Friday, October 21, 2011

The plan to manage it all

Happy Friday! And for me it really is--I feel happier than I have in a long time.

Not that I've been miserable or anything but with the success of my Kickstarter I'm waking up to the fact of just how much and how hard I've been working, and at times it's felt like I've been spinning my wheels. I love the custom work I do and will be continuing with it regardless of the success of the printed books but there's really only so much of it I can do and it was limiting the growth of my business. Now, with the boost from Kickstarter, I'll be diversifying into the less labor-intensive printed books and I really believe that the balance between some custom work and some readymade work is the key to my continued success without killing myself to get it all done. It's really quite exciting!


Of course, the vast majority of my work thus far has been custom and with the addition of another line of books something will have to give. I will need to limit the number of custom projects I take on and right now I'm not really sure what that will look like. I'm thinking I'll be able to manage 3-4 custom book orders per month, though it may be more or less and it will likely vary with the month. As much as it pains me to do this I will also need to increase the cost a bit, looking objectively at the amount of time it takes me to complete a custom book (at least 6 hours, often more like 10). It won't be an insane increase, but it's something I need to do in order to make it sustainable.


That said, I have a couple announcements to make:

1. In order to fulfill my Kickstarter rewards (and not go completely insane this holiday season) I will stop accepting custom orders on November 1. Any orders placed before then (and those already placed) will be guaranteed for delivery before the end of November (or at least in time for the holiday, in case I get a mad rush ;).

2. I will resume accepting custom book orders in January at the new rates and will be limiting the number I accept.
So, if you've been thinking of ordering a custom book, either for the holidays or just because, now is the time!

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful work! I showed my 2 year old your blog and kickstarter video and he got just as excited as I did. Thank you for making some beautiful work. It's pretty amazing.

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  2. @Monica Pharr

    That's so sweet, Monica! Thanks so much, I love what I do and I'm always so happy to hear that other folks enjoy it too :)

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