Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment

Kickstarter – No, It's Not Just About The Money

Neil Gibson writes,

Making comics is expensive. You have to pay for the writing, the artwork, the colouring and the lettering. Then you have to get the darn thing printed, and shipped (sometimes including warehousing). Naturally when you are making your own comic, you can work unpaid, but all the other people in the process need to be taken care of.

But that's not the end of the story. It is merely the beginning.

I've always said that to sell comics you need 3 things

Content creation

First of all you need to create the content (and that requires the cost as outlined above). Naturally better content will get you better reviews and more sales in the long term. You may be able to sell a bad comic, but the customers wont come back unless they like the content. But let's say you make the best self published book ever made. It's fantastic and everyone who reads it says so. But if people can't physically buy it, the books will just sit on your shelf. It needs to be easy for people to buy your work – you need distribution.

Distribution

Nowadays distribution can be digital, postal or bricks and mortar. In our early days I struggled to get stocked in stores and while it was frustrating, I really can't blame the stores. A comic shop owner knows a Batman title will sell. They don't know if an indie title from the UK will. Naturally not all shops are willing to take the risk and that's understandable. We used to get complaints every week from fans who said they couldn't buy my books. You'd have thought that services like Amazon would at least have it in stock as a last resort, but that sadly is not the case – I often sold out on Amazon and couldn't send them stock because the distributor we used hadn't sent us an order. Kickstarter allows you to post your books directly to new backers, but if you want long term viability, you need to be in stores where people can see and buy your book. When Theatrics launched we had stores in the US and Canada contact us about stocking it, and the campaign isn't even over yet. And this is all because of the awareness which kickstarter has brought which brings me to my final point – Marketing.

Marketing

Assuming you make the best comic ever, and get it in shops in front of people. There is still a LOT of competition out there. Word of mouth is an invaluable tool and those few who read your comic will spread the word. But for someone who has never heard of your book walking into a store like this, the chances of them finding and buying yours is very slim! And when it comes to online comics it's very hard to stand out from the crowd.

So where does kickstarter fit into all of this?

Some people choose to get the comic made before they run a kickstarter. Other people use a kickstarter to fund the content creation. But a kickstarter will pay for the content creation. I love kickstarter for that reason alone because it supports comics, which would otherwise not get made. But more than that, I love it because it gives these comics a wider audience. Indie creators need a head start in the tough world of marketing comics. A Kickstarter campaign will usually be initially funded by friends and family. As the campaign gains momentum, more and more people from within kickstarter will discover your comic and back you. This is a wonderful thing because you are instantly finding potential new fans who will help spread the word. In just three days since the Theatrics graphic novel kickstarter launched, we've seen a boost in traffic to our webcomic and we have risen in the rankings on sites that host webcomics. As the campaign for continues, we hope to see more and more people discovering and backing the project.

Comics are very popular on kickstarter. According to an earlier Bleeding Cool article, comic book projects have a 55% success rate (as compared to 40% for all Kickstarter campaigns generally). Comic projects have the highest percentage of repeat creators. These people come back again and again to make more comics because it works.

In summary, I love kickstarter for its help in fund raising, but more for the marketing exposure and new readers it brings.

Neil Gibson is a writer/editor living in London and Leonardo Gonzalez is an illustrator living in New York. THEATRICS book 1 is their first graphic novel together and was funded in 2 days. Click here for a link to the free chapters

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