The Business: Not By Bread Alone

George Lucas figured out that merchandise is where the real money is made when it comes to properties like Star Wars, a fact that made him his fortune. Close to him temporally, but across the Pacific, many of the mecha show/manga people figured this out also and out came wave after wave of model kits, action figures, and other affiliated merchandise so the target audience could spend yet more money on the stuff they liked.

If there is something I find stupid about how mainstream Western SF operates, it is that they somehow don't want to admit that this is true. They routinely leave money on the table that could get them out of debt, secure their households for life, and allow them to do on the regular what Larry Correia has done instead of thinking that it's a Black Swan event.

No, dammit, that's not how it has to be. One of the things I want to do with #StarKnight is show others that you can do this.

Right now, what is within my control is the ability to write and publish novels. The business is not what it was, and that includes things that most mainstream Western SF authors have long forgotten is within their control, such as keeping an ear to the ground for what ancillary merchandise people would want. These days it's not hard to do things like shirts and mugs since you don't have to have them printed before selling them. Posters and wall scrolls are about there, as I recall, but I need to confirm that before I can say so definitively.

Which means that I need to start thinking about branding and branding means logos. This is where you folks come in. Below is a logo that ArtAnon--the individual making the art for #StarKnight and #Xseed--did for me. In-universe, this is the logo of the Solar Guard; if you think this works as a brand logo or no, comment below (and for the love of God, explain why; I'm no mind-reader).

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In addition, here's what I'm currently thinking for merch I can do in the short term:

• Shirts: A shirt replicating what you see in Roland's duty outfit (crest on the breast) with the logo on the back, and maybe a variant going with the battle armor version (may do that on a hooded sweatshirt instead).
  
• Posters: Finished cover on a poster for starters. I will gladly add others upon request.
  
• Loresite: My own blend of Wookipedia and MAHQ? It's happening as soon as I know there's an audience and I can afford the domain name.
  

I'll come back to this again in future posts because I think this mindset shift is something else that would greatly change the game; I see that Nick Cole & Jason Anspach as well as Vox Day are already making this shift and I expect the results will be quite something to behold, and I'm not shy in saying that if they blaze a successful trail then we'd be fools not to follow hot on their heels.