Hi, guys.
I've been out of touch for several months because I was running GiveCampAtlanta.org. Holy smokes was that a lot of work, but also hugely satisfying.
Any way, I'm kicking around an idea for a side business/hobby and looking for input.
My site is GalacticBeacon.com, and I have mobile apps on WebOS and Windows Phone 7 (also on Kindle). I plan to hit Android next and maybe iOS eventually.
The idea originally was that I would publish mobile app and eReader anthologies of science fiction, fantasy and comics. My first volume contained only my work since it was free to me, but my plan was to solicit fiction and comics from other people when I made enough from the sale of the apps.
So far I've made a grand total of $95. Unless someone wants to sell me comics and stories for a nickel each, I need to change plans a bit.
What I'm thinking about now is releasing the apps for free with advertising, and have them update from the web. Nothing revolutionary there, but a change for me. Personally I'd rather pay for an app and avoid ads, but I seem to be in the minority in that regard. Talking to other small-time/part-time/side-business folks leads me to believe I could reasonably expect $500-600 per month with this tactic. Never going to replace my day-job, but not bad for a hobby.
For this venture to be a success I need to either buy content from real writers and cartoonists or miraculously improve my abilities via some sort of lightning strike/radiation/bite-from-radioactive-person-with-actual-talent sort of thing.
It seems easier to me to gauge free-lance rates for writers than cartoonists. What I'm hoping to get from you guys is an idea for what you would consider fair. The comics I'm looking for would be of the single panel New Yorker variety, but with a science fiction or fantasy slant. You can check out the sad little ones I have done on my site for an idea of what I'm talking about.
It looks like the going rate from The New Yorker is about $500 for a comic. That is completely out of my league, of course, so I'm curious what people would find worth their time.
I think I can get fiction somewhere in the $0.04 - $0.06 per word range. My reading of various writer's market sites leads me to believe I could reasonably offer somewhere in that range with a cap of $100 per story. I'm looking for shorter fiction, so I think that would be seen as a fair deal.
So what do you guys think?
Just to be clear, I'm not actually offering anybody anything at this point, just trying to figure out what if anything makes sense. I am going forward with the project with my work exclusively at first. I still have a lot of coding to do before the new versions of the apps are available.
Any thoughts?