Friday morning I awoke to some very passionate words on Corey Hardiman’s personal Facebook page:
Hardiman has had fantastic success with all of his Kickstarter projects right from the get go with the latest issue of ‘Sister’s of Mercy 9’ reaching 425% funding and 4 days left at the time of me writing this.
So…. What’s the deal? According to Hardiman, other than cancelled pledges, the cost of shipping in Canada is also a big factor in his decision. This one I can sort of relate to. Anyone who has heard my podcast interviews, follows me on Facebook or has glanced at my Youtube channel has definitely heard me go on at length about how kneecapping shipping fees and importation is in Canada. Partially because of our complex tax redistribution and partially due to our low population densities. Getting an envelope on a truck is a nightmare here in Canada. For example, shipping costs aren’t really broken down by different provinces here but more so how many miles a given truck is estimated to go with a certain amount of junk on it. So the more remote an area gets the more expensive to ship. Given that such a large portion of our population is spread in to the wilderness this makes predicting the price it’ll take to mail something out practically impossible. No joke, I can mail to Texas for a third what it costs to send something two hours across my own province, but the closer you get to a larger city the lower that price drops…. Maybe I’ll code something someday so that customers can get an auto shipping estimate… I think Etsy does that… Maybe I’ll sell books on Etsy… Anyway…
Corey Hardiman seems from a distance to have a very successful and great looking publication model rolling and I would personally love to have his problems. The shipping thing has been such a nightmare to try to work around for me personally that I haven’t put a whole heck of a lot of skin in the Kickstarter game, but with campaigns bringing in 4-6 times what his original estimate is to green light I really can’t see him walking away ‘broke’ after losing a bit in shipping. I did reach out to Corey personally on Friday and ask if he wanted to further explain what’s going on and his exact words were: ‘lol nah I’m good. Print whatever comes to mind.’ Well Corey, this is what came to mind. Shipping in Canada is freaking rough (getting the books manufactured here or mailed across the border from the US to be redistributed by us is almost as bad but a different story). Do I personally think it’s worth folding after having these 20,000- 30,000 dollar Kickstarters launch time after time? Nah, but I can’t relate. I’m sure Corey has his reasons and whatever they may be it’s looking like the ‘Sister of Mercy’ creator is retiring.