I’m writing a book about how to market yourself if you’re a comic book creator!
(excerpt from the already written forward)
What makes me qualified to write a book about comic book marketing?
Well…I do have a real degree in Marketing from Springfield Technical Community College (MA). I co – host a comic book podcast called Secret Identity that as of this writing has provided comic book news and entertainment for over 6 years. I have a personal collection of over 25,000 comic books so I do know comics. But more importantly for this book, I have gone to hundreds of comic shows and spent time with literally thousands of indie creators. For them, once their book is done, the real job begins. How do they get it into the hands of fans or the professionals that may give them their first chance at work at a ‘big company’?
At New York Comic Con 2011, I was walking with my show partner Brian LeTendre when all of a sudden a creator caught our attention. This guy was fired up and passionate about his books and wanted us to know all about them. So far so good! He then opened up one of the comics and began to tell us how much better they were than any other indie books around. As we looked at the pages we clearly saw they weren’t. His insulting comparison made us look beyond the colors and words and brought the mistakes in his books to the forefront.
Then, the big mistake!!!
When Brian asked him if he wanted to be interviewed for our show he said ‘no’! Saying no isn’t the sin he committed because not everyone feels comfortable talking to the media. Where he blew it big time was telling us how and I quote “if I take the time and talk to you, that is money out of my pocket. That is sales I won’t make.”
Yes, time is valuable, but how could this exchange have been handled differently?
(excerpt from the already written forward)
What makes me qualified to write a book about comic book marketing?
Well…I do have a real degree in Marketing from Springfield Technical Community College (MA). I co – host a comic book podcast called Secret Identity that as of this writing has provided comic book news and entertainment for over 6 years. I have a personal collection of over 25,000 comic books so I do know comics. But more importantly for this book, I have gone to hundreds of comic shows and spent time with literally thousands of indie creators. For them, once their book is done, the real job begins. How do they get it into the hands of fans or the professionals that may give them their first chance at work at a ‘big company’?
At New York Comic Con 2011, I was walking with my show partner Brian LeTendre when all of a sudden a creator caught our attention. This guy was fired up and passionate about his books and wanted us to know all about them. So far so good! He then opened up one of the comics and began to tell us how much better they were than any other indie books around. As we looked at the pages we clearly saw they weren’t. His insulting comparison made us look beyond the colors and words and brought the mistakes in his books to the forefront.
Then, the big mistake!!!
When Brian asked him if he wanted to be interviewed for our show he said ‘no’! Saying no isn’t the sin he committed because not everyone feels comfortable talking to the media. Where he blew it big time was telling us how and I quote “if I take the time and talk to you, that is money out of my pocket. That is sales I won’t make.”
Yes, time is valuable, but how could this exchange have been handled differently?
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