What the heck is going on?
So those of you paying attention to the chat box have heard that Boom is going on a break from the comic. Let me go throw the basic of what happened and what is going to happen.
Item 1
We have been loosing money. The readership for this comic is down by 2000 unique viewer from last year at the same time and the revenues have been cut in half. This means that where Exiern was once enough for Boom to cover all of his expenses it’s not not making end meet for him.
Item 2
I am burned out. Managing the comic has been taking up more and more of my time and the reward for all my effort is that the comic has been collapsing. Not to mention real life has been getting more demanding. After 4 year I was let go from a job I hated. This job was awful with one exception, I didn’t have much to do so I could waste my time writing scripts. Now I am doing contract work where people expect results. It is more enjoyable but I have less time for the comic in general. All of this has been sapping my creative energies and killing my passion for the comic.
Item 3
To alleviate the management problem (in that I am doing a shoddy job of management). I brought on Thom Khatt of 910cmx fame to manage Exiern. He was put in charge of the comic and tasked with stopping the loss of readership and money and get things back on track. The idea was that he is supposed to take care of the administrative things so I can be free to write once again.
Item 4
Thom decided that the first thing Exiern needed was a regular schedule of at least 1.5 pages per week to get a regular schedule and build up a buffer. After a talk with Boom it was agreed that Boom could not do this at this time with the low amount of money that Exiern was currently paying. Boom was rotated to the roll of Donation Comic artist and a search for a new artist was started who could meet a schedule of 1.5 up to 3 pages per week if revenues improve.
Item 5
A new artist was contract and has started work on the current Exiern script. The pages will be ready by Wednesday of next week.
Item 6
Thom suggested I put up a filler for this week. However on this point I over ruled him. We are right in the middle of a story and instead of interrupting it with more filler material I figured it would better just to wait one week and keep the story in one piece. After all there is a 6 page members comic coming out this week so I can afford to let one week pass by without a normal update.
Item 7
We are still in trouble. All these changes are a desperate bid to get the comic back on track. I don’t currently have a steady job and I am spending more that I am taking in on this comic. This simply can not continue. Exiern has been on a steady downward trend for about a year now. 9/6/2010 will be the 5 year anniversary of Exiern. If by that time one of 2 things doesn’t happen I will have to simply cut my losses. Either:
a) Exiern has to start making a profit again
b) I have to get a steady job that pays me a surpluss of money to invest in this hobby.
Item 8
What can you do to help? Well the primary thing is to tell people about the comic. If you think we are doing something cool here let other know. Forum post, fan art, fan fics, heck even slash fics all help the comic immeasurably. Let me know where you are posting so I can link to it on the site and get involved in the conversation. You guy have always been very loyal but you have also been a bit of a reclusive lot. Now it the time to speak out and let yourself be heard.
The other thing is to tell me and Thom what we can do to make the comic better? Do you want forum space? Facebook page? Podcasts? Something else? Let us know what we can do.
Or conversely if you know anyone who is looking to hire a professional computer trainer with a number of certification drop me a line.
Email: Drowemos@yahoo.com
Item 9 (That’s all folks)
That’s about it. That’s what is going on here. I want to thank you guys for hanging in there and I hope that I can continue to entertain you for years to come. If not. Well we had an amazing run doing far better than we had any right to do. I had a lot of fun and was able to help out a bunch of people the funds from this comic. The money from Exiern:
- Launched Knit Princess.
- Donated to flood victims in in the Philippines
- Donated to the victims of Katrina.
- We help Boom pay for the tuition of his girls in school
- Help a good friend avoid financial collapse.
It was fun.
Item 10 (It ain’t that bad)
Ok I need to ad an addendum here. It seem that the tone of this post left people with the impression that everything is falling apart here. Not the case. We are in a period of transition. I fully believe that changes we are implementing; Regular updates on twice a week schedule; New management; Focus on delivering a quality story with out interruptions, will turn things around by this fall. I am not begging for money. Granted if you want to give money cool. But only do so if the comic deserves it not because I wrote a sad post.
What I am saying is that because this is a period of transition this is a unique opportunity for you to have an effect on the course of this comic. I want your input and ideas. I want you to tell others about the comic. I only want your money if we have earned it.
Welcome to the reality of today’s economy. Exiern’s main problem has always been its spotty posting schedule, and the ‘adult member’ pages haven’t been interesting enough to pay for.
I have never made a penny on Naorhy, I probably never will. It isn’t a comic, but writing complete stories is as difficult as Booms work. As cute as Exiern is, its plot is simply too slow for the posting rate. Nor I fear, have I any money to share, having lost a car in a wreak in April (other driver ran a red light) and helping my wife heal. Thirty days without any income was a killer. Best of luck to you.
Erfworld has had good luck moving their story along rapidly by alternating comic style updates with prose style updates. This choice was made because they briefly ran prose updates over last summer then, in the winter, when they went to an all comic schedule the fans said “I’ll miss the story style stuff.” So I don’t think blocks of text without pretty pictures have really annoyed the fans.
Perhaps a similar model could help you guys.
I have to admire the perseverance of this comic, to tell the truth. I could never dredge up the dedication and fortitude to maintain a Web comic. I know my limitations. That said, it would be a great shame if this comic folded.
Frankly, I think you would do well to advertise on Facebook. A lot of other Web comics are there, and there seems to be a decently sizable clientèle that would appreciate Exiern.
Exactly what Kenoscope said.
The reason why I never bought a membership is solely due to the (lack of) updates. The comic rarely updates – in the past over a month has gone by without an update. Never mind Dark Reflections! The difference between Exiern and other successful webcomics is the lack of updates. As a consumer I can’t, and won’t, give money over to something that isn’t going to produce anything.
It’s a dog eat dog world out there and I wish you all the best of luck.
Sounds to me this is positive change. I will definitely miss Boom’s artwork, but in the current situation it seems this will be better all around.
Best of luck to Boom and hope his health and finances rebound well, and that Exiern will flourish under less stress and better management. 😉
Thanks for not just throwing in the towel and collapsing it altogether. <3
My main problem with Exiern, aside from the irregular updates, was that even the basic comics itself was not what I would call “Work Safe”. They may have all of their clothes on, but I’d prefer to suffer a disapproving glance from looking at Order of the Stick than a disbelieving glance from looking at some of the lewd poses the Exiern characters take. From a story perspective, it doesn’t really serve that much purpose to constantly show that everyone are hawt, and the members-only area will have more appeal if the difference between a more ‘tones down’ public comic and a much more lewd private one was greater.
That’s just my opinion though. I do think that the best course of action is, indeed, to make updates happen more often.
I was thinking that the tone sounded too much like Exiern was throwing in the towel and preparing to end. For me, nothing causes me to second-guess my support for a webcomic like overtones of “burn-out”, extended breaks, financial troubles, and negative consolation phrases like “Oh well, we had a good run” because those have all signalled in the past that a webcomic I liked was about to go belly-up and stop posting updates. TO your credit, I will say the as much as people pick on the slow update rate of Exiern, I for one think it has maintained a good steady rate that has *never* stopped unexplained for weeks at a time. There’s always been a reason and communication, and most importantly -optimism. IF you say the comic will endure, then fans will stand by you and support you. I know that if I got a firm word that the comic was not hedging bets or preparing for early end, then I’d at least be able to kick in a couple of dollars here and there. But yea— the tone of this post was a bit defeatist sounding and scary. 🙁
I am sorry about that. I was just trying to be honest with what is going on, not scare anybody. It’s a tough couple of months but I am dedicated to this comic. The key to webcomics is stubbornness (aka determination) and I am plenty stubborn.
The very slow pace of updates and plot development made it easy for me to lose interest. Once I was thrilled and enthusiastically looked for updates, but the cheesecake “member” stuff held no interest for me. Then it seemed like the comic just stopped updating, or slowed to a glacial pace, and I went a couple months where I forgot about updating the comic. I went back, rediscovered it, and realized that I really hadn’t missed much at all. Which was disappointing.
Drow,
I have to agree that the slow pace of updates had undoubtedly affected clickthroughs. I know that I’ve been interested enough to click regularly on Thursday, and occasionally at other times, looking for an update. I hope that once you regain a regular schedule, the readership will return. Good luck; the story continues to be interesting, and the new artist is doing a wonderful job so far.
David, I have to agree with you about Cheesecake. I lost interest in that kind of art/photography around 1973 when I married my first wife. Gotta tell you, when you see the real deal every day, and it is a good real deal, Cheesecake becomes ignorable. Yeah, I’m fifty-nine next month.
As for what Michelle mentioned about ‘work safe.’ Sorry Michelle, but I haven’t seen anything in the everyday comic that I would consider not safe for work. Unless you work for a mega-church or such. Then I wouldn’t even suggest a Disney cartoon in that kind of environment. I’ve spotted people at the main library looking at this comic, and no one logged a complaint.
Exiern does have an interesting plot. The male-to female change hasn’t been ‘new’ since Rama 1/2 worked it to death. In this case though, the change hasn’t reverted (yet.) Considering the emotional changes in ‘Tiff’, there is probably a fair chance that it cannot be reverted. There are also many interesting sub-plots. Unlike the average comic or web-comic, we are not exposed to ‘slap-stick/villain of the day’ or ‘I like movie X so I’ll slip it into the plot’ or ‘character development isn’t important.’ Superman can only pine for Lois Lane so much before the reader stops caring (and they ran THAT little plot line into a grave back in the 40’s.)
Exiern’s writer comes up with interesting plots that make sense. And leaves the reader wondering. For example, who is this ‘future husband?’ If it is the Sex Changed Barbarian, what happens if the spell cannot be reversed? Is Lady and Wife an acceptable coupling in Exiern’s universe (as it is in my writings) or will the Princess have to settle for someone lessor. Let us admit it, male or female body, ‘Tiff’ is certainly an excellent choice s a spouse for such story lines (and I do not mean physical shape.) Honor, dependable and has already proven that as a female is a warrior well worth having.
I look forward to further developments, I like being surprised (as Sequential Art did a couple of pages ago) as I love a good story. As for the art, it could be text only and I would read the story. Then, as a writer I prefer text, thought art is useful, text is just as useful. There is a difference between the three artists who have worked on this project, and I have enjoyed all three of their work.
One still wonders what happens with the spell-singer who is now a woman, and unknowingly sharing hir body with the once male now female Nymph.
I think a forum would do the comic some good. And maybe a face lift to the site, nothing major, just cleaner, as it seems a little chaotic. Love the comic and I am glad to hear that there will be more frequent updates. I think the only reason you lost people is because of the gaps between updates. It already seems to be doing really well from the latest updates. I really like what you are doing. Keep it up.
Maybe if you had been consistent with your updates over the last year you wouldn’t have lost 2000 readers and half of your revenue. There was a period where I thought the comic was dead and left hanging and blaming your readers for your lack of income from the readers is probably the LAST thing you need to be doing if you want to get some readers back.
@Asinann – who’s blaming the readers. Just as you said because of the poor updates we suffered. Our fault completely. I don’t expect people to pay for poor content. I did my best to keep the comic alive and there always was an update of some sort. But it was not updates to the core comic and that was a problem.
I made this post so that people would know what was happening and what was going on behind the scenes. I like to keep the reader in the loop. If anything I said looked like I was blaming the reader I am truly sorry. The readers have been fantastically understanding all thing considered and I hope to live up to the faith they have had in the comic. Readers are responsible for the successes but the failures are sit squarely on my shoulders. I never though anything else.
I’ve already mentioned this comic to a number of people (including my own parents). But I’ll continue doing so.
Do you have a Facebook page for Exiern? If so, please let me know so I can ‘like’ it and try to get my friends on there hooked too. ^-^
I need to get cracking on a ‘links’ page to my own site. When I do, this’ll be linked there under my ‘interests’ catagory. *nods*