How to Set Up a Spot UV Gloss in InDesign
A spot-UV gloss effect can really add some pizazz to your book cover.
But it’s a little tricky to set up. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial.
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A spot-UV gloss effect can really add some pizazz to your book cover.
But it’s a little tricky to set up. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
Designing a book cover entails creating the back cover, spine and front over all on the same document. And that can be a little tricky. Heres a little tip to get you moving fast.
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You don’t need a subscription to read today’s post! If you’ve ever been curious about the kind of information, tutorials and advice that you’ll get as part of your subscription to Webcomics.com, this is a good example. If you’d like to join the site, you can get a monthly subscription for $5 — or save 50% and get 12-months for $30!
We’ve had an excellent discussion in the Private Forum about traffic-building on the post-ad-blocker web.
In the course of the conversation, I started brainstorming on a special publishing strategy for longform comics that can’t/don’t use humor as a hook for their updates.
I think it’s worth experimentation.
And it’s all about cultivating the orbital reader.
First, if you haven’t read the Private Forum thread, it’s worth it.
So here’s the problem in a nutshell. In order to grow a readership, a traditional webcomic has to follow a frequent/consistent/significant publishing format. Updates should be as frequent as possible, while maintaining consistency (of schedule and of quality), and each update has to be a significant reading experience — even to the reader who is just landing on the site for the first time today. If you want a more detailed discussion of this concept, please read this post from the archive.
For humor comics — both longform and shortform — that’s a pretty simple prescription. The comic has to be funny every time — without relying on previous updates for backstory/context. Easy to say. Hard to do. But also, pretty crucial.
For a comic that isn’t written to be humorous (or uses comedy as a spice instead of the main course), this is daunting.
And, if this is you, it may feel as if the entirety of Wweb publishing is stacked against you. It may feel as if social media doesn’t work. Readers aren’t engaged. There’s a low ratio of signal-to-noise.
But it’s all about the comic. If the comic is good, all of that other stuff can be addressed.
That’s really frustrating for folks to hear. For a humor comic, it’s brutal. There’s no shortcut for writing better humor. Your only hope is to be an honest critic of your own work, seek outside opinions that you trust, and keep honing your craft.
But for a non-humor comic, what if you’re already confident that you’re doing good work — and it’s still not happening for you?
If the problem isn’t the comic, it’s the way you’re presenting it.
And this is the A-Number-One flaw I see in most of the non-humor longform comics I visit…
You’re presenting your longform comic as if it were a shortform humor comic. In 2005.
Is your latest page the first thing people see when they get to your site? Are you expecting people to path backwards through the archive? Are there no top-screen solicitations for downloadable chapters/books?
Then, in my opinion, you’re using the wrong publishing strategy.
Why? Because that was a system that revolved around pageviews. When ad revenue was an important part of your business plan, you needed ad revenue. But ad blockers have put a kink in that hose. Instead of bemoaning the cruelty of fate that has brought you so low, look at this for what it is. It’s actually… FREEDOM. You’re not chasing pageviews anymore, pal. That’s a total game-changer!
Furthermore, crowdfunding giants like Kickstarter and Patreon are proving to be a much more potent replacement for that money. But you have to position those correctly. It’s not just plug-and-play.
And that means you can completely rethink how you’re presenting your comic.
STEP ONE — SCHEDULE
You’re no longer publishing by the page. You are now publishing by the package — whether that means issue, chapter, book or volume is up to you. But you’re not publishing pieces any longer. You’re now publishing packages.
STEP TWO — THE HOME PAGE
Your home page should no longer showcase the latest page. Instead, it should showcase downloadable packages — PDFs of chapters (or even entire books). Your goal is no longer to generate pageviews. Your website should have one goal, and that is encouraging the downloading of you content.
Of secondary importance on your site should be two things — reader outreach (including social media) and crowdfunding (such as Patreon).
You need outgoing social-media links (links that people can use to talk about your stuff on their social-media feeds). Links to your social-media feeds are nice, but not as important. However, reader outreach such as solicitations to join e-mail lists, directions towards RSS feeds, etc. are very, very important. You’re no longer striving to attain the daily visitor — or even the regular visitor. Instead, you’re striving towards an orbital reader. You need to establish ways to pull them back into your gravitational field when you have new stuff to update. They’re not going to be headed to your site every day, so you need to develop ways to let them leave and then call them back.
Finally, you need a prominent presentation of your crowdfunding options. This will most likely be a Patreon campaign, but it can be expanded to include Kickstarters whenever necessary.
STEP THREE — CROWDFUNDING
On your site, each of your downloadable packages should have a price — even if it’s only 99¢. It has to have value. It has to be a potential revenue-generator, of course, but more importantly, if it doesn’t have value, it’s not going to drive Patreon subscriptions. And that’s where I think you’re going to be able to replace ad revenue.
Once you have 99¢ downloadables, you can offer them — in different combinations and at different rates — to your Patreon backers.
Remember: Your goal should be to have monthly rewards for monthly pledges. Keep this in mind as you’re building that reward-tier structure. Everything I talked about in this post still applies to you.
STEP FOUR — THE PUBLISHING CYCLE
Now, you go into your publishing cycle. You’re not posting pages on your site anymore, but that doesn’t mean that you’ve gone silent. You’re posting previews, sketches and perhaps even pages for you Patreon backers. You’re on social media talking about your comic and posting sketches there (as long as you’re posting more for Patreon backers). You’re promoting the hell out of the downloadable packages in your archive, showcasing finished pages — or even multi-page sequences — from those.
You’re building a library — a body of work. That’s what you’re talking about. Shortform humor comics as all about “here’s what I did TODAY.” You’re going to be about “Here’s what I’ve done.”
And it’s going to feel a little repetitive — especially if you don’t have a large archive — but, in social media, you’re the only person who’s really gonna notice. Your audience isn’t getting every single missive you shoot out into the ether, so it’s not nearly being received as repetitive as you think it is.
And when you’re getting ready to post the next chapter/issue/book/volume, you’re going to start banging the drum, building up excitement and suspence. And when you do release it, your outreach (social media and otherwise) is going to be all about that new package! Your e-mail mailing list is going to get a big burst trumpeting its arrival! It’s going to be a major announcement on your web site.
And after that dies down, you go back to talking about the archives (along with this new package) as you’re working on the next.
Free content is at the heart of web publishing. And this publishing structure is no different. But here’s where you have to decide what works best for you.
There are dozens of variations — including coupons, discounts, promotional giveaways — that you can introduce to keep interest.
Furthermore, as you build up your archive, you’re going to be able to repackage the packages. When you have enough chapters for a book, release the book. When you have enough books for an omnibus collection, release that, And so forth. As long as you price them wisely, you shouldn’t have to worry about cannibalizing your own sales. In fact, you should be able to drive sales to the new repackaged collections.
This is all about ridding yourself of about 17 years of what you thought a webcartoonist was. It’s above leaving behind everything you’ve been doing up until now. It’s going to be a shock to your readers. Heck, it’s going to be a shock to you.
But if your publishing method isn’t working — and if you’re confident that it’s not the quality of the comic — then I’m not sure you have a choice.
Around 2014, webcomics reached the tipping point with ad blockers. With ad revenue restricted to a trickle, many of the traditional, assumed features of webcomics have lost their original purpose. Daily updates…publishing the most recent update on the home page… free archives… all of these things were created to service an ad-supported business model. Removing ads, then, makes it necessary to rethink webcomics from the ground up.
And here’s where I think we should start…
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My Twitter feed exploded last night when someone asked for the top three ways to bring traffic to a webcomic. My answer was simple:
That was NOT what people wanted to hear. But I believe it passionately… and since Twitter is a horrible way to communicate, I decided to elaborate on my thoughts on the next Webcomics Confidential.
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April was an excellent example of the tremendous value offered by a subscription to Webcomics.com. My readers got early alerts on issues that would impact their businesses, helpful tutorials, insightful analysis, and meaningful feedback on their work.
Most notably, in April, the new Webcomics Confidential video series truly hit its stride. I’ll post some clips and excerpts below, but to get the full discussions, you’ll need to subscribe!
We’ve all heard of “shameless self-promotion,” but there’s such a thing as shameFUL self-promotion — and that’s low-yield, pointless, ineffective promotion. If you’ve ever posted “check out my web-comic” then you’re guilty, too. Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of poor promotion — and, more importantly, learn how to do the kind of effective promotion that your comic deserves. [Subscribers can view this video right now]
Whenever a Kickstarter campaign attains its goal, it’s expected that the creator will announce a Stretch Goal. I know that was the expectation when I hit my funding goal with two weeks of campaigning to go. But I really didn’t have a good Stretch Goal lined up. My readers have never strongly supported merchandise outside of the graphic-novel line, so maquettes, action figures and toys were out.Heck, I’ve never even seen a strong enough demand for hardcover editions to justify that expense. Besides, adding all of that stuff to the mix means accounting for extra shipping expenses, and I wasn’t certain that I was going to be able to hit a Stretch Goal if it accounted for all of the extra money that would be needed.
And — really — now that I’ve reached my goal, isn’t it wiser to simply run up the numbers for the current Kickstarter? I mean, I have a three-volume omnibus book that I want to pitch to my readers, but I think it’s better to let that stand on its own merits — with its own Kickstarter.
However, I did want to maximize the money I’d be able to generate in the next two weeks of Kickstarter funding.
And that’s when I discovered the beauty of the Add-on.
The Kickstarter Add-on was pioneered by tabletop-gaming project creators, who have used them to allow backers to add expansion packs, extra cards and game pieces. Since then, add-ons have become popular for projects in every category.
I offered a single Add-on — a PDF that collected the NSFW comics I was doing for Patreon since last April. I alerted my Kickstarter backers that it would be available as a $20 add-on. That announcement went out on April 7.
Three days later, I’ve seen $720 in increased pledges. [Public post — read it now!]
Participants posted their book covers, and we workshopped them to identify improvements.
I take on a couple pf good questions. First — Are smaller comic conventions really better for webcartoonists? And then — Patreon backers who come and go… are they a problem? I’ll answer both of those questions and manage to insult vegans all at the same time. [Subscription post]
So, what if I offered a small promo box that participants could add to their comic sidebars. The box would randomly generate a small banner and link to one of our comics. Are you in or out?
I think the answer should be out.
And I’ll tell you why… [Subscription post]
In response to my recent show on comic conventions, a Webcomics.com member wrote to ask about the intangibles involved with exhibiting — stuff like exposure and promotion and improving one’s sales skills. Weren’t they reason enough to continue to exhibit at comic conventions? My response is Episode 7 of Webcomics Confidential. [Subscription post]
Should you translate your comic and try to sell overseas? Much like this post on promotion, it’s a bigger question of decision-making. [Subscription post]
How often has this happened to you? You see a webcartoonist doing something — and it’s a big success. So you do that thing. But you’re not as successful as they were. Once you identify Cargo Cult mentality, you can start to avoid the bad decisions that it leads to. [Subscription post]
What would you do if you had your own “Robert Khoo”? Would you do the To Do list he told you to do?
No you wouldn’t. You’re a fibber who fibs.
And I’ll tell you why…
Chances are, your writing falls flat for one very important reason — Editing. You either don’t want to edit — or you don’t know how. And good editing is waaaay more than catching spelling errors and correcting grammar. So today we’re going to talk about good editing practices.
But first — What is the biggest pitfall involved in hiring a business manager? Why is the history of creative professionals littered with people whose managers have taken advantage of them? And what is the John 8:1 of Webcomics Weekly??
It’s all on this barnstorming edition of Webcomics Confidential! [Subscription post]
Backerkit has completely changed the way I fulfill Kickstarter rewards. That alone is worth an endorsement.
For my most recent Kickstarter, that came to about $560.
I made that money back in the first 12 hours after launching Backerkit.
As of now, less than 24 hours later, that number has nearly doubled — about $970.
How did they do that? Glad you asked… [Subscription post]
I strongly endorse using the Jetpack plug-in for WordPress sites. I’m also a big fan of DreamHost, and I use them for my sites. Here’s good news for members who use both.
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This is the second in a short series of critiques that will focus on book-cover design.
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You don’t need a subscription to read today’s post!
If you’ve ever been curious about the kind of information, tutorials and advice that you’ll get as part of your subscription to Webcomics.com, this is a good example.
If you’d like to join the site, you can get a 12-month subscription for $30 — or you can get a monthly subscription for $5 …
Two of the of the strengths of Clip Studio Paint / Manga Studio is the ability to create page/strip templates and save image “material” to use again later.
But what if you use the software on two different computers — for example, one in your studio and another at home?
Relax. There’s an easy way to sync everything up.
• Go to your Documents folder.
• You’ll see a folder named “Smith Mirco“
• Make a copy of this on Dropbox, Google Drive, or some other back-up system.
• When you get to your other computer, drag this folder to the Documents folder of that second computer.
You will have all of the templates, materials, etc. from the first computer available to you on the second computer.
Now, whenever you add something to your library of materials, remember to drag that Smith Micro folder to the back-up and manually sync the other computer at your first possible convenience.
We’ve had a few site issues lately, and I wanted to keep you informed…
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