comics for May 28, 2008 – 05/28/2008

Hello, everyone. I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone for making our donation goal possible this month. This means that all of June will feature Monday/Thursday updates!

I also want to take a moment to apologize to everyone if my requests for donations have become annoying. A couple readers expressed concern about this, and I did not handle myself very well in answering them. My friend CT communicates things better than I do, and has written up the following words about the necessity of donations for the Xylia project. Thank you, everyone. ~B

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Hello fellow Xyliacs and Xylia readers.

This is Canterrain. Some of you call me CT. Today I write to you as Josh. The man in charge of marketing Xylia, and helping it grow. Recently, some readers expressed questions on the whys of how much and how often Barb asks for donations.
Why does Barb ask for X amount a month?

Why does she ask once a month or perhaps more often if the donations are falling behind?
Isn’t Xylia just a hobby?

Let’s start with that last one. Is Xylia a hobby? No. Xylia is a story that burns within Barb’s heart. I have spoken with her for countless hours on the wheres and whens and why and whats of the story. It is one of those stories that fights and kicks and screams to come out and be told. Xylia is a passion. And so first and foremost I wish to express to every reader, that no matter what the donations will be. Xylia will go on. Xylia will be told. Many of you are writers, as myself, and know what I mean when I say Xylia refuses not to be told. And Barb in so many fashions cannot stop.

But unfortunately this is also a place of real life. It is easy to draw comparisons of Xylia to other webcomics. And the first mistake in that is, Barb is not like most webcomic creators. On average, webcomic creators are in their early 20s or younger, possibly attend college, and have relatively few bills and responsibilities in comparison to someone a mere ten years older. Barb is none of these things. Without revealing her age, she is past thirty. A mother of two. Has a mortgage. Hospital bills. Court bills. Car insurance. Barb is an artist. A writer. But first she must be a mother.

Xylia will always update once a week every month. Barb has budgeted her time and her expenses, and this is something she can guarantee. If she cuts back to one update a week then she has the time to work another job in order to do that which is the most important thing we can ever do as a parent. Put food on the table. Anyone in college and living without a meal fund, surviving on ramen noodle knows the pain of an empty table. Anyone opening their first credit card knows the weight of bills that must be paid in a timely manner. Barb must cover these things before putting additional time into Xylia.

Barb would like to update more. But each update takes time. What goes into the making of each comic?

Xylia is a large full page webcomic with several layers, pencil, ink, shading, drawing, photoshop and more. A single page can take 16 to 20 hours start to finish. Eight hundred dollars is the bare minimum Barb needs to make to guarantee she can take additional time away from other well paying freelance jobs to work on Xylia. And we are in a place called the intartubes where memory gets clogged by big pictures and where we meant to donate, we forgot, and the reminder before the month is through is well needed.

It is true, the website now has several ads, seeming to generate revenue. And the question arises, does this not cover those costs? The short answer is no. Not yet. More than three fourths of those ads are project wonderful ads. And I, as the marketing manager, use every dime made their to buy Barb project wonderful ads in order to make Xylia grow. It is all spent. What few banners that we can have that are not project wonderful are at this point supplementing income, and make the difference between asking eight hundred dollars and asking more as Barb once had to. The hope is that with enough growth these ads will bring in all the income Barb needs and she will be able to update even more than twice a week without a need for donations at all. But that isn’t a reality just yet. (FWIW, we are in the process of redesigning the site, and hope to minimize the clutter a bit.- Barb)

I ask you readers, what is Xylia worth to you? Xylia is free. Xylia will update, donations or not. The incentives given for donations are something Barb feels compelled to give, because she wishes to express her heartfelt thanks to anyone kind enough to give. Nothing is ‘held hostage’. And we do not mean to give guilt trips. This is just reality.