ComicLab Ep 335 — How much story is too much story?
How do you know when you’re giving your readers too many details? — or not enough? Where’s the sweet spot between action and exposition? We’re going deep on storycraft this week! PLUS: Zines, gutters, and distribution! THIS WEEK’S SHOW
It’s tough to be an independent cartoonist. There’s only one place to find comic readers online. There’s only one place where you’re able to get paid for your work. And there’s only one place you can be considered a professional […] ↓ Read the rest of this article...
Building an audience on a post-social-media Internet
I shared the analytics from my recent Kickstarter campaign in a recent post. And the numbers don’t lie: Social media is dead. In a campaign that topped $26k, social media posts netted me a grand total of… drum roll, please… […] ↓ Read the rest of this article...
Using a term like “post-mortem” for my recent Kickstarter is a little inappropriate. Kickstarter is still very much alive and well. In fact, it’s thriving. But there is a death to report: Social media. I’ll share some real numbers and […] ↓ Read the rest of this article...
Patreon has added a way to edit tier prices. This is now one of two ways that users can change a tier price. The other is “unpublishing.” From their email: Whether you’re navigating the rising costs of business or just […] ↓ Read the rest of this article...
ComicLab Ep 334 — Social media is dead … now what?
Having completed their Kickstarters, Dave and Brad review the promotional outreach that delivered the biggest results and make a shocking discovery. Traditionally, social media platforms were the biggest drivers of Kickstarter pledges. But in 2024 they barely made the top […] ↓ Read the rest of this article...
I created a study guide for my Arts Entrepreneurship class, and I thought it might be helpful to post it here, too. It talks about the simple math behind correctly determining the best price for your merchandise.
Several software packages and websites offer to enable you to create your own font based on your hand lettering. And it’s so simple! You just draw the individual letters in little boxes, upload them, and — whammo! — you have a digital font based on your unique lettering. Sounds great, right?
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It can be difficult to write a longform story. How much do you need to write before you can start drawing? How do you keep a story moving without getting bogged down in details? Can you write week-to-week without falling behind? Let’s talk about one way that you can plan your story ahead of time and continue writing as you’re producing pages.
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It’s a part of comics lexicon familiar to manga and manhwa readers: an inverted word-balloon tail indicating that the speaker is off-panel. Should you use it in your comics?
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Plotting and pacing are crucial elements in creating a compelling comic. Plotting is the act of simply deciding which story points are important to include in your narrative — and which ones can be omitted. Pacing is about determining the rate at which those plot points are delivered. If you go too slow, you’ll bore your readers to tears. If you go too fast, you’ll confuse them.
Here are some things to keep in mind that will help you master these aspects:
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If you’re like many of us, you’ve abandoned advertising long ago. But that space that used to be devoted to earning revenue hasn’t lost its value. In fact, it’s as important as ever!
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You might be missing an important opportunity to promote your Kickstarter.
When you initially set up your Kickstarter, you gave it a title.
For example, Evil Inc: Power Couple is the name of the Kickstarter I’m running right now.
You should set aside time at least once a day to search for this title on your social media platforms, especially Twitter and Facebook.
You see, when a backer makes a pledge, they are encouraged to share their happiness with a couple of buttons, one for Facebook and the other for Twitter.
This brings up a very nice pre-formatted message, but it doesn’t include your social media handle.
And that means that you may be getting personal endorsements out there and you don’t even know it!
This can be a crucial part of your promotional outreach because, let’s face it, nothing beats a personal endorsement.
And as a content creator, chances are you have a much bigger following than your backers.
Therefore to maximize the effectiveness of that endorsement, you need to repost it or retweet it.
But if you don’t go looking for it, you’ll never know that it’s there.
Long ago, Patreon revolutionized how independent artists make a living. But many of us are still struggling. And for some, the reason isn’t the quality of their work. Instead, it’s applying a bad Patreon strategy — and suffering the consequences.
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To run a successful Kickstarter campaign, you have to understand the concept behind the Kickstarter Ladder. I’ll use the Kickstarter for my next graphic novel — which is in full swing right now — as an example.
The Kickstarter Ladder works like this: You start your backer with a reward at a very low price. A digital reward works great here. Low cost and no shipping.
I’m Kickstarting two books at the same time, so the first rung of my ladder is actually two tiers at ten dollars each. Now, here’s where the ladder concept comes in.
For just fifteen dollars more, you can get both digital comics — which “saves” the backer five bucks.
And it’s a small. manageable jump to $25 dollars, which offers a whopping EIGHT digital comics. That’s a huge savings. All of these together would cost over sixty dollars in my store.
Here’s where I do something a little unusual… the jump here isn’t monetary — it’s a jump from digital rewards to a physical one… the book itself.
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Let’s stop and consider shopper psychology. Supposedly, I’ve already got my backer considering a $25 buy-in… now they can spend the same money AND get the physical book. It’s a no-brainer.
The NSFW version of my book has an extra 30 pages and it’s only five dollars more. Another easy step up the ladder.
And if you’ve been paying attention, you should have already guessed that I’d be offering both books for fifty dollars. My backer saves ten dollars.
Now that I have my reader considering a fifty dollar purchase, I start throwing in extras. For only five dollars more, I’ll draw a special illustration in the book.
For an extra ten, I’ll do the same thing, except with the NSFW version of the book.
And, once again, you shouldn’t be surprised to see artist editions of both books available for $110. That’s a saving of ten dollars if you had bought them separately
The ladder continues… each time offering more and more exclusive extras for reasonable increases in the price.
My highest reward tier is $500, at which point, the backer can actually write a five-page story that I will illustrate! I already have two backers at that level, and I expect to see it fill up before the end of the campaign.
If you take time to build your Kickstarter Ladder with an increased value at a reasonable jump in price, you will see each of your backers walking themselves up the ladder and stopping when their own perception of the dollars-to-value ratio hits its maximum. And that spells success for your Kickstarter