This week has been swamped with everything but reMIND. I’ve started worrying about running out of spreads to post every Monday. I even considered just posting half spreads (1 page at a time) instead for the next month or two to give myself some time to finish up the newer pages. As you can see, I still put up a spread. There’s nothing more motivating then a shorter deadline to keep the ball rolling. I’m planning on staying up late tonight to color another one so I can feel better about myself.
Advertising with Project Wonderful
This week I’ve been looking around at tons of sites noticing just how much traffic some web comics get. I guess I just don’t understand how a web comic can get 50,000 or more unique visitors a day like the Phoenix Requiem. I seem to be missing something. I mean the comic is beautiful looking but how in the world can someone generate that much traffic! I just don’t understand. I read in an interview that every now and then Sarah Ellerton, the creator, does bursts of advertising on a bunch of websites to draw in new readers. You can read the interview here.
So I looked into Project Wonderful. It’s an ad service that many webcomics use allowing them to bid on advertising space. I decided to give it a shot to see what happens. I made a bunch of banners and I bought about 5 ad spots on webcomic sites. I placed a few bids and got some ad spots for 20 cents a day and one around $5 a day. I don’t mind spending a little to test this stuff out.
The results so far have been pretty good with about 400 unique viewers in a 24 hour period before getting out bid. I only ended up spending about four dollars so far. I can see how some of these guys can pull in 1000 unique viewers a day by just doing some smart advertising. So the next question is; should I start an advertising budget for reMIND? If I don’t buy a Starbucks coffee a day I could pay to get 300 unique viewers, all very targeted. Maybe 2% of them will keep coming back every week. That would mean I spent 4 bucks for 6 followers. Hmmm. Could it be that easy?
In doing this little test I noticed a few ads kept showing up on all the hot sites out there. Whoever these guys are, they sure spend the money to advertise. Nobody would be spending that kind of money if it didn’t bring a good return on investment. I definitely need to study this more. One thing I’m going to do is get the book called “How to Make Webcomics“. I’m not trying to make webcomics really but I think they could have some good information which could apply to what I’m trying to do here. I’ll let you know what I think of it after I read it.
So I spent Saturday night working on some banner ads and I wanted to get someone’s opinion. Here they are. Let me know what you think if you have a second to comment.
So there you have it. All my banners. Any feedback would be great!
oh i see so that's how they got a lotta hits…well i want to share you something a friend of mine who's also into comics..indie comics that is went to this digital webbing forum thing..i forgot the exact site but according to him..that's where he got most of his comic gigs..well anyway my point is you might use the forum to advertise reMind..well i've only been to the site a couple of times and i think it's usually updated or a lot of people visit the blog regularly..well that's just a suggestion and there's also Zuda comics..i don't know if it will help but it never hurts to know..it might come in handy in the future or whatever…i regarding the spreads..you could put up a behind the scenes thing on the spreads..especially on the coloring part..i'd love to see how you color the spreads..i kinda find your coloring style so appealing it's grungy and painterly..well i don't know..but i sure do like to stare at it for several minutes…
I plan on doing a bit more behind the scenes of the coloring process some day hopefully soon. Thanks for the suggestion.
As far as the forums go, I wrote a few articles about using forums to promote a graphic novel last month. It's a great suggestion and it really does work. It takes quite a bit of leg work but I think it's pretty worth it in the end. here's a link to that post.
http://www.remindblog.com/2010/01/21/promote-grap…
and here is a list of good forums I wrote about:
http://www.remindblog.com/2010/01/28/artist-illus…
I've looked at Zuda comics in the past and the one thing I don't like is sticking to their format. I don't really want to make a comic specifically for the internet. I love books and my end goal is to get reMIND printed in high quality. But I have seen a few comics get noticed through Zuda. I might try to make a short 8 pager some day to submit there just to see how it works. Thanks for the comment!
Seeing as you're trying to drive more traffic to your site for promotional purposes once reMIND is ready to hit print, you do have to treat it as if you were developing a webcomic. You could go the ad route, and yeah – that will get you some quick traffic. But your constant, consistent updates are what will keep people coming back.
Eventually, over time, word of mouth will bring in steadier long-term traffic. Its nice to get wide exposure, but if a large percentage of them are hit-and-runs, then you're not really accomplishing much other than creating spikes in your traffic flow.
You're well on your way though. You're getting noticed and you're making yourself known. You're efforts are not going to go unrewarded. Just have a bit of patience. Eventually you'll hit something big and from out of the blue your readership will surge.
Great spreads, btw. Its coming together nicely.
I always appreciate hearing your thoughts Drezz. You are like the mature voice of reason in my head. If you haven't noticed, I've implemented much of your advice already and it has been very spot on. So thank you again!
Anyway, I think your right about treating reMIND like a webcomic. And I guess, I'm trying the ad route to see not only the amount of traffic it brings but also if any of the traffic subscribes and comes back for more. I see what you are saying about creating spikes in your traffic though. And I totally agree with the constant, consistent updates being integral to success in this. I've been thinking about saying in the header that the blog updates every Monday and Thursday. I've noticed webcomics announce this sort of thing.
Thanks for the comments and encouragement!
I've thought about Project Wonderful, myself, but for some reason I have never gotten the idea fully set in my mind. Maybe it's the fact that I'm currently only able to do a fully colored page every two weeks. I mean, I update every monday, but usually it's inks one week, colors the next, which feels like a cheat. But really, you never know. It is important to have a valid assessment of your own place within the community, though. There's a lot of very bad cartooning out there, that's mainly "webcomics as a lark," versus serious artistic or literary endeavors. Personally, I assess myself as somewhere in the 60th or 70th percentile, and I'd put you probably in the 90th. I intend no flattery, either. As Arthur Conan Doyle said, "To the Logician, everything should be seen exactly as it is."
As for quick hits versus repeat readers, I tend to think that in the end, it's kind of a crapshoot no matter how you slice it. Forums are great, but they wax and wane in the interest of the participants, and it's kind of like coming up with content twice, once for your own site and then again for forum consumption. Adverts, as Drezz mentions, are no guartantee of repeat readership, either. In the end, I guess anything is worth a shot. My original "business plan," so to speak, was to serialize 6-Commando and try to push the first chapter at a convention. That, of course, is not the most economical idea, I admit, what with printing costs and all, so some other strategies are definitely worth a shot.
–M
I think I going to try to buy a ad spot one day out of the week and just see how it works out after a few months. I agree with your thoughts about forums too. In fact I've had trouble keeping motivated to keep posting stuff on several threads because, like you said, I'm coming up with content twice. I also started using WAY to many forums all at once so I need to cut it down to 1 or 2 now. It's just to much work otherwise.
It really is hard to make a solid business plan for a comic now days. There are so many new methods of publishing now. I just learned that the ipad has a comic book app that the big guys are all making comics for or something. I'll have to look into it more. But I can really see things changing in the comic book world these days. My end goal is always going to be to print a sweet book because that's what I personally like. But I'm sure there are plenty of new viewers who will never think about looking for a physical book in stores.
All the avenues of advertising, promoting or conventions do seem like a crap shoot in some ways but in the end, the more people you can get your work in front of the more of a chance that you will find the niche crowd who enjoys the same things you like creating.
I think the big studios call it "market saturation", the percentage of random people who have at least heard about their upcoming movie. Of course the higher percent the better for sales. Once again, if people have never heard about it, whether through word of mouth or a giant billboard, then nobody will know to go look for it when it's ready to be bought.
I love your thoughts, Mr. Average! This is a great discussion.
Jason, whoozah! great spread. Your line work and coloration at top notch. The variety of cell shapes, placement, cross over word balloons really work. The use of "atmospheric" perspective is excellent for focus, such as Victuals darker (top right) and the rest half-light. The same for the next panel down, with the draped figure full contrast, and surroundings faded, with colored outline, the "pop" on Victuals in the foreground is excellent. I really like the cat "bleed" lower left, looking into frame. Solid skills guy, right down to the last "squeezed" low detail panel….
Now, about those banners, I like…, but for "advertising" purposes…, having the "a graphic novel, every Monday" is crucial. Unless I "know" you, "Remind" isn't enough of a "hook" even though the graphics are great. I didn't even know it was "every Monday" until these banners, and I really like your work. The way the human eye and attention work, we are "drawn" to look at "eyes and faces," movement (not available), contrast, color, detail, so the one with Victuals2 works better with the dark background and lighter figure, bottom left tall panel is the best of that group, good contrast, faces, easy shape read, good positive/negative interlock. The middle one is intriguing and more color is a draw, but the shape read is not as clear, and it doesn't have the "Graphic Novel" tagline. Far right, "weakest" of the group, good contrast and shape, but figure content is less clear, and it only makes sense best for those who already know the story context. Enough for now, back to the core, great spread….
Paul
Thanks, Paul, for the breakdown of how you view the spread. It's great to hear specific information about this stuff. Especially since it's a page that I noodled and noodled, not feeling it for a long time. The idea of washing paints across line art is something I originally planned to do for ALL the pages but as I colored I kept adding details until that whole idea was lost. I think the looser I can get with my colors the more I like it. Fading the lines to a yellowish color was an accident that looked so cool that I couldn't pass up finishing the page in that style.
And for the ads, I'm glad you took the time to point out some things. Placing the "every Monday" was an afterthought that I kept second guessing but now that you mention it's importance it totally makes sense. I'll spend some time updating my other ads to have that information.
I'll also take your advice on the Victuals2 with dark background and close up of the face. It makes a lot of sense your opinion of it all along with adding "every Monday" to it. My only problem with that one is his eyes are purple which I didn't notice until after posting. I'll adjust that too. I see what you are saying about the tall banners as well. I'll be using the left one for sure now! Thanks again for the great breakdown. Very helpful!
Jason,
Really dig the comic. I heard about it through word-of-mouth. I'm not a comic creator but I'm always interested in finding ways to build a fan base for my films, which, as a DIY distributor, isn't far off from what you're doing and at least as difficult. We had a great review on a well trafficked site and only generated 30 hits from it. One thing you have to consider when you see the numbers of someone like Phoenix getting 50,000 hits is that this is her second comic, her first one actually went to print and with this one she's got over 500 pages! She has a built up fan base already, that took her 2 years to grow. The more content you put up the more fans you will generate. With my blog (http://nwrann.wordpress.com) I notice that the more often I post content, and especially keeping it on a schedule, the more it snowballs. Once I fall away for a week or two it takes a lot of work to get those fans back.
Thanks for the Project Wonderful info, I think that might come in real handy for advertising on a budget when we release our new film, 'Burning Inside', in the spring.
Keep up the great work.
Hey Nathan, I really appreciate your input on all this. I can see that constant content for a long period of time is a large factor in all this.
It’s funny that you are into independent film making. Believe it or not, I have a friend who shares my name who also does independent films. He has a website called http://www.filmmakingstuff.com/ with a little following. He is the one who convinced me to start blogging about my graphic novel. If you stop by his site, tell him the other Jason Brubaker sent you. ha
I’ll keep an eye out for your new film Burning Inside.
Talk to you later.
Jason, I took a quick peak at the other JB's site. Looks like some good content. I'll have to go back for a longer stay. "Blogging to find an audience" is a very popular model among DIY filmmakers these days. Personally I think it's about 1/3 conspiracy theory, 1/3 kool-aid drinking and 1/3 effective. Especially if your blog is NOT the end-product that you're trying to find an audience for. In your case your blog IS THE PRODUCT (at least until you go to print, at which point it is still directly related) and when you create a spread you're 'working on your blog' (granted, you always post additional blog info which is much, much appreciated) , so fans of your blog are for the most part automatically fans of your product.
In the indie-film biz it's hard enough to get fans for a film, now I have to try to get fans for my blog in order to turn them into fans for my film? What is that? Pretty soon I'll need to create a blog in order to attract fans to my original blog in order to get them to find out about my movies. I guess that's what Twitter is for. When do I have time to make a movie with all this blogging?
Oh and then there's the cardinal sin: "Don't blog about your product otherwise people will see your blog as an infomercial" well how the hell am I supposed to get fans for a film if I can't even mention that I'm a filmmaker???
If you want fans for your blog, keep blogging! They will find you. If you want fans for an independent film keep…. Um, I haven't figured that one out yet. (however, in much the same way that the more spreads you put up, the more movies I make the bigger my fanbase will grow.)
Again, thanks for the great blog. I always like seeing artists that are willing to do the RESEARCH work and look for an audience instead of ignorantly think that a publisher will magically appear or fans will solidify out of vapor.
You might try blogging about the creation of your indie film. Show some behind the scenes stuff or tricks you found on editing, lighting, shooting, etc. There is a big difference, in my mind, with the blogs that just look like an infomercial and those that are a real person speaking about what they are doing or learning. I thought about making an infomercial type of blog at one point but I just couldn't do it. I thought I would be ruining any branding of my product by looking like a salesman. In the end, I just loved sharing what I was figuring out and so far it's been pretty rewarding and lots of fun. Not to mention it really forces me to learn some new tricks and refine what I do know so that I can explain it.
Then there are the thousands of art blogs where artist posts a piece of art every now and then thinking people will come out of the woodwork to see a random drawing without any commentary. There are so many of these it seems. I tried to make my blog more then just a normal webcomic posting or art blog to stand apart. Plus I was just so inspired by ProjectWaldo that I keep bringing up. He writes such great posts!
Thanks again for your comments!
I've done a variety of things on my blog. Some of them are about influences, movies I've seen or music I've heard lately. I had a running series that did pretty well considering it was inconsistent where I compared two different DIY distribution providers (Amazon's Createspace and indieflix.com). I think I just need to post regularly (the real problem is when I feel obligated to post and then every idea I've EVER had in my head mysteriously vanishes) and it'll start to do the trick. It's weird when people hit on it because they used search terms from a blog I posted a year ago.
I think that what you're doing is great, combining the informative with the content of your graphic novel. You're attracting other comic creators, and giving them information to relay on their blogs (and hopefully link back to you) which will be read by their fans who will then become your fans.
I'm only a recent webcomic reader (I read comics/graphic novels religiously growing up and got away from it about 15 years ago, for no reason in particular) but when I saw my brother, Christopher Wrann, started posting one I checked his out and found yours because he mentioned you on facebook. I have to say, my only complaint is the format. Waiting a week (or even a few days) to get new pages is excruciating. Especially if the current pages don't provide a complete scene. I would compare this to the webisode format in video. There is a school of thought that seems to think that episodic web video content can only be 2-4 minutes long, which is true if there is no through-storyline. But in all reality doing a 2-4 minute portion of a complete story will get the hero up, out of bed, and in the bathroom and then the episode ends. I think the postings (for video content) should flow with the pace of the story. It's hard to say how it should go with comics. I took a look at some of those "…phoenix" pages which are fantastic but if she's only putting a page up twice a week, man that's killer. Especially some of her pages that are only one frame! It's really hard to get a flow going. which might also explain why she gets 50,000 hits a day (how did you determine that, by the way). If I go to her site as a new reader and I find her work compelling I could read 30 pages in a sitting, easy. That's 30 hits (not sure if it's counted that way), if 1,000 visitors do the same that's 30,000 hits! She has 500 pages up. that's a lot of hits!!
One question I have about your banner ads is that they look great and they say it's a graphic novel but they don't say anything about it. They don't give me an idea what it's about. I'm not familiar with traditional web comic banner ads, so maybe this is the norm, but do you think that you might want to put a tag-line or catch phrase on there? Maybe pull a bit of dialogue from directly from the pages like: "At this point I was faced with a dilemma: Add to the strange occurrences of Cripple Peaks or keep this under wraps… I'll choose the latter."(from spread 11). I don't know. I know when marketing a film there almost always needs to be something, whether it's a tag line or a quote from a review. (unless it's like Iron Man's face on a teaser, then all they need is "Summer 2010.")
anyway, sorry to be so long winded. If you've flipped through my blog or read the recent interview (16 pages!!!!) i did you'll see I tend to get long-winded.
Later
I think you are the perfect candidate to have a blog being long winded. I've thought a lot about the SEO (search engine optimization) of my blog in the last few months and found myself writing a bunch of blog posts just for the search engines. I never posted any of then because they seemed manufactured. They also were a bit off track from reMIND too. As you will see in my next post on Thursday, it's a post about model sheets. It's an important thing to know but it was kinda designed for the search engines. I threw out a few posts that I wrote based on keyword searches (which might be dumb of me) but I just didn't want to seem fake or like a know it all. I just like the down to earth bloggers.
Quoted "then every idea I’ve EVER had in my head mysteriously vanishes". This is something I've had to overcome as well by just writing every little thought I get for my blog when I have it. Even if it's just a one liner to remember what I could write about. I have a pretty giant list now and several articles written in advance.
Yeah, I've been checking in on "Aquarium Drinking" every now and then. He has some funny stuff there and I like his DIY attitude with drawing it even though he doesn't consider himself an artist.
The short amount of story you can get from a few pages of a webcomic is pretty hard to follow. I've even thought 22 pages were to few in a normal comic. That's why I started this GN in the first place but look at me now posting 2 pages a week. ha. I don't really follow webcomics to be honest. I like collections. I like trades and graphic novels.
I got the rough numbers from Phoenix from Project Wonderful. Once you log in you can study sites and see the traffic to see how much you want to bid on the ad space. It's pretty amazing seeing some of the numbers. She actually gets more then that most of the time but I didn't know how much info she would like me to post about her blog on the web so I kept it simple. It is unique viewers too. This is a computer hitting the site with a unique IP address. This is different then page hits which are even more ridiculous I'd imagine.
As far as the ads with a tag line in them. I'm just going by what I've seen that I like. The simple ones with beautiful drawings pull me in more then reading a sentence. I think having more to read might be a bad thing. But that's just my opinion again. I've heard that too much wording will make people just skip over it and blend into the abyss of endless banner ads and google ad-sense ads. I could always do an animated one that flashes a few images, one of which has a tag line. But many sites wont let you use animated banners because they flash all over the place and give you a seizure pulling your attention nonstop.
Thanks again for all the great conversation here!
Wow, another great page, and lots of useful information to digest.
You seem to have a lot of intelligent followers already so I think if you can keep this pace of posting up until you finish (not an easy thing with the pace you've set for yourself) I think word of mouth will spread and you'll have a nice audience by then.
By the way, the quote, "Then there are the thousands of art blogs where artist posts a piece of art every now and then thinking people will come out of the woodwork to see a random drawing without any commentary. " made me laugh/cringe. It totaly describes me. I still have a long way to go before I have enough content/ideas to start regularly posting, but your blog gives me hope that one day…
one day… ;)
thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Oh, and before I go, my two cents on the banners:
I think the angry cat eyes is striking, but also a bit off puting. (I'm not sure I would want to read a story about an angry cat).
I really like the banners with the girls head because they show that you know how to draw, and make me want to see more…
Good luck with it all, I look forward to hearing about it in future updates. ;)
sam
Yeah, making good content is going to be an ongoing challenge. But I think I have enough junk I want to figure out to keep me busy. I was kinda venting in my quote you quoted. I don’t think that ALL artist blogs are pointless. I still have a large group of them that I follow and love. The internet just makes it super easy for anyone to pose as anything they want to be. Your comics are very unique and I’ll definitely be following your progress. I was even planning on posting a link to you soon because you fit perfectly into my category of creator/artists making their own comics or graphic novels of notable or unique quality.
I’m sure plenty of people can look at what I’m doing with tons of criticisms too. That’s just the risk/reward of showcasing your work for anyone to see. It’s exciting but also very real. If people don’t like it then they can announce it to the world. Before I started this blog I was really shy about what I said online. So having a public opinion is really new for me. I don’t like stepping on toes. Plus I’m not very good at writing but I just had to force myself to try and ignore the voices in my head telling me I’ll be ridiculed for trying. Wow, Suddenly I’m revealing way to much about my childhood. ha
Thanks for your thoughts on the banners too. I was wondering the same thing at one point about an angry cat being enough to pull in a new audience. I’ll think about this one more and try to work up a new horizontal banner with everything that was talked about in all the comments. I also see your point about having more art that shows that I somewhat know how to draw. Great opinion man.
Outstanding Spread Jason!! :)
Thanks buddy!
Could this be the "Chekhov's Gun" spread? If you show an anchor bolt borer in the first act it must go off in the third, right? Good stuff.
I liked the banner of Sonja sleeping, as a rule pretty girls attract webcomic readers. If you can draw it, flaunt it.
I think that a variation of the last panel in spread 9 would make an excellent banner. Victuals looking into the water asking "Why?" is such an intriguing image. I think that it could attract the readers you are looking for.
Another insightful blog. While reading it I found myself wondering what I want out of my own web comic. Beyond the telling of a story I haven't given it much thought.
Thanks for the ruminations.
I never really thought about bringing the anchor bold driller back for the third act but now that you mention it, it would work perfectly. haha. It was more of a example of Sonja's potential is as an inventor and technology to come.
It's very interesting to me the wide range of banners people liked. I even got some emailed versions which were totally rad! The more I think about it the more I question if one perfect banner is the right mentality. I might as well keep rotating through a few of them as long as they have the right information. Everyone has different reasons for clicking on a banner it seems. I do want to appeal to the niche crowd as well as art fans as well as the common consumer or webcomic reader or creator. So maybe everyone is right again on this. I love the girl drawings myself and think I would click on it if I though a comic would be filled with awesome mood setting scenes and nice drawings of stylized girls. I also respect the approach with some dialogue from the comic to let the viewer know what the story might be about. I also see the reasons for creating an image with contrast to draw the eye as well as have the appropriate info of the days it will be updated. Wow, that's a mouthful.
Speaking if Aquarium Drinking, it seems like you are on a pretty good roll. I mean you have hundreds of fans in facebook and your moving right along with the pages. There's nothing better then learning as you go and it's okay to make improvements as you learn more. Just look at the first Garfield's or Peanuts strips. Totally different from what we know now. I even enjoy seeing the progress of an idea as it evolves or changes to become what it needs to become. I don't know where reMIND will be a year from now but I hope it will be in a much better place then it is now. Not that it's in a bad place but it should definitely keep evolving.
Keep it up man! And thanks for stopping by again.
Funny you should mention making improvements as you go along, I just found a a webcomic website today (snow day) called "ComixTalk" wich features a series of articles in which they compare the first strip of a comic with the latest one. Check it out. http://comixtalk.com/index.php?q=node/30423#comme…
As I work on my latest pages (I'm coloring page 22 right now) I am tempted to go back and redraw the earlier ones, then I remember what "The Simpsons" looked like on the Tracy Ullman show and I don't feel so bad.
Exactly!
I think continuing to move forward is more productive. I started redrawing some of my old comics and I'm still redoing things I already redrew already. I know I could have said that smoother. It's never ending.
Yeah, Simpsons started out pretty rough. Great link BTW.
I second the "keep moving forward" idea. I made the mistake of looking at a "to be edited" list of mine last week and it was a HUGE mistake. Ruined my concentration, not to mention my mood. If you ever print, you'll have an editor assigned, so leave them something to do. And if you self-publish, you can self-edit once you're READY to publish. Getting it all down once, for a start, is the most important thing, in my opinion.
–M
Since you wanted feedback: I got to your site today via the 728×90 sleep one.
I discover most of my webcomics through project wonderful advertising now, rather than link-drops by people I already read. I usually click on the ones that have some colors, or a very well drawn character, or just a really hilarious line.
It's funny that you mention pheonix requiem, because the banner ad I clicked to get here was on pheonix requiem. You're awesome.
Haha YES! It worked!
Thanks for dropping by and letting me know! This is great information.
Yeah, I started bidding on the Phoenix Requiem lately because I've been reading it and I really like it. She's a pretty amazing artist and to think that she does a page in about 4 hours (from what I read). Thanks again!
Hey Jason–
Also wanted to leave you some feedback. I found reMIND through Warren Ellis' Whitechapel forum while I was lurking around and doing some webcomic research…so, your forum trolling has worked!
I'm dipping my toes into the webcomic world after my comic ran into…let's just call a contract disagreement…with our publisher. The rights reverted back to me, but left me without a publisher. I started talking with a number of my indie (and not so indie) friends who are all pushing to webcomics at this point.
From everything that I've learned thus far, you're making all the right moves. WordPress/Comicpress, check. Project Wonderful, check. Blogging on non-update days, check.
Oh, also, you've got great art and a fun story– let's not forget that!
So, kudos. You've won me over and I'll be checking back in!
–oh, about the only thing I'm not sure I saw: Do you have a twitter account that you're promoting with?
Tim – Thanks for the informative and thoughtful comment. Have you found that your webcomic friends are happier with making webcomics vs. getting a publisher? I'm starting to wonder if online graphic novels might be more beneficial to the creator in the long run. I mean, I still want to publish this thing in the end as a book but I keep coming to the conclusion that I would be limiting my audience by ONLY publishing as a book through a publisher.
Among your points, I never knew that blogging on non-update days was a good thing. I just knew that I wanted to fill my blog with useful content so it was my only option. But this is great to know that it's a good approach.
I do have a twitter account but I just rarely use it. Now that you mention it I guess I should put a twitter link on my site too. Thanks for the suggestion.
I'd love to hear more things that you've found useful in webcomics!! Thanks again!
Yeah, I'll totally let you know as things move forward. I just bought my domain name last night, so I'll be playing around with comic/wordpress over the weekend.
I had a good long talk with one of my other publishers a week or so back. He's a guy that has stuff published through both DC and Dynamite– and a few other. Plus he's a big Hollywood guy. Anyhow, talking with him, he was showing me some of the metrics on printing/trades/floppies etc– to go at it alone (self publishing) is madness…If companies like Image are barely turning a profit, then the odds on us (as individual indie-types) are monumentally stacked against our favor.
Along with that, when I told him how much I was willing to sell 50% of my IP to cover production costs, well– he slapped me. It hurt. (I'm kidding of course, but he did highly advise against it)
The truth is, if you're going to bankroll your own comic, the actual physical production and distribution are going to kill you financially and you really aren't going to turn a profit…adding to that, you (and I) aren't going to be in a position to print off 100,000 copies– so, we're looking at a limited audience with limited distribution.
Pairing up with a publisher solves that, but then you've lost at least half your IP– and god knows what else they might have snuck into that contract.
Everyone that I'm talking to on the indie side is going icomic at this point. I think within this year you'll be seeing a lot of noise on that front. It's gonna be interesting, to say the least.
Hey, I noticed you work for Dreamworks– are you in LA? If so, we should grab a coffee sometime– also, (if you don't go already) you oughta come hang out at Comic Book Sunday– big gathering of comic/animation folk once a month…It's at Titmouse Studios in Feb. Good times.
I am in LA and I'd love to have coffee sometime! Shoot me an email and we'll set something up.
I keep hearing about never making any money self-publishing and part of me knows this to be true but part of me really thinks that companies like Image are really going about it the wrong way to. If they stopped publishing every Joe who had a finished black and white book then I think they would have a bit more respect from people like me. And maybe even some sales. I'm really not impressed with their business structure and I think it's running itself into the ground.
On the other hand you have European publishers who are paying their artists upfront to create books. They fully back them and they fully market them (unlike Image). Anyway, enough of my venting about Image. I liked them in the 90's.
We definitely should talk more about this all. I really need to figure this part out. I'd love to see a link to your book/site once you get it up and running.
I've heard of the Comic Book Sunday thing too. Maybe I'll have to swing by there. We can talk about it more over coffee!
I found reMIND from a Project Wonderful ad on (I think) Phoenix Requiem, and bookmarked it immediately. I look forward to more!
Hey Jason, great resource. As I am also on the journey of creating a GN, this site has some really great info.
I like them, just found your comic today and read it too. Its great! Hope you don't mind I used one of your banners and posted it up on my wife's webcomic site, http://www.chasedbyblood.com.
Thanks for the link Matt! I could never turn down friendly links. I appreciate it much!