I just answered this over on our forum and thought I might as
well copy and paste the answer over here again.
But first- the Skunkworks graphic novel is NOT sold out. In fact,
during inventory we found MORE boxes of it in the storage. No
danger of it selling out any time soon, sadly. (We like it when
things sell out, that means they've finally made back their printing
costs!)
Anyway, here's the copied message:
"This isn't appropriate for public consumption, as it involves
personal and private business information that no company
discusses. Jim actually knows the reasons why the payments
are late- they are the same reasons everyone is paid late.
But, even though it's private and even though I have explained
this MULTIPLE TIMES on Jim's Yahoo group, here it is again.
We LOST MONEY making the Skunkworks: Reflections book. To
the tune of a couple thousand dollars. Guess how much it cost
to print that book? Close to $3 grand. The distributor orders for
the book only brought in about $1 grand- comic retailers simply
had no idea who Jim was, and so the book sold very poorly to
local comic shops, where we make the bulk of our money from.
Jim always knew from the get-go on that book that once the book
made back its printing cost, all the money left over would go to
him. The book is *just now* starting to break even. Thus, once it
finally does, Jim will get paid whatever is left over the printing
cost.
Regarding the other comics, Jim is in the same boat as all our
freelancers- basically, the same deal as above. A comic has to
make back its printing costs (which are paid to the printers up
front), before any royalties are generated or able to be paid. This
is standard operating procedure in ALL publishing industries.
Jim will get paid, just as everyone here will get paid. It just takes
a really long time these days, as the comic industry has been in
decline since 2002, and the salad days of making a book's cost
back immediately have gone the way of the dodo. Now, we have
to take a much more long-term view of things, and every sale at a
convention or online is precious, as every single sale brings us
that much closer to making a book profitable. Comics cost
money to make- and we work other jobs to make that money to
bring those comics out. No one is getting rich here at Radio
Comix.
I also find it disheartening that even though I have discussed all
of this with Jim at length, he still feels the need to send fans over
here to badger us about it on his behalf. Much as I would like to, I
can't pay Jim money that hasn't accrued yet. (And for the final
record, the total we owe him is only a few hundred dollars. Like I
said before, no one is ever going to get rich in comics. Not even
us publishers...)"
To be totally honest, that Reflections book almost caused
serious, permanent repurcussions here at Radio due the
amount it cost to print. Other books had to be cancelled because
the shock of losing that large an amount of money in one chunk
screwed things up for years here. If I'd known, we would have
changed how the book was done. Hindsight is always 20/20 and
it's too late to go back and change things now though.
Anyway, I've got to get to work. Yes, at a day job, just like 90% of
the other people I know in the comics industry.
--Elin
Received on Fri Jan 28 2005 - 08:43:24 CST