It has come up in almost every conversation I’ve had with creators who want to use social-media more effectively:
“I don’t know what to say.”
Ironically, this is where our instincts as creators steer us wrong.
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To be fair, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. Revenue from banner advertising has been steadily tapering for the last few years, and, as I’ve written earlier, we’ve crossed the tipping point of ad-blocker usage.
PageFair, which has been doing an excellent job of tracking this trend, makes it very easy to see how ad-blockers have skyrocketed in popularity since 2013.
Comparing my 2014 ad revenue to this year’s numbers made it crystal clear. I use Google DFP to administer ads from several sources. Tribal Fusion and Google AdSense are the top two. Here’s a comparison of each. However, it’s worth noting that the TF revenue is about 4-to-5 times larger than what I’m making through AdSense.
Unfortunately, ad revenue was a major factor in the traditional webcomics business model. The truth is, webcomics were never given away for free. Primarily, these sites generated income by turning pageviews into banner-ad revenue.
That market is changing. And as a result, our business model is going to have to change — significantly.
Here are a few thoughts on how our business may change over the course of the next several months.
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It’s the best daily briefing in webcomics. If you’ve ever been curious about subscribing to Webcomics.com, this post is for you.
Here’s a wrap-up that highlights some of the best posts from last month.
Shipping comics as Media Mail: There’s some widespread misinformation floating around about shipping comics Media Mail. If you don’t understand this issue, you could be paying waaaaay too much to ship your comics to customers.
“How do I get more readers?”: It’s the most commonly asked question in webcomics. And it inevitably leads you down the wrong path. Here’s how to get back on track.
Google attacks aggressive ads: The news was dominated this month by aggressive advertising. We started September sharing Google’s plans to thwart aggressive ads, along with analysis of what this means to Web publishers.
MacKeeper class-action lawsuit: If you installed MacKeeper, you may be due some money in a class-action lawsuit. We tell you how you can submit your claim.
Comic Easel improves mobile experience; We give you the low-down on this recent improvement, and how to implement it.
Square introduces direct deposit: This will be a neat trick to know if you need fast cash at a comic convention.
Is the school-year bump gone? Once upon a time, webcartoonists counted on a traffic bump as schools and colleges starts classes in September. with mobile-reading on the rise, has the start-of-school surge become a thing of the past?
What am I — chopped liver? Correctly punctuating the “self-answering question” will help your readers process the tone and intent of your writing better.
Coloring vs black-and-white: Does it really make a difference?
More word-usage tips: Another in a series of posts discussing the correct use of common words and phrases.
Portable book stands: An invaluable pro-tip on cheap, lightweight, recyclable convention displays.
Selling on consignment: Is it really risk free?
Hitch-It / Ditch it critique series: We identify one thing that participants could stand to improve — as well as one of their key strengths.
NYCC to crack down on sellers of unlicenced prints? As Webcomics.com has been warning since 2011, companies like Marvel and DC are moving closer and closer to stopping the sales of unlicenced princt that feature their properties. We discuss the recent rumors and analyze the ramifications of an actual crackdown.
Patreon security breach: We were among the first to sound the alert on Patreon’s massive security breach, advising members to change their passwords immediately.
EMV liability and Michigan’s sales tax deadlines: Oct. 1 was the deadline for two important changes in legislation that affects webcartoonists. One applies to accepting credit-card payments through cards that feature an AMV chip, and the other one applies to online sales to Michigan residents. Webcomics.com made sure its members understood both issues fully.
WACOM warning: possible conflict with new Mac OS: We were also among the first to alert members of the conflict between WACOM drivers and the new Mac OS.
If you’re curious about joining, we’ve made it easier than ever with a $5 trial membership. You’ll get full access to the site for thirty days so you can see what you’ve been missing. At the end of the trial, you can choose to re-subscribe ($30 for 12 months of access) or walk away with no strings attached. You will not be re-billed unless you choose to subscribe.
Please note: The links below will lead you to content that is “subscription-only” content. Why do I do this? Simple. If you see something that intrigues you and decide to subscribe, you can come back here and use this post to jump right to the post that caught your attention. And once you do that, use the other Best Of posts to drill even deeper into the site!
This is a time when creativity seems to be at an all-time high everywhere you look. From carved pumpkins to costumes to haunted houses to the really scary stuff like, well…
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You don’t need a subscription to read today’s post!
This is a re-post from the Webcomics.com archive. 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 one-month Trial for $5 … with no obligation after your 30 days expire. For less than three bucks a month, you can get a steady flow of information, tutorials and advice targeted towards your webcomic business — plus a private forum to discuss issues with other professionally minded cartoonists.
This is a question from the forum, but my answer started drilling pretty deep into the printing process — so much so, that I wanted to share it on the main site to make it more readily available for anyone else trying to access this information.
Q.: I’ve been reading chapter 13 of “The Webcomics Handbook” and I’m a bit confused about margins and bleeds. As I understand it, it’s up to me to choose the finished size (e.g. 8.5 x 11 inches) and this is the trim size for the final page. However, I need to keep everything important within the live area, presumably because the trimming process might be slightly off-centre. So, who chooses the margins? I’d expect the printer to tell me what they can reliably handle, i.e. how accurate their machines are, but it wasn’t part of the sample spec sheet. Is there an industry standard for this or can I pick whatever I like?
Before we go too far, it may be helpful to read this post from the Webcomics.com archive that discusses the many factors in page size — bleebs, trim, live area, margins and more.
Short answer: There’s no “industry standard” margin that I’m aware of, but if I were pressed, I’d say a half-inch would be plenty of margin to protect your live area. Truly, a quarter-inch should suffice, but better safe than sorry in a situation like this.
But, this opens up all sort of issues that we should discuss…
When you enter into an arrangement to have your books printed by a printer, you’re getting into a very big relationship. Chances are, there’s a decent amount of money involved, and for sure you want those books to turn out as good as they possibly can. On their side of the table, they want the business and they want the job to go as smoothly as possible.
So, if you have any questions, any thoughts, any quibbles… hell, if you have a dirty limerick to share… you should be on the phone/e-mail with the printer. They want to clear up these situations before press time. They’re happy to address these issues now rather than later.
You should never hesitate to get information directly from your printer.
Yes.
It’s not up to you to unilaterally determine the page size. Well, not unless you want to spent a bunch of extra money. It’s going to be determined by:
• What you want / need
• The kind of paper your printer uses.
So, here’s how it’s gonna go down:
You want to print a book and you have an idea of what size you want the book to be. You probably arrived at these dimensions by looking at other standard book sizes that are comparable to the type of book you want to print.
You submit a quote request to your printer(s) with this size listed.
They will respond with a quote or they will say, “we don’t really handle that size, but we could accommodate this size, which is close.”
Then you either say no and find a printer to accommodate the exact size you had in mind, or you change your document to accommodate this new size.
You’re safest by sticking with “standard” book sizes, but even then, you may have to adjust.
• Trade paperbacks are often either 5.5 x 8.5″ or 6 x 9″ range.
• Comic books are usually 6.625 x 10.25″, (manga is typically presented at a smaller 5×7.5″)
• Graphic novels tend to clock in around 7×10.5″, 8×10″ and 8.5×11.”
…and I’m sure there are more that just aren’t coming to mind right now…
Now, here’s where it gets ticklish — and this is why you always want to collect quotes from multiple printers before you lock in with one. (And that’s why this member benefit is one that every Webcomics.com member should be aware of!)
Every printer has a “house” paper. That’s the paper that they stock in largest quantities and use most often. Their printers are pre-set for it — and so are their trimmers, binders and other after-printing machinery.
So, if your page size fits within the established settings of a printer using a certain “house” size, you’ll get a lower price.
I was planning the print run for Evil Inc Vol. 4, and all of my quotes were coming in much higher than I had anticipated. This was pre-Kickstarter, and it was putting me in such a financial pinch that I was wondering if I’d be able to print the book at all!
I was on the phone with PvP business manager, Cory Casoni, and he said, “Wait, what’s the size of that book?” I told him it was 8.5×11″ and he said, “Did you get a quote from Quad Graphics in Chicago*? That’s their house size and you won’t have to deal with international shipping!”
I did, and their quote — including shipping — came in significantly lower than the other quotes I had assembled. I was able to finance the print run and got fantastic-looking, high-quality books — made in the USA to boot!
* Before he became the business manager for PvP, Cory’s main job included handling print projects for Oni Press.
I was working on another book, and I got a very favorable quote that was much lower than the other quotes. However, due to the nature of the printing process, my book had to be changed from 8.5×11″ to 8.5×10.875.”
It was a no-brainer. A couple of very simple changes to my InDesign document saved me — literally — hundreds of dollars.
I’m no fan of Adobe’s new Creative Cloud subscription system. My teeth grind every month when that money leaves my account. And, believe me, I’m sorely tempted when I see people talk about alternate software/scripts/etc. that they use to build a book file.
But when I can make late-process changes — like altering the page size/bleed/trim/live area of a finished document — with those stop-gap solutions as easily as I can with InDesign, then I’ll be that much closer to closing down my account.
As much as I hate it, it’s a (tax-deductible) cost-of-doing-business that pays for itself over and over throughout the year.
Thanks to Webcomics.com member Dan Wilson for his alert in the Private Forum.
If you use a WACOM tablet on a Mac computer, you’ll want to read the details.
There are two deadlines that you should be aware of today. On October 1, Michigan law now requires some online stores to remit sales tax for purchases made by Michigan residents. Also, on Oct. 1, the liability for fraudulent credit- or debit-card charges now shifts to the merchant in the case of cards that feature an EMV chip.
Here’s what you need to know about each situation.
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Patreon CEO Jack Conte has released a message to Patreon creators about a security beach on Sept. 28 through a debug version of the site that was visible to the public.
Yesterday I learned that there was unauthorized access to a Patreon database containing user information. Our engineering team has since blocked this access and taken immediate measures to prevent future breaches. I am so sorry to our creators and their patrons for this breach of trust. The Patreon team and I are working especially hard right now to ensure the safety of the community.
There was unauthorized access to registered names, email addresses, posts, and some shipping addresses. Additionally, some billing addresses that were added prior to 2014 were also accessed. We do not store full credit card numbers on our servers and no credit card numbers were compromised. Although accessed, all passwords, social security numbers and tax form information remain safely encrypted. No specific action is required of our users, but as a precaution I recommend that all users update their passwords on Patreon.
Here are some technical details of the incident:
The unauthorized access was confirmed to have taken place on September 28th via a debug version of our website that was visible to the public. Once we identified this, we shut down the server and moved all of our non-production servers behind our firewall.
There was no unauthorized access of our production servers. The development server included a snapshot of our production database, which included encrypted data.
The development server did not have any private keys that would allow login access to any other server. We verified our authorization logs on our production servers to ensure that there was not any unauthorized access.
As a precaution, we have rotated our private keys and API keys that would allow access to third-party services that we use.
We protect our users’ passwords with a hashing scheme called ‘bcrypt’ and randomly salt each individual password. Bcrypt is non-reversible, so passwords cannot be “decrypted.” We do not store plaintext passwords anywhere.
As soon as we discovered this issue, our engineering team immediately prevented further access and is now conducting a rigorous investigation of our security systems. We are also engaging a 3rd party security firm to do a comprehensive internal security audit and will be implementing new tools and practices to ensure industry-leading security for our users and their data.
I take our creators’ and patrons’ privacy very seriously. It is our team’s mission to help creators get paid for the immeasurable value they provide to all of us, and earning your trust to provide that service in a safe and secure way is Patreon’s highest priority. Again, I sincerely apologize for this breach, and the team and I are making every effort to prevent something like this from happening in the future.
Jack Conte, CEO/Co-founder, Patreon
From Alamo City Comic Con to Baltimore Comic Con, the rumors ran wild: There might be a crackdown on Artist Alley vendors who sell unlicensed prints at New York Comic Con this weekend.
Via Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool:
So I asked around. And while, as I understand it, there is no official “crackdown” per se, I have been told by Marvel sources that “tolerance is growing thin. Especially from companies who legally pay for the licenses to comic art from all the different companies. And from Marvel artists who sell legal prints but are being undercut by hacks who have never worked for Marvel before.”
This is an issue that Webcomics.com has kept on members’ radars since 2011, when the Disney/Marvel merger first started fueling these suspicions.
But what does this mean for selling original art or sketches that feature a character that the artist doesn’t have license to draw? Johnston:
Unlicensed prints of any company’s characters are just that… unlicensed. Which means if you are selling them, that’s an illegal act, if the copyright owner chooses to pursue it. Companies like Marvel and Disney have usually turned a blind eye to original works of art, but unlicensed prints smack of a production line. And it’s that which is getting the attention, especially when it contravenes the legal language that vendors agree to before setting up in Artists Alley…
The crackdown may or may not happen this weekend in New York, but conventional wisdom says that it’s on the horizon.
This is the final installment in the current Hot Seat series. I’ll be launching a new critique series shortly.
This one’s a Hitch it / Ditch it critique. In short: I go to participants’ sites and list something they could improve (and offer my thoughts on how they could do that), and then I talk about something they’re doing well.
As always, this is only the beginning of the discussion. Members are encouraged to share their thoughts on the matter in the comments below.
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