Plotbunnies' Paradise

Hi, folks! Isa and I wanted to chat with you a little bit today about Comic Rocket.

We have several readers who use this service wonder why Namesake is no longer listed. We don't have anything against Comic Rocket. Isa's been chatting with the folks for several weeks, and they're really nice. However, we've chosen not to be with Comic Rocket because Hiveworks is developing its own reader tools where all the profits go directly to the creators -- in other words, me and Isa and the other artists and writers who work with Hiveworks. Some of those tools include its own mobile app, where the ads on it generate money that go directly to Hiveworks' artists and authors.

Why? Are we being greedy? Things like this always sound like we're being greedy. But, let me clue you guys in on something brewing behind the scenes -- Isa and I are trying to figure out a way for both us to work on comics more. Isa recently took a new job, helping to run Hiveworks, that will give her more time to do art. We also want me to have more time to write Namesake. But to do that, we have to replace part of my income, as I currently work a second job outside of my day job and Namesake to ensure the cats don't murder me and my husband in the middle of the night. Because they will.

We have a ton of comic ideas. I spent several days in Montreal with Isa last week working on Namesake and laying out the groundwork for a couple comics: one is the Chiseri/Adora short story that's the Kickstarter extra and another is a comic scheduled to debut at TCAF next year if we're accepted. We also have a few other planned projects that are being guarded fiercely by both Alices with their swords. We want to do more cons. We love comics, we love telling stories, and we especially love telling those stories together. But, we also need the time to tell those stories, and that's a precious commodity right now because both of us are so busy supporting our families. Thanks to Hiveworks giving us the best ads they can and to them promoting us, they're helping to make a future possible where we can dedicate more of our time to creating comics.

But, we supported a Kickstarter that made a lot money. Doesn't that help you? It sure did. All that money went into the printing and shipping of the books. The Namesake printing costs alone was nearly $22,000, which was 3/4s of the Kickstarter money. All the extra money beyond that is going to creating rewards and shipping the books -- which got a bit more expensive thanks to the post office raising their rates this year. That money wasn't, and was never intended to be, something we actually live off of. Once all the Kickstarters are sent, the money from the remaining books will go to me and Isa.

We love you guys immensely, you all know this. I hope that those who had utilized Comic Rocket to read our comic will continue to do so despite the inconvenience, and none of this was taken with any malicious intent. I love the idea of both them and inkOUTBREAK, where Namesake is still listed. It's nothing personal, both Isa and I just want to be able to afford to keep telling the best stories that we can.