Review Copies

I’ve sent out a bunch of review copies today.  I’m hoping I get a few good responses.  I have one interview just about lined up.  I’ll let you know when and where.

Anniversary Commentary

Chapter 4 commentary is up.  It’s my anniversary. 

Don’t wait up.

Chapter 4 Cold

I’ve been working on the Chapter 4 commentary for like a week now, but I can’t seem to talk for more than about 30 seconds before my voice gives out.  It’s pretty annoying.  It’s even more annoying because I’m a full-time teacher.  Whispering to the kids about education standards and benchmarks makes it tough for them to learn.
On the other hand, I do work at one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest districts in the state.  And we’re still like number 11 (the superintendent says we can do better.  I say they’re getting their money’s worth).

I figure I’ll finish today and you can hear all about the naming of the unseen Dave character.

Don’t get too excited.

iTunes and i

I thought I wrote a post about this, but I guess I didn’t, Tiny Life Podcasts are now on iTunes.

 

I originally put them on this website in the Downloads page, about once a month as I got each issue completed.  But once I put them in Podcast format, as opposed to Photocast format (which, if you don’t know, a podcast is an audio or video file hooked up to an xml file while a photocast is basically a bunch of pictures you can put wherever you want), I decided to go all out and put them on iTunes.

I’m not sure if it’s all that much more publicity – meaning I’m not sure if it’s worth the time to figure out iTunes slightly odd xml format – but I think it’s kind of cool to have Tiny Life somewhere on the internet where I am not in complete control of it.

So if you want, you can either search for “Tiny Life” in the search box in the iTunes store, you can order it directly through your iTunes browser by clicking on “advanced” then “Subscribe to Podcast…” then type in http://sliverltd.com/itunesfeed.xml

Right now there should be samples of all five chapters of l(a, as well as a commentary on Chapters 1 and 2 (3 is done, but I haven’t uploaded it yet).

I’m also hoping to have some interviews with a few other podcasts soon.  I’ll let you know as soon as I do.

Podcasting and Publishing

I already did a podcast about this in the chapter 2 commentary, but let me ask you, if you’re not a podcasting kinda person: why does it take so damn long to get a comic book on shelves?

The very simple way a comic gets from me to you.

The way comics work (or any book really) is that I make it, then I 1) submit it to distributors who then tell me whether or not they would carry it.  After that I have to 2) find a printer who might be able handle my request; it can’t be too big of a printing house, because it would cost too much, nor can it be too small because it would cost too much.  Then, the distributor 3) puts out a catalogue where the stores are able to what they want.  Then, the stores 4) let customers look at the catalogue, as well as do research based on various factors to determine how many copies to order.  After that, 5) the stores order so many copies and the distributor lets me know how many to print.  Then, I 6) tell the printer how many copies to ship to the distributor so I can get paid and have enough money to start the process all over again.

Each one of those steps takes 30 days.

So at any given time, when I write or draw anything, the best-case scenario is that you will see that word or picture no less than six months after it’s done.  I don’t receive any feedback for at least six months, ether.

In this era of instant information, where I can see instant replays of Phelps winning a gold metal from a dozen different angles in practically real time (I could watch a replay on the internet faster than NBC could present one), doesn’t it make sense that something as simple as ordering comic books would be a lot quicker?  There’s got to be a way for the distributor to set up a database of all the comics they’re carrying for any given month – with various ways of presenting similar material, much like Amazon does – and have anyone who wants to, order what they want.  The biggest problem I can see (and it’s not much of one) is that distributors only ship to stores, not to houses; therefore, instead of entering your address as the shipping destination, you could have it shipped to your local store and pick it up (and pay) there.  You could even receive emails of when it will arrive and if the product is going to be late.  I’m sure they could even set it up so you could track it on its way to your store.

I can’t be the only one who’s thought of this; I’m not that smart.

Anyway, to try and offset this six-month lag-time, I’ll try to put up pages and panels and scripts and whatnot as often as I can so I’m able to hear what you have to say about it.  Hopefully you’ll be able to tell me what’s good, what’s bad, and what you don’t understand (because, after all, I’ve been writing this series for about 15 years.  There are some things that are crystal clear to me, but may confuse you).  This way, you might be able to guide (somewhat) the direction of Tiny Life.

Well, maybe not the direction, but you could say “That picture of Jed sucks” and I might redo it.