Hey there! Wow it’s been a very long time since I’ve updated this section of the site. I’ve been VERY busy with my own efforts of publishing — I’m glad the some of the tips and info here have been helpful to so many webcomic creators. I get at least one e-mail a week from someone thanking me for this blog, and that makes me feel guilty that I haven’t updated it with any useful information. So here we go! READ ON…. (more…)
Selling shirts for your webcomic has been a touchy subject in some circles. I’ve heard some people say you’re not really making money from your comics, or call people like Scott Kurtz “a t-shirt salesman” — But what those short sighted people miss is the fact that creators like that couldn’t sell so many shirts if their comics weren’t out there. Right now, the simple t-shirt alone is helping to support groups like Dumbrella, and comics like Questionable Content. In fact, you might be interested in reading more about how the creator of Jeph Jacques supports himself with his shirts in THIS Pitchfork media article.
There’s a big misconception among beginning creators that they just can’t afford t-shirts. This is not so. And I’m going to show you how easy and affordable it actually is.
First up, find a screenprinter locally, or online and get a quote. Explain to them what you’re doing, and the type of design you’d like to do. For this article, I’m going to use Brunetto Shirts, who make my shirts, as well as MANY other webcomic shirts as an example. Now, a lot of screenprinters are going to tack on “screen charges” and “plate fees”– but Brunetto includes all this in their flat price and bases it on minimums. Now, please don’t contact them with a bunch of questions, just about everything you need to know is at the site, so unless you’re ready to REALLY make an order, don’t waste their time because most screenprinters are extremely busy. A quick look at the rates page, shows the following information….
If you go with a one color print on a color shirt, it’ll run you 6 bucks a shirt to make. There is a 12 shirt minimum order. You can add colors and the price goes up about a quarter or two here and there. So it’s gonna cost you say, $72 bucks to get the minimum order done. You can EASILY cover that if you sold 5 of those 12 shirts for $15. And you have 7 left over for clear profit.
But what if you have little to no startup cash? Well, ask yourself, do you have a big enough audience to sell 5 of those shirts to cover the order? Ask everyone you know if they’d buy up a shirt with your webcomic’s design on it. — Moving 5 of anything should be EASY!!! So here’s the secret….
Run a 2 week preorder on the shirts. You’ll have to talk with your screenprinter and give him a time frame on when you’ll be bringing the orders in. In my case, Brunetto was really fantastic, and I’d tell him the date I was ending the preorder, he had the art and screens ready to go, so within a week of me placing my order, I had the shirts ready to go to the readers. This also allows you sell certain items like Hoodies or Jackets, girls sizes and the bigger sizes which some readers will REALLY appreciate. If you’re not confident in selling enough to cover your order in a 2 week period, perhaps make it 3 weeks.
Worse case scenario, you took a shot and you’re out 72 bucks and have some leftover shirts, hey! At least you won’t be naked! Order all of your size! Hah…, or if no one orders, you just don’t place the order at all, but make sure the screenprinter didn’t do any work on their end, you want to keep that bridge open for when you might need some things printed up. — But you might be surprised how many of your readers would LOVE to wear a one of a kind shirt of their favorite webcomic. And beyond your readers, your design might appeal to general audiences, and you might be surprised who rolls in to buy one up. Especially if you’re using one of those nift RSS feeds I mentioned before. See, everything relates to everything else. And in this case, you might want to also easily use Paypal to sell your shirts and have an easy as pie shopping cart on your page, allowing people to pick the sizes they want, shipping rates, etc.
The magic number I’ve heard passed around is “5000″. That’s the number of regular readers you should have before trying out shirts. I don’t buy that. It’s just a number someone made up. It might be the number that some of the bigger strips actually started to support themselves with shirts, and quit their day jobs. It would definitly be different for every creator. I guess it matters on how much your readers enjoy your work, or especially if they’re requesting certain designs. You could easily sell a few dozen shirts to a smaller audience. ESPECIALLY if the price is right.
So, there you have it! Go forth and try your hand at designing some slick shirt designs, or even asking your audience what kinda shirt they’d like to see you make. Good luck!