Merchandise Update
Hello All,
Thought I’d give you guys a quick update on Bug merchandise:
T-shirts – My initial plan was to find a local shirt-making company, make a few designs, do a pre-order and make / distribute the shirts myself. But, after talking to other webcartoonists, I was advised that I wouldn’t sell that many shirts with my little bugs on them – not enough to justify the time and money anyway.
Disheartened, but not ready to give up, I looked into print-on-demand services. It sounded pretty good: I could offer tons of designs and it wouldn’t be so time-consuming. I showed other webcartoonists this new plan and they said the shirts were overpriced (and this is after I lowered my royalty). There’s no point in selling you expensive shirts that I make no money on.
Further disheartened, I’m going back to my original idea of making and selling the shirts myself. Now my plan is to come up with one design that I think would have the broadest appeal. I may come up with a few contenders and allow you guys to vote on them.
Book one – This is a little trickier.
I’ve never made a book before and there’s a whole lot to learn. Thankfully, I know a lot of great guys and gals who’ve done this before and have offered to help. But it’s still going to take me time to lay it all out. Plus, I want all future books to follow the same blueprint so they all match when they’re on your bookshelf. This has produced a lot of pressure on me to get this right the first time. That and my desire for perfection has made this whole process slow to a crawl as I measure once, measure twice, grab the scissors, get ready to cut, put the scissors down and measure a third time, go to bed, wonder if I should change the dimensions and re-measure. Stuff like that.
Plus, there’s one part of my webcomic I need to change before any books get published. It’s nothing too drastic, but it involves me and my trademark lawyer and I’ll leave it at that.
Thanks for being patient as I figure this stuff out.
I would buy a shirt!!! Even if you don’t get my size I’ll buy one and put it on my Teddy Bear just to prove those other cartoonists wrong!!!
There are a LOT of online shirt companies. Did you try spreadshirt.com?
I would buy a shirt. I might not. All depends on what you put on it. Hell I would buy a polo with the little bug guy on the chest with his arms crossed looking at pissed or confused. Something to start a conversation. Sir, why is there a confused bug on your chest. Well let me tell you about this comic I enjoy………….. and thus you get more business……
Any particular reason you can’t just join Topato Co?
I hope to join TopatoCo some day, but they want to see a track record of sales before they work with you. Hopefully once I sell some shirts and books, I can join them.
Weird. TopatoCo sells ‘Boxer Hockey’ merchandise and that ass-douche hasn’t posted a new comic since Halloween. The regularity with which he posts new strips makes me question the amount of regular readers he has and, accordingly, the amount of merchandise he shifts. Anyhoo, that said, I’d buy a Bug T-Shirt.
go bug go. I want to buy your book NOW! x
The trademark lawyers are going to make you change the name to “Peanuts,” aren’t they?
Ha-ha! Knowing that Charles Schultz never liked the title of his comic has given me comfort.
I hear “Walnuts” did well with focus groups.
What places did you look at for printing large runs, and what did they charge for runs of 100 or 1000 t-shirts?
So – some more input for you. I am an artist, and I’ve produced a number of wildlife paintings. I’ve tried both the print on demand route, and the bulk silk screen printer route.
I’ve got an account at Cafe Press for print on demand. It does not generate much income, but then I don’t work it aggressively. It does provide some exposure of course, and I usually make enough over the year to pay for the items with my imprint on them that I want to give away at Xmas. The ease of use is a big plus, but it has not been a big money maker. I see it mostly as a way to get some exposure for my work – like little billboards.
I did find a local store that would carry t-shirts with one of my images – and through a local silk screen printer, got an order of 12 dozen(the minimum), mixed sizes, for about $700 – about $4.80 a shirt. I was able to mark em up and make a nice return and the retail outfit added their mark up and sold them for about $22 each. Then the economy crashed and burned, and the store wouldn’t stock more than a dozen at a time and I wasn’t going to sit on dozens of shirts hoping.
So – if you did one strong design to start with, were able to carry about $700 for awhile, you could do a minimum order with a silkscreen printer (better feel and lasts better) and make $10 a shirt, selling ’em for $15 or so. You’ll have some handling costs of course, and have to deal with shipping, handling and sales tax, you can avoid those issues by using a place like Cafe Press.
“Plus, I want all future books to follow the same blueprint so they all match when they’re on your bookshelf.” (…) “That and my desire for perfection has made this whole process slow to a crawl as I (…).”
God dammit Adam! If you pick up ANY comic book in a successful series, what important snippet of text do you find on one of the first pages?!
“2nd edition” or maybe “3rd edition”.
Nobody gets it right the first time, and if you do then you’ll want to change it a few years down the path anyways.
Publishing that first book is just like sex. It’s akward, you get sweaty palms and inferiority complexes and while it happens you can’t tell if you’re scared, euphoric or appaled by smell – but afterwards you’ll still say ‘Huh, I guess I can do that, too, now’.
Just remember to use protection.
I think WilmRoget is right on – maybe three strong designs (ha i’m not an artist or webcomic person) but I like the idea of a simple icon that represent the bugcomic… sorta like the snoopy of peanuts – people will see and grin and ask what’s that?
Theer’s nothing like the relief of finding what you’re looking for.
Just so you know, I will buy the shit out of your book and I will buy a t shirt when they get going too.
Not to add to your anxiety, but you know what else would be cool (maybe one day) is some of those “Back window of the Van” family stickers. I can see it now, Dad Bug, Mom Bug, Girl (Niece) Bug, and Nerd Bug for the boy. Or maybe a few other characters. I will be buying a book or three when they come out, and I don’t care if they’re in time for Christmas, since I don’t celebrate it anyway.
Thanks in advance for all you do. You truly rock!
Thanks for the suggestions!
OHHHH I never cared for the “Back window of the Van” family stickers but I would SO buy a set of the Bug Family and proudly display them on the back of my Econoline 😀
what about iron-on transfers, and/or patches?
I’m a bit late to this, but here’s my 2 cents anyway:
* The print-on-demand route: “There’s no point in selling you expensive shirts that I make no money on.” Well, then sell expensive shorts that you do make money on. Give the high rollers who want to support your comic something in return. Your royalty on the shirts should be at least 50%, and the effort required to set this up should pay for itself even if only 5 people buy the things. So to test the waters, try starting with two designs first, at most.
* For the self-produced route, you can do a Kickstarter to see if it’s viable. Again, use two designs or put them up to vote, get advice on how much it is going to cost you, including the goodies you’re planning to give away for incentives, international shipping, and the cut for the taxman, put a kickstarter up for that amount plus a safety margin, and if you get funded, you can do it – if you don’t, you won’t have lost any money, and the effort will have bought you the knowledge how big a market you actually have for your merchandize.
That said, it’s going to be your effort, not mine, and I don’t really know what I’m talking about, having done neither of the two options. I just know that having some kind of bug shirt for Valentine’s is bound to be great if you can make it happen and not lose money doing so.
doggone it you have such a case of perfectionitis… It wouldn’t be more than a sunday afternoon’s work to throw half a dozen designs up on cafepress or zazzle or wherever, and ok, you don’t make a lot on them but it doesn’t cost you anything either, and you find out which design(s) sell the best. Or, here’s a thought: you could say, these are unique designs, I will never sell another tshirt (or mug or shopping bag, whichever it is) with this design on it ever again, so this one — which I will take down again in just 10 days! — is a guaranteed collectible.
At first I want to suggest Topatoco but it seems like you are already trying that and you can’t get in. Maybe you can ask other webcomic artists who selling their stuff independently? I know Jam from Wasted Talent ended up outsourcing her book printing work to Hong Kong. Maybe you can find a service that can help you with reasonable price.
Please, please don’t go the outsourcing route! I’m delighted that you are working on a plan to sell books and t-shirts but I will be just gutted if they are not made/printed in the US. I will happily pay a lot more to support an independent artist working with US companies! Royal Apparel has a great selection of made in the US shirts that would only be improved with your artwork!
With your book, you could always try a kickstarter run? They’re pretty cool and you get a lot of exposure too. Modest Medusa did one, and that’s how we found out about them, and all they offered was a sheet of stickers, you don’t have to have crazy rewards! But it would give you some money to work it out and all.. Just a thought!
Thanks from Italy for all the fun, me and my friends will buy your book(s) for sure when possible.
So…no radon detectors?
Take your time Adam do what’s best and we’ll be here waiting. Until then we still have your comics 5 days a week which is always awesome! 🙂
You’re going to make sure you can ship to the UK though. Right?
I’d like shipping arrangements to Asia also (:
I keep trowing money at my screen in exchange for Bug’s shirt and nothing happens 🙁