Hi, everyone. Angela Quinton, editor of WEREWOLVES VERSUS, here. I want to let everyone know about an upcoming change to the pricing structure I’ve applied to this project since its inception. Starting April 4th 2019, every issue of WEREWOLVES VERSUS will cost at least one dollar. No more free downloads. This is contrary to the spirit of the project up until now, but the distribution and sales platform I use, Gumroad, has tied my hands.
What’s changed?
At some point after the release of WV06 (Fashion), Gumroad changed their policy so that for users of their free tier (like me), products with a starting price of $0 cannot have more than 25MB of files associated with them. I imagine this is to make sure they get their % of the sale price on larger downloads, to cover their file hosting costs. This restriction applies to currently-existing products, too. For instance, WV06 is 75 MB, so if I try to make a change to the product page within Gumroad (like updating someone’s name), I get an error message telling me to make the price $1 or more, to make download smaller, or to start paying for a premium account, which doesn’t have this restriction.
After considering the ramifications of each “solution”, I’ve opted for the first: charge at least $1 per issue. This option strikes the best balance of honouring the work that all of the contributors have put into each issue (remember, they share 90% of the net sales from each issue), maintaining the integrity of each issue’s artwork, and maintaining some level of affordability for me.
Why not pay for a premium Gumroad account?
As of this post, WEREWOLVES VERSUS has over 4,200 customers in Gumroad’s system (this includes people who downloaded stuff for free), which means the monthly fee for a premium account is $50 USD. Paying that much is out of the question for me. Frankly, even the entry-level premium tier of $10 per month would consume well over the 10% of each sale that WEREWOLVES VERSUS keeps to cover administrative costs and PayPal fees incurred by contributor payouts.
Why not compress the large issues so they’re under 25MB?
I always want WEREWOLVES VERSUS to look as good as possible. The JPEG compression settings I’d need to apply to a large issue like WV06 would result in such mangled, over-processed artwork that I’d be embarrassed to publish it. Readers deserve to get the best possible product, and contributors deserve to have their work shown as pristinely as possible.
Why change the price on all of the issues when not all of them are over 25 MB in size?
Value and fairness. I firmly believe that if one issue is worth paying for, they all are. I don’t want to hamstring a particularly media-heavy issue by making it cost $1 or more while other, slimmer issues are still free.
Why not move to a different distribution platform, or make my own?
The last time I checked (and I’ve checked often), Gumroad is still the best option for this project. It’s fairly well-known, it accepts credit cards, and it handles the distribution of files well. There are also hundreds of tweets, toots, emails, blog posts, and forum posts that link to each issue at its Gumroad URL. It would be harmful to the project to break those links, and impossible to update enough of them to mitigate the harm.
I’m probably technically savvy enough to build something like the subset of Gumroad features that I actually use, but it would take me at least a year to do it properly and securely, and the third-party fees (hosting, payment processors, tech support) would murder me. I would rather dedicate more time to making the next issue or planning the print collection.
Your support means the world to me.
WEREWOLVES VERSUS has always been a strange monster. I’ve learned a lot during the four years I’ve been running it, and I know there are still lessons to come. The lesson here, I think, is that when a situation sucks no matter what you do, the best option is the one that maintains the integrity of the project. By setting the minimum price of WEREWOLVES VERSUS to $1, I’m ensuring that readers hungry for great werewolf stories, comics, poetry and artwork can get the best quality material I can provide, and I’m ensuring my ability to keep making new issues in the future. I value the hard work of every contributor and the patronage and readership of every person who’s ever downloaded an issue – whether they paid for it or not. Thank you!
With appreciation,
Angela Quinton