Understanding social media

Understanding social media

Social media is among an independent artist's most frustrating elements. We struggle for engagement, wage constant battles with "The Algorithm,"...
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Writing humor

Writing humor

Writing comedy is a challenge that is made even more daunting by the fact that humor itself is completely subjective...
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CMYK vs RGB

CMYK vs RGB

If you're saving your comics in RGB mode, you may be making a potentially expensive mistake. The content you are...
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ComicLab Ep 358 — “Help! I’m not funny anymore!”

ComicLab Ep 358 — “Help! I’m not funny anymore!”

Cartoonists Dave and Brad share some thoughts with a young humor writer trying to find their Funny. Also: Is BlueSky...
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ISBN — a beginner’s guide

ISBN — a beginner’s guide

An ISBN is a 10- or 13-digit number used to identify a book from a specific publisher. Once your book...
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How to write a Halloween joke

How to write a Halloween joke

On Substack, a cartoonist was struggling with writing a Halloween joke. He was experiencing a common problem. He was stuck...
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Webcomics Confidential: Size doesn’t matter

Webcomics Confidential: Size doesn’t matter

when it comes to your audience, size doesn't matter. A small and engaged readership beats a huge, lukewarm audience every...
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ComicLab Ep 357 — Innovation fascination

ComicLab Ep 357 — Innovation fascination

Having wrapped up his 16th Kickstarter, cartoonist Dave Kellett shares some insights about setting realistic expectations, avoiding paid advertising, and...
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Adding lettering to improve original art sales

Adding lettering to improve original art sales

Selling original art is an integral part of the business model of an independent cartoonist who works with traditional media...
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Reader retention

Reader retention

Let's face it. One of the biggest hurdles in growing a webcomic is reader retention. That's why I encourage you...
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ComicLab Ep 317 — 2024 Predictions and Goals

Veteran cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar make some predictions and discuss their goals for the new year.

2024 Predictions

  • BRAD: Twitter will crash in 2023 2024
  • DAVE: Social media will remain distributed over five or six platforms
  • BRAD: Web users will begin to pivot away from social media
  • DAVE: Patreon will move closer to an IPO
  • BRAD: Kickstarter will remain #1 by continuing to avoid mentioning blockchain
  • DAVE: SDCC will return to normal after an abnormal ’23… and profits will plummet for creators

2024 Goals

  • DAVE: Launch “Pickles” Kickstarter in Jan/Feb, launch “Drive 4” Kickstarter in summer
  • BRAD: In Q1, Kickstart an Evil Inc book paired with an After Dark edition. Kickstart another book — WebcomicsHandbook, Evil Inc After Dark or collection of single-panel comics — in Q2/Q3
  • DAVE: Prepare for a 5-15% sales drop at Comic-Con International
  • BRAD: Personal appearances, including SDCC and NCS
  • DAVE: ComicLab Across America
  • BRAD: Use NON-social-media alternatives to drive Patreon.
  • DAVE: Revisit KIndle Direct Publishing
  • BRAD: Start prepping website for a post-Patreon future
  • DAVE: Build the ComicLab Patreon to 500 members
by on January 11, 2024
Posted In: ComicLab
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Managing commissions

Offering commissions can be a great way to add an income stream to your business. It can also be an effective Patreon reward. However, managing expectations and communicating clearly with clients and backers can be a delicate dance. Here’s how to get off on the right foot.

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by on January 10, 2024
Posted In: Art, Business, Merchandise
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Networking — a guide for cartoonists

Since 2013, I’ve been advocating that independent comic artists quit exhibiting at comic cons. That’s nearly ten years. And since that very first post, the pushback has been the same: “Sure, we’re not making a profit, but we go for the networking.” Except, for many of these people, networking is unimportant. And I can prove it.

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by on January 9, 2024
Posted In: Marketing / Social Media
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What’s your biggest challenge in 2024?

I’ve been posting a lot about my concerns about social media in 2024. But I’d like to hear what’s on your mind. As we head into the new year, which issue factors prominently for you?

Is it AI art/writing? Is it merchandising? Is it running an effective Kickstarter campaign? Or it it closer to home — writing better, drawing better, lettering better, etc?

Please hit the comments below and let me know what you’d most like to see me writing about in the coming year. I’d love to hear from you — and it will help me plan topics to write about in the months ahead!

by on January 5, 2024
Posted In: Uncategorized
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Rethinking my Twitter strategy

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, he instituted a number of changes that effectively killed the platform. Users exited, engagement deadened, and overall returns for creators declined drastically. This left many of us who had relied on Twitter for publishing and promotion in a quandary: Restart somewhere else or try to salvage our existing base. We eagerly lept from BlueSky Threads to Mastodon — each time hoping to rebuild. And, one by one, many of us faced the hard reality: Growth is slow on each of these new platforms. We’re going to need to do both — rebuild elsewhere while we try to salvage what’s left of Twitter. In May, I came up with a plan to do that. In November, I revised that plan. Today, I’ll share the results.

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by on January 3, 2024
Posted In: Marketing / Social Media
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Ten resolutions for a better 2024

We all make resolutions this time of year. Sure, most of us forget about them by February, but it’s useful to set goals at a time like this. It helps to focus our attention on those areas that we know we need to work on. Here are ten resolutions I think you should consider if you’d like to do a better webcomic in 2024.

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by on January 2, 2024
Posted In: Business
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ComicLab Ep 315 — 2023: The Year in Review

Veteran cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar look back on their predictions for 2023. They nailed a few and failed a few!

PREDICTION SCORECARD

  • Patreon will slowly entice people away from the Founder’s level — WRONG
  • TikTok will be banned in the US — WRONG
  • CSP will unveil amazing features / Webtoons publishing — RIGHT
  • Webtoons publishing — RIGHT
  • Twitter fade — RIGHT
  • DC Comics implosion — RIGHT
  • No one will be using Mastodon — RIGHT
  • GPT 3.5 will be used for brainstorming and co-writing scripts using AI writing — RIGHT?
  • We’ll see the first AI writing-art webcomic… and it will be good –WRONG
  • Copyright law will catch up to AI art — WRONG
  • Blockchain is coming back — WRONG
  • Original art will become more valuable.

What we DIDN’T predict!

  • Patreon’s switch to social media
  • Comic-Con loses its Hall H guests — and it was a big win for comics artists
  • No replacement for Twitter… not BlueSky, not Threads (and definitely not Mastodon!)
by on December 28, 2023
Posted In: ComicLab
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