‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 656

Outsiders' dilemma of getting into the Game wasn't high on Jake's priority list.

Now to address a dilemma of my own. I'm gearing up for the Kickstarter for NAV's Book 5 and hope to launch it in May. The main problem is that I'm out of NAV 1 (I have just enough for Phoenix Comic Con in May, but that's it). It's awkward to run a Kickstarter and not be able to offer the first book of the series so I would like to raise the funds to reprint them during the Kickstarter. Alas, that's going to require a minimum of $20K, an amount none of my Kickstarters have reached before, so I'm a tad terrified of attempting it.

There are three ways to go about this:

Option A: Set the minimum for printing both books ($20K) and hope we make it. If we don't make it, then I'll get no money and neither book will be printed.

Option B: Set the minimum for printing only Book 5 ($10K) and put Book 1's reprint as a stretch goal at $20K. Come up with stretch goals in between that don't cost any money (since all the money will be consumed to print the books). If we fail to make $20K, but at least reach $10K, then Book 5 can be printed and Book 1 will have to wait for another time. But this makes it difficult for me to attend cons since I won't have Book 1 to sell. Also, I won't be able to offer a full set during the Kickstarter since there will be no Book 1 to give.

Option C: Set the minimum for reprinting Book 1 ($10K) and put Book 5 as a stretch goal at $20K. This is awkward since not everyone might want another Book 1 if they already have it and there's nothing really new to sell which could make it hard to raise the initial $10K.

I would love your input. If you could fill out this survey, it would help me immensely in making this decision!
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Thanks so much!!

23 Comments

To be fair… the twins DID help him find a certain someone.

Well, now that he did find what he wanted he can make them less aggressive against this particular type!

I suppose you could try for the all in one 20K, and if it doesnt work becuase there isnt enough interest in vol 1, re-launch with just the vol 5 10K target.
I’m just selfishly worrying about not getting vol 5 though :/

I’d agree. In part due to my own selfishness in wanting to get vol 5 (I already have the rest) but also for a few other reasons.

1) 10k goal for vol 1 reprint with vol 5 as 20k stretch goal – Most longtime readers like myself will probably already have copies of the earlier volumes and so won’t be as interested if you start with the 10k for volume 1 and having volume 5 as a stretch goal. The reason for that being I would want to be fairly sure I’d be getting a volume 5 (the risks of Kickstarter aside) and so I wouldn’t pledge until it was much closer to reaching that stretch goal of 20k. I’d love to have money to burn so that I could pledge anyway and support Aneeka more but that isn’t the situation for most people. If a significant proportion of the other readers feel similarly then we’d all end up holding back waiting for someone else to pledge first and wouldn’t get far.
Also If I were interested in getting vol 1 as well as volume 5 I’d expect to pledge more which would mean there’d need to be a reward level that says vol 1 + vol 5 only if the stretch goal is met. Again I might be hesitant to pledge at that level if I wasn’t reasonably sure I’d be able to get the 5th volume.

2) 10k goal for vol 5 with vol 1 reprint as 20k stretch goal – This has similar issues as the above.

3) 20k goal for vol 5 and vol 1 reprint – This makes the most sense to me as then there can be reward levels for each combination and if it didn’t make it to 20k I wouldn’t be paying without getting something. Then if it did fail you might still be able to see the number of pledges for each option and have an idea what you might get pledged if you were to run the campaign again. And you still have the option of running either of the other campaigns with the 10k goal.

From my selfish perspective, I’d pledge for volume 5 on either scenario 2 or 3 but I’d hold off on scenario 1 for the reasons I describe above.

If I were you I would go with option 3 based on the assumptions that:
1. You don’t mind a potential delay of 35 days in the event the first campaign fails to reach its goal (I think that’s how long Kickstarter campaigns last for right?).
2. Running a Kickstarter campaign doesn’t cost anything more than time.
3. You can afford (financially) to wait for an extra 35 days if the first campaign does fail

If any of those are not the case I’d be very tempted to go with option 2 as I’d expect it to have the greatest chance of actually getting to its goal.

The big problem with that plan is that if it reaches somewhere between $10k and $20k then no money goes to the books instead of $10k going to book 5 (or 1) like in option B (or C).

Basically, it sounds like option B is for you.

Yeah, Jake did NOT think about this.
Creates programs to target winning obsessed people in hope to find his old winning obsessed friend, but forgets he’s in a post apocalyptic world where people are desperate to survive and have to win to survive, seems a lot like kicking people while there’re down.

Also, said winning obsessed friend isn’t exactly on talking terms with him, nor known to be particularly friendly.

And is about as famous for being alive as Elvis. Which is to say “Very, but logically most people accept that she can’t be on account of not being around anymore”…

Sending out a synchronised team of bullies who don’t sleep, don’t tire, have no mercy nor remorse… unrelenting agent of pure purpose… To harass everyone they can in pursuit of someone who probably doesn’t exist anymore is, well, pretty consistent with someone who has suffered trauma… Assessing consequences is hard work and he had grief that needed grieving…

LOL! Suddenly, I’m very sad that Danni was with Kleya when the twins first showed up. The explosion would have been amazing!

Actually, Kleya tried that even with Danni there. Her Special stopped her, remember?

Yup! But if she had been all alone with nobody watching, she may have gone ahead and exploded them anyway.

…and yes, by exploded I mean reprogrammed. I have to say explode because she is “Everything goes boom!” girl. 🙂

I don’t intend this to be mean, just critical.

I see two main problems in the first panel. Danni’s right arm is too close to her torso. Her upper arm should be somewhere close to a 45 degree angle with her forearm still parallel to the ground. The other issue is her head. In my opinion, she should be facing away from her right arm.

Maybe you could try a couple sketches to see if that works…

I agree with your second point, about her head, but I think the arm looks fine.

She’s turned slightly to her right, so the arm seems like it’s about lined up with her back. It also makes sense for it to be close to her torso to fit with the curt response.

In trying to act out the panel, I found that my arm went out at about a 45 degree angle, which is why I mentioned it.

If I start standing with good posture and make a horizontal swipe, I get the same results you did. If I do a sort of wind up though, body twisting a bit to the left, hand moving up to about where the shoulder is, head turning left, and then do a forceful diagonal swipe using my whole body, I end up in exactly the position she has in that panel. That doesn’t match up with the motion lines drawn though, so.. I dunno.

@Aneeka
I feel I should point out that I’m not suggesting you change this page. I just wanted to offer some advice for later endeavors.

It’s interesting how Jake is suddenly talking about this. Given how much of a secret it is…

Well he hasn’t exactly revealed anything super specific really.

All he needs to say “…And I was unable to find them.”.

Well, depending on how likely the others are going to believe him.

And he’s also trying to build trust with Danni to get to Kleya.

How about some extra pages of Blob QandA as stretch goals? I miss the blobs.

Not sure if this is a great idea because you could end up splitting your donations, but you could run to Kickstarters, one for each.

Bag, T-shirt, and mugs are all options. The real issue is the price.

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 656