12.16.2005

Here's the Thing #17: Moving On

It’s been a year but I won’t use the “One Year Later” cliché that everyone else on the internet is using. But, a little over one year ago today I saw my name in glorious comic print for the first time. Western Tales of Terror #1. Submissions Editor. Since then I’ve graduated to “Editor” and then “Managing Editor” even though the one editor I managed didn’t last that long and you’ll never hear about it beyond this sentence. Got two shorts of my own published; my storytelling website was successful, organized a convention here in DC, wrote 17 of these Here’s the Thing… columns and contributed to Buzzscope’s Industry Buzz. Worked with some of the industries biggest and best talents through WToT and got to work on one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year through Elk’s Run.

All-in-all I’d say it was a good first year.

Too bad I stopped having fun.

You know, fun is important. A year ago I was having a blast and getting nowhere. Just talking to people, finding angles, trying to make contacts, designing business cards and learning every step of the way. It was exciting, it was new. I’d get on the phone with somebody and talk for an hour about the industry, theorizing, picking apart its faults and finding ways to not just beat it but to change it.

You don’t change this industry, this industry changes you.

Here’s the thing – there are several hundred-thousand people buying Marvel and DC. A subset of those people are buying Dark Horse, Image, IDW, Top Shelf, etc (I’m leaving Tokyo Pop out of this one but it has nothing to do with legitimacy rather it has to do with the fact that their fans don’t seem to care much about us). A subset of that subset is buying, Arcana, Speakeasy, Ait, Gigantic, etc. A subset of that subset is buying Elk’s Run.

That thought – the fact that we’re producing a book that’s receiving accolades in Entertainment Weekly, Ain’t it Cool News, Newsarama, Wizard and various other online and print comic-based periodicals – and yet only a subset of a subset of a subset of the market is listening is extremely frustrating.

You stop having fun and instead you try to make it work. We moved to Speakeasy in the hopes of becoming a subset of a subset of the market. Whereas Adam has been accommodating every step of the way, it hasn’t worked out like peaches. You can read it all here; Guy has done a much better job than I can do. I suggest Mark Fossen’s article for some good links and discussion as well.

I had a revelation, recently – the comic book market gave up on us. I don’t know why, where or when this happened but it happened. We are speaking in a voice that they can’t hear – that they don’t want to hear. The market, and I hate to admit to this, wants mediocre stories. The want to complain about how they could do it better. They want a cause to fight for – it’s like the WWF where you had the good wrestlers and the bad wrestlers – the market wants their side. They want their DC or they want their Marvel. The want dumbed down stories. They want exclamation points in their solicitations so somebody can tell them that this story is going to be exciting.

They don’t want smart. Some of them do, sure. A subset of a subset of a subset of the market wants smart. Little pockets of readers here and there want smart – they want to find something smart – they don’t want people to tell them what’s smart by using phony inflections and cap-locking monosyllabic text.

And we independent publishers are not doing our part to rectify this. A lot of us are lying – exaggerating our success, withholding information. We’re emulating the tactics the big boys are using with no muscle to back it up. We’re not helping each other out as much as we could; we’re all fighting over the same couple of thousand people. There are exceptions, obviously, but for the most part a lot of the up-and-coming creators you’re talking to, a lot of the publishers you’re pitching to, a lot of the teams you’re committing to will all drop you in an instant if they see a way to grab an extra 200 customers that would involve ditching you.

And whereas some would say that’s business, hell – last month I would have said that’s business, you take a step back and you see the sheer insanity in that statement.

200 customers.

Our little corner of the industry does the jig when we sell 1000 copies. We start breakdancing at 2000. If someone told us they hit 3000 we don’t even believe them because that’s practically impossible.

This is what we’re fighting over. A couple of thousand people. This is why we’re not working together as much as we should – why we’re all going our own with the big ideas, maybe discussing the small ones. For a couple of thousand people. This is why we’re inflating our numbers and pretending we’re King Shit – marketing geniuses and rockstars of the comic world as if something like that can even exist.

And this column wasn’t helping at all. This column told you to lie (hell I told you I’m using you). It told you to watch out for yourself. This column was a veiled attempt to promote myself, to build my own audience, and to sell a couple of more issues of Elk’s Run. This column, which started out as an attempt to help people understand this industry, mutated into my own way to carve out a piece for myself as I understood how this industry actually worked.

As I stopped having fun, this column stopped being useful to you. It stopped being relevant.

That’s why I’m ending this column and beginning anew in 2006.

Here’s what I’m going to be doing, we’ll see if it works out. Every week (or so) I am going to work off of the fact that the comic book market gave up on us and suggest a new way to find our place outside of the comic book market. Now, this might sound ho-hum but there are ground rules.

For one thing, when I said no-ones listening to us I meant NO-ONE is listening to us. We’re not even listening to each other. Go to some creator board and start a thread that says “How do you save comics?” and you will have three pages of posts that start with “In my opinion…”. Several pages later you’ll see one or two, “I disagree. I believe…” Everyone has an answer that they believe is right and they believe it so adamantly that they rarely listen to what anyone else has to say. I believe that if we’re not even listening to each other, how can we expect a new market to listen to us?

So, these suggestions I will be posting are starting points. Some of them will be horrible. Some of them will be a solid beginning. None of them will be a solution. I want your comments. I want to LISTEN to your feedback. Every single bit of feedback that is made towards my suggestion – no matter what it is – I will listen to and I will offer up at least one reason why it’s a good idea and at least one reason why it’s a bad idea. No matter what the suggestion is.

In return, I only ask someone takes the positives and negatives from there and offers his or her own suggestions.

The idea is, through dialog we can find new methods. The ideas I plan on throwing out are hopefully going to be out-the-box type stuff. Some of them will be embarrassing for me. But if people put their heads together, an embarrassing idea can turn into marketing gold.

Look, right now, we’re all printing up postcards and giving out free candy at cons. Our best form of marketing – the one thing that’s getting our books the most exposure – is going to a website and starting a thread that says our next issue of soliciting and should be in stores in a month and a half to two months. That’s where we are, right now. That’s the best we’ve come up with so far. We have a lot of work to do.

I hope this idea works out. I know people are out there reading, I hope you all contribute. Give us the fan perspective, the retailer perspective, the average Joe perspective, the creator perspective. Hopefully I can start bring other people’s ideas to the table, start posting your own suggestions as the starting point. But we need to start somewhere. At my day job I spend marathon sessions, twelve hour sessions, sitting around a round-table and talking about how to make new money. How to reach a customer who we know has money to spend but doesn’t know us from the thousands of other companies in DC.

Recently one of these brainstorming sessions turned into an idea – we wrote a 40-page proposal in a week and turned it into seven-million dollars. I think if we put our heads together we can bring comics to a new audience.

We just need to start talking more.

We need to start listening.

Jason at 2:24 AM | link to this

26 Comments

One suggestion I have for getting new customers is this: "make it easy to buy stuff."

Looking at the DC conspiracy website, the way to actually become a customer is not obvious. Have some samples of work, and a catalog available on an easy-to-find link on the front page. Call it something like "buy our stuff."

You would be more likely to get random new customers who stumble over from a link to stick around if you do that.

David at 12/16/2005 7:19 AM

David, I agree--and on a larger scale than just website-to-website. We spend so much time working in the Previews-solicitations universe that we don't even realize how absolutely fucked up that system is to anybody outside of comics. When my series came out earlier this year, I had this conversation fifty times:

"You've got a comic coming out? Cool. Tell me when it's out, and I'll go buy it."

"No, you can't do that. You gotta pre-order."

"I gotta what?"

"Pre-order. You take this string of numbers, you go look up a comic book store, you call that store, you hope the douche on the other end deigns to take your order, you place your order, you wait two or three months, and maybe they'll call you when it comes in. Then you drive over there and pay for it."

"Uh...just save me a copy and I'll buy it off you sometime, okay?"

Yeah, I know saying Previews sucks is not exactly breaking new conversational ground, but DAMN...the distribution aspect is what's killing me these days.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to your new thoughts, Jason.

Jay at 12/16/2005 8:44 AM

Well, I'll be staying awa from Previews with every idea (at least it won't ever be the main idea) and if anyone comes back with an idea that is Previews it's safe to say that will be on the "bad" side and not the good.

Nothing against Previews but that's not the way you reach new customers. It's time to look beyond that book and comic cons and everything else we've sort of looked at as the gold standard.

Jason at 12/16/2005 9:24 AM

So the question is how to reach new customers, meaning noncomic readers? (Didn't we go through this with the King thing? Incidentally, I see that project has been pushed back, as has King's play/musical with John Mellancamp. Read between the lines on this.)

First, comics today are competing with a huge array of entertainment, especially video games. To squirm in on that market, comics will have to change, meaning use technology more. Jason, you mentioned Frank Miller at your blog this morning. As I understand it, Frank is working with Sony to create some type of electronic-media comic. That's how you get kids' attention. (Remember that Tom Hanks movie "Big," where he developed a hand-held electronic comic where readers pick the ending? Who says that's far-fetched?)

Ahh, but we're not really talking about the comic industry in general, are we? We're really talking about how to sell more our OUR books, right? Well, be that pioneer. Try new venues, which I'm a big proponent of. For example, the building I work at is having a holiday craft show next week. I got a free half-table and will sell Mr. Big. I'll be pushing it as a stocking stuffer for $1. I'll let you know if it's a diamond or dung idea.

I also find that newbies' hopes are shattered when they don't sell a lot of comics their first time out. Folks, there are very few people who become stars on their first effort. Put in your time, make some inroads, talk to folks, go to shows and have fun. Give it a few years. If you love comics, that's nothing. If you're into comics to make money or be a star, that's an eternity. But which one of these folks will be there down the road?

Dembicki at 12/16/2005 10:21 AM

Yes, I’m talking about us – and by “us” I mean people taking part in these discussions – being innovators. And I’m talking about accomplishing this by working on one idea a week, no matter how bad it starts out.

The idea would be like this: I either lay-out my own idea or a good idea some one emailed me. The whole thread that follows would be people discussing that idea. No derailments, that’s the rule. It could evolve but anyone who chimes in and just throws out his completely random idea that in no way takes into consideration what comes before it will first be warned, second have a comment deleted and third have his IP address banned.

Because what we need is more discussion. And if we hear an idea we don’t like we don’t dismiss it entirely and throw out our own – that’s not how you make things work. There could be potential there that you’re not seeing.

Incidentally, the stocking stuffer idea is smart. But if it was a topic of one of the new articles, the question would be how you turn that kid (or adult) that gets the stocking stuffer into a customer. One-and-done is never a good model. And to sort of get ahead of myself, one of the ideas I’m thinking of is a collaborative comic (or trade) of the month club. It’s still an impulse buy, it’s still cheap and it’s a great gift for the man (or woman or child) who has everything. And, the first one can be a stocking stuffer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself but that’s what you can sort of expect. We start with an idea, people comment, we comment on the comments by offering a plus and a minus on it. We then improve the idea, keep tweaking, until we have something that fans, retailers, creators, publishers etc have all given input into. We mold a good idea.

Jason at 12/16/2005 10:36 AM

Well said, Matt.

And Jason--I absolutely agree that Previews as it stands is the problem, not a key to the solution. If that monstrosity of a business plan is an unhappy memory a decade from now, I'll be dancing. I absolutely agree--we'll NEVER reach any real new audience as long as Previews is the gateway to entry.

Jay at 12/16/2005 10:41 AM

Truly productive comics chat...I like the idea.

And the ability to delete the topic-shredding jackasses...that's something that Scryptic needed to look at months ago.

Jay at 12/16/2005 10:43 AM

I think the new column sounds great, Jason. Brainstorm for a year, something good should fall out.

The market, and I hate to admit to this, wants mediocre stories.
I'd disagree. I don't think quality is an issue at all, good or bad or mediocre. They want X-Men, and Spider-Men, and Batmen, and Supermen. They don't care if it's good or bad. Chuck Austen, Grant Morrison ... it's all about the same, as long as Wolvie carves someone up at some point.

If Elk's Run had Wolverine in it, it would sell.

And that's exactly why the new column will be useful: new readers that don't care about the Snkit!-making are the only way for that subset of a subset to grow.

Mark Fossen at 12/16/2005 12:45 PM

new readers that don't care about the Snkit!-making are the only way for that subset of a subset to grow.

And when we get them we'll refuse to share them with Marvel and DC. Because it's not about growing the market.

It's about revenge.

Ok, it's not, but I got Frank Miller on the brain today.

Jason at 12/16/2005 1:21 PM

And the ability to delete the topic-shredding jackasses...that's something that Scryptic needed to look at months ago.

I think they finally banned him. Two months too late, way to kill a potentially good site.

No artists, pulishers or retailers there, either, though - that doesn't help much.

Jason at 12/16/2005 1:24 PM

I'm looking forward to the new column. I'll take part when I can as always.

I'm sending you an idea via e-mail.

Shane Bailey at 12/16/2005 1:44 PM

you know, the funny thing is this reminds me alot of why I stopped playing in indie rock bands. It's the same problem. BUT, garage rock bands figured out how to use the internet to get their songs out to the masses. To get exposure. I think if more comic book folks were willing to take chances equalling the chance that Wilco took when it freely distributed their last album you'd see that sort of success.

Part of the image of the comics industry comes from creators inability to speak to people. This is obviously not true in every sense, but I find it true in alot of places. I say, don't be afraid to talk loudly on the metro with someone when they ask you what book you're reading, and it turns out to be a trade of Pop Gun War. I say, tell people to go fuck themselves if they try to dismiss comics as childish. The European comics creators don't have this problem becuase the masses GET IT. And, for christ sakes, comics have been the brainhouse of Hollywood for the past 15 years.

Anyway, getting back to the point, my first instances of independant comics reminded me of what I thought independant music was going to be like. Community. Brotherhood. That turned out to be bullshit. There's no indie rock community. There's only parasites clinging to one hot idea, and fucking each other to get a bigger piece of it.

I see some of that in independant comics. I see some of that in our group. I think it's really ugly. But I also see some greatness in this community. Because of the large commercial possibilities there's a level of chumminess that is evident. I love that.

That, and tits.... oh, and beer.... and the Ravens... oh, and my MNF tickets for this week.

Jacob at 12/16/2005 1:59 PM

I say, don't be afraid to talk loudly on the metro with someone when they ask you what book you're reading, and it turns out to be a trade of Pop Gun War.

Just to keep hyping this up and to tie it into an email Shane sent me about viral marketing - one solution as I see it is to sell your comic to someone before they know it's a comic. Iconic advertisements and teasers, taglines without product information - things that spell cool before they know what the medium you're selling them is. That's a good way to sell a comic to someone who hasn't read it - don't tell them it's a comic. Start talking about Pop Gun War as a story. Tell them the plot, tell them the hook - tell them how it made you feel. Then, when you get them hooked on the story, tell them the art is beautiful, too. It's a friggin' bonus at that point.

And we'll be talking about all this stuff, I hope. And we'll be sharing and commenting and instead of one of us going out with a partially formed idea, a bunch of us will be going out with one solid idea.

But distribution, first. You can't market something if you have no way to get it into people's hands.

Jason at 12/16/2005 2:14 PM

Looking forward to this. i will be in with any ideas I have

saul
www.ssscomics.com

saulcolt at 12/16/2005 2:48 PM

Sorry, I know you don't want to turn this into idea after idea, but you have my brain going 20 million miles per hour.

I had another idea since Jacob mentioned music and comics. I find a lot of new music and try it out first at Epitonic. It's sectioned into types of music, with subcategories under those. When you click on a category you get a list of bands. You click on a band and you have choices of how to go from there; you can stream a few samples, or download a couple of full songs to sample depending on the artist. If you like the song you can then click on a link to buy the album. Why can't comics have something like this for the indy comics scene. Communities form up around sites like this. You have a sample issue online available at a place that everyone knows they can go to find something new. They can search for artist, writer, or any other keywords you want to include. It would be like a huge snapshot of what goes on in the small press industry. To fund the site you could sell advertisements or prime spots on the site to the creators.

Do we have something like that already? Do we need it? Would it help? Is it possible?

Shane Bailey at 12/16/2005 2:55 PM

It's ok, Shane, this is sort of like a little brainstorming thread of sorts. When the actual column starts (and I need a catchy name for it) it'll be a lot more structured.

In the huge Bendis thread on Speakeasy Jay Busbee (http://www.jaybusbee.com) mentioned On Demand comics where, like with Elk's Run, you read a review in Entertainment Weekly, follow a link and impulse buy a digital copy of the first issue.

What you're idea does beyond that is make a repository for doing this. So you can follow an EW review, impulse buy the first issue for a buck and then maybe Sundown will catch your eye and throw that on for another buck.

Follow it up with purchasing the trade or the individual issues that follow.

That's one thing that's certainly missing in comics - the impulse buy. You think about and comics cost three bucks. Whereas we look at that and say it's expensive (because we're buying 10 books a week) someone outside the community thinks that's a steal. What can you get for three bucks these days? Make it a dollar for digital and it's even more of a steal.

The downside, as I see it, is we'd be dealing in small volume orders and as a result would get killed in credit card processing fees.

And when the column start up I'd hope someone could take that negative and find a way to make it a positive or even tell me the problem isn’t as bad as it seems and tell me why. There’s a lot of knowledge focused in different areas, we can combine that into one solid plan.

Jason at 12/16/2005 3:09 PM

I would assume any venture like this would have to have a distribution channel of some kind, perhaps a partnership with an existing retial store or online website would negate some of the credit card processing fees. I also imagine it would start out small and possibly join with a larger organization as it grows (skype being bought by yahoo etc. That seems to happen with any small website that grows to a significant popularity, this would be on a smaller scale than that example.). To be honest I'm not sure how all the credit card processing works so I'm not much help in this area. Or, you could always up the price by the fee cost. I know at some restaurants I go to any credit purchase under $5 has a $.30 charge tacked on due to the credit card fee. Would a person unfamiliar with comic pricing see a huge difference between a $3 and a $3.30 book?

Shane Bailey at 12/16/2005 3:24 PM

I don't think the average fan would see the difference, no. But why even put it there to begin with? Subscriptions - we need to find a way to make a subscription model work. It could be digital. It could be 20 bucks for a year and you get access to free comics on this site. We all put up free first issues. But how do we get people there, that's always the question.

The reason why it would need to generate revenue is because the alternative would be to find a web programmer to develop it (and upkeep it) for free. At that point, you're dealing with shady looking pages that attract no-one.

We don't want shady looking pages - we want iTunes. We want hip, trendy. We want something that just feels cool when you go there - we want to link up with websites like Alloy and Hot Topic and make it something that crosses over to other markets.

But yeah, I think we can spend a month talking about online distribution methods. I think we're talking too much now - once the new column starts we'll have the structure to keep it moving nice and smooth.

But not just online distribution, either. I have a couple of starting ideas for a low-cost brick and mortar based distribution as well.

Jason at 12/16/2005 4:16 PM

"But yeah, I think we can spend a month talking about online distribution methods. I think we're talking too much now - once the new column starts we'll have the structure to keep it moving nice and smooth.

But not just online distribution, either. I have a couple of starting ideas for a low-cost brick and mortar based distribution as well."

I'll calm down a little. :)

I look forward to hearing your alternative brick and mortar based distribution ideas as well as the back and forth.

I'm sure Fossen will be all over this as well.

Shane Bailey at 12/16/2005 4:34 PM

Jason, just wanted to say I'm looking forward to the new column. (Hell, I'd steal it for Buzzscope if you were doing it on your own blog.) As you know, I like your...ah, um, moxie isn't very manly is it? Gumption?

Ah, fuck it. I like your balls!

You're not afraid to talk out an issue publicly, shooting from the hip and keep chewing at it until something develops, an attitude that's sorely lacking from many comics people these days, especially the mid-tier ones who've carved themselves a little niche at Image and cling to it desperately. Generally speaking, of course. :-O

When it comes to independent comics, relying on the direct market is a loser's game. There's friendlier odds betting on horses. A communal brainstorming, instead of the usual talking AT each other that takes place on most message boards, will be a refreshing sight to behold.

Keep up the good work.

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez at 12/16/2005 10:40 PM

When looking at online distribution models etc, be sure to take a look at some of the successes and failures of the webcomics phenomenon. Take a look at keenspot, keenspace, and comixpedia - in addition to the commentary pages.

One success story I like a lot is Maritza Campos' work with College Roomies from Hell!!! - I got hooked into being a daily reader, and then went back and read all the archives, and then (and only then) paid $5 each for the paper comics of stories which weren't available online.

David at 12/17/2005 7:44 PM

Guy -

I was going to pitch it to Buzzscope but here I feel like I have more control over what's said - three strikes and you're band from further discussion and that's it. I think something like this needs that.

David -

Whereas we will be looking at successful comic models we;ll be spending a lot more time looking at successful business models outside of comics and find a way to apply that to comics.

Jason at 12/18/2005 10:56 AM

"This column was a veiled attempt to promote myself, to build my own audience, and to sell a couple of more issues of..."

Feel free to cut my balls off here... but, isn't this public curtain call and promised return the same thing with a twist of revolution?

Don't get me wrong, I like what you're saying and I like what you write. I just don't think you should lose sight of the thing that makes people read your stuff. You're unabashedly honest about your desire to get your stuff in people's hands (like a lot of creators) and will use whatever means are at your disposal, including a blog and a list of growing credentials, to do so.

Now, I can dig how things may not be fun anymore and how that can stimulate a desire to close up shop and take things from a different angle, but make sure you're taking some of the old stuff with you.

I'd much rather take advice from a guy who knows he has an agenda then from a guy who doesn't.

I know I'm late to the party here and I certainly didn't come to shit in the cake. You've got something cool going on, Jason. It'll be interested to see what it evolves into.

Slim Killa at 12/18/2005 2:21 PM

Feel free to cut my balls off here... but, isn't this public curtain call and promised return the same thing with a twist of revolution?

It's changing my direction with pomp and circumstance.

Believe me - it'll be the same tone and I'll be cutting of people hard when I have to.

I already wrote the first three. The third one is going to make people shit their pants it'll be so dope.

Jason at 12/18/2005 3:53 PM

Well, pant shitting is always a plus.

Props.

Slim Killa at 12/18/2005 9:50 PM

I'm onboard.

For the record, I can confirm that Scryptic has banned you-know-who and the boards are warming back up.

Speaking of stocking stuffers/issues for a buck, etc., has anyone checked out Just A Buck Comics?

My Redchapel is starting early on in 2006, and Jason will be right there on the ground floor, so we have at least one guinea pig right there.

Bring on the discussion, I'm ready to contribute!

Caleb Monroe at 12/20/2005 2:49 AM

The DC Conspiracy is a group of comic creators, writers, artists, editors, and assorted hangers-on based in the Washington, DC region. Through semi-regular meetings and group projects, we're sharing ideas, swapping stories, comparing influences, and helping each other out.