I'm guessing it just referencing how Twitter is filled with people posting their Wordle results. Which we have a thread all about.
[Webcomic] PVP Discussion
- Thread starter Dei
- Start date
Cole hadn’t checked Twitter in a while, and when he finally did, he found it was a torrent of people tweeting their Wordle results.
—Patrick
Ah so it's because I have never downloaded Wordle or even seen Wordle. Now I get it
You are not alone.
this is hilarious because its completely fair for her to ask this as the first movie came out in 2001 meaning she was likely born after the movies came and went.
It’s on them for not teaching her. Made sure that my daughter learned about the differences between the two stories.
No new strip (a-hah-hah) but a new blog update!
Well, that's got that cleaned up. I'll let you read the rest over there.
TLDR: he's got other projects taking up time, and trying to become a "kid lit" author.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure we have AT LEAST 2 members on this board who are better authors than him (and I own books by both!). But, well, guess we'll see.
Well, that's got that cleaned up. I'll let you read the rest over there.
TLDR: he's got other projects taking up time, and trying to become a "kid lit" author.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure we have AT LEAST 2 members on this board who are better authors than him (and I own books by both!). But, well, guess we'll see.
Better doesn't equate to more sales. Kurtz has enough presence/following that anything he made would probably outsell anything I've done. Though maybe not--I did sell about 6X more than most first-time authors.
*does the math* That's six books!
Lol, that's...more accurate than you could guess.
But at the risk of taking the funny too seriously, here's a breakdown as best as I know it (though the numbers whereby I got this knowledge are years old now, so things may be different these days.)
- Most self-publishing authors make $50 or less from their first book. Considering that you can make anywhere from 70 cents to $4.30 from a typical book (depending on pricing) that means most self-published authors sell a few to friends and family, and that's it.
- Most traditionally-published first time authors make an advance of $5000 (or thereabouts, depending on the market/genre and publishing house. This was trending downward when I was last researching), and do not earn out their advance (meaning they don't sell enough books to earn $5000 in royalties). This also means they never get to publish a second book because they have not been shown to be bankable. For most instances, this means they sell less than 4000 copies of their books (again, depending on royalties negotiated, etc).
- Midlist authors traditionally published in the sci-fi/fantasy genre might make 15-30K in royalties on the first run of a book. In the olden days, that was the only run because books went out of print. Nowadays with print on demand and ebooks, books never really go out of print any longer if the publisher wishes to keep them alive. That generally means most of the authors I loved at Baen Books (like Eric Flint) were probably making 20-30K/year at mostif they could crank out 2 books a year.
- Of course, New York Times bestsellers can make in the millions...but those are like rock stars, whereas the level I'm talking about could be more compared to "pub bands" .
I hesitate to give exact numbers for how much I made, because I don't want to cause sore feelings as we have other authors here (besides just me and Nick) and I don't want to get into the comparison thing. But I was on the medium-high end of the midlist author scale. You have to earn $5000 over 18 months to qualify for the Author's Guild, and I'm a member.
But you have to realize that "midlist author" money was earned over the course of about 2 years per title, which means it amounted to 10% (give or take) of what the day job was bringing in. And I was easily spending 80+ hours a week on book stuff. If I wasn't going to become a big splash success like some self-published authors, the economics just really didn't work out unless I could get a sugar mama.
edit: And it turns out at least some of those big splash success authors gamed Amazon in ways I didn't know was possible at the time, and in ways that aren't as possible today. Back in the day, you could spend $20K buying your own books and paying for fake reviews, and Amazon would push you so high up on the recommended list you would make your money back lickety split. Likewise, when Amazon introduced free giveaways, you could give away your book for a month, and that frenzy would push you so high on the charts that when you turned payments back on, it was like a money faucet. These days, Amazon keeps two review lists, one for free and one for paid books, so this particular tactic no longer works. My personal biggest bump in sales came from a BookBub advertisement that I spent $500 on, and made much much more in returns (I even out-sold George R.R. Martin for like 3-4 days). But they've never accepted me for a second run and then later they started partnering with traditional publishing houses and self-pubbers pretty much got left out in the cold.
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figmentPez
Staff member
It's worth mentioning that he's entirely rebranded the site and it's now no longer ad driven, instead relying on Patreon. This IS the way most modern webcomics work... let's see how it works out.
I...don't see this working out well for Scott. Unlike someone like David Willis, his output is far too inconsistent. He'll suddenly take hiatuses like this or get bored with what he's doing and give up on it midstream. It's not even a consistent quality like Order of the Stick, which IS inconsistent in updates, but always delivers in quality.
Plus, once a few Patreon backers start acting entitled or demanding, I could see him lash out at them.
I could be entirely wrong, but this is all based on his past history. He probably has enough of a built-in audience to make this work. How long it lasts is another thing.
Plus, once a few Patreon backers start acting entitled or demanding, I could see him lash out at them.
I could be entirely wrong, but this is all based on his past history. He probably has enough of a built-in audience to make this work. How long it lasts is another thing.
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TO be fair, he's been running a Patreon for years now, with streams of him doing the art and private art lectures for his 10 dollar patrons. He KNOWS how that works. It's just a matter of him putting out the content.
And... see you guys in another 7 months.
I wonder how much Kurtz makes off of his Table Titans books. The fact that he's been able to stay away from PvP for so long and not, you know, completely go broke means he's got to be making some money off of all of this. Plus he's got only 420 Patreon subscribers. For reference, Kris Straub's Broodhollow patreon has 317 subscribers, and that comic is almost unknown and is pretty much dead (sadly).
Kris Staub's apparently got some things in the works regarding Local58tv (his youtube alt-fiction series) and is doing work at Penny Arcade (covering for Gabe, who apparently has COVID) ATM. He was also doing stuff at PAXWest... I don't imagine he's doing too bad right now.
True, I didn't mean to mention Local58 as a means of saying that Straub is in a bad way. I think he's been doing decently ever since Candle Cove was adapted into a season of the a SyFy series Channel 0.
I just meant to show that Kurtz's patreon is not going to get him much money. (Also, it was an opportunity to voice my sadness about Broodhollow's quiet demise. I loved that comic).
figmentPez
Staff member
He made a new social media account on Hive!
Dave
Staff member
I feel sorry for him but it’s all his fault, regardless of what excuses he chooses to blame this week. Inconsistent schedules, unkept promises, and behavior that can only be described as “assholery” all killed his income. It wasn’t COViD, it wasn’t his team, it wasn’t ads. It was him.
He’ll probably still try to blame “The Forums” for his lack of support and money. This is the culmination of our years-long plans to bring him low.
Sounds like he is abandoning his webcomic, which had an established base of fans (or used to), for a gamble on a graphic novel. That doesnt sound like a great idea to me.
I do hope he figures it out. I wouldn't know all you fine folks without him.
I do hope he figures it out. I wouldn't know all you fine folks without him.
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He did that years ago, sporadic half-assed updates notwithstanding. The part I find interesting is the suggestion that his full time (or "full time," knowing Kurtz) work on the graphic novel means that he can't manage even occasional updates on a webcomic, like there aren't dozens or hundreds of better comics out there created by people working full time jobs.
Everything he does comes with a built-in excuse for why he doesn't work harder at it. It's wild.
It's wild that he's begging people to support a comic that he barely updates anymore. Even skimming Kurtz' Patreon, it's $4.50 for an archive of the comics, then other tiers for behind the scenes stuff...and like his comic, his updates are sporadic at best. I commend him for trying to break out and do graphic novels. Hopefully he sees success there, but you can't beg people to support a comic that barely updates.
I can't help but compare it with two other Patreons for webcomics I enjoy: Dumbing of Age and Order of the Stick.
Order of the Stick's updates are incredibly infrequent, but they're always high quality. And Rich Burlew said his Patreon is largely to keep the forums afloat. There's no bonus tiers. It's a simple $2 a month, no fuss no muss. No bonus content, but it's just an optional way to continue supporting, if you want. No content is locked behind a paywall. It's a fair criticism that the comic isn't updated often enough, but the $2 helps keeps the lights on. And it still updates more often than PvP by comparison.
Then there's David Willis' Dumbing of Age, who updates so frequently, he actually has a buffer that would keep the comic running for six months. His output is not just insane, but consistent. Daily webcomic updates, plus a timely Kickstarter book collection every year, plus the Patreon bonus strips. True, the Patreon content, like bonus strips, is behind a paywall, but I don't think Willis has missed a date for the comic once since it launched 10 years ago. For putting out consistent content, Willis is the gold standard.
I can't help but compare it with two other Patreons for webcomics I enjoy: Dumbing of Age and Order of the Stick.
Order of the Stick's updates are incredibly infrequent, but they're always high quality. And Rich Burlew said his Patreon is largely to keep the forums afloat. There's no bonus tiers. It's a simple $2 a month, no fuss no muss. No bonus content, but it's just an optional way to continue supporting, if you want. No content is locked behind a paywall. It's a fair criticism that the comic isn't updated often enough, but the $2 helps keeps the lights on. And it still updates more often than PvP by comparison.
Then there's David Willis' Dumbing of Age, who updates so frequently, he actually has a buffer that would keep the comic running for six months. His output is not just insane, but consistent. Daily webcomic updates, plus a timely Kickstarter book collection every year, plus the Patreon bonus strips. True, the Patreon content, like bonus strips, is behind a paywall, but I don't think Willis has missed a date for the comic once since it launched 10 years ago. For putting out consistent content, Willis is the gold standard.
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