The calendar sales are now officially closed, and thanks to you all, we have collected a total of 157.22€* (~ $194)! We rounded up the sum to 160€ because round numbers are good.
This money has been donated to Le Refuge, an association who provides help and support to LGBTQ+ youth in France.
You can find the proof of donation below the cut.
For those of you who are curious, you can also find the results of the TFC fanzines interest survey we posted a month ago here.
Thank you everyone for your support, and we hope those of you who purchased the calendar enjoyed its content!!
“Hello,
We have received your donation of 160€ [...].
As you know, every year our association helps hundreds of young victims of homophobia and transphobia. Your support is therefore essential, as more than 70% of the money we collect are from private donations!
It’s thanks to you that Le Refuge can keep on spreading humanity and solidarity, for and with the young.
[...]
In the name of all the teams from the Le Refuse National Association, we thank you for your support.
A month ago (Jan. 20th), we posted a survey to assess the reasons this project didn’t sell well and the level of interest for future fanprojects within the TFC fandom.
Thank you to all the 36 people who took the time to answer the survey, and here are the results!
In short...
--- The main reasons indicated for not purchasing the calendar were:
Not interested (40%) - in general, in the theme, in the artist line-up (the sad reality of fandom marketing), etc.
Didn’t have the money (31%)
Would have preferred a physical copy (17%)
Not enough payment options* (12%)
*At that moment, Paypal was the only payment option available. Stripe and credit card payments were made available after the start of the survey.
--- As for the fandom’s general interest in future fanzines:
27 people said that they didn’t think there were too many fanzines in the fandom and would be ready to buy more.
However, 3 reckon that there are too many, and a couple more indicated that there seemed to be a general fatigue in the fandom.
--- General lessons to be learned from this experience:
Physical copies of your zines are always a plus
Multiple payment options should be offered
You can find more detailed results under the cut.
To finish, even if we didn’t sell as well as we were hoping for (though every cent counts in this fight and we did collect a bunch of them :D), creating this calendar was still a lot of fun and we are very proud of it!
A big thank you to everyone who supported us, and a special shout out to the ones who sent us lovely and encouraging messages! <3
And even if we might not be organizing anymore TFC projects, be assured that we will be supporting any new initiative any of you may have!!
- The AFTG Calendar team, @cielly-art & @kitshunette
/!\ Please note that all questions were optional, and one person could check multiple answers. /!\
Q1 : Why didn’t you purchase the calendar?
To this question:
14 said they weren’t interested* (40%)
11 said they didn’t have the money (31%)
6 said they would have preferred a physical copy (17%)
4 said that there were not enough payment options** (12%)
* When stated, the reasons of the lack of interest mainly revolved around the fantasy theme and the artists line-up, which are two things we’d like to address here:
If you were wondering how the theme was chosen, it was voted among the contributors: the 3 options offered were “Fantasy”, “Olympics” and “Sci-Fi” (they came out in that order).
About the critics over the artist line-up : although it is indeed the ruthless reality of marketing that offering a line-up made up entirely of Big Names would have helped the sales, it is however our deep belief that fanzines should also feature works from lesser known creators and help them reach a wider audience. It doesn’t invalidate the arguments of the ones who answered this, nor does it make them bad people (as it was only honest and reflects reality, no matter how unfair and sad it is).
One may agree or disagree, but it is a concept we believe in and we definitely don’t regret it. Every artist put time, effort and heart in their work, and the art produced were amazing. And yes, this is digressing into an official love letter to our awesome contributors, YOU ALL ROCK AND WE LOVE YOU.
** Paypal was the only payment option available at the start of the survey, as we had selected the “direct payment” option on itch.io. After this issue was pointed out to us, we switched to the “collected by itch” option, which allows for more payment options but is also less reactive for proceeds collecting.
Q2 : Why didn’t you reblog the sales post?
To this question:
5 said they didn’t think it’d make a difference (38%)
4 said they weren’t interested enough to reblog (31%)
3 said they never reblog fanzines posts (23%)
1 said that they just didn’t want to (8%)
To the ones who chose the first answer, please never start from the principle that what you do won’t make any difference (in this context and, really, in any context)!
Without going into the details of how even the smallest gesture can matter a lot in all kinds of fields (online or in real life), a reblog on tumblr dot com means that your action may bring a piece of information to someone who would be interested in it, and has the means to purchase the advertised product (be it fanzines, or commissions, or anything one is selling).
Maybe it indeed won’t have any concrete effect (we don’t live in a perfect world). But really, nobody will trace the effects of your reblogs and come and point at you and scowl if your action was not followed by concrete beneficial consequences. If you kinda want to reblog the thing, slam that reblog button! It is one of the rare things where only good things can come out from it!
Q3 : What could have helped convince you to buy?
To this question:
6 said a physical copy (43%)
3 said more payment options (22%)
2 said a more general / different theme* (14%)
2 said if there were more popular artists in it* (14%)
1 said if it were a different format (not a calendar) (7%)
*See Q1 above.
Q4 : If you purchase fanzines, which statements do you agree the more with?
To this question:
16 said that they prefer charity over for-profits zines (30%)
14 said that the content is more important to them than the charity its supports (26%)
13 said that they buy all zines that interest them, no matter where the money goes (25%)
5 said they can make an effort if it is for charity (9%)
2 said the charity the zine supports plays a big part in their decision to purchase (4%)
2 said they barely look at where the money goes (4%)
1 said that they purchase fanzines more to support the fancreators and encourage them to keep going than for the charities (2%)
Q5 : Are there too many fanzines in the TFC fandom?
To this question:
27 said NO (84%)
3 said YES (10%)
2 said that there is an OK amount (6%)
Q6 : Would you still be interested to purchase other TFC fanzines?
To this question:
27 said Yes! (75%)
8 said Maybe? (22%)
1 said Yes, but only if it fulfills certain conditions (3%)
This is the illustration I first did for the @aftgcalendar 2018! The cutest husbands for Valentine’s day.
I’ve been suggested to draw Nicky and Erik as knights having a horse ride near the sea and… the mental picture was so soft I had to do it. They’re pure, I love them.
I had a lot of fun with the armors even if they’re the most useless pieces of metal on Earth hahahaha.
also it does a really nice pc wallpaper you should definitely try to use the calendar illustrations this way
You still have some days left to buy the calendar if you’re interested in it!
keep forgetting to post but i did november for the @aftgcalendar!!
back story: elven prince!neil had heard many rumors and stories of a notorious ‘monster’ who resides in the abandoned ruins. with an upcoming war, he goes anyway to enlist the help of said monster, revealing to be half-dragonborn!andrew
We announced it some months ago, and the calendar is finally here for you to buy! Fantexy is a PDF calendar* featuring illustrations from various artists in the AFTG fandom, all fantasy themed.
Our proud Exy artists for this year are @cielleinthazure , @coldcigarettes , @enotrobin , @jojen-hewitt , @kitshunette , @leefyetime , @manaeiou , @mixeurants , @nomourners-nofuneral , @requiemofkings , @sabainism and @still-waiting-for-godot !
For 3€ (+ pay more if you wish to!), you can purchase the calendar, and all the proceeds will be donated to Le Refuge, a French charity for LGBT+ youth.
>> BUY THE CALENDAR HERE <<
>> Check out the calendar’s blog <<
Previews have been posted by the artists and you can check them on our blog if you want to see how amazing this calendar is!
We hope you’ll love it as much as we do!
The AFTG Calendar 2018 team <3
*The calendar comes in two PDF: a “digital” one to view on your screen (with a lower resolution), and a “printable” one for your to print if you wish to (each page is A4 in 300 dpi). Please note that the calendar was originally thought as a digital only project, and therefore the printable file is in RGB and doesn’t include any bleed.
Whoso pulleth out Exycalibur from this stone is rightwise king of The Court.
My submission for @aftgcalendar‘s 2018 Fantexy calendar! My month was August, my mom’s birthday month and she loves Arthurian legend, so enjoy a pun I thought entirely too long about, Exycalibur!
With cameo appearances from Merlin!Andrew and Gwain!Neil helping the future Queen King Kevin find his fabled sword! :D
The calendar is still on sale for the rest of the month and you get more info on purchasing it here!! It’s filled with some fantastic art and the money goes to a really good cause so if you haven’t yet, check it out! :D
hi! not as a complaint or anything, just for next time - could you consider putting the pairings/character name at the bottom of each calendar page - or maybe background info on what the fanart is about - like i'm wondering what the story is for january's piece? and who the characters are. that'd be a cool addition to the calendar - like a few sentences from the artist telling us a little bit about what they've drawn, and the pairings and so forth <3
Hi! Thank you for your support, and this is indeed a very cute idea! We're noting it down, thank you for sharing it :DAs for your question, the characters on the January piece are our local Bad Guys Ichirou & Nathan, here to watch over you during the cold cold winter-- (watch over, or just watch. lurking. be careful when you go outside.)
A number of people indicated in their answers to the charity fanproject survey that they couldn’t purchase the calendar due to Paypal being the only payment option.
This wasn’t a problem we had anticipated, and we’d like to thank you for letting us know. We have changed some settings on itch.io, and you should now have access to other payment options such as Stripe or your credit card.
> LINK TO PURCHASE THE CALENDAR <
We are also of course still accepting answers to the survey poll. We will post an analysis of all the data collected around Feb. 20th, after we have donated the proceeds to Le Refuge.
My full piece for the @aftgcalendar which has lots of other lovely pieces from my fellow artists <3 You should totally get if you havent gotten yours yet!!
So, today I can show you my full art for fantexy calendar)
btw you can still purchase this calendar, info in @aftgcalendar
(Because arts in this calendar are really amazing, I saw them I know)
The calendar has been on sale for a month now, and... well, there is no other way to say it: the sales haven't been going well.
In one month, we have barely collected 70€, which is less than what we collected in 24 hours for the 2017 edition.
We have tried boosting it as much as we could, including by knocking directly on people's virtual doors (and we'd like to thank again everyone who answered and boosted the project, it means a lot!!), but we have to face reality: the fandom just doesn't appear to be interested in this calendar.
Past the disheartment, it is actually a pretty interesting phenomenon to study: why didn't it work? Is the TFC fandom just not a fertile land for charity fanprojects anymore? Is the fandom really worringly broke? Is it just this project in particular and, in this case, what makes it so different than the previous ones? Is the TFC fandom fed up with fanprojects? Does the knowledge that the proceeds will go to a LGBTQ+ charity play a role in people's decisions or not?
In order to understand it, and the fandom's general state of interest in future charity projects, we have created a small survey to fill by everyone (including those of you lovelies who purchased the calendar):
> CHARITY FANPROJECTS IN THE TFC FANDOM SURVEY <
There are 6 questions, and it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes. Your answers are entirely anonymous.
We will keep the sales open for another month, until February 20th, to try to collect a bit more before donating the proceeds to Le Refuge (a charity supporting and providing shelter to LGBTQ+ youth in France). The calendar will not be available anymore after that.
So until then, if you wish to, you can still purchase the calendar here for 3€ (~ 3.60 USD).
Heyy here is a preview of one of the collab I did with @kitshunette for the @aftgcalendar 2018! She sketched it and I was in charge of the colors and it was a lot of fun.
The calendar is still available and you can purchase it there if you want to see the full illustration, or just get yourself a really pretty collaborative calendar. All the proceeds will be donated to charity!
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