Phil Foglio writes, "Woo hoo! Excitements abounds! Today Studio Foglio flipped the Big Red Switch and we have launched our latest Kickstarter. This one is for Girl Genius Volume 13- Agatha Heterodyne and the Sleeping City. Now, as some people might remember, we had a very successful Kickstarter last year. successful enough that you might be excused asking 'So what for do you need more money? Did you blow it all on coke' (On this point, you can rest assured. No one who does coke stays as fat as we are.) No, we calculated how much it would cost to get all of our books back into print, make tchotchkes like pins and patches and travel stickers, and hire us a business manager, and that is where the money went."
What we discovered however, is that using Kickstarter is the perfect way to do two things; One- Raise the money we need to pay our printer in advance. It is a sad fact that even though we have been using this printer for over ten years, they still insist on getting paid in advance. One would think that we have an established track record, but they claim that publishing is a tricky business in a tricky spot, and that established publishers go out of business at the drop of a hat, and their industry is full of stories of reputable firms sneaking out of town leaving large, unpaid bills and a warehouse full of unsold copies of the first volume of the latest failed vampire romance octology. This is hard to argue with, considering our beloved publisher of the Girl Genius prose novels -Night Shade Books- suddenly sank last year.
The second reason is that this has proven to be the best way to make sure that we actually print enough books to fill the demand of our readers, especially of the limited edition hardcover, which does tend to fly out the door once we start offering them to the general public. The last time, we had to short our distributor, Diamond Comics almost 200 copies (which, frankly, almost killed me). So don't let this happen to you! If you even imagine you want a hardcover, get it now! The halls of the internet's used book sites are filled with the plaintive cries of people trying to acquire copies of the earlier hardcover editions (and their screams when they find out what they're going for [Yes, it's a good investment. Just sayin'].)
Once again we are doing a 'shorter' Kickstarter campaign. A little over three weeks, because if it runs for too long, we will go out of our minds, and because we want to get the cash in hand as soon as possible. This is because our printer, as untrusting and rapacious as they are, are completely booked up for the summer, because we want books in time for the summer shows, which would be a good thing, as it's always embarrassing when we have to show up with The Same Old Books. People thrive on novelty, and if we don't have anything new, they say hurtful things and throw rocks at us. This is why we always strive to have something to sell to those benighted, technophobic souls who rely on the vicissitudes of chance to get their book. Unlike you.
Girl Genius Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City
(Thanks, Phil!)
