SebastianPiccione
Thursday, February 12, 2009, 12:54 AM
One of the most important rules of writing is to always, ALWAYS, write down ideas as you have them. Otherwise you forget them. One minute you’ve got this brilliant idea, that you’re fleshing out as you go; the next thing you know, it’s a week later and you’re about to write your column and you’re thinking “What the HELL was I going to say!?”
Yeah.
Whatever the great ideas were that were cooking around in my head are gone.
So let’s take a look at what ingredients I have here, and see what we can cook up with those.
1 lb Diamond cut-offs (fresh)
4 cups POD Comics Monkey
3 TBSP Direct Market
Season to taste
And we want to prepare this in a way that serves as many Readers as we can.
HMMmmm. I think we’re gonna need the slow cooker on this one, as it’s not something we can leave on the back burner.
Ah! There you go! You start with the ingredients, and the recipe comes back to you!
My last column focused specifically on the challenge of getting your comic into the direct market stores. Now, I SAID outright in the column, that the Direct Market was NOT the only way to go, and that, in fact, it was probably the hardest thing for a small press-er. My point was, that to a lot of would be comic creators, seeing your book in the shop is a big piece of the dream, and that you shouldn’t limit yourself from ANY potential sale. If you CAN get into the store, then get into the store. And while those books are on the shelves, you can take MORE copies and hit the cons, the internet, book stores, and every and any possible place you might be able to sell them!
This week, I want to look at ways to get your book noticed by people. Not people in a store, just people.
One of the biggest money makers for the Indy and Small Press creators is the Con. People go to cons looking for new and exciting things. They are willing to pick up something new. There are no middle-men, no distributors, shippers, or retailers, just you and a table full of your books. You sit there and sketch, sign, and sell your little heart out. Good times. These are the pros of Cons. The cons of Cons are that you have to pay for the table and the travel with no guarantee of sale. Also, the cons are not year round limiting the amount of time you can do that. You COULD try to start your own con, but that takes time, money, and a lot of work. Work you don’t have the time or mine for.
But….
There’s a new kind of Con on the rise. The virtual Con.
(But, Seb, you keep talking about how you don’t like digital comics, and the screen gives you a headache after too long!) God, you just remember every little thing, donchew!? But, I’m not talking about digital COMICS here; I’m talking about digital CONVENTIONS!
Comic veteran Michael Netzer has started the FACEBOOK COMIC CON (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=63366131619), an online comic convention with celebrity creators, sketches, “tables” (event pages) and more. This is a Con you can attend without leaving your home. No travel, no table fee, no carting stuff back and forth. The glory of a Con from your own computer.
This opens new windows…..pardon the pun. Small press and Indy creators can now host their own cons (I’m thinking the PFB Virtual Con as a facebook event page has possibilities). You contact other indy creators. You set up the event page. You get them to set theirs up. You post samples of your work and links to your home page or wherever they can order your stuff from. You are drawing in crowds from around the world and getting people interested and excited about your book. You are also networking with other creators. Make a friend here, a friend there, maybe some more projects fall into your lap. Maybe you could start an AD SWAP. I’ll put an ad for YOUR book in mine if you put an ad for MY book in yours!
Think of it as taking networking to the next level.
Plus, if the idea of POD companies and their “virtual warehouse” is valid, then so is the idea of a virtual con. In fact, the two really go hand in hand. You get someone to log in to your virtual con, while they're there they can check out your digital images. If they like what they see, the can follow a link to your virtual warehouse, click, pay, go! You've made another sale!
It's a whole new world, out there!
The ether is the limit, folks!
Yeah.
Whatever the great ideas were that were cooking around in my head are gone.
So let’s take a look at what ingredients I have here, and see what we can cook up with those.
1 lb Diamond cut-offs (fresh)
4 cups POD Comics Monkey
3 TBSP Direct Market
Season to taste
And we want to prepare this in a way that serves as many Readers as we can.
HMMmmm. I think we’re gonna need the slow cooker on this one, as it’s not something we can leave on the back burner.
Ah! There you go! You start with the ingredients, and the recipe comes back to you!
My last column focused specifically on the challenge of getting your comic into the direct market stores. Now, I SAID outright in the column, that the Direct Market was NOT the only way to go, and that, in fact, it was probably the hardest thing for a small press-er. My point was, that to a lot of would be comic creators, seeing your book in the shop is a big piece of the dream, and that you shouldn’t limit yourself from ANY potential sale. If you CAN get into the store, then get into the store. And while those books are on the shelves, you can take MORE copies and hit the cons, the internet, book stores, and every and any possible place you might be able to sell them!
This week, I want to look at ways to get your book noticed by people. Not people in a store, just people.
One of the biggest money makers for the Indy and Small Press creators is the Con. People go to cons looking for new and exciting things. They are willing to pick up something new. There are no middle-men, no distributors, shippers, or retailers, just you and a table full of your books. You sit there and sketch, sign, and sell your little heart out. Good times. These are the pros of Cons. The cons of Cons are that you have to pay for the table and the travel with no guarantee of sale. Also, the cons are not year round limiting the amount of time you can do that. You COULD try to start your own con, but that takes time, money, and a lot of work. Work you don’t have the time or mine for.
But….
There’s a new kind of Con on the rise. The virtual Con.
(But, Seb, you keep talking about how you don’t like digital comics, and the screen gives you a headache after too long!) God, you just remember every little thing, donchew!? But, I’m not talking about digital COMICS here; I’m talking about digital CONVENTIONS!
Comic veteran Michael Netzer has started the FACEBOOK COMIC CON (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=63366131619), an online comic convention with celebrity creators, sketches, “tables” (event pages) and more. This is a Con you can attend without leaving your home. No travel, no table fee, no carting stuff back and forth. The glory of a Con from your own computer.
This opens new windows…..pardon the pun. Small press and Indy creators can now host their own cons (I’m thinking the PFB Virtual Con as a facebook event page has possibilities). You contact other indy creators. You set up the event page. You get them to set theirs up. You post samples of your work and links to your home page or wherever they can order your stuff from. You are drawing in crowds from around the world and getting people interested and excited about your book. You are also networking with other creators. Make a friend here, a friend there, maybe some more projects fall into your lap. Maybe you could start an AD SWAP. I’ll put an ad for YOUR book in mine if you put an ad for MY book in yours!
Think of it as taking networking to the next level.
Plus, if the idea of POD companies and their “virtual warehouse” is valid, then so is the idea of a virtual con. In fact, the two really go hand in hand. You get someone to log in to your virtual con, while they're there they can check out your digital images. If they like what they see, the can follow a link to your virtual warehouse, click, pay, go! You've made another sale!
It's a whole new world, out there!
The ether is the limit, folks!