Tid Bits

It's a been a few days, so I thought I'd put up something to let everyone know I'm still here.

The print version of volume 1 is slowly coming together and I'd like to send it off for print today or tomorrow. I'm going to request a proof copy be sent back and since this is my first run with Ka-Blam I'm not sure how long the whole thing takes. If I need to fix things once they get it that could add time to it as well. Had I been more ambitious, I could have got books back to take to Staple, but it turns out I'm not going to that anyway.

However, that doesn't mean local shops can't buy a couple copies to sell at their stores. I'll try to get a few at cost and take them to local shops in Austin, but I can't afford more than maybe 5 or 6. We'll see.

Also, the interviews haven't stopped, I just haven't been taken up on my offer to interview people. I've got two that want to but we keep missing each other. Those will hopefully resume soon.

Also resuming, volume two! Actually, it'll be the 100AP Volume Two plus additional smaller runs. I've had offers to help set things up but when I take them up on it they stop answering. It shouldn't be much work to get it done the way I'd like and I'd like to get it rolling again to coincide with the print release.

That's all for now.

Donations Complete

Dear CBLDF and HERO,

Hope this helps your causes. Keep up the fine work.



Yours,
The 100 Artists Project

AUCTION HAS SOLD!

A last minute bidder has won the auction for the 100 Artists Project's 1st collection of work. I had honestly assumed the auction would lapse and I was going to relist it at a later time, probably for less, much to my chagrin. I'm really glad it sold and really happy I'll be able to turn $250 over to the two charities.

What this means is now I really have to get the print version done so everyone can see what great work was submitted and be able to support the causes themselves.

Good news today, good news for the causes.

Carry on!

Update 2/18/08

Just a reminder that there are two days left for the auction. If no bids are made, I'll relist it at a reduced price and run it another 10 days. I believe ebay will give me one relisting without charge. After that I'll just pay for another run.

I did a quick examination on what promotional avenues were effective as well. First, a big thanks to Chris Tinkler for helping with this and getting a mention at CBR and other places. Adam Koford got it run again at Drawn! as well. Handful of other folks either wrote about it on their sites too. Thank you all.

A quick note on that. Chris may be emailing people to get testimonials or quotes about the project. I forwarded him a handful of emails, so if he asks you for a quote, don't feel obligated to be nice, just be honest. Good word of mouth is wonderful, but any press is good press, right?

Here's the last 30 days of visits to the site.


As you can see, the best views for the site came from an unsolicited link on StumbleUpon. It represents the biggest jump in traffic since the project was listed on Drawn! back in August of 2007. Unfortunately it was also a couple weeks before the auction. You'll notice the auction date is the same date as the ad on Fark. Now, the link on Fark was set to go to the auction, not this site, but there were links back. I was a bit shocked to see how little that $40 ad got me. In fact, according to the discussion, not only is $500 too much for the crappy art, but the funds we're supporting are also a joke.

I think Fark was a bad target audience.

And, since I can't get any love on Boing Boing or Newsarama or even the web sites for the funds we're supporting, I'll be trying other avenues. I think I might be able to fund some ads through Project Wonderful. We'll see how that goes. If you have other ideas, run with it. Let me know if I need to do anything to help but at this point I'm making it up as I go.

Of note, one of the contributing artists asked that their piece be removed. They had reasons, none of which a reflection on the project itself and they do want to be included on the next go 'round, so I'll be replacing their piece with one of my own. Notice I didn't have a piece in there, but since I don't have extras laying around I'll pony up a drawing to be a replacement.

The print version is about 50% assembled and I'll be sending it off for completion as soon as I can. If the estimates hold true, I'll be able to charge you fine folks less than $20 and still be able to make it worth the effort, so that's good news.

That's all for now.

Three Days

Three days left on the auction. No bids and a lot of opinions.

Let me clear something up for people who may be coming late to the party and asking why I'm not listing 100 pieces of art individually.

1) This listing cost me $6. If I did 100 of these, it would cost me $600. That's more than the total initial bid of the whole project currently. I don't have that kind of money. I'd have to roll the winnings of one piece into the listings of the rest, which means I'd have to pick what I thought was the best piece first and hope it sold.

2) Some of the work is very good, some isn't as good. It would be unfair to the other artists if 4 or 5 pieces did really well, and the rest didn't. It's about the project, not each individual artist. What's important is that people participated to support a cause. If it's more important to bidders that they have a good piece of art and nothing else, well, there's plenty of art out there.

3) I also don't have the time to list 100 individual pieces of art. If I were to do that, I would have just asked people to do it on their own and then provide details on where to contribute.

So, with three days left, it's looking like $500 for 100 pieces of original art is just too much to even consider, which really upsets me. I'll reiterate the fact that if you wandered around a comic convention artists alley and got 100 sketches, it could very well run you $2,000. And those are just sketches. A lot of this work is well crafted, finished work.

But, the public has spoken and apparently the public doesn't approve of original artwork for charity. It speaks volumes.

So in four days look for the book to be listed at $5 and we'll see just how sad this whole thing becomes.

Call to links!

Hey folks. So, in my promotion of the auction for the 100AP, I must have forgot to turn on the lights or lit the pilot light or put the car in drive. Page views to the site have dropped off dramatically and after a couple days the project has no bids. There are just over 7 days left so I'm not panicking, but I wonder if I did something wrong.

So, I'll ask this of you all, if you haven't yet, please write about the auction. Link to it from your blog, post a bulletin about it here. If you're a contributor to a bigger site, have the ears of large publishers or are otherwise knowledgeable about getting the word out, please do. I've done what I can but I don't think it's enough.

If you have any ideas or concerns also, please let me know. What input I got initially I incorporated so I'm not above making changes.

Thanks!
-ben

Auction Relist

The auction was relisted to include a link back to a Flickr set with the entire 100 pieces of art.


Seen here.

Also, if you're trying to email me, when you send 500 emails, Google shuts down your account for a day. I can receive them but I can't reply. I'll get back to you all tomorrow.

Cheers.

The Auction Is Up!

Hey folks, the official auction is up. Please help spread the word.

If the link doesn't work, it's item #320217069221.

Thanks for help bringing this to a reality. :D

Interviews for volume one

Since roughly August of last year, I've done 11 interviews for the project. A suggestion was made saying one or two of those should be included in the print version of volume one. So I put up a poll, please take time to look it over and if you haven't read the interviews yet, here they are.

Michael Smith
Juan
Israel Turley
Phil Shaw
Steve Downer
Ben O'brien
Adam Koford
Mike Peterson
Jeremy Dale
Len Peralta
Nate Lovett

As always, if you are a contributor to the project, I'd love to spend an hour on chat interviewing you. I think it brings a level of humanity to the pieces of art people will soon be viewing and helps the project grow. You can contact me through the usual channels.

Carry on.

Site Help

I know I've asked this before, but it's worth trying again.

The 100 Artists Project site could use a bit of work. I'm not a web designer and the site was put together by an online acquaintance S.A. Finch. He did a bang up job on the design and theme (the look) but there's functionality I don't have and information I've muddled.

The site runs on Go Daddy and I have access to 1 database. I'd like to use that combined with a form that would allow people to sign up and then that information is stored. Emails are saved and I'm able to send newsletters because honestly people don't read the blogs. I'd at least like to force them to delete an email.

I've been killing myself keeping several different documents in order to keep everyone's shipping address, website and email. I've made too much work for myself and the site has become too nebulous and hard to make out. Even with all the writing and blogging and maps and updates, I have people email me and ask how to get involved and how to participate. I don't mind answering emails and I'm super glad people want to be involved, I'm just sad they couldn't find what they needed.

So, if anyone is good with simple pages that use some kind of data store and can be dynamically updated, I'd love some help. You can either comment here, AIM me at "xadrian calim" or gmail at ben.lifeinaustin@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading, carry on.