Suzie and Robert Riedel discuss their artistic journeys, the transition from St. Pete to Chattanooga, and their decision to create a book about their backpacking trip. They share their experiences with journaling and creating art on the trip. The couple also talks about their plans for the next book and their use of Kickstarter for crowdfunding. They discuss the manufacturing process of their book and their future plans for engaging with their audience through YouTube and Patreon. In this conversation, Suzie and Robert discuss their experiences with printing and selling books and artwork. They share their insights on choosing printing companies, such as Mixam and manufacturers in China. They also discuss the importance of ISBNs and how to create barcodes for books. The Riedels talk about their strategies for selling books and artwork at markets and online platforms. They share their success in selling books and their plans for future projects, including the Hugo and Knox comic book. Overall, they provide valuable advice for artists and authors looking to print and sell their work.
- www.riedelgallery.com
- Instagram: @riedelgallery
- Facebook: Robertnriedel
- TikTok: @artistrobertriedel
- Insta: @suzie.riedel
- Music by Old Romans
You can listen to the episode here (or wherever you listen to podcasts) or read the transcript below:
A Conversation with Suzie and Robert Riedel:
Chain Assembly (00:01.665)
All right, so I'm going to start over again at the top. So sorry. So I am lucky enough to have both Suzie and Robert Riedel with me, who recently collaborated on an amazing book called Baguettes and Backpacking, which we'll get to towards the end of this. But I'm really curious about the journey that you both had starting in California in St. Pete, where I met you both. Suzie and Robert, I met at the art studios at the Pinellas Arts Village. Susie, I met at Anytime Fitness.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (00:04.661)
Perfect.
Chain Assembly (00:30.421)
met you both separately and was surprised to find out you're both married, which was pretty cool. I mean, married to each other. Anyways. But it's just been really fun watching your journey as you transition from St. Pete to Chattanooga and then have been doing all this cool backpacking. And this book you made is so cool and I'm excited about the future of it too. And before we recorded, Suzie and Robert asked how many times I've had two people on at once. You are the second pair. So I've only one other time had two people on. So
Suzie and Robert Riedel (00:37.232)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (00:54.535)
Thank you.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (00:58.934)
Okay. That's exciting.
Chain Assembly (01:00.205)
Alright, so pretending we didn't just have technical issues, Suzie and Robert, tell me a bit about your journey artistically from California to St. Pete to Chattanooga.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:04.074)
Hehehehe
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:11.378)
Okay, well I'll try to sum it up quickly. Good, take your time. You know, I think like most artists, I've done it pretty much my whole life as a hobby. Just doodling and getting better just from my own enjoyment of getting better. You know, but at some point after you do it for so many years, you start thinking maybe I ought to make a living doing it. And for me that was somewhere around my early 20s. And...
Chain Assembly (01:14.838)
Hehehehe
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:38.97)
And so I started kind of doing it on the side as a side hustle and doing little murals and just very small things, pet portraits and stuff like that, nothing big. And, um, it wasn't until just before we left California, when I started doing some fairly large murals, started making some okay money at it and thinking I can do it professionally, do it full time. And so then when we left for St. Pete, Susie was pretty adamant about me just doing that full time. So, um,
That was pretty cool. So she was very supportive. Yeah. So basically I was doing construction in California for to pay the bills while I did art part-time. So when I moved to St. Pete, I didn't do any construction at all. I just went straight into doing art full-time. And that was really nice having her support, of course, doing that. Because I didn't make a lot of money while I was there. I did make a lot of art, which was great. I made pretty much my whole portfolio that I sell right now. I made in that studio.
Chain Assembly (02:08.997)
That's nice.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (02:38.378)
which is pretty awesome and In Florida in Florida. Yeah studios at 5663 I mean I wasn't at that studio the whole time, but that was where I did the majority of my work while I was there
Chain Assembly (02:48.901)
So, sorry, when you mentioned that you, um, the portfolio that you sell now, you're referring to prints and originals that you still have around since then?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (02:54.252)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (02:58.499)
Exactly. Yep. Yeah, exactly.
Chain Assembly (03:00.566)
Okay, so your business involves a lot of selling of prints, I assume.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (03:07.166)
Yeah, it involves selling prints of different kinds. Prints on canvas of my original paintings, prints in books of my comic books and stuff like that, prints on paper of my watercolors, and then our various things that we've been attempting to publish recently, like the tarot cards and baguettes and backpacking and all that, yeah. So, I mean, in art, obviously, that's a really good way to go because you don't have to be...
You can produce a lot and then hopefully, you know, you have a big portfolio that you can sort of just sell from. Um, but yeah, not to say you don't do commissions. He's still, yeah, I still paint all the time. Obviously you need to keep creating new art and all that stuff. Um, but yeah, in St. Pete, I didn't make too much money, but I did make a lot of art and, um, and we loved it there, we loved the beach. And, uh, and that was when I got my first art studio and really got going on it. It was awesome.
Chain Assembly (03:44.757)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (04:00.706)
The transition to Chattanooga was just because we wanted to get up to the mountains, really. We love St. Pete, but we kind of get an itch to move every five or six years or something like that. You know, we want something new. And then in Chattanooga...
Chain Assembly (04:13.557)
I lived in Nashville for a few years and I was happy in Nashville, but it always felt weird not having the ocean at my back because I grew up in Miami. And even though I don't go to the beach a lot, it just it feels like a safety thing. Like I know zombies won't get me from that side, you know, but Chattanooga is a gorgeous city and I love passing through it. And so like how does the art scene compare St. Pete to Chattanooga?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (04:22.422)
Yes.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (04:30.233)
Nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (04:41.006)
Chattanooga is like a baby St. Pete, basically. You know, as far as the art scene goes, like Chattanooga is there. They got some dope murals. They have a few like little studio enclaves where some artists are hanging out. They have some good markets where artists sell good artwork. And it's a growing city. I'd say, you know, as far as the art scene goes, it's definitely smaller than St. Pete for sure, which is not bad. You know, you get to be in a little, in a newer area with-
Chain Assembly (04:43.447)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (05:10.574)
it's a little bit less saturated and that's not a bad thing really.
Chain Assembly (05:17.253)
So what about you, Susie? What was your journey like from California to St. Pete to Chattanooga?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (05:25.082)
Um, it was, it was an adventure. It was, it was great. So, um, yeah, we're, I moved from California. That was basically my hometown and I wanted to just go to Florida. That was kind of random how we ended up in Florida. It was just, uh, yeah, we just kind of ended up in Florida. But, um- We did not plan to-
to stop in Florida actually when we left California. But when we got to St. Pete, we were like, oh, this is so cute. And there were so many murals everywhere. And we saw the art district and the art community. And we were like, OK, this is really cool. Because in California, there just wasn't a lot of that in the town we were in. It's a small town. It's basically population 5,000 people. So it was very small. So when we got to Florida, it was
It was very much a culture shock. That was the first time I had lived in a big city and it was everything. It was awesome. It was the ocean. It was exciting. It was new. And then when we moved to Chattanooga, it was basically we were like, okay, Florida is very flat. And so we actually wanted to do more backpacking. So we did a lot of backpacking in California.
And then when he got to Florida, I mean, we were doing a lot. So I was really focused on my fitness career. And like Suzie and Robert said, he was very focused on his art. And so he kind of like didn't backpack as much. And so the big move to Chattanooga was for the outdoors and for more backpacking and just kind of swish up from Florida. And...
It's been cool. I mean, it's a cute little like, like Suzie and Robert said, it's cute. It's, it's very much feels like a small St. Pete of a sort. And, um, we're like trying to paint the paint the city over here. So it's pretty, it's got the river's gorgeous. Yeah. Less traffic.
Chain Assembly (07:23.633)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
Chain Assembly (07:28.558)
Yeah. The aquarium is mind blowing in Chattanooga also. It's so good. So Suzy, are you still bodybuilding?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (07:33.772)
Yeah, it's beautiful. They do a really good job. Yeah. The rock climbing is really fun out here. Sorry, go ahead.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (07:43.814)
Um, so I haven't done kind of yes and no. So a lot of my training still incorporates a lot of bodybuilding, though I haven't done a competition or anything since leaving Florida. Um, there is a big, uh, community. There is a lot of shows here. And I was actually just talking, um, with one of my colleagues about doing another show, but, um, as of right now, there's nothing in the books. So.
Chain Assembly (07:47.791)
Mm-hmm.
Chain Assembly (08:09.793)
Okay. Well, I'm excited about the future though. So, I mean, you've always worked as a an amazing model for Suzie and Robert's pieces. And everyone who's seen Suzie and Robert's art will be like, oh, there's Suzy right there. There's Suzy with a bow and arrow. There's Suzy with a spear. There's Suzie on a dragon. So it's always fun seeing you showing up in those works. So what was your journey Suzie specifically with journaling?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (08:12.598)
Yes, yes.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (08:24.746)
I'm sorry.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (08:34.126)
Thanks for watching.
Chain Assembly (08:38.329)
since that's what this most recent book is.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (08:42.39)
Yeah, it's funny, I have been journaling for my entire life. And for me, journaling was always like, it was always a personal, you know, it was a personal basically dialogue between me and just whatever, everything that was going on in the world. And I didn't, funny enough, I didn't actually ever think of it as writing.
I was comparing myself to the greats like JRR Tolkien. And so that's what I thought of as writing. Like fiction writing. As fiction writing or pick your book, your favorite book. So I didn't really consider it as writing until basically I met Suzie and Robert and he's like, no, you've been writing. And it's a form of like kind of creative writing. And...
When he said that, I realized that one thing I often did was like, I tried to describe in my journals, like what I was seeing. And the way that I could see him paint and that he would like paint, you know, something like a skyline or something fantasy or whatnot. And it was like, I wanted to describe what I was seeing, saying it was like a beautiful sunset or, you know.
the emotion of doing, you know, journaling. So I was describing. So in a form, it was a form of creative writing that I wasn't really aware I was doing. And Suzie and Robert just kept pushing me to continue writing, to continue journaling. And then, yeah, and then we decided.
to, well, I'm not sure it was really a decision to do the baguettes and backpacking. We did have an idea that we wanted to create this book. It was like an unspoken agreement that we were gonna make this book. Yeah, it was like... We couldn't directly talk about it because then it wouldn't happen, you know? I think it was like, in order for it to happen, it had to be done. And so first you couldn't even talk about it. You're just like, first I have to just document.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (11:00.967)
this trip. And so I just journaled. I just journaled everything that we were doing. And I, yeah, and that's kind of how it happened. And now, yeah, now I'm excited for the future of what the possibilities are with this and everything.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (11:22.451)
Oh wait, your microphone's off.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (11:28.249)
No, you're good.
Chain Assembly (11:28.865)
Okay, okay. It's funny, I hit the mute button because I coughed, and then it just takes like three seconds before it actually mutes. So. Okay, so the decision to make the book happened after you had already taken the trip.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (11:35.822)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (11:42.318)
Uh, kind of. It's hard to explain. Like, we both thought we wanted to make this book, and we knew... I had visualized how I thought it should look before I was even there. I was like, I kind of knew aesthetically what I wanted it to look like. I think what we meant was we had never really done it before, so I think we were kind of proving it to ourselves first before we allowed ourselves to really say, yeah, we're doing this, if that makes any sense.
Chain Assembly (12:11.493)
Gotcha. OK, but you went into- sorry, go ahead.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (12:11.967)
I think...
Suzie and Robert Riedel (12:15.75)
Yeah, I was just going to go off of what he said. We went into it knowing that it was a possibility to write this book, but it was almost like a secret that we whispered between each other. Because we were afraid that if we talked about it too much. If we were like, oh, we're making this book about France. You know how you just build it up before it's done type of thing. So we were very much like, don't talk about it, just do it.
Chain Assembly (12:29.797)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (12:44.214)
I remember certain times in France, we would sit at this pub and I would just be drawing from whatever things I'd saw that day and she would be writing. We wouldn't really be talking about how we were making a book. We were just sort of like documenting it. Yeah. In our minds, we were sort of hoping that it would be a book, kind of thinking it was going to be a book, but not really. Does that make sense?
Chain Assembly (13:07.777)
Yeah, no, I get that, I get that. I like what you brought up about not wanting to say it out loud. I've kinda gotten to a point where if I have a project that I'm excited about, even if I'm only 1% done, I start shouting it to the rafters so that I feel like I have to finish it now. I can't be just letting it float away cause then people...
Suzie and Robert Riedel (13:14.446)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (13:23.822)
Mm-hmm.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (13:31.402)
Yeah, that's the opposite end of the.
Chain Assembly (13:34.701)
Yeah, but no, I was like that for the longest time. And like, I'm also always worried that someone's gonna steal my idea, you know? But then I got to a point where I'm like, you know, I'm just gonna let people know that I have this thing planned for the next year. And maybe I'll just say it happens in Q3 or whatever. But it's funny kind of having that same feeling about like how close to your chest you hold ideas. So talking about the trip specifically, I guess you were
Suzie and Robert Riedel (13:49.55)
Mm-hmm.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (13:55.098)
Yeah, yes, it is a funny thing.
Chain Assembly (14:00.141)
Suzie, you were journaling after the end of the day, which makes sense. Suzie and Robert, were you doing most of that painting at the end of the day based on photos, or were you painting live at times? How was that coordinating?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (14:14.078)
Yeah, basically everything you said, all of the above. I brought a bunch of paper with me, probably way too much paper, like a big, like a big, thick block of paper. All my watercolor stuff, all my pencil stuff, like everything I needed to make the artwork there. And pretty much every day I did a little bit of something, whether it was live sketching on site, painting on site, I took a lot of video. One of the...
Chain Assembly (14:17.946)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (14:41.886)
my favorite things to do with referencing is instead of using photos, I like using video and like sort of just pausing it right in the moment. So like in the book, there's a painting I did of a seagull. And that was, I took that, the referencing for that was from a video that I took while on the beach. And, um, and it just, sometimes it's nicer than a photo, cause then you can take a full video and then you can look through it for your referencing. Um, and then of course, um, just,
Chain Assembly (14:48.258)
Interesting.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (15:11.962)
sketching live and taking a photo to complete it later on in the day, which is a really good technique. You can kind of get it gesturally live. And then when you go to the pub later that night, you can have a beer and look at your reference photo or whatever.
Chain Assembly (15:26.085)
Gotcha. So you're doing, I guess, pencil and then watercolor on top? Or is there? It didn't look like there's any pen involved. Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (15:32.042)
Yeah, and sometimes a little bit of ink. Did any pen in those? Um, you know, I've been known to throw a little ink in every now and again, although I can't recall exactly for each piece, but definitely watercolors, pencils. I think that's pretty much mostly what I used, yeah.
Chain Assembly (15:50.693)
And what size were you usually working on for that?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (15:54.93)
Each of the originals are, most of them could fit inside an 8x7 window, which would be like an 8x10 map board. I'd say probably about, you know, 80% of them were about that size. And then there was about 20% of them, which were a little bit bigger, maybe an 8x10 window on like a 11x14 map board, that type of size. But most of them were small because of course I had to carry them with me and, and strip them home and all that type of stuff.
Yeah, nothing too big.
Chain Assembly (16:26.417)
Okay. So since the book that you put together, Baguettes in Backpacking, is basically Suzy's journaling or Suzy's diaries about the day of your backpacking trip through southern Europe and mixed in with Suzie and Robert's watercolor paintings, what are some things that you're going to try doing a little bit different with your next book?
Chain Assembly (16:50.657)
Now that you know how it can be done, what are you gonna do differently?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (16:51.344)
So there it is.
Yes. Okay, well do you want to tell them what the next book is going to be about? I was just going to say, yeah, I think we're to that point. We can say that now. Okay, yeah, so we're going to be... Oh, what does it say? I forget. Did I forget? Did you write that?
Chain Assembly (17:00.665)
I mean it says at the end of the book what your next one is.
Chain Assembly (17:08.769)
I think it did. Oh, I know you're doing the Pacific Crest Trail, but I think I read it in the end of the book. If not, it was on your Kickstarter page.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (17:16.318)
Yeah. OK. Maybe we had just talked about it in the book and she maybe wrote that in some of her journal entries, because we were probably talking about it while we were over there. Yeah. I do state very specifically. That's OK. I do state specifically at the end that it was like, you know, I miss France and it was like, you know.
Chain Assembly (17:32.057)
I don't remember where I read it but...
Suzie and Robert Riedel (17:42.906)
And he misses it too. And it was so there was like that sense of like, hey, we're not done here. This is, you know, like this is the only beginning. Yeah. So we are planning to hike the Pacific Crest Trail come April of next year. Well, we don't know exactly which month it could be. March, April or May somewhere in there. We're leaving on the trail. Yeah. Okay. Negating the details of when we actually leave, but like we are going to, we're the knock on wood cross our fingers. That's the plan.
Yeah. And that will be our next book. What's going to be different? What's going to be different about it? It's going to be a lot longer. It's going to be over 2000 miles of backpacking. And that's it's going to be pretty epic. I'm also planning on doing I'm trying, fingers crossed, to do 100 percent of the paintings plan air style. So on site without taking any photographs or video or anything like that.
Chain Assembly (18:22.513)
sure.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (18:40.018)
and just doing the full extent plan air style. And I want to do one for every day. That was one thing that I was sort of bummed on my end about for the Baguettes and Backpacking book was I didn't have an illustration for every day. Susie had a journal entry for every day, but I didn't have an illustration for every day. So that was a challenge I wanted to do for myself was to match her journal entries with an illustration. So that's going to be a little challenging for me.
Chain Assembly (18:46.685)
Oh, okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (19:08.81)
I think for me,
Suzie and Robert Riedel (19:14.734)
I, you know, I'm not sure quite if there's so much I want to do differently. I did end up, like I was going to say, like kind of editing out a lot more than I thought I would have for this baguettes and backpacking. And I think that's pretty normal. You kind of like, you know, say trim the fat or whatnot, you know, and so I ended up writing a lot. And then each day.
and then kind of cutting some down. And I love the book. I'm totally happy with it. And I'm not like, I think it was, you know, we edited it and with my editor and everything, we got it down perfect. Like I'm very, very happy. I did feel like there was some more like raw feelings that I could have put in there that I was like, oh.
I hope that people are reading it and they're kind of like getting the feeling of what it was like and everything. But I do, there's, I want to just put more in, I think is what I'm saying.
Chain Assembly (20:23.413)
I mean, I could say from my perspective, what is most memorable to me are the intimate moments between the two of you in the beginning, when you're going to French class and spending time at the beach. That I found more exciting than the different towns you're visiting later on in the book. Probably because like I'm able to emote with those feelings more than...
Suzie and Robert Riedel (20:33.526)
I'm sorry.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (20:41.422)
Oh
Chain Assembly (20:49.961)
Maybe it's also because I'm not seeing those locations the way you are. You know? So, anyways. Hehehe.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (20:53.914)
Yeah. Yes. I love hearing that. Yeah, I love that feedback too, because that's what I want to hear as well. I think that there was a lot more of that I may have actually taken out because I was like, oh, people don't want to hear about all the mushy-gushy stuff or whatever. But that's now, I guess you kind of hit the nail on the head. That's what I'm realizing. It's good feedback. Yeah.
Chain Assembly (21:10.265)
Hehehe
Chain Assembly (21:16.859)
I'm gonna go.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (21:20.886)
there, you know, people don't just necessarily care about, like we said specifically, it wasn't a guide book. So it is just like our trip together and what that entails. And I think that a really cool thing that really makes the book so awesome is the fact that it's both of us combined. It's his art with my writing. And I think like, yeah, that would be a good thing to kind of like really put more, like.
I don't want to say put more focus on, but. Well, I think, you know, allow, like you said, you wrote down more than made it in the final copy. I think what happens too is when you edit, when you reread over your work over and over and over again, it like gets worse to your ears. You're just like, oh God. And she read it like three times trying to edit.
Chain Assembly (22:09.005)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (22:15.646)
edited it. I read it like three times, gave her my feedback on it. And then we had a third party editor edit it. And then there was a fourth party editor edit it. And so we, we were really happy with the end result, but it did end up being like, maybe we felt like it could have, she could have left more in it. And just getting your feedback just now is nice. Cause you, like I said, when you read it five or six times, you almost disassociate with it a little bit. And it is her first book. So I would
I would imagine that you would learn a lot from it. Yeah. Do something a little bit different maybe.
Chain Assembly (22:51.725)
I get that like when I'm writing too, it always starts with me just doing like freeform flow of consciousness, get as much on the page as I can. And then after I'm done with like going from point A to point B in whatever story or card description whatever I need to write, then when I go back is when I'm cutting stuff out, moving things around and that's when I find the writing really happens. That's where I'm like switching from the brain part of my brain that needs to get the ideas out before they disappear.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (23:14.354)
Yes, yes, yeah.
Chain Assembly (23:20.197)
to the part of the brain that actually puts something cohesive together. So I understand what you're describing there. I was also surprised the two of you didn't fight more on the trail. I expected there to be some more controversy between you two, but it seems like you were always on the same page all the way through.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (23:23.938)
That's a good way to put it.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (23:29.51)
I'm sorry.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (23:38.07)
That's, you know, to be honest, we fight less when we're when we're traveling. Like, it's like we're like a we're like a team. And I think it's like the external stress, like, you know, it puts you on the same page. And so you're less like this is the quest. Yeah. I will say there.
Chain Assembly (23:43.825)
Hehehehe
Chain Assembly (23:47.76)
Hehehe
Chain Assembly (23:56.569)
No, I guess that's true, that's true.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (23:59.562)
Well, it depends on if you're good with your, you know, if your travel partner is like clicks with you. A lot of times people say, oh, well, if you can travel together, then, you know, you can survive anything together. And yeah, I think it's like that's where a lot of the stress comes from is like when you travel and then you Yeah. Um, yeah.
Chain Assembly (24:21.909)
So, can you tell me a bit about like, have you worked out any of the logistics on this new PCT journal? Are you going to be shipping paintings back as you complete them? Okay. Suzie, are you writing by hand? Are you typing? What's the plan there?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (24:31.978)
Yes.
Yep, that is precisely it.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (24:39.394)
So that is kind of still undecided yet. So when I did the France book, I actually carried my laptop with me. I had debated sending it back when we sent back a package with his paintings. And I had thought about, cause when we were gonna hit the trail, I had thought about sending back my laptop and I decided to keep it. And typically I journal,
uh, my other backpacking trips, I would journal on my phone. Um, but I could just, you know, when you're, um, a lot of times when I would journal and stuff, including France, you're just kind of like, I would, any extra time I would whip out my laptop and I'd start typing. And there were several times when we were in the tent and I would, before we go to bed, you're like hunched over, you know, riding on your laptop, um, or early in the mornings. So, um,
I am still exploring some options because I don't, the laptop really allows, doesn't, it doesn't hinder how much I can write. I can just sit there for, you know, I can write a lot faster. Obviously everybody can if typing versus like texting. Or handwriting. Yes. I used to keep a, like a handwritten journal and that, you know, it limits a little bit on what, how much you can write down and, you know, the paper that you're carrying.
and stuff like that. So I'm kind of undecided the bringing the laptop while we were backpacking, that's an extra seven pounds that you're kind of lugging around. And which was a cool accomplishment. I was like, I loved my back, you know, I loved my laptop around so that I could write this journal entry and like, you know, and document everything. So for the PCT, that is a lot more. That's going to be another big difference too, is in France, it was like there was a town
Chain Assembly (26:32.25)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (26:36.978)
If we weren't sleeping in the woods near a town, we would pass a town at least once every day. So we were like literally just eating bread and cheese and wine and salami every day. And it was just the best. But on the PCT, we're going to have to legit be like supplying for like five days of back country hiking out in the woods, you know, not, not having the luxuries of hiking through towns every day. And so we'll have to think a lot more about weight and what we're carrying for sure.
Chain Assembly (27:07.825)
So do you plan on this new one being a lot more specific? Since you mentioned you wanna do a painting every day, and you're gonna, do you plan on being more specific about like where you are documenting the location of where you're hiking, like having that in the book to kind of have like people could follow the trail all the way through?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (27:22.717)
Exactly.
Exactly. That's one personal goal I have is to document more exactly where the paintings are taking place and doing them every day will allow you to correlate the painting with the journal entry of that day. So it'll be a really great way to just, you know, take the drawstrings around baguettes and backpacking and take our concept for baguettes and backpacking and really polish it up for the PCT book and make it
Make it even better, basically. Take that idea and make it even better.
Chain Assembly (27:57.553)
Do you plan on doing anything outside of the, if the book is the final product for that next journey, do you plan on doing any type of documentation outside of that, like video vlogging or whatever, or I don't know, maybe doing like a, I don't know. So you funded this one through Kickstarter. Like, do you plan on changing that structure in so that maybe people can...
Pledge at a level that allows them to get daily drops whenever you have internet to see what you hiked that day and then maybe see a quick snapshot.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (28:30.47)
I don't know, it sounds like you have a really cool idea of maybe what we should be doing. Maybe you have some really neat advice for us right now.
Chain Assembly (28:39.273)
Oh, I don't know, I was just wondering if you had thought about changing the structure of the Kickstarter and adding anything to it or not.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (28:45.398)
I think perhaps we should and I think maybe you may even know a little more about that than we do I don't I'm not necessarily sure what do you think is that well do like a long Kickstarter and run it the whole time Is that is that what we're talking about?
Chain Assembly (28:57.901)
No, I was thinking like you could run a Kickstarter before the proj- before you go on the hike where people they could pledge for the book or whatever and I don't know what that is. Anyone who's watching this video a weird thumbs down just popped up on your face So like yeah, I mean you could still have the book as the ultimate item but then also have a pledge level where
Suzie and Robert Riedel (29:04.319)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (29:12.27)
It was like an emoji. Someone gave you a thumbs down? He thumbs downed yourself, I think there. Bad idea.
Chain Assembly (29:27.533)
you'll get, people will get like email updates or something with like maybe some video you shot that day, just something quick, like a, I don't know, like a little Instagram video or whatever. I don't know. And then maybe like take a photo with your phone of the painting you did so that they could see it before it's like scanned and put into the book. I don't know.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (29:39.726)
Mm-hmm.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (29:50.206)
Those are all great ideas. Those are good ideas. One thing we do have that we wanna work more on is we both have a YouTube channel. So his is more geared towards art and mine is, it's pretty basic. I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go with my YouTube channel. So it started out with doing a lot of like backpacking gear reviews and like different kind of fitness stuff. And so that's one thing we do wanna do with this is we'd like to include
Chain Assembly (29:50.583)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (30:18.378)
Normally, I've made videos after we've gotten back from our trips or whatnot. And so this one, we definitely want to do more potentially live videos or just more, you know, where we drop more YouTube videos, like when we get into town and we have like internet and whatnot. So we're definitely looking at that as something we want to do more of. And then we...
Yeah, we. Yeah, more engagement online while we're on trail. And we both have been, you know, trying to have really cool YouTube channels for a while. We can't seem to figure it out, but we just got to do more cool stuff. It is exhausting. Yeah, haven't uploaded enough videos yet. They. Yeah, we've also passed around. Go ahead.
Chain Assembly (30:58.189)
It's exhausting. It's a young man's game.
Chain Assembly (31:06.32)
So...
No, no, no. What were you gonna say?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (31:11.294)
Oh, I was gonna say we've talked around like, potentially putting together a Patreon before we left to kind of have a means for people to follow. Ah yes, Patreon has always been on the back burner for us. To be able to like do what you were saying, kind of like show people the art before it gets into the book and different things like that. So all things we are working on and you know, considering and stuff like that.
Chain Assembly (31:34.893)
Well, I had someone on the podcast before, Mark Williams, a St. Pete artist, who mentioned that one of the things he does to engage with his audience is if he has a piece that's going to be at an art show, he will send out an email to everyone beforehand to show off that piece, give them an opportunity to buy it before it gets unveiled at the show so that it'll be unveiled with a red dot already on it. And he said that really gets people excited to come out to the show to support him.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (31:59.475)
Right, right.
Chain Assembly (32:02.925)
as well as gets them excited because they feel like they're part of an exclusive club that gets to see the completed piece before anyone else does. So I thought that was really genius and I want to try start incorporating something like that too.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (32:09.35)
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. That's great.
Yeah, I completely agree. I love that idea.
Chain Assembly (32:18.469)
So can you tell me a bit about your history with Kickstarter specifically? I want to say the first thing you crowdfunded was Hugo and Knox issue 2, was it?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (32:28.394)
Yes, yeah, I believe you're right. I think it was issue two. And that was my first time with Kickstarter. I think I liked it. I liked how it worked. You know, I think I kept my goal somewhat modest and I kind of worked within my means. I used my other social media to sort of funnel people to my Kickstarter, people that I already knew and people that I had met at art shows or markets, friends, family, you know, the standard thing.
And I think it worked out pretty well, although I think it could have worked better. I enjoyed it. And then I did issue three, Hugo and Knox on Kickstarter. And then the darkness earth and light tarot card deck. And then the last one was baguettes and backpacking. Bam. That's the thing. Bam. Which.
Chain Assembly (33:12.849)
have right here. Yeah. So like I've learned for me the number one value of Kickstarter is that it introduces your product and your brand to people that you could never reach on your own. So you mentioned that you were like we're funneling people who are already following you. Have you looked at the percentages of your projects and see like what percentage of them were people that you brought to the project versus what are what percentage of people who just found it on their own?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (33:26.889)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (33:40.682)
You know, yeah, it's a pretty large percent of people that I sent there from my social media accounts, but it's always a much larger percent than I've thought of people just from around the world. I'm so surprised to find people buying my... Funding my things from Japan or Germany or Australia, and that's always really cool. Yeah. I would say specifically with the Tarot deck, the darkness, earth and light Tarot deck,
Suzie and Robert Riedel (34:10.414)
outsourcing of people that bought the deck. And that was, I mean, it was interesting because I think Tarot decks specifically had just a great following on Kickstarter and where we reached a lot more outside people. I think I was, I didn't mean to take over. I was just saying like, I think also like under doing more projects and understanding like how to network within Kickstarter.
is one thing we need to do more of. We're definitely still learning. Yeah. What do you think you did pretty well on Kickstarter? Do you have any advice or hints?
Chain Assembly (34:50.937)
Well, so I don't necessarily know if what I'm doing is right, because as far as success on Kickstarter, it is a huge wide range. And in general, I feel like I've been successful because I fund what I need to get made and I have money left over. And that is successful to me. And so I have kind of a formula that I've started just following. So at the top of the page, I put.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (35:07.914)
Right.
Chain Assembly (35:17.837)
I'm 3D mock-up of what I want people to pledge for, like what I want my main pledges to be, which would be like the deluxe edition or the core set or whatever. Beneath that, I have quotes from people who I've asked to review it, and then I link that back to those people's websites. So that way I can say, hey, you're a tarot deck reviewer. Can I send you a sample and you tell me what you think? Give me a video or a quote. I'll link it back to you. And that helps legitimize it as a product.
because people could see that, oh, this is already out there in the world and people have already seen it and they're saying good things about it. Which it does help to legitimize something if all you have are 3D mockups. And that being said, I've also gotten, I've dove really deep into making good, believable, realistic 3D mockups. So I'm using this software that I bought, it was like $200 for a year long subscription. It's absolutely worth it. It's expensive, but it's called Boxshot.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (35:50.947)
Cool.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (35:57.076)
Right.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (36:06.45)
Thank you.
Chain Assembly (36:13.641)
It's so simple. Like if you wanted to make your book on box shot, you just drag in a hardcover book. You choose the width of the spine, the width of this. You choose what percentage you want it open, how many leaves you want open. And then you upload the graphics for the front back side, and then you can move the camera around and stuff and it gets perfectly realistic 3d renders. It's so easy to use. But then I've also.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (36:34.35)
That's neat. That's awesome. That's really cool.
Chain Assembly (36:39.001)
I've also learned how to do some stuff in Blender myself, like more complex things like a magnet box for my tarot decks. I've learned how to build that in Blender and import it into Boxshot to pose it and model it and stuff. So again, yeah, 3D renders I find way better than just static images. And then simple pledge levels. Like I've had projects with way too many pledge levels, and that just became a nightmare for fulfillment. And it kind of l-
Suzie and Robert Riedel (36:57.01)
Yeah, that's really cool.
Chain Assembly (37:07.637)
You don't want people to look at your project and not know what you want them to do. You want it to be very simple for them to go from, this is what it is, this is how much it's gonna cost, I'm gonna hit this button, and then that's all they have to think about. So usually I build out a huge project and then start thinking about what I can take away, just like with editing. I put in tons of graphics, and then I started editing it down to just the important things. So those are just kind of some basic things that I've been always trying to replicate.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (37:20.343)
Right?
Chain Assembly (37:36.365)
And I usually try to use the same sections too for each project. Like I can't exactly duplicate one project. You can't do that on Kickstarter, but I'll use the same titles and copy a lot of the same text. So can you tell me a little bit about the manufacturing of baguettes and backpacking? Where did you get it made? What was that process like?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (37:48.003)
Okay, make it go a little faster.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (37:58.93)
We went to a couple of different places. We did like how many test prints before we oh we did three Yeah, yeah three or four test prints at two or three different places The I think the first place was printivity which is a great like online production company for books and booklets I use them for my comic books a lot of the time and
you know, we didn't end up going with them, but it was our first test print and we used that hard cover to do our first editing and stuff like that. And then we, I can't remember when our second company we tried was. The second one, well, the thing with what was cool about Printivity is it is based in the US, but they didn't do hard back copies, which I really wanted like the hard cover. And so we went with. That's what it was.
Yeah, so we went with a company that we found that specifically does books and actually the company name is
Suzie and Robert Riedel (39:06.454)
Um, I, it is escaping me right now, but I can't get you that information. Yeah. Um, it was, I did a lot of, I can tell you, it was just a quick, um, an email, um, Google search. Yeah. Um, I should have had that information. I apologize, but, um, yeah, it was, um, man, that's going to bug me. Sorry. Yes.
Chain Assembly (39:08.614)
Hehehe
Chain Assembly (39:28.798)
Is it Mixam? Because we talk a lot on this podcast about how great Mixam is.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (39:34.602)
Yes, that's what it was. Really, was it? Yes, yes, yeah. That's great. Okay, so then, so people, other artists are using it and yeah, they were great. They color matched like so well with the art, which was just like, I mean, obviously so important and everything. That was important, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so that was.
Chain Assembly (39:36.481)
Okay. Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (39:59.734)
That was just kind of through trial and error. We did two different print runs with that. We did a hardback copy and then just a regular copy. And yeah, so that's literally, yeah, we've just like, it was trial and error, you know? Yeah.
Chain Assembly (40:15.973)
So, yeah, I've used Mixam a lot, and my wife's a real estate agent, she's fallen in love with them too, for like flyers and mailers and stuff. And what I love about them is that they, first off, they have an online pricing calculator, which is always a great place to start. Because a lot of times, if you're curious about whether or not something is feasible, you don't wanna have to get on the phone with somebody. You just wanna know what the price is gonna look at. And it's great when you have an online pricing calculator. But that being said, every time I've had to speak with someone at Mixam,
Suzie and Robert Riedel (40:39.58)
Yes.
Chain Assembly (40:45.029)
They've been wonderful. They've done custom stuff for me at reasonable prices. They don't charge you extra for something custom just because it's like a size not offered on their website. So they're great. I did wanna also show off. So this is the most recent thing I did on Kickstarter was also a hardcover book. And this one I got manufactured from in China. It's the same company that makes my tarot decks. And I ordered...
Suzie and Robert Riedel (41:06.474)
Oh, that's nice.
Chain Assembly (41:13.005)
I think it was 750 of these, so there's a lot of them, but it was down to about $2.10 a book. With that.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (41:16.916)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (41:20.769)
Nice. What's the book? I haven't even heard of it.
Chain Assembly (41:24.009)
Oh, it's a role playing game, Pilgrimage of the Penitent. So it's full color. Yeah, full color. Each page is illustrated and written and so on. Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (41:27.777)
Oh, okay, awesome.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (41:33.422)
Oh, that's great. Are you doing your illustrations using Procreate these days?
Chain Assembly (41:41.573)
I've never used Procreate, but I do Clip Studio Paint. Clip Studio Paint is the software I use. I don't have an iPad and Procreate's only on iPad. So I use Windows. But so if your next project is a lot bigger and you wanna do like better pricing, don't be afraid to look around and poke around China. Great quality and great prices. So I noticed your book did not have
Suzie and Robert Riedel (41:44.33)
Oh, what program do you use? Oh, OK, great. Yeah, yeah.
Uh, okay.
Dirty dog.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (42:03.462)
Okay. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. That's funny out.
Chain Assembly (42:09.525)
an ISBN on it. Is that something that you didn't want to do or didn't even think about?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (42:16.338)
Um, it was more didn't know so, um That is something also so the about the next book that we want to do and um Also with his comic books and even his tarot deck. Um, so that was something This was like our first everything and so I wasn't really aware of it until I guess
Chain Assembly (42:20.549)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (42:42.154)
I don't know. I didn't, I mean, like, obvious to say I wasn't aware of it. That sounds silly, but, um, I think we were just like, make it, make it first, and then think about it afterwards. Kind of mentality. Yeah. When we get our next run that, um, that's what the big thing that we want to do with the next book is add to kind of factor that into the Kickstarter with the next book as being something that we'll, we'll do for the next couple of projects.
Chain Assembly (42:52.347)
I get that.
Chain Assembly (43:11.469)
Yeah, I get that my first few things I didn't do ISBNs on either. And I didn't you don't really need them. But like it makes it easier to get your stuff in bookstores or other stores, because then they have something to scan to put in their system. And it makes it look a little more professional. And it's also one of those things that's like it's annoying to research how to do. So if you want me to just throw it at you, the website is
Suzie and Robert Riedel (43:29.995)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (43:36.11)
Mm-hmm.
Chain Assembly (43:40.813)
I mean, you can buy them cheap from other people, but since you're planning on doing this more than once, I recommend you just get a hundred of them because they sell them like one at a time or 50 at a time or a hundred at a time. The website is, I have a bookmarked, Bowker, B-O-W-K-E-R.
And it's also my identifiers.com. That's where you can go to buy them. And I think I paid like, I think it was like $300 for a hundred ISBNs. So it's not crazy. No, not at all.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (44:03.479)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (44:08.383)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (44:16.402)
Hey, that's not bad at all. Oh, that's... That's way better than we were thinking.
Chain Assembly (44:21.737)
Yeah, if you buy one, it's going to be like $50 for one. But if you get them in bulk like that, it's a lot better. And then it's, it's very simple. It's like just a website where you just enter in all the information and you can constantly update it if you need to. It's not like they, it gets locked in and you can't make a change. So, and then, uh, each ISPN is then going to be a code. And then you'll just turn that into a barcode and make the graphic yourself. Their website will charge you to create the barcode.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (44:25.922)
Right.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (44:40.491)
Right, right.
Chain Assembly (44:50.565)
but there's free websites out there that'll create barcodes for you. And yeah, so then once you have the graphic, you just throw it on your thing. So like, I don't know, it seems a lot more complex than it really is. But like, so technically you're only supposed to use them on books, but people get away with putting them on board games, card games, tarot decks, of course, because those have a book element to them.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (44:54.496)
Cool. That's great.
That's easy. That's so much easier than I thought it was gonna be.
Chain Assembly (45:19.417)
So like I've put them on, like I did 12 role playing games last year, all in little boxes, and each one's just 18 cards in a box. But each one of those, I put a different ISBN on. I have it on the hardcover book right here. I have it on my tarot decks. When I reprinted my first tarot deck, that reprint has a new QR, an ISBN on it. And plus if you're using Square,
Suzie and Robert Riedel (45:19.552)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Chain Assembly (45:49.605)
at markets to sell your stuff, you can use your phone to just scan that to bring up an item which makes things a little bit easier too.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (45:56.186)
That's sweet. That's sweet. Does the barcode come with the price over it? Or is that an option?
Chain Assembly (46:04.925)
It is an option if you want. So like, um, the website I use to create the barcodes is barcode.tec-it.com. I'll email this to you and I'm also going to link it in the transcript of this episode. Um, barcode.tec-it.com. And, um, the version I download
Suzie and Robert Riedel (46:24.002)
Perfect.
Chain Assembly (46:34.769)
that I generate from there does not include the price. But if you wanted to, I know the Boker website where you go to buy those, you can enter the price. And I always leave that blank when I'm registering all the details about the book, because I don't wanna tell someone what to charge for my stuff, because I already made my cut if I sell it wholesale.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (46:50.835)
Okay.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (46:54.344)
Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I'm glad we talked about this because God.
Chain Assembly (47:00.365)
So what avenues do you guys use to sell your books and stuff outside of the Kickstarter?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (47:11.002)
Um, the pretty much all of our books are sold either through, you know, online word of mouth, through social media accounts, through our my web gallery, writeoutgallery.com, or during comic cons, different festivals like renaissance fairs, different art markets, and local markets. Basically, I do some sort of event every single weekend, like in person.
I do a lot of sales that way and I also get my name out on social media that way and then that results in online sales from my you know links and all that stuff. We do have it on Etsy too. And Etsy yeah. I just got it put on Etsy. We got our first book sale just the other day so that was cool.
Chain Assembly (48:05.743)
Nice. So, I am curious about the Renaissance festivals, because I know you do vend at those. Do they, like, have strict rules usually about what you can sell?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (48:09.986)
Mm-hmm.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (48:15.062)
Um, no, they just want your tent to be sort of Renaissance fare looking. They want you to be in garb, which is kind of fun if you like dressing up anyways. And, um, and that's basically it, you know, they'd like you to fake some kind of an accent, I'm sure, but we can't pull that off. Um, yeah, I think that's pretty much it. They do have like, it depends on the Renaissance fair, but they do have, um,
in certain categories for like handmade artisan stuff versus, you know, and also with my art, you know, I can. Oh, wait, hold on. We're frozen. Okay. Oh, okay. Perfect. Sorry. So, you know, you can, you can see a Renaissance fair, you know, aura around my art. A lot of the times I got some dragons and knights and maidens and stuff like that. So it.
Chain Assembly (48:51.665)
That's okay, it's still recording I'm sure.
There you go.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (49:05.45)
You can gear your product to sell pretty well at a Renaissance Faire if you're an artist and you already like to paint that kind of stuff.
Chain Assembly (49:13.521)
So since I know the book hasn't been out super long, just about two months now, I think, or three months. Has it been easy to sell to people in person at markets?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (49:19.542)
Mm hmm.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (49:28.202)
Yes, yeah, surprisingly, well, I don't wanna say surprisingly so, but yeah, it's been a really, it's been a very, very confident, like confidence boosting in that it's had such a good like reciprocation for it. Yeah, it's when we do, cause he does the markets probably, yeah, like he said every weekend. And I think our average sell of
The book is probably two every weekend. No, more than that. I think you sell average. You sell like seven a day, eight a day sometimes. It's kind of cool because there's so many. She sells a lot more than me. My my average is probably like two or three copies a day. You know, you know, I'm the writer mixed in mixed in with all my other stuff. But she sold like, you know, seven or eight a day, you know, so over a weekend. It's fair. It's book sales.
Chain Assembly (50:06.49)
Hehehe
Suzie and Robert Riedel (50:21.426)
It's so cool because I think there's so many varying aspects to the book. It's like, do you like France? There's the interesting aspect of the fact of backpacking 400 miles to the south of France. There's, you know, the art aspect. So if you like illustration and art, also the whole, like you mentioned, the couples thing. So it's like my husband and I went on this backpacking trip. So there's so many facets to it that I think appeal to like a wide variety of people.
and it did have a very strong push out, which has been very encouraging in why we're going for this. I think this is a pretty niche thing to have an illustrated field journal. We haven't really seen that before, so I think it's all around, it's a really cool thing.
Chain Assembly (51:09.329)
Well, that's exciting to hear because like I know a lot of my product products that do well on Kickstarter or do well online do not do well in person. Like that like that pilgrimage of the penitent role playing game sells well online. But because it's for a role playing game that's already pretty niche, the changes of somebody who plays it, recognizing the logo on the corner and being curious about it at a market are so slim.
or like Satisfy, the board game I made for couples, like that one, I have to explain to someone how it works and then they're probably into it, but like they're not gonna just see it from the title and wanna get into it. So I'm excited to see that you're doing well with the additional copies you have left over. So how many did you get printed in that first print run?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (51:37.803)
Mm-hmm.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (51:56.898)
So the first printing we did actually just a very modest, we did 100 prints of that and that went so quick. I think within a month we ordered to 300. I think we ordered- Pumped up to 300. Yeah, 300 for the next order. So- And then our last, we do 500 for our last order? No, we're still on our second, yeah. Can we go? Yeah.
Look at us. Yeah, no, I think we did 300, which I mean, about half of it is gone. So I'm hoping in the new year we'll probably go for another larger, larger quantity as well.
Chain Assembly (52:37.893)
So have you been trying to get it into any stores or has it just been like you're just selling online and your personal interactions with people?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (52:46.122)
So far, yeah, I mean, eventually we'd like it to be distributed. Of course, we'd like to get into stores, but so far it's just been personal. And during our weekend events that we go to. Yeah. Funny enough. I thought that we had to have the S and P I number, um, in
Chain Assembly (53:04.274)
International Serialized Book Number, ISBN.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (53:07.086)
Yes, that. ISP, okay. I thought that we would have to have that in order to kind of like move it more into like a store or something like that. Which I think it's good, but now we know it's actually not that expensive to have. Yeah, funny enough, when I looked it up, it was way more expensive. So I'm so glad to have you as a resource for that because it was gonna be an investment for us to get so many, but.
Yeah, so, yeah, eventually I would also like to see it like go on Amazon, like we do have big plans. We do have big plans. And the more that we produce like here with the second book and whatnot, we have we have big plans for that. Yeah.
Chain Assembly (53:54.501)
So I know Amazon does require either an ISBN or UPC, universal product code. Those are way more expensive, the UPCs. Those are like $100 each. But ISBNs, again, they're cheap, but if you Google it, a lot of times you'll end up on a third party website that's reselling them at a premium. So you gotta track it down to the actual company, Boker, that makes them. But...
Suzie and Robert Riedel (54:03.598)
Okay.
Chain Assembly (54:19.625)
Even if you didn't wait until like your third print run to get those added in there, you can always just get stickers made and throw them on the back. You've got a good amount of space on the, on the bottom, right? That you could throw that in there. Um, yeah, but like I know in St. Pete specifically, there's, um, a bunch of like small local bookstores that have been popping up and they're always hankering to have an event for some type of local writer and, um, I've had a few writers on this podcast who regularly do book signings at events.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (54:31.138)
That's a good idea.
Chain Assembly (54:48.685)
not just to move product, but it also helps the event. I mean, it helps the location feel like they're more involved in the community by having local authors too. But again, it doesn't sound like you're hurting to push product. But yeah, yeah. So like, I know when I decided to buy those 100 ISBNs, I felt like I was investing in my future as a publisher. And I'm like, okay, this means I need to start making it worth it.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (55:02.293)
Still an avenue, yeah. We could always push more. Yeah.
Chain Assembly (55:18.921)
make more books, make more tarot decks, and I'll always have a code available to throw on there. So that was a fun feeling.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (55:26.91)
Yeah. Yes.
Chain Assembly (55:29.313)
So can you tell me a bit about what's next with Hugo and Knox, your comic book?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (55:34.438)
Oh yeah. I didn't expect that. Yeah, I love you, Go Nux, and I have the plot for the story taking place over 12 issues. I have the script written all the way up to issue 7. So that's the actual panel by panel script that'll be in the comics. And I'm just itching to start drawing issue 4.
I'm currently working on a different comic book project right now that I have to finish up first before I can do issue four. But I'm super excited about it. Issue four is going to be bigger than issue three. They keep getting bigger. And I'm just really excited to see the story move forward. But I can't tell you anything about the story, unfortunately.
Chain Assembly (56:19.969)
Okay, that's fine. Is that also gonna be on Kickstarter?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (56:24.298)
Yes, yeah, yeah. And until I can find some better platform, I'm gonna keep trying to increase my abilities on Kickstarter and just sort of do a better job at that and figure out how it works. And yeah, keep funding everything on Kickstarter. And I think it's a good spot for comics as well as different decks and games and stuff. Like you said, Chain Assembly, we've seen a lot of success in that we've, you know, like...
We've reached our funding goal every time, which obviously is a great success. And that is success, so you know, right there in that you're like, okay, this, you know. Yeah, because you go into it not knowing. If what you have is really great, because oftentimes you're just in your studio most of the time making it, and you're not kind of alone. You haven't really let anybody else see it yet. At least that's how I am with the comics.
Chain Assembly (57:13.497)
Well, I also feel like the two of you and me, we're similar in that we already have the infrastructure to do markets and sell our leftover stuff. So that just means that when we have a Kickstarter project, we aim for higher quantities because we have the freedom to sell those quantities later on. I always worry about people who maybe only wanna produce enough or they're basing their project off of producing enough just for the Kickstarter backers.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (57:35.105)
RAID.
Chain Assembly (57:43.533)
which means that they're getting much higher per unit costs or they're gonna be stuck with tons of stuff. And so I always just worry about those people. It's like, it's easier for us because we're not afraid of the work it takes to continually selling the same thing over the next two years.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (57:47.922)
Yeah.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (57:56.728)
Right.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (58:00.003)
Right, we're already planning on restocking anyways. Yeah, exactly.
Chain Assembly (58:03.437)
Yeah, awesome. So what's next for you, Susie?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (58:11.223)
Aside from the PCT book, I have two novels that I'm working on currently. That's very intimidating and scary for some reason. Like I said, I didn't really ever consider myself a writer in the sense of the word. But anyway, so I have one novel that I've been spending a lot of time on.
I have no timeframe. Well, that's not true. I would like to see it done by the end of next year, but we'll see how that goes with the whole PCT trip coming up. And I still do personal training. So I'm still super involved in the fitness industry here in Chattanooga. And then of course I help Suzie and Robert, I basically, I guess work part-time with Suzie and Robert. I manage the whole back office stuff and help him.
Well, now we're doing projects together. So now we're running Kickstarters together. And definitely over the, I think the past year, I've taken a way more active role in his business. And it's now become more Rydell Gallery and that it's both the Rydells. Of course he's the artist, you know? And then I've taken over a lot of the writing for it, whether it's, you know, answering emails or creating the text for various projects. Yeah, or also like matting prints, ordering prints, doing all the back office stuff, the taxes. I mean, yeah, she's doing, she's killing it. Yeah.
Chain Assembly (59:50.189)
I'm jealous. Awesome. Well, it's beautiful to talk to the two of you again. I'm excited about what you're putting out. I'm excited to follow on your PCT project as well as the next Hugo and Knox. You're always just wonderful to be with and talk with and thank you so much. And if anyone wants to purchase Baguettes in Backpacking or any of your other fine work, they will find it at RiedelGallery.com. That is R-E- sorry.
Chain Assembly (01:00:23.151)
That is R-I- My syntax was all over the place. Rydell Gallery is R-I- And on Instagram, it's at Rydell Gallery. Facebook, you're Suzie and Robert N. Rydell. TikTok, artist Suzie and Robert Rydell. Suzy, you are on Instagram as at Suzy.Rydell. Rydell spelled R-I-
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:00:23.278)
Thanks for watching!
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:00:28.271)
Mm-hmm. That was good.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:00:35.522)
Perfect.
Chain Assembly (01:00:48.677)
DEL. Anything I missed?
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:00:51.329)
Nope, you were perfect. You killed it, man.
Chain Assembly (01:00:53.773)
Alright, well thank you again so much for taking time to talk to me and hope you have a wonderful day.
Suzie and Robert Riedel (01:00:58.626)
Thank you, Chain Assembly. This was a pleasure. Thank you so much.
Outro
Chain Assembly: Art for profit sake is recorded through Riverside FM, distributed through Spotify for podcasters, and edited on Adobe Audition. The music is provided by Old Romans. If you learned anything useful or found this podcast helpful, please rate and review us five stars. If you want to learn more about me or my art, head over to ChainAssembly.com.
