Chapter 3, page 8 - My Xylia...

[Ceridwen]

I wanna make Ambrosia tell me stories!

Claude`s expression in that second panel there is really interesting. Like he`s seeing someone he never thought he`d see again. Like a very old friend. And in a way that`s probably a truth. But what I really like is the way he looks at the book in the third panel and how he runs his fingers over the drawing in the last panel.

It`s a bit of veneration in there. I look forward to the rest! Thanks for the update Barbington!

[Barb Jacobs]

Aw, I'm not looking for fawning! Just dialogue about what's going on in the story or whatever. With the previous comment feature, we used to get a lot more conversation going on than we do now. Sometimes 25, 30 comments in a day.

If you look at Marry Me or Phoenix Requiem, they will get 200 comments on an update. People specualting and making conversation. I'm just looking for a percentage of that kind of interest from readers. But instead of ramping up, it seems to be dropping away- which is what has led to my concern that people are losing interest in Xylia. And lost interest = a failing project.

From the business perspective, I'm just always looking for growth. More readers, more comments, etc. It means that the story is succeeding. Last month our donations were down, our new readers stayed about the same, and comments were down. It just gets worrisome.

If I could just draw pictures and not worry about anything else, I wouldn't care. Well, I would, but not as much. But as everyone knows, I am always on a losing battle with money and as much as I would dearly love to, I just can't afford to put as much into Xylia as I do for free. I could go to one or two updates a month, forget about Nigel's Opus and worrying about donations, and probably be a lot better off. But I dont' want to do that to the project or the readers.

$800 for the four extra updates sounds like a lot. But I really take a financial hit working on this. And we are feeling it really bad right now. Each update takes about 15 hours. As a freelance illustrator for a 15 hour job I make a pretty good chunk of change. On Xylia, I do eight pages which ends up being 120 hours of work. (this doesnt include Nigel's Opus, extra art, news posts, etc) With $800.00 in donations and then when I pay my assistants, and adding in all the other time I put into the project I end up making about $4.00 an hour. Or less.

FWIW, most journeyman illustrators charge $75.00- $100.00 per hour. I don't charge that much, but I do get a good amount for commission projects.

So you can see that Xylia is a labor of love. That if I put the same number of hours in freelance, or even looking for freelance work, it would be a much wiser move financially.

I have always wanted to do a story and make somethign big with it. I figured now is as good a time as any to try. And I am. I just get scared. But thank you all who have commented here. It makes it less scary and less foolhearty to me if I see that people are really enjoying it.

~B

[Nighthawke]

Well.....

Personally, I think you're progressing better than you realize. Let me give you my perspective.

I started reading Xylia because I loved your artwork. To be honest, it took me a while to get into the the story because I knew there was SO much I didn't understand about the big picture. That having been said, I have stuck with it long enough now that I have an interest in the characters and I'll be rather depressed if I never see the outcome.

As to interest waxing and waning, I think there were a multitude of things that aren't easily discerned as to why. My advice to you is this: Don't get too concerned about it, just follow your vision and do what you intended to do in the first place. Xylia is a GOOD STORY. The artwork is superb. What makes it good is it's uniqueness and your artistry. If you allow your vision to be influenced by things like readership, you'll lose sight of what your heart wanted to do in the first place.

Easy for me to say, yes. Easy for you to do, no. I truly do relate and feel for you on this

Now this next part you ain't gonna like (Baltimorespeak) but the cold hard fact is, I don't know of very many webcomic artists that can subsist solely on the donations from the readers. What I can tell you is if there is anything I have learned from what life has handed me it's that things seldom go the way we really would like them to. That having been said, I have also learned that life is never as good or as bad as it seems. There is simply life, and you get on with it. Yes, it would be marvelous if we all had the means to exist from day to day and not be concerned about tomorrows trials, but you know as well as I do that there is no certainty to life. Each new day brings new experiences, and we have no way of knowing what those will be in advance. I could buy a Powerball lottery ticket and be the sole winner of $200 million. Then again, I could get a phone call (like I did back in February) telling me I'm laid off of my $100K a year job. The point is, as far as I have been able to tell, NOTHING in life is certain. I therefore submit to you that Xylia is a wonderful idea. I'd be incredibly disappointed if you had to give it up, but even if you had to take another job and only do one page a month, I'd still read it. To me, it's that good.

So lets be objective. What is it that keeps you working at Xylia? Is it truly the money? No, I don't think so. As you have said, Xylia is a labor of love. As to me, I feel honored and privileged that such a kind, gentle person as you would take the time to do such a thing and share it with me, and all of the rest of us. You may not have as big a reader base as you'd like, but it's my belief that the membership will slowly grow as time passes. Some day you will look at your achievement and be amazed at where you have come to from such a modest beginning. And trust me, once I get back to work and catch up on my bills, I'll throw a few dollars at you. I'm not a fan of starving artists. I like to keep them fed :).

In the meantime, if you get a chance to make significant moolah and it will cause a longer period of time between updates, so be it. I can live with that, and so can the rest of us, because, you see, we all want you to be happy and have a decent quality of life. Our opportunity to indulge ourselves in the next installment of Xylia comes second to that (well, it does for me anyway).

I hope that helps.

[Barb Jacobs]

That does help a lot to know that there are a loyal group of you that would keep coming back if it was just one or two updates a month. But I want more for this story than that.

I also know that the donations are a temporary gift and won't last much longer. I always knew that would be so, but that is why the increase in readers is important, because our ads pay off of visits. We are also negotiating for merchandise, which will be very soon. Calendars, tees and maybe even Livy plushies by later this year.

I'm not looking to get rich- (it would be nice of course) and Xylia is not my only source of income. I am freelancing too. My point was simply that my stress level rises when i sense that I am losing readers. And I wonder if I'm taking the story down a path that I shouldn't...

But then, like you said, I need to remember the reasons for doing it and put all that aside. I appreciate you bringing that up, because it really does help. A reminder of perspective. Of course. I do this because I love it. I do this story because I'm compelled to, and I have to. Simple as that.

Thank you everyone for your sage advice! It keeps me going!

~B

[Strange Ian]

"Aw, I'm not looking for fawning!" Of course not, but...
"I have a terrible time thinking of something other to post than 'Wow. Holy smokes. Wow.'" See what I mean? You're to good, you blow our minds!
Next page, make Charlie ugly. That'll teach us to pay attention to the story.

That was just a joke, plesepleasedon'tmakehimugly *gasp* wepromisetobegood, PROMISE!

[Chaldy]

*Embarrassed shuffling* I think I fall into this category. I have a terrible time thinking of something other to post than 'Wow. Holy smokes. Wow.' Wow art, wow story, wow dialogue, wow everything! Wow just seems to cover my bi-weekly reactions to the pages. I don't want to seem like an uncreative, broken record. So, for the last time....

WOW Barb. Wow.

[Barb Jacobs]

Chaldy- you need not be embarrassed. Actually, you guys have said more to me in terms of praise and comments than anyone, and you don't need to ever say anything else. I was just hoping some new folks would pop in and say hey.

Like I mentioned, the really popular webcomics get hundreds of readers commenting, and it sort of shows the creator the level of interest in the work. When it drops off, you have to wonder if there is interest. You know?

But I dont mean YOU all here. thank you Chaldy!

~B

[Kasti]

I hope I don't get booed for this, I mean I have absolutely no negative comments about this chapter. However, I thought it was too short. But! I figured, maybe there was a plan behind this, or this was a chapter break, a "breather" if I may say. If there's a method to it, then whose to say that it's wrong.

I have no issues with the pacing though. The more pacing, the better the story I say. So folks saying it's too slow...bah to them. I LOVE character development. Anyway, I think people tend to forget that Xylia is probably still in it's caterpillar stage and hasn't hit the butterfly stage yet. There's aways time to grow and that's what this comic is doing, it's growing!

How long does it take for a man to get shaggy? Charlie must have been sleep a while!

[Barb Jacobs]

Kasti, you will never get booed for sharing your thoughts! I actually worried that the chapter was too short too. Like I mentioned, this chapter was a rewrite- a last minute addition that had me scrambling around. But I also sensed that I needed to keep it succinct to keep the story moving along. I'm sorry if it seems rushed. I had a lot of people that felt the same way about the Prologue.

I'm glad the pacing works for you. Pacing is REALLY important to me. Telling a story with pictures makes it challenging, but I try to use images to get readers to stay on an image longer than another to give that cinematic feeling of slower or faster pacing. I find that lots of panels on a page in a chaotic arrangement speeds up pacing, (slows down drawing time though!!) and one or two large panels slows it down. One place where I think this worked is in the seduction scene with Tychia. When she first shows up there are a bunch of crowded panels with a snarling dog, Ty sticking out her tongue, Charlie blushing, and the notorious thong. A couple pages later she's moving in for the kill, but there are fewer panels that hopefully make the reader/viewer slow down.

Shaggy guys? It's kind of funny- it depends on factors- ethnicity and hair color- one of my friends is a black haired guy of Scottish decent, and his beard would be coming back five hours after he shaved. My son, whose fifteen and part of his heritage is my Dad's Native Indian background doesnt grow a mustache for ten days. ^_^ My dad has never really had much of a beard because of the Indian background. But age is a factor too. Claude is 24 (well, actually over 900 years old, but who's counting...) so yeah, after a couple three days of sleeping of a near death experience, he would be pretty scruffy. SO there you go. (I know its weird, but I pay attention to weird things like that because I'm always drawing people...)

~B

[Kasti]

Ah this story doesn't seem rushed at all. Like I said, the pacing is perfect.

But see, I learned something new! Lots of panels in one page does speed up pacing (and the example page you mentioned with Tychia is my favorite!). I'm really glad you put much care into answering your readers questions and concerns. It makes like a personal connection. Sorry that sounds weird, hehe.

True if I were to post in other forums where there were tons more people, not only would I not get a quick answer, but it would never be as define. However, Xylia will well be on it's way to getting more comments and participation. I can feel it! =]