Evil Editor's New Project

During this alarmingly lengthy lull in query and opening submissions, I put my free time into creating new Evil Editor Comic Strips. I then went to a photobook-creating site and had them print a 100-page collection that includes about 160 comic strips. Basically, because I wanted it. Over the years I've bought collections of The Far Side, Dilbert, Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, Bloom County, The Fusco Brothers and many more. Now I have added the Evil Editor book of comic strips, to my collection of collections.

I asked myself if I should be the only person in the world who owns this book. It is, after all, funnier than 99% of the comic strips that appear in newspapers these days, and why shouldn't every comic strip fan have a chance to get it? Sure, I could post the strips on the blog every day, but they come out small, and while clicking on them supposedly enlarges them, that wasn't working for everyone. The book is 9.5 by 8 inches, so the strips are nice and big, allowing readers to appreciate the artistic talents of whoever invented the various paint programs I use.

Because the book is printed on thick photo paper, and in full color throughout, it is expensive, by which I mean not cheap. Like about $35 and I'm guessing about $5 to mail it. That's more than most of my minions will spend on anything other than their Starbucks addictions and the new keyboards they buy to replace the ones they claim to spew their Starbucks addictions onto on a weekly basis.

I can lower the price by buying in volume, but if I order 100 copies and five people buy it, I have 95 books to store. So now I'm considering a Kickstarter project. This is a way an artistic endeavor can get funding from people who are fans of what the "artist" does. I post a description of the project, some sample strips, a list of rewards comic strip fans can get at various levels of backing, and a financial goal. If enough people back the project to meet the goal, I can order the books in volume. If the goal is not met, the backers don't pay anything. If the goal is exceeded, some of the extra money would be used to print extra copies, as the book itself would be one of the main rewards, but it could also be used to make the book a hardback without having to raise the price.