phrases. - The Official GlobalComix Blog

We’ve spoken with many creators and publishers in the past year. Despite each of their unique styles, most of them share a lot of the same needs. This is particularly true when it comes to letting more than one person or account manage published content, marketing, or finances.

Here’s some stories we’ve heard:

• We are a team of people with different responsibilities for publishing, marketing, and business administration.
• We are a partnership of 2 (or more) individuals who are creating and publishing together as a collaboration.
• I am a creator who sometimes has people help me with <x> role of publishing.
• I am a solo operator who manages everything...



Last month, we started talking about creating a budget for your comic book publishing (See How to Create a Budget for Your Comics). Now that we’ve taken a few weeks to look at the different financing options, I’d like to expand on that discussion a little bit here by highlighting the different types of things an aspiring comic book publisher needs to consider when allocating limited resources.

Publishing comics requires more than just paying for page rates and printing. There are at least seven different categories of expenses, each with smaller subcategories.

Initial Costs:  Getting your business off the ground

• Company registration
• Intellectual...

The reason we read comics is that they satisfy us with their stories, and sometimes with their physical or tactile experiences. Sometimes those things get intermingled, and we have a hard time deciphering one from the other.

With hundreds of thousands of readers having come through our platform over the past year, we’ve been watching and listening to both feedback and reading behavior in general. As a result, today we are very excited to announce that we’re launching the new GlobalComix Reader v2: what we believe to be the simplest and best reading experience in digital comics.
 

Interactive Reading Improvements

We have carefully improved the reading and...

As part of the lead up to our free financing webinar on October 29th, I’d like to explore the fundamentals of creating business management as it pertains to your aspiring comic book company.
 

What is Business Management?

Management is the organization and coordination of business activities to achieve defined objectives. As an independent publisher, this means finding the best ways to use your time, energy, and resources to achieve the milestones and goals for your comic.

Now, as a creative individual, you might consider business management a subject to avoid. If your goal is to make comics, then dealing with budgets, contracts, and schedules might be the...



Last week, we started talking about finding outside investment for your comic (See How Can You Get Others to Invest in Your Comic?) I’m going to finish off the list of different types of outside investment this week, but keep in mind we’ll go more in-depth in on this list during our free comic book financing webinar on October 29th.

1. HELOC

• a. Description: A Home Equity Line of Credit Loans (HELOC) is a loan that provides a line of credit using your home as collateral . The amount of money available to you depends on the amount of equity you have in your home and your credit rating.
• b. Advantages:
  • i. HELOCs are similar to credit cards in that you only...

October may be our favorite month as it contains one of our favorite holidays. And we would be absolutely remiss if we didn't call your attention to the best horror titles from our spectacular community. Today we want to highlight some titles in a group we affectionately call Ghosts, Hauntings, Beasties and Magic!

Check out these 5 excellent titles to get in the spirit of All-Hallows Eve, and don't forget to follow the creators and share their work to your corner of the world.
 

All Hallows' Eve, 153 pages - Published by Invader Comics, (cc/ @Invader)

On Halloween night, Satan and his demonic marauders gather souls for an eternity of blackness. On All...

After you figure out how much you can invest in your comic (See my earlier posts on self-financing), you may find that you don’t have enough to fully fund your publishing based on your initial budget. That’s when it’s time to go out into the world and find more money.

Before we go into details about getting investors and the different types of investment, we should understand that in many cases, it is very difficult to convince anyone to invest money in an untested comic book idea. The three economic realities of comic publishing we discussed earlier reduce the risk tolerance of most potential investors to the point where your offer isn’t attractive to them....

Tony Stark money isn’t the same as Peter Parker money. Different people have access to different levels and sources of personal finances. Each circumstance has unique advantages, disadvantages, and factors to think about in relation to your comic. As you review these self-financing options, keeping mind that these are broad overviews of complex financial instruments and they shouldn’t be used without understanding the risks and rewards. (See What are the Risks and Rewards of Financing Your Own Comic?)

1. Savings

• a. Description: This is the money you already have in the bank. It could come from money you save over time, tax refunds, or selling Vibranium on the black...

So far this month, we’ve taken a look at the three economic realities of comic book publishing and the basics for creating a comic book budget. Now that you have an idea of how much money your comic needs before the idea can become a reality, the next logical question is “where will the money come from?”

In general, there are two sources of money: your money and someone else’s money. Let’s look at your potential as an investment source first, before we go reaching into someone else’s pocket.

What Are the Advantages of Investing Your Money to Make a Comic?

It is not unusual for an independent publisher to dip into their own pockets to publish...

Before you sell your house, beg your grandmother for money, or rob a bank to publish your comic, it helps to know how much money you need in the first place. It doesn’t make any sense to spend a lot of time stressing about cash when you don’t have a clear idea of the costs you’re trying to cover. Of course, prices change and unexpected expenses are more common than you think, but if you have a basic idea of your costs, it will help you focus your revenue collection efforts.

In general, there are seven types of costs you need to consider when you decide to publish your first comic:

1. Initial Costs: This is the money to get off the ground. It includes the costs...

Now that the summer is over, we’re going to shift gears away from marketing and discuss another facet of comic book publishing that doesn’t get much attention. We’re going to spend the next few weeks discussing how you can pay to get your comic out into the world. But any discussion about financing comic book publishing has to begin with a disclaimer:

What you are going to read in the next few weeks isn’t financial advice and or legal advice. These are concepts you can consider when deciding if and how to fund your project, but before you do anything concerning money, consult your financial advisor. You should also speak to anyone in your life who might be...

There are a lot of things you can do on social media to market your comic (See How Should You Market Your Book on Social Media?). There are also a few things you should not do if you want to give your book the best chance to succeed. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Every year, dozens of companies and brands stumble on social media in ways that damage their image. While no one is perfect, these six concepts can add to the previous list of tips to help keep you out of trouble.

1. Avoid Targeting the Non-Market: You have a specific story to tell to a specific group. Everyone outside that group isn’t ready for, or interested in, that message. While you need to reach out to...

Earlier this week, I started listing concepts that can help you market your comics using social media. (See How Should You Market Your Comics on Social Media?) This post continues that discussion, with more advanced techniques.

9. Consider the potential backlash your book/team/ marketing could create. In the current social environment, any story can be seen as offensive to one group or another. Because your story will inevitably stand for something, it is likely to stand against something else, and the people who support that “something else” can quickly undermine or overwhelm your marketing efforts. While you can't predict every possible attack on your book, think...

Last week I introduced some ideas for engaging with your target market for your comic (See What Is an Example of Social Media Engagement?). This post (and the next one) will go into more detail in terms of tips you can use to improve your engagement and connection with your potential readers.

1. Consider keeping your personal social media separate from your comic book social media: Because your friends and family might not be a part of your target market, they might not be interested in your antagonist character design survey. At the same time, your target market might not want to see your foodie posts or your vacation photos. Social media profiles are free, so it only costs you a...

Chris recently hosted a demo and Q&A with a group of folks around the GlobalComix community. He spent the first half going step by step through the platform uploads, features, and overall flow as a creator / publisher. The second half was dedicated to a variety of excellent questions by the attendees.

Watch the full video below on YouTube here:

It is not enough to have a comic that you want people to read. It takes more than understanding your ideal reader and your competition. The process doesn’t end when you find out where your target market gathers together. You have to interact with readers in the right way, or all your marketing efforts could be wasted. We’ve been using my Blood Bond comic example for a few weeks now. Let’s look at the broad concepts of social media engagement and then walk through the steps with our imaginary comic.

The first and most important thing to understand is that social media marketing is not an exercise in aggressive selling. Think about your own time on social media and...

We’re working on the digital marketing plan for the fictional comic Blood Bond.

We know what our story is about (See What is an Example of a Story Synopsis?).

We have a theoretical model of our ideal reader (See What is an Example of an Ideal Reader?).

We’ve even figured out how to find our competition for this comic (See What is an Example of Competition Analysis?).

Now we’ve reached the point where we can start to find and connect with ideal readers to create a market for our comic. This post will focus on finding your people using social media. The next one will discuss what you want to say and how you might think about saying it.

What Social Media...