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How to Create a Budget for Your Comics (Part II)

By gamalhennessy • Community • Oct 23, 2020

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 property clearance and...

How Do You Manage Your Comic Book Business?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Oct 16, 2020

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 thing you want to do....

How Can You Get Others to Invest in Your Comic? (Part II)

By gamalhennessy • Community • Oct 8, 2020

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 pay interest on...

How Can You Get Others to Invest in Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Oct 1, 2020

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. From...

What Factors Should You Consider When Investing Your Money in Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Sep 25, 2020

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...

What Are the Risks and Rewards of Financing Your Own Comic Book Publishing?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Sep 17, 2020

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 their comic....

How Do You Create a Budget for Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Sep 10, 2020

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 to set...

What Are the Economic Realities of Publishing Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Sep 3, 2020

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 relying...

What Marketing Activity Should You Avoid on Social Media?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Aug 24, 2020

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...

How Should You Market Your Book on Social Media? (Advanced Tactics)

By gamalhennessy • Community • Aug 5, 2020

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 about how things could go...

How Should You Market Your Book on Social Media?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Aug 3, 2020

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...

What is an Example of Social Media Engagement?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jul 30, 2020

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 the way...

How Do You Find Ideal Readers for Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jul 28, 2020

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 Platform Should You...

What is an Example of Competition Analysis for Digital Comic Book Marketing?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jul 15, 2020

Last week, we began an exercise designed to explain the four parts of developing a digital marketing plan. I offered a fictional vampire crime graphic novel called Blood Bond to use as an example. (See What is an example of a digital marketing story synopsis and What is an example of an ideal reader profile?) Today, I’m going to walk through how you can analyze a competing comic that appeals to your ideal reader.

If competition is the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party (See What is the Competition for Your Comic?) then the competition for Blood Bond is any comic that appeals to the reader who likes supernatural criminal...

What is an Example of an Ideal Reader Profile Analysis?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jul 9, 2020

Earlier this week, I put together a story synopsis for a story called Blood Bond. The purposes of the exercise was to provide an example in developing a digital marketing case study (See What is an Example of a Digital Marketing Story Synopsis?) The next step in the process (See Our Video on the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing) is to use the synopsis to define the ideal reader.

Form 2 of the Global Comix Digital Marketing Materials is Ideal Reader Profile Analysis Form. This breaks down the ideal reader into four segments: demographic, psychographic, genre and generation. Because the characteristics of an ideal reader can be found in your story (See Who is the Ideal Reader for Your...

What is an Example of a Digital Marketing Story Synopsis for Comics?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jul 6, 2020

Abstract ideas are useful in understanding digital comic book marketing (See our video on the fundamentals of digital marketing here), but concrete examples can make the concepts more real. For the next couple of weeks, I’m going to walk you through the steps of building an online comic book marketing plan with a hypothetical example. Let’s imagine I’m planning to publish a three-issue limited series called Blood Bond in time for Halloween 2021. The story combines crime noir and supernatural horror, where vampire police attempt to destroy the vampire hunters controlling organized crime. It centers around one detective who stumbles into the secret war.

My first marketing...

Global Comix Digital Marketing Roadmap for the Summer

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jul 2, 2020

Last week’s free webinar on Digital Marketing for Comics was a big success. We got so much positive feedback that we’re planning to offer the webinar again on July 16th (You can RSVP here).

But we’re also planning to take a deeper dive into digital marketing to help our creators and publishers get the most from GlobalComix. That means this blog will focus on two major topics for the month of July.

1. First, I’m going to take a deep dive into a case study on digital marketing, creating a plot synopsis, ideal reader profile, competition list, and an overall marketing plan that you can use to model your own efforts.

2. In the second half of the month, I’ll go...

How Can Hooks and True Fans Help Market Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jun 22, 2020

As we gear up for our webinar on digital comic book marketing (You can get your free ticket here), we need to continue our discussion about giving your target market what they want. Today, we’ll explore the idea of hooks.

What is a Hook?

For our purposes, a hook is an aspect of your story designed to attract and hold the attention of your ideal reader. It is a promise that your story will deliver the desired feeling. It is similar to how a successful trailer can give you the tone and flavor of a two-hour movie in two minutes of video and create enough excitement to inspire you to go buy a ticket.

Because comics combine images and text to deliver their message, a hook can be visual,...

What Does Your Target Market Want?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jun 18, 2020

We’ve been talking about identifying your target market, the obstacles to overcome in growing your fan base, and the tactics you can use to overcome those challenges. At this point, it helps to take a step back and consider what your readers actually want. This will help you understand how to connect with them and satisfy their entertainment needs with your comic.

The most basic thing to understand is that your ideal reader ultimately does not want your comic. They do not want the comics of your competitors or books in your genre. In fact, they don’t want any book at all. This goes for anything they buy or consume from food to clothing to other types of content. This lack of...

What Tactics Can Be Used to Increase the Size of the Target Market?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jun 15, 2020

Last week we talked about where your potential readers can come from (See: How Can You Grow Your Target Market?) and the challenges to converting them to comic book readers (See What Factors Limit Growth in Comics?). Today I'd like to look at techniques for dealing with each of the obstacles to increasing your target market.

Tapping into the potential market involves looking at both the way you connect with people and the way you interact with them. Remember, you’re not trying to change the way people consume content. You’re trying to build a satisfying relationship with those people who are interested in what you have to say. If only one percent of your potential market...

How Can You Grow Your Target Market?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jun 11, 2020

The combination of media competition, comparative value, isolated distribution and negative perception create an environment that suppresses growth in the market (See What Factors Limit Growth in Comic Readers?). In fact, there are economic indicators that suggest the size of the single-issue comic book market is shrinking.

According to a 2018 study, only 4% of Americans read comics on a regular basis. If there are 330 million people in the US, that’s just 13 million people overall. Industry analysis and comic shop owners claim the Big Two are pursuing tactics that attempt to squeeze more and more money from a limited group of devoted fans while their corporate owners only look to...

What Factors Limit the Growth in Comic Readers?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jun 8, 2020

If you want more people to read your comic, you need to attract more new readers to comics.

This is not a simple challenge. The bad news is that the comic book industry faces several substantial barriers to growth that you’ll have to consider and overcome if you want to avoid fighting for scraps. The good news is that comics has a substantial amount of growth potential, so if you can develop marketing that expands beyond the current comic book market, you can succeed while your competition struggles.

As an entertainment medium, comics have six major factors that make it difficult to expand the market:

1. Barriers to Entry: Comics have inherent cultural roadblocks that discouraging the...

How Do You Measure the Dollar Value of Your Target Market?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jun 3, 2020

It’s one thing to know how many copies you can sell to your target market (See What Is the Size of Your Market?). It is another thing to understand how much money that market can generate.

Market value is the amount of revenue a market generates over a given period of time. For example, if the average price of a monthly print comic is $3.99, and all the competitors in that market sell 20,000 copies collectively, then the monthly market value of that niche is around $80,000.There are three things you need to remember when looking at market value for independent comics, because like market size, market value isn’t an exact science.

The numbers are going to be gross—not...

What is the Size of Your Target Market?

By gamalhennessy • Community • Jun 1, 2020

Over the past two weeks, I’ve tried to explain the concepts of ideal readers (See Who is Your Ideal Reader?) and competition (See Who is Your Competition?) in terms of digital comic book publishing. The size of your target market defines various aspects of your project. I’d like to continue this marketing orientation by looking at ways you can think about the size of your comic’s target market.

The theoretical number of readers for your book will influence the different marketing, distribution, advertising, and sales strategies you use. Your market size can influence what type of book you create. Depending on your goals and your resources, it might even lead to altering...

What is the Competition for Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • May 26, 2020

Your comic may be unique and original, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are probably similar elements in other comics that appeal to your ideal reader profile no matter what your story is about. Understanding what’s already in the market and the characteristics of your competition can provide valuable information in both creating relationships with your reader and producing a better book.

Competition is the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party. For an independent comic book publisher, competition is defined as all media that can appeal to the ideal reader profile. Because readers do not have unlimited time or money,...

Who is the Ideal Reader for Your Comic?

By gamalhennessy • Community • May 19, 2020

Marketing is a critical skill for independent comic book publishers and Global Comix wants to make sure you have the tools and information you need to connect with your readers. Today I want to explore the concept of the ideal reader and how it can help you sell more comics.

An ideal reader is the specific type of person who would enjoy buying and reading your comic. Some writers like Stephen King focus on a specific real-world individual, like his wife. Others use a theoretical profile. This post will focus more on the hypothetical idea since all of us aren’t fortunate enough to marry our ideal reader.

Are You the Ideal Reader for Your Comic?

If you are a person who loves comics, and...