Publication?

So, I still have to hold back a lot of information, but I also feel like I have to explain to you properly why new chapters haven't been coming up yet, even after the milestone goal was met.

One reason is sort of cynical, in the way that the pledges dropped so that said milestone goal isn't reached anymore.

The other reason is more of an "out of my control" sort of reason, and in a way actually requires me to remove those milestone goals altogether. But I have postponed the removal because I felt I should give you a proper explanation as to why, but I wasn't sure I could give you that explanation yet.

And I still don't fully know if I can, to be honest, so I am more or less leaving a vague explanation now that I hope will suffice either way without giving too much away.

So, here goes.

I have been meeting up with a publisher whom I've known and worked with for years. They have known about my SPIKE project since 2010 and have been supporting me (morally) and waiting for me to complete it or have it close enough to completion for them to publish it some day.

They contacted me earlier this year, asking if we should publish it now.

The time is right for their company, and I have enough material ready by now. They want to publish SPIKE as a graphic novel series, and I am of course more than willing to have it published as well.

But before you get all excited; nothing is set in stone yet.

My contact within the company wants to publish it and I am already working on the pages, but we can't really do anything more until we know for certain if we will be granted the financial support to actually start the publishing process. We have applied for grants and financial support from this government thingy that has to do with art and culture and stuff. Most likely they'll decline our application, which means we'll just have to apply again this fall instead - and by then I will have more actual pages to show which might increase our chances of getting a yes.

But there are pros and cons to this.

I am very loyal to this company, this publisher, for personal reasons. They have said that if I want to have my graphic novel published by them, SPIKE cannot be a webcomic anymore (it kind of wasn't to begin with, yet anyhow, but I guess what this means is that the graphic novel pages cannot be available online, but in book format / physical copies from the publisher only). I can still post drawings and stuff, just not pages from the actual graphic novel series.

This also means that I most likely cannot post the updated and/or continued written chapters, as these will be spoilers?

So that's the downside to it I guess.

The good thing is that if  - IF - things go our way, SPIKE will be a published graphic novel series within a short few years.

If that happens, it will be published in Norwegian.
As said, I am very loyal to this publisher - we have history and stuff, them and I - and so I want them to be the ones to publish SPIKE.

But don't worry - another good thing about this though is that they are also an international publisher, so if the sales go well (and if the interest is there from other countries, hint hint) it could be translated to English and sold worldwide.
Until then there's always their webstore and Google translate I guess...

If everything goes to fuck-all, then at least I'll have enough pages done to either start a webcomic or try with some foreign publishing companies (SLG and :01, I'm looking at you guys >u> ).

Another catch though is that if we do get the graphic novel published but the sales are bad, then we won't be given the funds to produce the second volume. And heck, I don't know what my rights are then. I'll have to ask about that I realise... But I think the whole plan B could work in that case too, about either continuing it as a webcomic or try with other publishers, idk. I'll figure it out.

We'll most likely get a response to our grant application by July this year, so I guess I can let you guys know after that whether we got a yes or no, and what the plan onwards is.

But if we get a yes and are good to go, then when the time comes that we're ready to start the marketing campaign and stuff, I will definitely let you know, and everyone on DeviantART - cause, you know, by then I could probably use all the publicity and advertisement I can get in hopes of getting the sales up so that we can publish the second volume as well.

Not to hype you up or anything though XD It's too early for that I think.

But this is the reason why I can't really reveal more of the graphic novel nor the written novel until I know shit for certain, you know?

Fingers and toes crossed though, that we get a yes and that we can get the first volume published and hopefully the rest of them as well.. OuO