Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the launch of the paid version of my Substack. A whole bunch of you have probably already gotten the notification about renewing your subscription to the newsletter. I hope you’ll stick around! But in any case, I wanted to take the opportunity to go into the nitty gritty, and explain the things that I feel worked especially well during the first year using the platform like this, and the things that I didn’t like about it.
I can’t wait to see what comes next. I think my biggest question will be for those of us who signed up for the Onion Club later. I signed up in October (financial reasons). So when it’s time to renew, it doesn’t sound like I will be guaranteed to keep my spot. So it does cause some apprehension for me going forward as I do want to keep my spot.
This ride has been incredible. I hope to stay on this with you and the Tiny Onion team and I am extremely excited for what comes next.
Hey! I promise that I will be doing everything in my power to keep current Onion Club members happy and on board for 2023! The way we're tackling the club will be changing, and I'll have more news on that in a few months - Stay Tuned!
We all greatly appreciate all the work you have put in on this. This ride has been amazing and I personally cannot express how much I appreciate how open and honest you have been through this. This is a ride I never want to get off of.
That has been my concern as well, James. I am a Dec 21 subscriber and I don't want the 1000 subscriber limit to come before I renew in December 22 and I won't be able to renew into the Onion Club. I'll stay tuned, and slightly nervous, for more info to come. :-)
I just signed up to the Onion Club (aka Founder Tier) in the last couple weeks. My read on this was that would mean we get the 2022 benefits and also will have early access to jump on 2023 so we don't lose our spots. I think we should be safe.
Shit yea! It took me like 6 hours to read that fucking newsletter. I am a collector and a reader and a reseller all at the same time and I will be here for year two. Just updated my card info. I honestly started as a reseller and became a fan of your work and now read and collect everything. I would usually only buy two copies to sell one and keep one but I would be glad if there were always a 1 per customer for exclusive comics through this. At least for the first day or something to assure everyone who wants one can get one. It annoys me when there is no limit on items and places *cough comic mint cough* can buy up 50-100 copies and sell them on their retail site for 3 times what they should be and fans get burned. Anyway I have like so much shit signed by you and I have never even met you yet. I just bought a signed Department of Truth #1 Tiny Onion Exclusive foil(still need the Frison foil) on Mercari from someone who is a member here! I also have a deal with a shop where I can get incentives for cover price if I order 50% of the ratio so I ordered 50 copies of Wynd Throne in the Sky #1 so I can get all the different ratios up to the 1:100 except the one per store. I'll have to pick that up on eBay or something. I'm kinda crazy like that. Have a good one, James!
I'm embarrassed to say that I was late to the party and didn't spend on a paid subscription until may of this year. I'm super confused as to what this means for me.. am i SOL on 2023?
As for the format, I was a subscriber in the early days of your newsletter and enjoyed the more infrequent updates to what we are getting today. It does feel like you should have someone else sending out a monthly or weekly release update on your behalf, which would leave you to send higher quality info as you see fit. The digital offerings + the merch opportunities make the service well worth it. Please keep up the good work, excited to see what comes next.
Excited for what’s ahead. Honestly, I took a gamble in 2021 and signed up for multiple Substacks from creators I love and a few of them I wasn’t really impressed with, but yours is definitely one I’m sticking with. It was a great value and everything I was hoping for from a comic creator Substack. I upgraded my annual to Onion Club a few months after launch, so I’m hoping I can renew before it sells out. “True Weird” defines everything I’ve been interested in my entire life and I’m thankful to finally have a term to describe it.
Great read!!! Were moving right now and just came across your Christmas Cards, hope we get more in 2022! For Operation Room Key would this be a traveling horror escape room experience created by my favorite creators in the comic book industry!!!! (probably not, but sounds awesome and kudos for having the best secret project names in the biz). Sticking around for The Onion Club for sure and hopefully put my membership card to use soon!
Awesome! Thank you for everything you have done here on substack for all your fans. I’m looking forward to year two!
I’m in the onion club tier and subscribed in Beginning of January, Will my spot in the 1000 be held as long as i re subscribe when it comes up? Also will I have to pay for shipping (cad) for the exclusives in year two if I’m a founders tier?
This was a great James! I agree that reading PDFs and CBZs are really weird without a dedicated comics reader but I'm also so glad I can have them to keep my digital comics collection together and not trapped on another service (and because I don't have access to the panels app on android).
On that, this may sound like a weird question but do you think you'd make any of your creator owned series that don't debut through substack available for purchase digitally through shoptinyonion? I ask because I primarily read digitally and with ComiXology's drm free backup going the way of the dodo a few months back, it'd be nice to have an alternate option to keep my DoT collection, for example, together. I know BOOM never did that so Wynd and your other books there might not be there but it's worth a shot.
Also, any chance we could get the Wild Truths as a PDF?
Bit late to this so I assume it won't be read, I wasn't able to resubscribe to the $250 tier of the substack that I had last year... and the option is currently missing, just wondering if that was intentional? From what I can gather this version of the stack is to be made available again near the end of this year if I'm correct? Just want to know if I have missed the chance at getting more covers for 2023!
I have been a subscriber since Aug 2021. I am a bit confused. Does this mean I can renew on that day? Or do I have to wait till Dec of this year? (I remember reading that in an early post)
Annoyingly my bank refused the payment for my Onion Club subscription asking me to clarify that it was me making this payment. I've done this, but I can't see anywhere on here where I can talk to someone to say it's ok to do the payment. My subscription is saying it will renew in Aug 23, even though I've not paid anything.
how do i retain my onion club spot if substack won't let me renew it until october? i was a $75 tier on day one, upgraded to onion club in october, but i'm worried i'm going to miss out on onion club 2023 because i have no way of upgrading it until october.
Hey James! I'm here for it! Keep making awesome stuff and I'll keep buying and reading that awesome stuff. I actually saw you on the floor at SDCC but I didn't say 'hi' to you and I am kicking myself for not doing so. What you've built here is fun and cool and as I said earlier I'll be here next year reading your 'Tomorrow is the two year anniversary...' newsletter.
By the way, it took me some time to get around to reading The Closet but .. well.. wow! Thank you for that story. It's heavy and it touched my soul in some ways I wasn't expecting.
I can’t wait to see what comes next. I think my biggest question will be for those of us who signed up for the Onion Club later. I signed up in October (financial reasons). So when it’s time to renew, it doesn’t sound like I will be guaranteed to keep my spot. So it does cause some apprehension for me going forward as I do want to keep my spot.
This ride has been incredible. I hope to stay on this with you and the Tiny Onion team and I am extremely excited for what comes next.
Hey! I promise that I will be doing everything in my power to keep current Onion Club members happy and on board for 2023! The way we're tackling the club will be changing, and I'll have more news on that in a few months - Stay Tuned!
We all greatly appreciate all the work you have put in on this. This ride has been amazing and I personally cannot express how much I appreciate how open and honest you have been through this. This is a ride I never want to get off of.
That has been my concern as well, James. I am a Dec 21 subscriber and I don't want the 1000 subscriber limit to come before I renew in December 22 and I won't be able to renew into the Onion Club. I'll stay tuned, and slightly nervous, for more info to come. :-)
Ya I hope any one who was a first year subscriber can keep their spot when it’s time to renew.
I signed up last October and I’ve enjoyed being a part of this inaugural year. Looking forward to reupping for 2023!
I just signed up to the Onion Club (aka Founder Tier) in the last couple weeks. My read on this was that would mean we get the 2022 benefits and also will have early access to jump on 2023 so we don't lose our spots. I think we should be safe.
Any chance of you coming to Emerald City Comic Con?
Sorry, not this year!
Hi Austin! 👋🏻
Shit yea! It took me like 6 hours to read that fucking newsletter. I am a collector and a reader and a reseller all at the same time and I will be here for year two. Just updated my card info. I honestly started as a reseller and became a fan of your work and now read and collect everything. I would usually only buy two copies to sell one and keep one but I would be glad if there were always a 1 per customer for exclusive comics through this. At least for the first day or something to assure everyone who wants one can get one. It annoys me when there is no limit on items and places *cough comic mint cough* can buy up 50-100 copies and sell them on their retail site for 3 times what they should be and fans get burned. Anyway I have like so much shit signed by you and I have never even met you yet. I just bought a signed Department of Truth #1 Tiny Onion Exclusive foil(still need the Frison foil) on Mercari from someone who is a member here! I also have a deal with a shop where I can get incentives for cover price if I order 50% of the ratio so I ordered 50 copies of Wynd Throne in the Sky #1 so I can get all the different ratios up to the 1:100 except the one per store. I'll have to pick that up on eBay or something. I'm kinda crazy like that. Have a good one, James!
I'm embarrassed to say that I was late to the party and didn't spend on a paid subscription until may of this year. I'm super confused as to what this means for me.. am i SOL on 2023?
As for the format, I was a subscriber in the early days of your newsletter and enjoyed the more infrequent updates to what we are getting today. It does feel like you should have someone else sending out a monthly or weekly release update on your behalf, which would leave you to send higher quality info as you see fit. The digital offerings + the merch opportunities make the service well worth it. Please keep up the good work, excited to see what comes next.
Excited for what’s ahead. Honestly, I took a gamble in 2021 and signed up for multiple Substacks from creators I love and a few of them I wasn’t really impressed with, but yours is definitely one I’m sticking with. It was a great value and everything I was hoping for from a comic creator Substack. I upgraded my annual to Onion Club a few months after launch, so I’m hoping I can renew before it sells out. “True Weird” defines everything I’ve been interested in my entire life and I’m thankful to finally have a term to describe it.
- Ryan Bates
Proud Onion Club Member
If I am already an onion club member will I get kicked out if too many join? I can’t resubscribe until tomorrow for the follow on year
I see this was already answered. Cheers James! This Substack is amazing and glad to see updates to be implemented
Great read!!! Were moving right now and just came across your Christmas Cards, hope we get more in 2022! For Operation Room Key would this be a traveling horror escape room experience created by my favorite creators in the comic book industry!!!! (probably not, but sounds awesome and kudos for having the best secret project names in the biz). Sticking around for The Onion Club for sure and hopefully put my membership card to use soon!
Awesome! Thank you for everything you have done here on substack for all your fans. I’m looking forward to year two!
I’m in the onion club tier and subscribed in Beginning of January, Will my spot in the 1000 be held as long as i re subscribe when it comes up? Also will I have to pay for shipping (cad) for the exclusives in year two if I’m a founders tier?
Appreciate you, Thanks James.
This was a great James! I agree that reading PDFs and CBZs are really weird without a dedicated comics reader but I'm also so glad I can have them to keep my digital comics collection together and not trapped on another service (and because I don't have access to the panels app on android).
On that, this may sound like a weird question but do you think you'd make any of your creator owned series that don't debut through substack available for purchase digitally through shoptinyonion? I ask because I primarily read digitally and with ComiXology's drm free backup going the way of the dodo a few months back, it'd be nice to have an alternate option to keep my DoT collection, for example, together. I know BOOM never did that so Wynd and your other books there might not be there but it's worth a shot.
Also, any chance we could get the Wild Truths as a PDF?
This is a really interesting idea! I'll look into it!
Bit late to this so I assume it won't be read, I wasn't able to resubscribe to the $250 tier of the substack that I had last year... and the option is currently missing, just wondering if that was intentional? From what I can gather this version of the stack is to be made available again near the end of this year if I'm correct? Just want to know if I have missed the chance at getting more covers for 2023!
I think you should have very brief emails every week about what books you have in stores that week.
For us wednesdays warriors a monthly email isn't effective as we only plan out a week in advance (not a month).
BOnus points if you tell us what you have coming out BEFORE FOC. So 1-2 months in advance. :)
The best news in this whole post was that you're going to attempt to do more "Tiny" posts in the future!
I have been a subscriber since Aug 2021. I am a bit confused. Does this mean I can renew on that day? Or do I have to wait till Dec of this year? (I remember reading that in an early post)
Annoyingly my bank refused the payment for my Onion Club subscription asking me to clarify that it was me making this payment. I've done this, but I can't see anywhere on here where I can talk to someone to say it's ok to do the payment. My subscription is saying it will renew in Aug 23, even though I've not paid anything.
how do i retain my onion club spot if substack won't let me renew it until october? i was a $75 tier on day one, upgraded to onion club in october, but i'm worried i'm going to miss out on onion club 2023 because i have no way of upgrading it until october.
Hey James! I'm here for it! Keep making awesome stuff and I'll keep buying and reading that awesome stuff. I actually saw you on the floor at SDCC but I didn't say 'hi' to you and I am kicking myself for not doing so. What you've built here is fun and cool and as I said earlier I'll be here next year reading your 'Tomorrow is the two year anniversary...' newsletter.
By the way, it took me some time to get around to reading The Closet but .. well.. wow! Thank you for that story. It's heavy and it touched my soul in some ways I wasn't expecting.