Gareth – Page 131 – The Designer Monologues

February 14, 2011February 14, 2011

Valentine’s Day

I’m one of those people, decried as an example of everything that’s wrong about the cynical world, that considers Valentine’s Day a complete load of bullshit.

Oh, I think it has its place — as a socialization exercise for school-age children — but as an adult holiday? An officially-sanctioned single day where you must demonstrate your affection for your loved one with appropriate gifts of a prescribed minimum-acceptable value? I put it right up there with the Christmas commercials that tell us that if I don’t buy her a car wrapped in a big red bow (or a diamond, or perhaps a diamond-studded car), I’m somehow failing in my duties as husband.

The wife knows this — which of course led to the best Valentine EVER, when I completely went against type and, despite what she knew about my opinion of the holiday, showed up with two dozen roses and a silver “Wonder Woman” ring.

Generally though? I don’t partake, and neither does the wife. We know that we love each other, and display it often, without sanction or official token from Hallmark.

But on this Valentine’s Day, after a particularly stressful weekend (followers on Twitter will be aware that I was admitted to the hospital overnight on Friday with chest pains — I’m OK, it was just a stress-releated anxiety attack, and my blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. are just fine), I wanted to make public declaration of just how lucky I am to have this woman in love with me:

I mean, seriously. Look at her. Now look at the picture of me, over there on the right (or the left, if you’re looking at this on Facebook. Or… well, nowhere, I guess, if you’re looking on Livejournal. Or RSS. Hmm. Never mind — this phrase got away from me a bit).

She’s with me. I know, I can’t believe it either. I’m either very, very lucky — or she’s seriously disturbed… which is still kinda cool, in a gothic-romance, madwoman in the crumbling estate kinda way.

So there you go. Valentine’s Day shmoopiness, completely against type. I love my wife.

Now get offa my lawn, ya dern kids! (*shakes cane*)

February 11, 2011

Money, Meet Mouth — an update

Yeah, I’ve pretty much sucked at the regular-blogging thing. The usual excuses: Busy, busy, busy. Not only with Adamant stuff, but also Real Life stuff (like prepping to move out of the place we’ve lived for the past 8 years — the wife and I decided that if we’re not leaving town, we should at least take advantage of those things we like about the town, and live closer to campus and downtown).

I’ve had a lot of requests from folks though, asking about how my “app-pricing” model is going. I’ve responded privately, of course, but rather than re-type the same thing over and over again, I figured I should just make a public post to explain. (“No. There is too much to ‘splain. I will sum up.”)

Short, sum-up version: I’m sticking with this. It’s no longer an experiment. It’s my business model.

Slightly longer, with some math (but not exact dollar figures, despite gamer demands for “openness”, as I prefer to keep income a personal matter) version: I started the “app-pricing” model on January 3rd. As of this coming Monday, I’ve been running on that model for 6 weeks. In the past, I have run sales where I’ve dropped prices to a dollar, and those sales generally have lasted a week to ten days at most. My concern for the new model was whether this was sustainable, or whether it was a temporary sale-driven behavior.

I think that 6 weeks, far longer than I have ever run any sale, is a fairly good initial indicator of sustainability. It’s long enough to view trends, to see if an initial spike was followed by a drop-off, etc.

The result: Sales for these 6 weeks have been more than double the sales of the same period last year.

More than double. 218%, actually. In what has traditionally been our worst sales period.

Even more interestingly, it’s been constant. An initial jump when we first announced (expected that) — but then it really didn’t drop. At all. It’s been sort of a plateau of constant sales a that level — slight upticks when new product has been released, but only slight.

So it looks like I’ve hit something here. Which is a really, really good thing — because I’ve also been dealing with the flip side of that equation over in the print-and-traditional-distribution side of things, where we were hit with a fairly large chunk of unexpected returns from the book trade (I’m looking in your direction, Borders), and that resulted in a massive hit on our income there (since we’d already been paid for those sales, and now needed to have our current earnings adjusted by our print partners as a result). Fucking OUCH.

Generally speaking, digital continues to surprise us, and the future looks bright, while at the same time, traditional print-and-distribution shambles along like a zombie, occasionally smashing us in the face. Or something. My metaphor generator is acting up — I should probably get it looked at.

January 24, 2011January 24, 2011

Self-Publishing (Movie Edition)

So the news broke from Sundance last night that Kevin Smith is distributing his new film, Red State, himself.

He had been telling everyone that he was going to auction distribution rights in public after the screening — and handed that over to his co-producer to officiate. As soon as bidding began, Smith bid twenty bucks, and the auction was closed. He’ll make deals with theaters himself, renting the space and pre-selling tickets. As Smith pointed out, with his 1.7 million Twitter followers and his Podcast audience, he’s been able to completely sell out venues (including Carnegie Hall in NYC) without spending a dime on traditional marketing.

The link to the site, above, features the current tour dates and a button that allows you to request a screening in your home town.

In the press release (also linked on the site), Smith says: “Don’t hate the studio; BECOME the studio. Anybody can make a movie; what we aim to prove is anyone can release a movie as well.”

Of course, the traditional media outlets are pretty dismissive of this whole thing. This, though, is one of the more balanced bits of coverage.

Most outlets are deciding to run with stories concentrating on smug “mixed reviews” for the film — but Neil Gaiman has said: “It’s the best thing he’s ever done. Left me shaken and grateful and wanting to make art.” I think I’ll trust Gaiman’s opinion, rather than conglomerate-fellatists like Drew McWeeney.

There’s no denying that Smith is able to do this because of his existing fame, built via the traditional model. But it’s a matter of scale — and it’s quite obvious that somebody without as much exposure could do the same thing on a smaller scale.

Publishing Houses, Film and Television Studios, Record Labels — they’re all relics of the last century.

Storm the gates.