A long-time friend of NFT Culture, Mark Kelly (aka Saucebook), recently launched a series of weekly drops on Nifty Gateway. We caught up with him to find out more.
You’re more widely known as an artist or collector. How did this role of publisher and curator come about?
To me it seems like a natural progression. I recognized the potential of the NG Publisher initiative as soon as it was announced and got my application in straight away. I imagined that the beta launch group would be populated by only the biggest names in the space, so I was thrilled when they reached out to gauge my interest.
Over time I might get the chance to drop some of my own work, but for now I’m delighted to share some of the relatively unknown artists I discovered while collecting over the past year.
I like it because I can support artists in this way even when I don’t have funds for a buying spree, and I can present collectors with a huge variety of talent that they might otherwise be unaware of.
Why a weekly drop though? Doesn’t that risk saturating the market?
I’m not short of variety to choose from, since I collected around 1,000 different artists, and I’m only presenting new works from three to four of them per week. I felt it was important to do something consistent, which people would come to expect on a regular basis, rather than showing up at random. I think that’s the way to build momentum and brand, especially if I use all of the NG drop mechanics and price everything in a way that’s sensitive to market conditions.
My dream is for NG customers to be sitting around on Sunday and think “I wonder what Saucebook’s dropping tonight”. I have a solid schedule of themed drops through to at least the New Year, so that sort of momentum should be achievable.
How has it been going so far? And what do we have to look forward to?
The launch week was originally going to be me dropping a single token to grant utility in future drops. There was a problem with that approach (I have curation, not self-curation permissions) and three of my artists stepped in at very short notice with some great pieces, which went to Open Edition at $50. Holders then had access to a collectors-only draw in the Iranian Female Artists drop, which was the second week’s collection.
Both the Prelude and the Iranian drop were special cases in their own way. The Iranian collection had been planned a month ago, before the latest news gave it a special relevance and timeliness. The artists were most grateful for the support of the community.
Going forward, the themed drops will get into their stride. We have plans for City Visions, Traditional Artists, Abstract Art and photography collections, but the next drop showcases an amazing set of 3D animators, who will present both Open Editions and Limited Editions.
And – there will be a $1 public Open Edition, effectively another token to expand the collector base and give us more flexibility on the collector-only editions going forward.
I never know exactly what will work and what won’t, so during these first few weeks I’m trying out all of the different structures that are available to me as a publisher, taking careful note of what achieves the best results for my artists and their collectors too.
Where do we find out more?
I’m pleased you asked. I always keep my Twitter followers up to date via the pinned tweet at https://twitter.com/saucebook and the upcoming drops can always be seen at my Publisher page here – https://www.niftygateway.com/publisher/Saucebook
By no means should you miss out on the $1 drop in the Open Editions this Sunday, but you should also check out all of the amazing and varied work on display there and in the Limited Edition parallel drop.
Open Editions – https://www.niftygateway.com/collections/3dvisionsopeneditions
Limited Editions – https://www.niftygateway.com/collections/3dvisionslimitededitions
Hope to see you there!