Sent out invoices to all my distributors today. Got an email that a check is on the way from one (& hopefully it’s true). Also got an order out to a distributor today. So it feels like something was done.
Need to make some flyers for some of the upcoming shows. Still waiting to hear back on some of them coming through, we’ll see what happens.
Still working on getting things ready on the digital downloads for the comics.
I got the second draft of the next XO sent to Melissa to proof. Assuming everything’s good I’ll lay it out so she can start drawing it tomorrow.
Got the first drafts for the art for Aarktica’s new album In Sea, which means it’s getting pretty close to a go on that one.
Got in the sleeves for the Moodring record so it will be ready to sell in a day or so after I bag them. Still have to make the press release info for it. I have been doing some leg work on promo for it already however.
I heard back from the place with the poly bags for my comics & they’re sending the second batch of 5000.
Mastered a couple more songs for the Sarah June record. I hope the excitement is building on that one from mentioning it basically every day.
More news tomorrow.
I got out all the physical promos of the new mini-comics. So today I started working on the digital promo versions. I have the PDFs done & am now working on the CBZ versions. I need to decide at a certain point if I want to make the digital versions readily available either for free or for money. I suppose if they all are eventually going to be MySpace avatars they should be free with the idea that eventually the “popularity” will generate other revenue (e.g. selling t-shirts (which I still need to make) or the eventual sale for film licensing). I guess with the tiny amount made from sales (about $0.30 per issue if I assume my time is of no value) giving them away might make the most sense anyway.
I think the Vlor is done sonically. Having a couple folks listen to it to make sure. I really need to start working on the art.
Trying to help get some voids filled on the PD Wilder/Sarah June tour, feels like a hard sell at this point because the dates are less than a month out.
Got some orders out & a little money in today, always makes me feel like I can justify eating when I get some cash.
Talked to Monte of Moodring today about getting things rolling on that release. I’ll probably start selling some next week for direct orders as well as announcing the official release date. We’re talking about maybe in stores for mid-late August.
One of the things I was talking to Monte about also is how there seems to have gotten to be a bigger & bigger void in the tiers for music sales. It seems that there aren’t the same intermediary levels for CD sales anymore, if you sell more than 1000 then you sell 50,000. It used to be breaks around 500, 1000, 3000, 5000, 10,000, 25,000, 35,000, 50,000 for semi-obscure indie bands. It seems like the clear model of building something slow & steady is gone. I think it’s turning into the 1970′s all over again. No one attending rock shows, dance music taking over, & people being mega-stars or playing for six people. “That’s okay, when we die they’ll know our brilliance.”
I just realized I was shorted 5000 bags for my mini-comics. I placed an order for two lots of 5000 & only one came in. I wouldn’t have noticed except I started doing some paperwork filing receipts. Hopefully the place ships me another 5000, but I haven’t heard back so far.
Got another pass done on the Vlor. Need to listen to it to see if it’s 100% done. I did a kinda major edit on one song cutting it in half. It’s an ambient piece that I like, but it was just a little too droney/loopy to fit well in the context of the album at 5 minutes. It would be really funny if someone tried to hire me as a producer.
Getting geared up towards working on the new QRDs. Anyone have general questions for the following themed issues: guitarists, touring musicians, record label owners?
Still have to make a lot of mini-comics to get all the promos out. But I did write all the letters to reviewers & put address labels & stamps on all the envelopes. Still hoping to ship them all out by Monday.
I got some cheap ten year old paperbacks today & I have to say the quality of the paper on them makes me think maybe getting a little electronic book reader might be acceptable. I’m used to reading books that are printed on white paper (instead of a sickly gray) that don’t feel like they’re going to fall apart if I open them wide enough to read them. It makes me think I should just go ahead & spend the $50 for the archival paper hard bound copies even if they are literally 100 times the price.
Finally have the first few copies of comic promos ready to ship out tomorrow morning. Hopefully they’ll all be ready to ship by Monday. The assembly speed has been slowed down by the work on finding more promo places & cutting ones that have been unresponsive.
Still need to get the scripts ready for Worms #5 & XO #6.
Still trying to get work on writing some press releases. Hard to get motivated on it.
Trying to get some of my 2nd quarter paperwork done including sending out royalty checks to artists, invoicing distributors, & filing taxes.
Worked on mastering some more on Sarah June’s album (I’m working on the songs as she finishes them, which drags the process out longer, but I think it helps a person recording to know how the sound is going to alter a bit as it’s processed so they can record it with those things in mind).
Doing another pass at getting the Vlor disc finished on mastering, a few more slight alterations to make it stand better as a legacy record.
I just got an email from some guy who said he masters an entire album for only $100. You gotta wonder about the attention to detail at that price point!
I’ve decided to a limited run for releasing the Small Life Form recordings for the Lost Kisses DVD & I ordered the special tape gun for hand assembling the packages (saves manufacturing money).
Tracked down some good deals for some needed shipping supplies (boxes & envelopes) off of Ebay in preparation for the upcoming releases.
Just a week behind on life.
Most of the day today was spent nosing around the internet for more press contacts in Europe to get ready for the new releases.
Here’s an interview with me about my comics from SPACE. It’s a video.
More tomorrow….
My internet was down for a few days, but I guess it helped me get some more work done instead of exclusively answering emails.
I got the press releases done for the mini-comics. So I’m running out of excuses for not getting those promos out yet. Still continuing on my quest to find more reviewers for the comics. It is getting to the point where it is more than I can justify sending out in one way, but on the other hand if I’m not trying to promote the heck out of the stuff, I may as well not be doing it. & I need to get cracking on some new scripts as well.
The balloons are here & they are pretty awesome.
I finished the second pass at mastering the Vlor disc. I need to listen to it to see if anything else needs to be done. One of the song has a pretty drastic re-working doing my guitars as reverb units trick.
I went through a list of a couple hundred places giving grants today & actually found around zero that would work for me, kinda lame.
So in the continuing saga of the Lost Kisses DVD, I was told the DVD being on a DVD+R DL would be fine for manufacturing, but now they say it is not & they need a new master. One day it’ll be done. This is probably the first & last DVD on Silber based on this experience.
I need to get working on writing my submissions for Small Life Form grants, I want to mail them off in a couple days.
I got a note from Jon DeRosa that the new Aarktica has been sent for mastering, the video for the single has been shot, & that he needed the art templates. So it seems it is well under way. It’s nice to have a release that I really have nothing to do with but the financing.
Did the physical inventory for Silber which I haven’t done in over a year. I was a total of 87 units short, so maybe somewhere I have a box of CDs hidden & next inventory it will show up with a surplus.
Working on the Vlor CD a bit more & I’m starting to have significant notes on repairs.
I got a mailorder place to pick up 30 units. So it means I earned a day’s wage for a day’s work today.
More news tomorrow.
I’m working still on assembling the mini-comics for promo. It’s 300 so it might take a while.
Working on contacting some indie-ambient stores thanks to leads sent to me by Lisa Uber.
Updated the websites for the comics to have the new materials available.
More soon, I’m actually trying to work over writing this blog today.
