Get out your calendar and start circling dates. It’s time to do a little webcomics planning.
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Today’s show is brought to you by Wacom — makers of the incredible Wacom One! This week, Dave and Brad drill down deep on a crucial topic in comics — word balloons! Then Dave talks about his recent Kickstarter, and why it didn’t fund.
Questions asked and topics covered…
While I was hosting my webinar* on webcomics for the Graphic Artists Guild, a comment came in from one of the attendees. This person said, “I think people avoid reading my comic because the archive is so big.”
I disagree. I’ll talk about why, and then discuss some strategies for creators with large archive.
*If you missed it, you can still see it if you’re a member of the Graphic Artists Guild.
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.I knew I had touched a nerve when I tweeted a conversation I had earlier with a fellow cartoonist…
Cartoonist: Every time I mention Patreon on an Instagram post, I lose followers!
Me: Good
C: ?
Me: I’d rather have 1k followers who want me to succeed than 10k who’d drop me for that. The folks who left did you a favor. More room in the algorithm for you to reach the right people— Brad Guigar (@guigar) April 6, 2018
The response was a groundswell of support. So let’s drill down on the subject…
Wired magazine co-founder Kevin Kelly advanced the concept of a thousand true fans in 2008, and it struck a serious chord with webcartoonists that reverberates to this day. In short, it posits:
To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.
A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight-unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.
Both Kickstarter and Patreon thrive on the idea of the 1,000 true fans. But that’s easy to forget in a culture that equates bigger with better — no matter what.
But bigger isn’t always better. There is no magic number of pageviews at which you get to quit your day job. And huge amounts of Facebook likes don’t always guarantee a huge audience for your message.
Rather, it’s all about investment. Specifically, it’s all about how invested your readers are in what you do. And a thousand fans who are emotionally invested in an independent artist’s work is more powerful — by mutlitudes — than a group of ten-thousand people who are only marginally invested.
The response to me tweet wasn’t all positive. I received this reply, for instance:
I don’t know if that’s how the algorithm works, but yes, you don’t want to let fear of losing followers keep you from posting ways to support your work.
Let’s start here: No one knows the inner workings of the algorithm of any of the major social-media platform. That’s proprietary information that — if spilled — would allow users to game the system. But we do know some of the basics that apply across the board. Social-network gauge a post’s value by engagement. Engagement is any interaction with the post. For example:
No post gets distributed to the entire audience of any one social-media feed. It gets sent to a percentage of that potential audience, and then the social network’s algorithm monitors the engagement on that post. A heavily engaged post gets distributed to more and more people in the potential audience. Importantly, as this process moves forward, the potential audience increases from the followers of the original poster to the followers of that poster plus the followers of every subsequent person who shares the post. When a post gets distributed significantly further than the original intended audience, it is described as being viral.
And that’s where a smaller-but-invested social-media following wins every time.
SMALLER-BUT-INVESTED FOLLOWERS
Let’s assume a social-media following of 1,000 fans who are — overall — highly invested in a webcartoonist. When that webcartoonist makes a post, let’s say that 200 of them engage in that post in some manner. That’s a 20% response. Not bad at all! The algorithm picks up on this as evident of a post that even more of the followers might be interested in, and distributes the post to even more followers. If the engagement continues, the post continues to be distributed. If that engagement includes shares/retweets, the potential for engagement starts to expand. And of course, at some point, this wave of interest runs it course, engagement drops, and the post gets distributed to fewer and fewer people until it stops getting distributed entirely.
LARGER AUDIENCE WITH LOWER INVESTMENT
Now lets’ take that same post. But this time, let’s assume 10,000 followers. However, unlike the preceding example, these followers aren’t as emotionally invested in the webcartoonist they’re following. Those 1,000 true fans are still there, mind you, but they’re mixed into a larger group. Once the post is made, we’ll assume the same amount of engagement — 200 instances. However, 200 out of 10,000 is only 2%! The algorithm judges this post to be much less relevant than a 20% engagement and distributes it very little past the opening salvo. Even if it accounts for the bigger audience — even it if “grades on a curve” — that engagement is never going to rise much beyond two percent. As a result, that post dies an early death.
That’s why I advised this cartoonist to celebrate Instagram followers who bailed when the artist mentioned their Patreon campaign. These followers are very unlikely to ever become Patreon backers. They probably won’t pledge to a Kickstarter either. They won’t arrive at a convention to buy a book. They’re non-entities.
And buy clogging your algorithm, they are — literally — preventing you from reaching your true fans!
Their departure is a blessing. Treat it as such.
Today’s show is brought to you by Wacom — makers of the incredible Wacom One! This week, the ComicLab guys talk shop with Gale Galligan, creator of the bestselling Babysitter’s Club graphic novels. See all of Gale’s latest at Galesaur.com.
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.
ComicLab is hosted on Simplecast, helping podcasters since 2013. with industry-leading publishing, distribution, and sharing tools.
For years, I’ve advocated against printing calendars to sell to readers. The logic is very simple. You have an incredibly narrow window in which to offer this merchandise, and after that window closes (sometime in mid-January), your stock is completely unsellable.
That has changed.
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Patreon has added search capabilities to creator posts. This is a long sought-after improvement in the crowdfunding giant’s interface. So why aren’t you using it right?
The content you are trying to access is only available to members.Dave and Brad are devoting the entire show to topics related to the coronavirus pandemic. Having been self-employed for years, Dave and Brad share some advice to people who are working from home for the first time. Also, crowdfunding is proving to be surprisingly resilient so far, so this is no time to get sheepish about Patreon and Kickstarter. Dave talks about writing in moments of grief, and Brad shares some thoughts about ways we can monetize our comics during the months ahead.
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.
I’ll be offering a webinar through the Graphic Artists Guild on Wednesday, April 22 at 2 p.m. EDT. I’ll be talking about getting your webcomic started and using social media as a publishing and promotional tool. And Webcomics.com subscribers are eligible for a discount!
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We all hate the Facebook algorithm. Why? Because it keeps our messages from going out to all of our followers.
What if I told you that the Facebook algorithm — in fact, nearly any social-media algorithm — is your friend. What if I told you it was an ally? What if I told you it was even more than that? 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. But the fact of the matter is they routinely has a low rate of interaction. 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.
And that’s another sentence I want you to read again.
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?
“I updated my comic today” is a lazy, uncreative message.
“Today’s comic is all about xxxxxx” is better.
“I’m excited about today’s comic because xxxxxxxx” is even better still.
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”?
The lazy, uncreative, knee-jerk 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.
And, unlike an e-mail newsletter, a social-media post has the potential to expose your work to new potential readers. And that’s really why you’re on social media ion the first place.
When I was in school, I had a teacher I loathed. I was certain this guy had it out for me. He graded me extremely tough — tougher, I thought, than he graded other kids. He was picky. He was strict. If I wanted to get a good grade from this guy, I had to work my tail off for it. I rejoiced when I graduated out of his clutches.
I ran across his on Facebook about a year ago. He was enjoying retirement in Arizona. I looked at his photo. He was a little more heavy than when I knew him, but he was at the same time smaller. More wrinkly. Faded. Maybe sun-bleached. And I realized that I learned more from that wrinkly son-of-a-gun than dozens of other teachers who I never hated enough to remember. And I told him so.
He wrote a very pleasant reply. Correcting my grammar.
A social-media algorithm is like that strict teacher at school. They don’t accept half-baked submissions from you because they know you can do better. And because it’s their job to help you get better. You probably hated that teacher as a kid. And, as an adult, you probably realized that the lessons taught by that teacher was way more valuable than most of the other.
The algorithm isn’t the enemy. It’s your friend.
Perhaps even your teacher.
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