Book Covers and Anniversaries (Patreon)

This week I've been cracking away on the cover design for volume two, which is generally not my forté. 

But I've done my best! Pushing and pulling pixels and text left and right, shrinking and enlarging my little cartoons of sex toys on the cover. 

I just handed off the file to Matt, thinking only some minor tweaks remain. When he told me this is gunna take another 2-3 days worth of work, I defer to his much greater experience working with graphic design and layout than I have. 

This Sunday is the two year anniversary of Oh Joy Sex Toy! This comic has completely changed our lives, just every single aspect. Two years ago I barely made enough money to pay rent and we relied on Matt's job to support us both. Now we both work full time on OJST and it's been praised on Wired, Jezebel, io9, The Daily Beast and a ton of other big deal news sites. People write to tell that they've just tried their first sex toy or they decided to get a certain birth control just because they read about it on our site. One sex shop said they even made some purchasing decisions based on whether we'd be reviewing a specific toy or not, and when we reviewed the book "Come As You Are" we sent such a surge of sales through Amazon that even Simon and Shuster, the book's mainstream publisher, noticed. Just... fucking wow. 

I mean, I'm just telling you guys the highlights reel. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of burn out and seven day work weeks and anxiety and stress and depression and creative stagnation and doubt and furious haters and mistakes and miscommunication with affiliates or shops who want to buy the book and frighteningly risky expenses and panic attacks too. 

It's a whole lotta stuff. 

In the end, I couldn't be prouder, though. I love what we've made. I hope it lasts another two years and maybe longer too. 

Mwah mwah,
Erika