the forces of capitalism on its own terms is very difficult. I’ve had a chip on my shoulder for a long time about not asking for money or running a Kickstarter because I wanted to prove by example that what we’re trying to do could be done sustainably without asking for donations. I think we’re continuing to prove it, but just as we are transparent about our successes, it’s okay to talk about the rough spots too and I’ve finally been convinced that it's okay to ask for help when we need it.
