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Friday Updates

  • Nov. 6th, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Christmas - Snow

• As insane as this week has been at work, it’s been a very good writing week.  I just found out that my German publisher is picking up both Mermaid’s Madness and Red Hood’s Revenge.  Excellent!

• Also exciting, Red Hood’s Revenge is up for pre-order on Amazon!  I’m told it’s been there for a few weeks, which shows how distracted I’ve been.  Normally my obsessive surfing habits would have uncovered that much more quickly.

• Neil Gaiman has given me permission to make T-shirts of my 20 Neil Gaiman Facts.  All that remains is to decide where.  I’m leaning toward Zazzle over CafePress, but I’m open to suggestions–any experiences with these or other online vendors, good or bad?

• Based on your responses, I’ll definitely be doing the 2009 SF/F Humor Roundup.  It shouldn’t take too long to put together; I just need to make the time to sit down and do it.  Hopefully by this time next week…

• Finally, your weekly LEGO.  Anyone who’s seen Howl’s Moving Castle should recognize this one, built by Imagine’s Brickzone.  (And anyone who hasn’t should go rent the movie.)  Click the pic for the full Flickr set, including a better view of Turnip Head there on the right.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

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Comments

( 28 comments — Leave a comment )
[info]marcy_italiano wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 01:38 pm (UTC)
CafePress has been good for me so far. However, I don't think the space they allow for graphics will fit all of that text clearly.
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[info]jimhines wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:01 pm (UTC)
I used CafePress for a text-heavy T-shirt years back, and it came out okay, but faded pretty quickly.
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[info]cathschaffstump wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 05:25 pm (UTC)
That is the problem with CafePress I hear over and over. Fade...
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[info]marcy_italiano wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 06:07 pm (UTC)
Hmm... maybe we don't wear them as often and they didn't fade as fast? I don't know.
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[info]mtlawson wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 01:41 pm (UTC)
Wow. That's even better than the one I sent you.
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[info]jimhines wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:01 pm (UTC)
I've got at least one more bookmarked for next week, too :-)
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[info]greenmtnboy18 wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 01:44 pm (UTC)
Glad to hear about the humor round up. Meant to reply to that in strong support, but the AIDS Project has been crazy this week.

And I'm headed off for more craziness as we speak.
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[info]jimhines wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:01 pm (UTC)
There seems to be more than enough crazy to go around lately. What's up with that?
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[info]greenmtnboy18 wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:15 pm (UTC)
I hear it's the moon. ;)

I had three people yesterday talk to me about the phases of the moon. I have my doubts, but... you never know, I suppose. ;)

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[info]reannon wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 01:46 pm (UTC)
I have never used Zazzle, but I can say to absolutely NOT use CafePress. Their markup is so ungodly high you'll never make a dime. Frankly, when I did T-shirts I found it was much easier to go to a local screen-printer - they could do it for as little as $5 a shirt, allowing me to charge $10-15 and make a healthy profit, whereas Cafepress starts at $19.99 and goes down to $10 a shirt if you order 36. Zazzle starts at $12.95 a shirt and goes down from there.

Of course, then you have to sell them yourself. But you know, I think it works better that way. With a Cafepress shop, you're paying for your stock, plus you're paying to host your shop and you pay them a commission on your sales. It's a great racket - for them.

I don't know if your T-shirt qualifies for Etsy. It certainly would be easy to set up an eBay shop. Hell - a GoDaddy web store costs as little as $10 a month and they'll host the thing for you without taking a commission.

Good luck!
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[info]jimhines wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:02 pm (UTC)
Thank you! I'm hoping to make this as low-maintenance as possible. I'll check out Etsy, too. Thanks!
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[info]j_cheney wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:05 pm (UTC)
Good start to the (almost) weekend!
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[info]controuble wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:47 pm (UTC)
Jim - You might want to see if OffWorldDesigns is interested in making the shirt and selling it for you - they do all the major conventions and a high percentage of the midwest ones AND they have an online store. I know they license artwork from other artists like L.A. Williams and Theresa Mather, not just make shirts from Ray's own art. They are reliable, will do all the marketing for you, and pay royalty checks on time according to Theresa.
I can give you a number if you email me off-line.

P.S. Check out http://community.livejournal.com/50bookchallenge/11129804.html for some goblin goodness.

Edited at 2009-11-06 03:33 pm (UTC)
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[info]stillnotbored wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 02:52 pm (UTC)
We did a lot of research when setting up the tee shirt shop for Ideomancer. We settled on Skreened for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was they truly are more ethical in the way they treat vendors than some of the other companies out there. A couple of the staff ordered tee shirts to test the quality and they were impressed.

Also? Super easy to use, doesn't cost you a dime to design or set up a shop and you can decide on your own markup. I did all the tee shirt design with public domain images and no trouble at all, which says more about their interface than my skills.

http://skreened.com/discover/designs/featured
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[info]wulfsdottir wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 03:13 pm (UTC)
The primary problem with Zazzle is their shipping prices & policies -- if someone orders a T-shirt and a bumper sticker, they get charged shipping on each separately. It's because they're coming from different places, but it annoys buyers.

Otherwise, I find their seller interface much more friendly than Cafepress, and their item creation tools superior. A friend finds it to be the exact opposite.

Unrelated, I bought The Stepsister Scheme this past weekend, despite the fact that I'll probably have to wait until the semester's over to read it. Mr. Wulfsdottir, however, has indicated an immediate interest.
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[info]stormsdotter wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 03:27 pm (UTC)
Congratulations of getting Neil Gaiman's permission to produce a shirt based on him!

I wish I could comment about which vendor to use, but I've never dealt with things like that.
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[info]jongibbs wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 06:06 pm (UTC)
Yay! Congrats on the German publisher deal :)
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[info]dr_phil_physics wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 07:34 pm (UTC)
"Jim C. Hines -- millionaire bestselling Neil Gaiman T-shirt designer. Rumored to have once written some fantasy novels." (grin)

I think the T-shirt deal is sweet. See if your future vender makes 'em in 8XLT and I'd buy one. (double-wide-grin)

Dr. Phil
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[info]asakiyume wrote:
Nov. 6th, 2009 09:17 pm (UTC)
Wow, everyone's responses on the T-shirt front are an education. I made a CafePress shirt for my older daughter, using one of her graphics, but I think I'll try one of these other services next time.

(I'm sure whomever you go with, your T-shirt plan will be a success)

The Lego Howl's Moving Castle is excellent!
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[info]brigidsblest wrote:
Nov. 7th, 2009 05:14 am (UTC)
• Neil Gaiman has given me permission to make T-shirts of my 20 Neil Gaiman Facts. All that remains is to decide where. I’m leaning toward Zazzle over CafePress, but I’m open to suggestions–any experiences with these or other online vendors, good or bad?

I don't care where you end up selling them; I just want to know where it is when you've made that decision so I can get one. :) Or maybe two; generally when I know I'm going to really like a shirt, I buy two, because I'll wear the first one often enough to wear it out, and want a replacement handy.

...I own 346 t-shirts. You'd think that'd be enough, wouldn't you?
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[info]jimhines wrote:
Nov. 7th, 2009 01:31 pm (UTC)
Will do :-)
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[info]dynastic_queen wrote:
Nov. 7th, 2009 10:07 am (UTC)
My FAVORITE animated movie of all time! With LEGO goodness! This so reeks of awesome.
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[info]dynastic_queen wrote:
Nov. 7th, 2009 10:09 am (UTC)
And congrats on the German publishings!

(Man, that is so embarrassing, how I immediately jumped on the LEGO thing first... pardon me while I slink away.)

;)
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[info]jimhines wrote:
Nov. 7th, 2009 01:30 pm (UTC)
Totally understandable. The LEGO is the big nifty pic. The rest is just text blurbs.

When I'm flashing German cover art around, then that should be more attention-getting :-)
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[info]apricot_tree wrote:
Nov. 9th, 2009 01:28 am (UTC)
Here's something for your Lego files: http://gizmodo.com/5399753/here-be-lego-dragons
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[info]jimhines wrote:
Nov. 9th, 2009 01:59 am (UTC)
Heh. I actually already have that bookmarked for a future blog entry :-) I had to study it for several minutes, because I couldn't believe that whole thing was done using only LEGOs!
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[info]apricot_tree wrote:
Nov. 9th, 2009 03:10 am (UTC)
Lego - what can't it do? :D
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[info]frometomi.wordpress.com wrote:
Nov. 16th, 2009 03:52 am (UTC)
July for Red Hood's Revenge. *sighs deeply.

Oooohh, t-shirts and Neil Gaiman! Good going.
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( 28 comments — Leave a comment )