Aaaaand, done!
Jul. 6th, 2006 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenmillionArtist pay is calculated! Horrah!
Still have to do the usual slog of emailing everyone and figuring out if they've been carrying a balance, which can take a week or more, as many artists as I've got now. But the big calculating job is done! I need to figure a way to streamline this part, too - some kind of batch email that draws on a database?? I should sic Janet on that - it would be worth some money to save me a week of work. (Intermittent work, 'cause there's only so many I can do at once before screaming, but still, a mighty significant workload.)
Going through all the sales for the year is always eye-opening. It always makes me wonder how worthwhile this whole operation really is - I'm not paying anyone enough to support them, and I'm not making diddly off of them, really. My money makers for the year so far were clearly, entirely, very strongly the print services and the ACEO blanks, followed by the still-crippled Portrait Adoption. But it's the storefront that tends to eat up the most time and energy, go figure.
It would serve me much, much better if I were more centrally located and could do more shows and cons without travel and lodging costs, no doubt. Yay for airline miles, I guess. I wouldn't be able to afford Dragon*Con this year without 'em. Even without travel, some of the show fees aren't worth it - the Carlson Center events are just too high-priced to get my money back on. The fair is still the best bang for the buck, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how Dragon*Con does now that I've got a better sense for what sells there.
Coloring books saw a steep drop-off - in part at least because it's been like pulling teeth to get them reprinted decently. What a hassle! I suspect they'll pick back up once I've got the new copies printed. Wholesaling looks super promising - that aspect of the site has been just super.
This makes me look quizzically at EMG-Zine, too... I'm going to give it another year, at least, since I invested in the backend coding, but it's unlikely to become financially solvent on its own. The anthology may take care of that, we'll have to see. At any rate, it's certainly fun, and people seem to appreciate it, so now that it's not eating a few long days every month I won't abandon it. It was a pretty uphill struggle getting it to this point - I certainly wouldn't have committed if I'd known I'd be doing it by hand the first 6 months. :P I am SO grateful to my writers and editors. You guys are awesome.
Although, I have no articles for August. Someone, please? I'm writing one, but that still makes a pretty slim issue.
Gotta order t-shirts today - out of a few, need some special colors, and some totes. July is an expensive month!
Art and coloring books for my afternoon. My Fishbowl Fantasies copies should be on their way to me by tomorrow, and I want to get a gothic coloring book or two laid out and uploaded by the end of the week. Is it Thursday already? Jeezus.
Oh crumb - I still have to do PA pay for those folks who take checks. Ah! Nevermind my plan.
Still have to do the usual slog of emailing everyone and figuring out if they've been carrying a balance, which can take a week or more, as many artists as I've got now. But the big calculating job is done! I need to figure a way to streamline this part, too - some kind of batch email that draws on a database?? I should sic Janet on that - it would be worth some money to save me a week of work. (Intermittent work, 'cause there's only so many I can do at once before screaming, but still, a mighty significant workload.)
Going through all the sales for the year is always eye-opening. It always makes me wonder how worthwhile this whole operation really is - I'm not paying anyone enough to support them, and I'm not making diddly off of them, really. My money makers for the year so far were clearly, entirely, very strongly the print services and the ACEO blanks, followed by the still-crippled Portrait Adoption. But it's the storefront that tends to eat up the most time and energy, go figure.
It would serve me much, much better if I were more centrally located and could do more shows and cons without travel and lodging costs, no doubt. Yay for airline miles, I guess. I wouldn't be able to afford Dragon*Con this year without 'em. Even without travel, some of the show fees aren't worth it - the Carlson Center events are just too high-priced to get my money back on. The fair is still the best bang for the buck, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how Dragon*Con does now that I've got a better sense for what sells there.
Coloring books saw a steep drop-off - in part at least because it's been like pulling teeth to get them reprinted decently. What a hassle! I suspect they'll pick back up once I've got the new copies printed. Wholesaling looks super promising - that aspect of the site has been just super.
This makes me look quizzically at EMG-Zine, too... I'm going to give it another year, at least, since I invested in the backend coding, but it's unlikely to become financially solvent on its own. The anthology may take care of that, we'll have to see. At any rate, it's certainly fun, and people seem to appreciate it, so now that it's not eating a few long days every month I won't abandon it. It was a pretty uphill struggle getting it to this point - I certainly wouldn't have committed if I'd known I'd be doing it by hand the first 6 months. :P I am SO grateful to my writers and editors. You guys are awesome.
Although, I have no articles for August. Someone, please? I'm writing one, but that still makes a pretty slim issue.
Gotta order t-shirts today - out of a few, need some special colors, and some totes. July is an expensive month!
Art and coloring books for my afternoon. My Fishbowl Fantasies copies should be on their way to me by tomorrow, and I want to get a gothic coloring book or two laid out and uploaded by the end of the week. Is it Thursday already? Jeezus.
Oh crumb - I still have to do PA pay for those folks who take checks. Ah! Nevermind my plan.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-06 08:18 pm (UTC)I also had an idea I was going to fly past you after I had written that one, but I might as well bring it up now. It's "How to get a newbie into fandom," and I'd detail ways to ease friends and family members into someone's fandom of choice (looking at broader 'fandoms' like comics in general, fantasy in general, etc), why plunging them in is a bad idea (weirder stuff turns new people off, huge ongoing series are hard to get into and expensive), examples of what to try, and a warning that not everyone is going to like what you like so be prepared for that and take it gracefully.
It would, however, take me a few days to do some research and write the thing.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-06 08:19 pm (UTC)I appreciate having someplace to sell my art that requires minimum work from me. Sure, I might not sell much through you but its more than 0 and I didn't have to do much of anything for those sales. I make 90% of my art money through conventions but gods, do they eat up time and supplies.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 02:04 pm (UTC)We are evvviiilll! I found out that Sandy has a paypal account somewhere too, he got confused by it (very easy since they make you wade through a bunch of stuff to find anything out), so maybe I can split payments between mine and his on paresonal accounts. I hate the fact that they take the hard earned $$, but I guess they need to in order to stay in business.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 02:09 pm (UTC)Seriously if it wasn't for EMG I wouldn't really have anywhere to sell anything, and when you have the "EMG is OPEN for submissions!" runs it makes me work hard to finish stuff. :)
I try to do all of my business through you, I love the printing service and PA. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 03:04 pm (UTC)I have to admit I've wondered sometimes why the services you say take the most time you also say make the least, but I've assumed they were personal passions. Which fits my overall impression of EMG somewhere inbetween "hobby" and "pro", which isn't a bad thing per se — comfortable for many of your artists, I'm pretty sure.