NCS Divisional Awards — Call for entries
The National Cartoonists Society has released its call for entries.
Here’s what you need to know:
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The National Cartoonists Society has released its call for entries.
Here’s what you need to know:
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
In the new episode of ComicLab, Dave Kellett and I tackle a deceptively important question: Why comics? This goes beyond the trite answers everyone give about childhood aspirations. And it’s downright crucial to know the answer for yourself — Why are you doing this? We drill deep on the topic.
You don’t need a subscription to read today’s post from the Webcomics.com archive! Part of the new dashboard that Patreon has rolled out is the Exit Interview. When a patron discontinues his or her pledge, they are offered an exit interview. This gives them a chance to explain why they’re leaving.
I’ve found this to be the classic good news / bad news situation. Here’s why:
Patreon has long told us that the primary factor in a patron ending a pledge is that their financial situation has changed. And the statistics back this up pretty clearly. Just glancing down the page, makes it clear that an ended pledge is more about the patron than it is about the content being offered. (And, yes, I realize that this assumes that the ex-patron is telling the truth.)
The second-most-popular answer: I only intended to pledge for a limited time. That backs up a philosophy we’ve discussed here in the past. Many Patreon backers do not view their pledge as a long-term commitment. That’s important to note as you’re developing your rewards. If you’re setting up rewards that pay out over a long period of time, you may be missing a significant portion of pledgers who don’t plan to stick with you for that long.
Here’s how my responses (Since September) broke down:
So… the good news is this: You can stop beating yourself up over lost backers. Most of them have dropped out for reasons that have nothing to do with your content. And the others had a pre-determined time frame in mind when they joined. And your content did little to change that.
Perhaps the most-offered advice on the Internet is “Don’t read the comments.” It’s simple, the perceived anonymity of the Web emboldens people to write things that they’d never say to another person’s face. It’s for that reason that I’ve posted several pieces (like this one) that try to help properly walk the balance between gauging reader feedback and being creatively paralyzed by it.
The Feedback column in the Patreon Exit Interview has the potential to be just as frustrating as reader comments.
But the more dangerous area, by far, lies in getting to emotionally invested in these comments. I found myself obsessing over a single negative comment. The amount of brain space I devoted to it was — honestly? — depressing. What’s worse is this: Most of the comments in the feedback section were positive. But me, I couldn’t see those because I was too focused on the negative ones.
Now, as I’ve said before, you can’t afford to disregard comments from Patreon backers completely. In fact, I’ve argued that their comments should be taken much more seriously than run-of-the-mill reader comments. So, do take some time to read and reflect on the comments you’re getting there.
Just don’t let yourself get derailed.
On the preceding episode, I said that independent cartoonists should stop going to comic conventions. Co-host Cory Casoni said that creators should cross at least one off their list. As a result, we at Surviving Creativity found our feeds flooded with questions about attending cons… because, of course it did. So we’re diving deep into conventioneering from pre-show orders, to your post show P&L. Plus, a whole a slew of con stories and some good networking & etiquette advice for creators and attendees alike.
Award season is upon us. Although I’ll be featuring a post with the details of each as it is announced, here’s a look at some of the awards you may want to start preparing for. For more information on any of these awards, feel free to use the Search function on this site to look up nomination/submission instructions from past years. They’re usually the same from year to year (except for the deadline dates, of course).
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December 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. Here are some samples of what you may have missed…
The big story from last month was Patreon’s decision to add a service fee to pledges and discontinue aggregating patrons’ payments. Webcomics.com was on top of the story from the start — alerting members to the situation the evening before the announcement was made to patrons. As social-media outrage raged and misinformation was propagated, Webcomics.com offered members insight, perspective and accurate information that they could use to formulate their own strategies. Here are those posts:
Patreon will announce to backers tomorrow morning that it is planning to change how it bills patrons for their pledges.
I’m seeing some panicked tweets from creators. Here’s what you need to know…
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
Dave Kellett joins me in the studio to talk about Patreon’s new payment structure that pushes service fees onto the patrons. What does this mean? More importantly, what should you be doing right now if you’re a Patreon creator?
Yesterday, Patreon updated its announced new service-fee system with an explanation. And it’s very much worth your time to read if you’ve been troubled about the resulting social-media meltdown. (Scroll down to the “Update” subhead.) Later, a Patreon user wrote an open letter to the company with some thoughtful ideas on addressing the issues, and I think they’re worth discussing. Let’s break it all down and discuss what it means to you…
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
As we continue to make our way through the debate on Patreon’s service fees, I’m seeing repeated retweets of this…
That’s… not particularly helpful. First: that conversation was from June. It has little to do with the recent service fees. Second, the Patreon exec (Tal Raviv, who leads the growth and platform team at Patreon) was making a hypothetical argument about the importance of bringing in creators with large followings. Third, that hypothetical argument? I’m willing to bet that many of you experienced exactly what Tal was talking about. And you were fine with it. Here’s what I mean…
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
Q: With what’s happening with Patreon lately, can you suggest some alternatives alongside Patreon for webcomickers? Some suggest putting Gumroad or similar pay systems. What else should we look to?
A: There are several alternatives to Patreon — including a DIY model. But before you close down your Patreon account, you owe it to yourself to ask yourself a few key questions…
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
I have to hand it to Dave Kellett. During a recent Webcomics Confidential discussion about the Patreon service-fee mishap, he not only guessed that the crowdfunding company would reverse the decision, but he accurately foretold the first three words of the announcement: “We heard you…”
Here’s what you need to do right now…
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
Although it’s a moot point with yesterday’s decision, I tested out a working theory that popped into my head, and I got some rather surprising results.
As I was writing the latest update on the Patreon service-fee issue, this chart captured my attention.
Three was an initial decline in the days immediately after the unpopular announcement that Patreon was going to add service fees to backers’ pledges. However, after the weekend, that trend slowed — and then stopped completely. In fact, on Tuesday, the total number of patrons rose by a small amount.
And that’s what I started to wonder — was this thing going to blow over?
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
Scott Kurtz, Cory Casoni and I discuss the Patreon service-fee rollout. It was a PR mistake. And creators’ reactions helped turn it into a crisis. We give you a perspective on the issue that you probably haven’t gotten on social media… unpacking the reasons behind the change itself and — more importantly — discussing ways we can all handle the next bump-in-the-road better.
As Scott Kurtz, Cory Casoni and I discussed Patreon on the most recent episode of Surviving Creativity, Cory advised creators to sign up for as many crowdfunding platforms as possible:
“You need to find multiple places to put this. Or you need to be ready to pack up your community and move them… By all means, set up a Ko-Fi. Set up a Stripe — Stripe offers subscriptions now. Kickstarter’s about to launch Drip — that’s another way. Paypal… you can still do tip jars, and that kind of stuff. You should have all of these things ready — even if you’re not using them. Figure out where your audience wants to help and support them supporting you.”
I don’t disagree, but I think it requires a little bit deeper discussion.
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
In a recent Surviving Creativity podcast, Scott Kurtz, Cory Casoni and I discussed how creator reaction to the Patreon service-fee announcement spiraled out of control — and had some pretty nasty consequences. During that conversation, we identified an urgent need for creators to do better when it comes to crisis management. So, let’s talk about that….
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
Of course, Webcomics.com is a lot more than reporting on a single crowdfunding organization. Here’s some of the other topics that members had exclusive access to…
Getting paid for a project is always great — except for the first time you get asked to submit an invoice. If you’ve ever been embarrassed to admit that you didn’t know how to do this routine business task, here’s a quick primer.
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Dave Kellett joins me in the studio to speak with Kevin McShane, supervising producer at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, improv performer/teacher, designer and “occasional” cartoonist. With all of those pursuits (and more), Kevin’s a great resource for valuable information on time management. We also talk about meditation and the value of allowing yourself time to write. Kevin also reflects on his attempt to launch a print comic during the collapse of the direct market system. We tackle the difficult subject of knowing when to walk away from a project that just isn’t working.
A couple of years ago, I posted a few thoughts on the idea of taking a weeklong hiatus for the Christmas holiday. It featured a guest post from “How To Make Webcomics” co-author Dave Kellett on the topic. The entire thing is worth a read, but I’ll paraphrase…
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Dave Kellett joins me in the studio to talk with the creator of Inktober — and all-around marvelous illustrator — Jake Parker.
[Subscribers can read the entire post here]
When I worked in newspapers, December always meant end-of-the-year lists. Every writer in every department would file one. Why? Well, I guess they can be pretty interesting. But more importantly, they’re easy content to churn out during the busy holiday season.
Once I became a self-publisher I saw the wisdom in that. Besides, I’m always looking for blog content, and this one’s a no-brainer.
So let’s discuss a quick-and-easy way to generate a top-10 list for your comic.
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If you want to build out your comics-font library, be sure to mark this on your calendar. ComicCraft traditionally holds a sale on Jan 1 every year in which price of each of their fonts is based on the year. This New Year’s Day every ComicCraft font will be $20.18 apiece.
We make an attempt at Surviving someone else’s Creativity with another Listener Questions episode! How can you tell when to end a project? How do you differentiate yourself in art? Is there no diversity at the Eisners? What are good resources for new artists? And how to you deal with Fan co-opting of your characters
In late October, Patreon released a feature that I’m convinced will usher in a new era of webcomics publishing — a ground-breaker, if you will. There was only one problem — it didn’t work very well. After going heads-down for a month, the Patreon developers have re-released their WordPress plug-in. And it seems to be a vast improvement.
Even if you’ve started to transition away from an ad-supported business model, the Q1 slump is a phenomenon that’s worth your attention.
As I mentioned before, ad revenue tends to plummet in the first part of the year. Most businesses are reassessing their budgets in the first quarter, and most of them habitually cut back on spending until those budgets are cleared. It’s especially noticeable coming after November and December, when ad budgets are ablaze with holiday-shopping promotion. It’s a steep drop that puts me into an annual panic.
But the Q1 slump goes deeper than ad revenue. Your traffic is probably slumping right now, too. The holiday season — and all the stress that comes with it — is over, and your readers are in recovery mode. The harsh winter weather hasn’t helped much. And, let’s face it, if you’re like a lot of us, you’ve probably had a hard time getting your own creative engine started in the last few weeks.
Let’s talk about getting through the slump…
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This is the perfect time to get organized for a successful year in webcomics.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
Which social media platform to ditch? How about a new income stream? Does this water taste funny? How many Xs in Triple-X? It’s only the first week of the New Year and Scott Kurtz, Cory Casoni and I have already answered the most pressing questions of 2018!
Dave Kellett and I enjoyed podcasting together so much in the last few episodes of Webcomics Confidential that we’re starting a new podcast in 2018 called ComicLab! It’s half cartooning shop-talk, half how-to, and half friendship. WE SQUEEZED IN THREE HALVES. If you liked Webcomics Weekly podcast, you’re gonna love the new show!