|
|
||
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Yesterday, I spoke with Christopher Mills on the telephone, and informed him of my decision to cancel AdventureStrips.com, effective Friday, May 30, 2003. After that conversation, I alerted the creators to this unfortunate state of affairs. An explanation is now obviously in order for AdventureStrips subscribers and readers, as well as an outline of how we will manage refunding and/or transitioning your current subscriptions.
Early on in this project, when sales weren't coming in as well as I had hoped they would, I felt that there were no circumstances under which I could imagine not continuing to publish AdventureStrips.com. Obviously, this is one of those instances where my imagination failed me. I have not meant to mislead anybody, or to fill anyone with false hope, but the simple fact is that the site isn't generating enough revenue for me to justify the work that I have been putting into it.
If AdventureStrips were the only site I was publishing, I might not be making this decision right now. But the fact is, I am currently publishing 7 websites, each of which (with one exception -- AdventureStrips) is growing at a phenomenal rate. Customers are pouring through the gates, for example, for girlamatic.com, which managed to acquire more paying subscribers in its first week online than AdventureStrips has accumulated in almost a year. I am faced with the choice of tending a garden that isn't growing, and trying to get some little return on it, or putting my energy into projects where x amount of energy expended brings me back 10x amount of energy returned.
Unfortunately, I am obliged to choose the latter.
I wish to stress that this decision has nothing to do with the quality of the comics, or the quality of the site itself. In many ways, perhaps in most ways, AdventureStrips.com has been the most professionally put together website I've been associated with, and I tip my hat to all of the creators, and to Chris, for doing such a tremendous job.
The sad fact is that the site hasn't found its audience, and I, as publisher, am at a complete loss as to why. But sales are sales, and business decisions are business decisions. This has been a difficult one, but I am convinced that it is the right one.
Regarding the individual strips: many of the cartoonists will not wish to continue the work they were doing, or will not wish to continue that work in any association with Modern Tales or with me. Some of them only came on board because of their relationships with Christopher Mills. Some of them will be so disappointed with this turn of events that I'm the last person they'll ever want to work with. I understand both situations. I have released the creators from any obligations, real or perceived, to work with me or with Modern Tales. If they wish to continue their strips elsewhere on the web (on their own websites, for example, or on one of the websites of my competitors), they are welcome to do so.
However, I sincerely hope that they will not choose that route. Like I said, I am very much a fan of all of the comics that were on this site, and have presented them with two very good options:
1. I am willing to transition a small number of AdventureStrips series over to Modern Tales. Note that when I say "a small number," I do not mean to imply that I have any particular strips in mind. I do have my favorites, but any AdventureStrips series is good enough for Modern Tales. It's just that the Modern Tales line-up is fairly tight. 3-4 series will be leaving MT in the next several months, because they will be ending their natural lifespans, so I can justify transitioning that many series onto Modern Tales, even prematurely, in anticipation of their leaving.
2. I am willing to transition any current and/or yet-to-launch AdventureStrips series onto its own single-series subscription site, similar to RumbleGirls.com or American Elf. Rumble Girls is still growing, but American Elf has outpaced most of our other sites, and is slowly but surely becoming a very significant source of income for its creator, James Kochalka. I would recommend, for a single-series subscription product, that they update at least three times a week, preferably five, in order to attract the most potential customers. However, even at once a week, my expectation is that the creators would make more money than they are currently making as part of AdventureStrips.
There are other options. The creators of these comics may wish to work with Joe Zabel to bring their work to Modern Tales readers on a non-serialized basis as part of Modern Tales Longplay, for example.
It is also quite possible that Chris will want to launch a new site, with a different publisher (or with himself as publisher) -- and that may prove a good platform for the continuance of some or all of AdventureStrips.com's strips. I obviously can't speak for Chris in this regard, as I would not be involved in any such efforts.
Finally, here's how we will handle the current accounts of AdventureStrips subscribers:
a). All subscribers will be given the option of cancelling, or of transferring their subscriptions to one of the other Modern Tales websites.
b). Annual subscribers who choose to cancel will receive a refund of the unused portions of their subscriptions.
I intend to write a small application over the next couple of days which will allow current paying subscribers to handle these options automatically. However, if you want to have this done for you immediately, I can handle the task manually: write to subscriptions@moderntales.com for customer service. Be sure to let me know your first and last name, as registered at PayPal, and the email address associated with your AdventureStrips.com account.
I thank you for your support of AdventureStrips.com, and for Modern Tales generally.
Sincerely,
Joey Manley www.moderntales.com