If you want to know who your character is, then ask this simple question: What do they want?
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This is the single-most-asked question I receive on the topic of Patreon: How do I get more backers? The first answer is, as always, “do a good comic.” But if you’re producing high-quality work, there are some things you can do to maximize your reach. Let’s talk about them.
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Poor Man’s Copyright is a system of attempting to establish copyright through mailing a copy of the art to yourself (some people suggest using Certified Mail). The artist then files the envelope — unopened. If their copyright ownership is ever threatened, all they need do is open the envelope (in a court of law, one supposes) and present the document with a flourish. You even see some very prominent artists advising young people to use Poor Man’s Copyright. There’s only one problem: It’s complete bullshit.
We talked about it waaaaay back in 2007, when we were doing the Webcomics Weekly podcast. Poor Man’s Copyright doesn’t stand up in court. According to the US. Copyright Office:
The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.
Copyright in General, Copyright.gov
In general, you own the copyright to your work the “moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section ‘Copyright Registration.'” [SOURCE]
NOLO.com has an excellent explanation:
The U.S. Copyright Office is the federal agency charged with granting and administering all copyrights in the United States. Registration of one’s work confers many benefits, including the ability to sue someone for infringing your work, in a federal court.
(Again, if you only write down your creative work and mail it to yourself, you cannot actually initiate litigation for infringement).
Registration also clearly and unequivocally establishes the date upon which you begin to “own” the work. This can be particularly important in situations of copyright infringement, where both sides will typically argue that they created the work before the other.
Fortunately, the Copyright Office’s website makes the registration process fairly self-explanatory. You simply select the type of work you wish to register—such as literary work, visual work, photographs, and so forth—and follow the instructions.
The Electronic Copyright Office, knows as “eCO,” allows you to upload the work (as a PDF, JPEG, etc.), along with your application. Once submitted, the staff of the Copyright Office will review it and then, hopefully, approve your application and issue you a formal copyright certificate.
The Copyright Office will charge fees for your registration. Fees change each year, and depend on the nature of your intended registration, but typically run between $50 and $100.
Cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett talk about how social media can make you crazy. Today’s show is brought to you by Wacom, the maker of the powerful, professional, portable Wacom One! This week, we talk about building a comics career from unrelated 10-12-page stories
Questions asked and topics covered…
Today is a great time to bump up your ComicLab membership to the $10 tier! Patreon backers at that level will get exclusive access to livestream recording sessions — as well as an archive of previous livestreams!
Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the editor of Webcomics.com Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.
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Buying advertising for your comic is a tempting proposition for many independent cartoonists. After all — you need to get your work in front of more people, and sometimes it seems as if social media just isn’t delivering the way it was promised. But before you reach for your wallet, consider a few things.
The largest problem with paid advertising is that you probably don’t have the skill set — or the budget to do it properly. An effective ad campaign for a comic should feature the following:
If you don’t have all four, you risk wasting a significant amount of money on advertising that doesn’t deliver. For example, let’s focus on the target audience. If your first instinct is to advertise on other comics websites because you want to reach “people who like comics,” then you’re definitely the sort of person who should not spend money on advertising.
Does McDonald’s advertising say: “Do you like food?” An advertising outreach based on “do you like comics?” would be just as ham-handed for a cartoonist.
Realistically, an effective advertising campaign involves a level of research that most of us simply can’t afford. And without that data, we’re taking scatter shots into the dark — hoping to hit something.
Project Wonderful folded in 2018, and the reason that it was taken offline was the second reason I advise people against buying advertising: The economy around online ads has collapsed. Ad blockers were the beginning of the death knell. As special software was developed to strips website of their advertising, the prices web publishers could earn for hosting ads dropped. This lead to an increase in aggressive advertising that blocked large portions of the site itself — even hijacking the site momentarily. But, caught in a money pinch, publishers displayed them because they paid higher prices. This shortsightedness became a huge surge for social media, as people — disgusted with aggressive ads — found more favorable places to get their information and entertainment. Many web publishers — including, but not limited to webcomics — shifted to crowdfunding. Success in crowdfunding often lead websites to strip all ads completely.
And that’s the market you want to purchase ad space in.
Buying ad space on social media — or “promoting posts” — would seem to be an alternative. Until you read a little more on the topic.
Several people have sent me their analytics pointing to sizable influxes of traffic coinciding with ad buys. They point excitedly to the upswings. “See? It works!” they insist. My response is to apply a simple test: Stop buying advertising. If the traffic drops to pre-advertising levels, then your ad buys have failed. Why? Because you failed to retain any of those new people your advertising directed to your comic. (And that’s likely because of a breakdown in the four features we discussed at the very beginning of this post.)
It’s simple, if your advertising were effective, your site traffic wouldn’t plummet every time the ads stop appearing. That’s because if they were effective, your traffic would find a new, lower level — to be sure — but it would be higher than the pre-advertising levels.
I think we’re nearing the end of the Social Media Age of the Internet. Social media networks don’t deliver the same levels of engagement that they once did. However, before you become yet another disgruntled creator moaning about “The Algorithm,” I want to share a thought with you:
What if I told you that the social-media algorithm is your friend? Would you think I was crazy? Pull up a chair.
Here’s the dirty little secret that you may not want to accept: Your readers aren’t interested in reading every message you send. I know that you tell yourself otherwise. After all, why else would they have “liked” your page? Why else are they following you — if not to receive a steady stream of your dedicated messaging?
But they don’t. And — truly — that’s not what they signed up for.
What they want is to hear from you sometimes — and preferably when it’s important to them.
Stop. Read that sentence again.
I’m a strong proponent of e-mail newsletters and building newsletter lists. (And I think they’ll factor prominently on the post-social-media Web.) But let’s talk realistically about their engagement. According to MailChimp, the average open rate for e-mailed outreach in the Arts and Artists category during October 2019 was about 26%. (A slight tick higher than the average of 25%.) And the click rate was 2.9%.
In other words, when people actively sign up to receive a steady stream of your messaging, they open the e-mails only about a quarter of the time. And then they only click on links inside those e-mails (Kickstarters, Patreon, merchandise) about 3% of the time.
They are actively making choices that are very similar to the choices that social-media algorithms are making on their behalf.
Readers want to hear from you sometimes — and preferably when it’s important to them.
The question is obvious. Are you sending out messages that are important to them?
Take a look at your social-media messaging. Are those messages compelling? Do they present an emotional hook for readers and potential readers alike? Did you say anything beyond “here’s another comic”?
Likewise, can your target read the entire comic on social media, or are you forcing them to click a link and read it somewhere else. People, are too busy scrolling to be taken off the platform. They don’t want to click a link. Again, it’s lazy social-media strategy.
These kinds of social-media posts are typically the ones that get the least response. And, as a result, they’re the ones that the algorithm filters to the bottom of the tank immediately. Posts that say something interesting usually garner better engagement, and as a result, those posts are spread more widely. Post with images that are getting clicked on (when a reader opens it to read) indicate engagement to the algorithm.
Social media is frustrating, it’s tiresome, and it’s distracting. Luckily, it’s free. And for a long time now — and for a little while longer, I’m afraid — social media offers the far better choice for promoting and marketing your comic.
Get out your calendar and start circling dates. It’s time to do a little webcomics planning.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.Poor Man’s Copyright is a system of attempting to establish copyright through mailing a copy of the art to yourself (some people suggest using Certified Mail). The artist then files the envelope — unopened. If their copyright ownership is ever threatened, all they need do is open the envelope (in a court of law, one supposes) and present the document with a flourish. You even see some very prominent artists advising young people to use Poor Man’s Copyright. There’s only one problem: It’s complete bullshit.
We talked about it waaaaay back in 2007, when we were doing the Webcomics Weekly podcast. Poor Man’s Copyright doesn’t stand up in court. According to the US. Copyright Office:
The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.
Copyright in General, Copyright.gov
In general, you own the copyright to your work the “moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section ‘Copyright Registration.'” [SOURCE]
NOLO.com has an excellent explanation:
The U.S. Copyright Office is the federal agency charged with granting and administering all copyrights in the United States. Registration of one’s work confers many benefits, including the ability to sue someone for infringing your work, in a federal court.
(Again, if you only write down your creative work and mail it to yourself, you cannot actually initiate litigation for infringement).
Registration also clearly and unequivocally establishes the date upon which you begin to “own” the work. This can be particularly important in situations of copyright infringement, where both sides will typically argue that they created the work before the other.
Fortunately, the Copyright Office’s website makes the registration process fairly self-explanatory. You simply select the type of work you wish to register—such as literary work, visual work, photographs, and so forth—and follow the instructions.
The Electronic Copyright Office, knows as “eCO,” allows you to upload the work (as a PDF, JPEG, etc.), along with your application. Once submitted, the staff of the Copyright Office will review it and then, hopefully, approve your application and issue you a formal copyright certificate.
The Copyright Office will charge fees for your registration. Fees change each year, and depend on the nature of your intended registration, but typically run between $50 and $100.
Cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar talk about how social media can make you crazy. Today’s show is brought to you by Wacom, the maker of the powerful, professional, portable Wacom One! This week, we’re playing the Bad Tweets game — once we can identify lazy social media, we can focus on strategies that work.
Questions asked and topics covered…
Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the editor of Webcomics.com Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.
We use dominant personality traits to find our place within groups — whether it’s friends, co-workers or neighbors. One might be the “mamma bear,” while another is a “loner.” The members of the group will begin to identify each other using these personality traits. They’re using character archetypes.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.
Recently, a comics creator was having trouble drawing a character who is Black. A colleague said that he should focus on simplification. He said that the artist would regret having a lot more curls to draw. I think that’s the wrong attitude.
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