Shipping Station (Patreon)

Matt and I made a shipping station! 

Back in the day, I used to fulfill all my orders myself- starting with my hand-folded and stapled black and white minicomics and then moving on up to the squarebound Real Books Matt and I started producing. Then our tiny self-publishing operation took off enough that we signed on with bigger companies to take over those distribution and delivery roles. (Thanks, Topatoco!)

It's been years since we had to take on shipping job and, honestly, I miss it! I really enjoyed bundling together people's orders and streamlining my process and the excitement of sending off a small mountain of packages to travel across the country and over the seas to their expectant recipient. It was fun! This is how I have fun. 

MEANWHILE:

A friend of ours got into the self-publishing game and discovered that while they love drawing comics and their audience loves buying them, they fucking hate shipping. It ate up their valuable drawing time. The lost and returned orders stressed them out. Assembling packages is boring and inconvenient. Doing customer service was their waking hell. Every stage of this process was profoundly unpleasant to them and they dreaded it. 

Pertinent info: It's 2023 and, for oh-so many reasons, making a living online as a #ContentCreator is more challenging than it ever has been, and I've been doing this dance full time since 2007. Matt and I have been looking into outside part-time work to help keep afloat. I haven't worked as an employee for somebody else in the last 16 years! I'm... nervous? One of my many (many) hang-ups is that I believe I'm stupid, particularly when it comes to learning and doing things that the average person can learn and do. (It's ok, I'm smart in other ways! I'm real good at drawing dicks! ) But when you're working for somebody else, you kinda need to be able to learn and adapt to their job requirements and workflow within a reasonable time frame and... my dudes. Having worked in food service and offices, I know that I am surprisingly substandard when it comes to learning and doing normal job things, even though I really am trying really hard. What can I say? I think I'm kind of stupid. (I'm just... gunna keep this post locked, so potential employers don't see this when I am job hunting in the future. I'm mean: HIRE ME! I'M GREAT!)

But you know what I'm already good at? 

Shipping.

And you know what our friend hates?

Shipping.

Now, I'm not very good at math, but I do know that 1 + 1 = I PICKED UP A SIDE GIG.

It's the perfect mini-job for me! I do it from home, so there's no commute! It just takes up half a day, once a week! I'm bringing in a little extra trickle of money! I don't feel stupid! I LIKE MAKING PACKAGES!!!! 

Matt built me a shipping station in the basement! 

Before you ask, no, sorry, I can't reveal which artist/store it is, for privacy reasons /:) Sorry to be mysterious! I know that is annoying. I yam what I yam: annoying.

It's been just over a month and that one person at the post office is starting to recognize me now! 

Hooray for shipping! Hooray!