The Complete Creative

With our campaign over, I thought it would be nice to have a round-up of all our Kickstarter tip episodes while I worked on a retrospective of our latest campaign. I’m sure you’ve missed one in the past thirty-one days, and even if you caught them all it’s a great way to download the information into your brain noodle one last time and have a bookmark to return in the future as you plan your own campaign.

Below are all thirty-one Kickstarter tips we gave out during our mini-season. However, if you really want to hear some extra content, I highly recommend downloading the episode too.

Tip #1: Start early.

You should be building your audience for at least three months before you launch a campaign. You can’t be successful in crowdfunding without a crowd.

That means showing off your project, starting a Facebook group, beefing up your social media presence, making press contacts, and building a newsletter.

The more time you have to build your network and prep them for a Kickstarter project that’s coming, the more likely they will be to back your campaign when it’s time.

Tip #2: Send individual thank you notes to backers.

When somebody gives you their hard earned money it is only polite to say thank you. It’s easy for us to treat our backers as money, but they are humans and adding the human touch will improve your connection.

On top of being the right thing to do, it will also stem the loss of backers toward the middle of your campaign because you are making a connection.

Tip #3: Stretch goals should always make your core product better.

Most people have terrible trouble with stretch goals. Once a project funds the backers fall off because there’s nothing more to keep their interest.

You can change that by making sure your stretch goals always improve the quality of your project. For instance, if you have a book that is a 100-page soft cover comic, you can add extra pages at the end as a stretch goal, you can add an extra story, you can make your soft cover a hardcover, you could make your book a bigger size.

Meanwhile, the original backer is still paying the same amount for their pledge, and they are getting a better product. Nobody cares about the bookmarks and prints. They just want the coolest project they can get.

Tip #4: Keep your rewards simple.

There is no need to add multiple options for similar items. Each reward should be targeting a specific buyer, and have enough space in between to clearly delineate the right buyer for that product.

I recommend you start with a $1, $10, $25, $50, and $250 for a standard book. Certain products will not fall into this range, but for a publishing product like a book or CD these five categories should be your base. You can always add more later.

Tip #5: make deposits into the good will bank.

Good will is a finite resource, and you will use it up when you run a campaign. In order to make running a Kickstarter palatable to your audience, you need to add value to people’s lives for months and months before you ask them to pledge to your campaign.

This could be from a webcomic, or free pages from your book, or a podcast helping them fix their biggest problems, or anything you can do to help add value to your audience’s lives. The more value you add, the more trust you will have with your audience and the fuller your good will bank will become.

You can’t be a take with Kickstarter, you have to give 10x more than you ask. You should be delivering 10x value to your audience so they will gladly give you money. In fact, they will consider it the least they can do after all the help you have given them. 

Tip #6: Don’t overextend yourself on merchandise.

Especially once a project is funded, creators generally go crazy offering all sorts of merchandise like t-shirts, mugs, and other very high priced items. The problem is that they are eating into their own profit margins and eventually end up in the red.

Merchandise is unnecessary in almost all instances until you have a well-known product. Just focus on making a great single product (unless your product is incredibly high priced like many tech products are). If you must make merchandise, don’t make anything with multiple sizes. Also note that if you offer merchandise you can no longer ship your product media mail.

Tip #7: Keep your video under three minutes.

Your video is a commercial, and nobody can stand a commercial for more than a couple minutes, no matter how amazing the commercial. You can say everything you need to say in under three minutes.

Yes, you will have to edit yourself down. There are plenty of free programs like iMovie which can take out all the ums and ah. You need to make your case clearly and succinctly so people don’t tune out.

Tip #8: Add lots of images.

The average successful Kickstarter has 11 images in it. Even if you have something with a novel, there are plenty of images you can add besides your cover. You can add a photo of yourself. You can add some quotes from your book overlaid on top of a royalty free image. You can add silly memes. You can have somebody draw some illustrations of your book.

In whatever the case, your book needs images. Humans are visual creatures and picture help improve the quality of your page and make your project look more professional.

Tip #9: Keep your text concise.

People on Kickstarter love to use huge blocks of text, but that is ugly to the eye. They also love to muddle their paragraphs. Remember in school where we learned how to write a paragraph?

You have a main sentence, 2–3 sentences that support the main sentence, and finally a concluding sentence that ties together everything you said. The same thing is true with paragraphs. You have a thesis paragraph with your main point, then 3–5 supporting paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.

You don’t need much in order to get somebody to back, but it does have to make a compelling, clear, and concise case.

Tip #10: Send updates often.

Throughout the campaign you need to update your backers at least once every 3 days. The average successful projects have given more than 10 updates. These can be raffle giveaways, or stretch goal announcements, or just a great day that you had. I like to offer weekly challenges on my campaigns, so every week I upload a new video for backers.

The point is that the backers need to be involved in your campaign throughout.

Tip #11: You don’t have to do your dream project first.

If you’ve never raised money on Kickstarter before, then don’t expect to raise several thousand dollars, especially if you have no network. You are much better served doing a project you can complete and fund, even if it’s only $500 or less. Then you will have a baseline of your audience and be able to build from there.

Your goal is to get your feet wet and learn the ropes. It’s not to stress yourself out chasing an impossible goal. You have an entire career to build up to your dream project.

Tip #12: Pledge to other projects.

Kickstarter is a community, and people want to see that you are an active backer before you launch a project. Additionally, if you do back a lot of projects you can then email them during your campaign and ask them to introduce you to their audience. It might not work, but you are almost buying their time to consider your offer.

Tip #13: Consider your category carefully.

Some categories have a much more active community than others. Tech, design, and comics have very active communities. Publishing does not. You want to make sure you get a sense of the community

Tip #14: Start on a Tuesday. End on a Thursday.

Studies show that Tuesday is the best day to begin a campaign. However, Wednesday and Thursday are very close to Thursday. So much so to be within the study’s margin of error. However, Thursday is far and away the best day to end a campaign. Thursday blew all other days of the week away by a statistically significant margin.

Tip #15: Post more to social than you think necessary by a factor of 10.

Only about 3% of people see your Facebook posts. Twitter has a shelf life of 15 minutes. So the people you think you are going to annoy probably haven’t even seen your post. You need to post all the time in order to get word out about your project.

Post when people back your campaign. Post when you’ve hit a milestone. Post everything, but make sure to keep changing your imagery so it doesn’t get stale. It’s the same reason McDonald’s has 1,000 different billboards. The same image drowns into the background. People need new stimuli in order to keep engaged.

Tip #16: You need to raise 30% of your funding in the first 48 hours.

If you think you can raise $1,000, that means at least $300 needs to be raises in the first 48 in order to guarantee success. If you raise under 20% then your project will have a tough uphill battle. If you raise more than 50% it means your target was too low. 30% means you hit the nail on the head.

Tip #17: Convey the why.

Most campaigns are pretty good about describe what their product it. Some can even clearly discuss how they are going to bring it to market. Almost none convey why people should back their project or why they are uniquely qualified to bring the product to market.

The why is what makes people back, though. People are much more likely to back an unfinished product with a compelling why than a finished product that has none. The why is different for every product, but if there is no why you will suffer much fewer backers and risk your campaign not funding.

Tip #18: Bring the passion.

If you can’t show passion for your product, then nobody else will show passion either. You need to show extreme passion for your product to motivate others to get passionate about the product as well. Your passion is contagious, as is your lack of it. It needs to come through in your word, your social strategy, and definitely in your video.

Tip #19: Make sure to calculate shipping carefully.

Almost 10% of successfully funded products fail to deliver. The number one culprit in that failure is shipping. Sometimes rates go up, but sometimes it’s because stretch goals change the weight and size of the box. Still other times it’s because a product that was once media mail can no longer be shipped that way because certain incentives prevent it from being shipped in that way. Other times it can be because they didn’t properly check shipping rates to all countries, and international shipping ate into all their costs.

You need to be very careful with shipping. It can add an undue burden on the unprepared creator. However, with some planning you can make sure it doesn’t destroy your campaign and send you into debt fulfilling rewards.

Tip #20: Kickstarter takes 10% off the top.

Kickstarter takes 5% for their fees and 3–5% for all processing fees through their credit card vendor. Take this into account. Add a 10% buffer to your campaign to prevent failing to raise enough money.

Tip #21: Transparency is key.

If something is going wrong, or right, tell your backers. If you have something to say, say it. Don’t hide anything. People are very forgiving if you are honest.

Tip #22: Schedule posts before your campaign begins.

Buffer, Hootsuite, meet Edgar, Tweet Jukebox, and many others allow you to schedule a base line of social media posts before your campaign begins. You will have other things to post as well, but you want to make sure you get the bulk of your updates out of the way early so that you aren’t fretting about them when your campaign is live.

Tip #23: Double check your rewards.

You can’t change your rewards when your campaign is live. If you accidentally charge the wrong shipping price, or you need to change the tiers in any way once even one person backs, you can’t. This often leads creators to creating new tiers to try to fix what they screwed up. An ounce of preparation is priceless.

Tip #24: Give an early bird perk to your first-day backers.

The first 48 hours is critical to the success of the campaign, so reward those people who back early. It doesn’t have to be much. Maybe the first day backers get a free wallpaper, or maybe they get the digital rewards before anybody else. It doesn’t have to be much, but that little gesture will help push people over the edge to back early.

Tip #25: Make your Kickstarter campaign a spectacle.

Kickstarter is the closest thing to an online comic-con that I’ve ever seen. You should be treating it as such by offering super cool, exclusive perks, doing live chats, engaging with your fans, and giving people something they can’t get anywhere else. You could offer daily giveaways through raffles, or weekly videos.

You can do a google hangout or an AMA, but the simple fact is that Kickstarter is an event and the more you can treat it as such the more success you will have.

Tip #26: Set up a launch and close event for your campaign.

You can do this at your house, at a local comic book store, at a park, or a restaurant. The key is not to spend a bunch of money on the event, it’s to get people excited about your project. If you are an artist, you can hold a show at a local gallery.

If you are a filmmaker you can hold a trailer screening at a local theater. You should hold these events the first and last day of your campaign to help drum up the most fervent enthusiasm possible during the most crucial times of your campaign.

Tip #27: Build press relationships early.

Emailing press contacts the day your campaign launches is too late. The press may have up to a six-month lead time on getting articles into their pipeline. However, if you aren’t building your contacts well before then the press won’t even write a story about you.

You need to be fostering these contacts for months or years before you launch. Offer to do articles for them, meet them at cons, find them on social media, and treat them like humans just like you would for anybody else. The real question you need to ask is “how can I provide value in their lives?” When it’s time to email about your project, then you need to make it easy for them to publish.

Tip #28: Your backers will be mostly people you know.

No matter how many emails you send to the press or how many cold contacts you make during your campaign, most people that back your project will be people you know for months or years before the campaign launches. That means you need the biggest network of energetic friends and fans before you ever hit the launch button. Remember, you can’t be successfully on crowdfunding without a crowd.

Tip #29: Pledge levels should include rewards from all previous tiers.

You don’t want people hesitating about backing a higher tier because they don’t want to miss out on something they really wanted from a previous tier. You want it to be very easy for them to increase their pledge level.

Increasing existing pledges is a crucial part of the middle campaign lull, and any hesitation will prevent you from getting that extra pledge money.

Tip #30: Model success.

Hundreds of other campaigns have done Kickstarter better than you in the past. They’ve succeeded and failed thousands of times. Use that to your advantage. Look through them all and find the points of commonality between them. Make sure to take note of the words they use, the imagery, and the reward levels that are consistent among the highest performers. Then, you can model that in your own campaign for the highest chance of success.

Tip #31: The right title is critical for success.

With hundreds of projects to choose from, you only have a second to catch a backer’s eye. With the way that Kickstarter is set up, you basically get an image and a title to make a backer click on your link.

So you want to make sure your title is catchy AND that is uses all 60 characters to fully explain the reason somebody should click on your project. Almost all hyper successful projects use a colon after the name of their project to state what the project is about. Make sure to utilize all 60 characters in order to give yourself the best chance for success.

That’s it for our mini-season. If you liked this, please subscribe, rate, and review it wherever you download your podcasts, whether it’s Itunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or any of the other wonderful podcast aggregators out there.

It’s the best way for us to find new people to help and to make sure you don’t miss any future episodes. We have some crazy stuff coming up that you won’t want to miss, so subscribe now.

Even though the campaign is over, you can follow the link of www.spaceshipbrokenbook.com to find great information about the book’s release and where you can order or other books online.

And head on over the www.thebusinessofart.us in order to join our mailing list and get our handy guide to help you build an audience from scratch.

Today on the show we have Jim Zub (www.jimzub.com).

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Jim is an icon in indie comics for the candid way he talks about the ups and downs of making stuff. If you don’t know him, here is his bio from www.jimzub.com.

Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. Over the past fifteen years, he’s worked for a diverse array of publishing, movie and video game clients including Marvel, DC Comics, Capcom, Hasbro, Cartoon Network, and Bandai-Namco.

He juggles his time between being a freelance comic writer and Program Coordinator for Seneca College‘s award-winning Animation program.

His current comic projects include Dungeons & Dragons, a new series celebrating 40 years of the classic tabletop RPG, Thunderbolts, the return of Marvel’s villainous superhero team, and Wayward, a modern supernatural story about teens fighting Japanese mythological monsters.

So the reason I brought Jim on the show wasn’t because of Skullkickers, or his work on Thunderbolts, or even Wayward. It was because of an article he wrote about the economics of his book Skullkickers, and how much money he made on it over time. It was a fantastic breakdown of how even a book that is deemed successful might be losing money at the beginning as it builds an audience. I thought it was such a fantastic and candid look at the industry that I’ve been a fan ever since.

The weird thing is that we barely touched on that article. We did talk about it for a couple of minutes, but the thing we talked about most of all was treating people like human beings. Whether it’s your artists, or editors, or the press, or publishers, it seems more and more that people get forward by having a little empathy.

I’m dealing with this right now as I record my 31 tips in 31 days for the launch of my next campaign. A lot of my advice is on how to build an audience, press contacts, and connections. However, I have to make sure I include in every one of those tips that it doesn’t help if you are a douche.

If you are the guy that’s trying to game the system and find the most important person at a party or using the tactics I show just to make a good impression. If you are doing favors just so you can ask for a favor, it’s not going to work.

Because the key to this whole thing is you have to treat other people like human beings because you want to do so, not because they can do something for you. That’s the way that most of these creators get ahead. Yes, they are talented. Yes, they did the right things. But more importantly, they were genuinely nice people because they wanted to be.

We talked about Charles Soule on the show. I met Charles when Renzo was penciling Ichabod and 27: Second set at the same time. We struck up a conversation and I just remember how nice he was. He had no reason to be nice. He didn’t know me. I was just some kid with a floppy, but he was nice. He even bought my book. It was so cool. I still remember it to this day.

Jim is the same way. He gives value all the time. He does it because he wants to help. He wants a better industry and gives without asking. In return, he has an enormous amount of people that like and trust him. Those people want him to succeed and are more likely to buy his book just because they like him.

There was a post on my Facebook feed about ways to get rich, and I had to comment about being “rich” is a byproduct of providing value. It’s amazing how much more you can get back if you give value first. If your position is one of value, you build empathy and people want to buy from you. In return, you’ll make money.

However, the key is you have to provide value for the sake of value, not in order to get ahead. The byproduct is that you get ahead and make more money. I don’t even know if Jim thought about the psychology behind it before. He was just giving back because he wants to help.  

In this world, people say you have to be two of the following: nice, on time, talented. I think that’s horseshit. I think you should strive to be all three.

Look, you can’t just be supremely talented. That happens over time. You have no real control of being amazing. You can always control being on time and nice. Those are things you can control today, and should control today. Then, if you become talented, guess what…you’ll have all three and be in the driver’s seat.

Jim learned that long ago. He spent years making mistakes, but always being on time and polite. People knew he would get books in on budget and on time. He just kept hanging around doing the right thing, and opportunities presented themselves. Of course, Jim is also supremely talented.

But that supreme talent doesn’t come overnight. He wasn’t always able to write for Marvel. He grew into that role. But he was always on time and polite. It’s so important to control what you can control and work on those things you can’t.

If there is one wonderful example of that, it’s Jim Zub.

If you like this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, whether it’s iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or any other aggregator.

This is a reprint of a podcast episode blog you can find at www.thebusinessofart.us.

With my next Kickstarter starting tomorrow, I thought it would be a great time to revisit our free Kickstarter Course. This is a seven episode course to help you create, launch, fund, and distribute your Kickstarter campaign.

Originally launched as a series, I thought it would be nice to combine them all together in one massive episode and post so you didn’t have to keep searching through the archives for them.

If you like this podcast, please subscribe, rate, and review it on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you download podcasts. It’s the best way to make sure you don’t miss any of our awesome content.

Lesson 1: Validating an idea

Let’s get down to it. Our first lesson is validating an idea, the initial step in any campaign. 

 

 Validating an idea is an essential component of any Kickstarter campaign, as it will tell you exactly how big your market is, and whether there is rabid interest, mild interest, or no interest in your product. 

 

 I always start my validation tests at Google, by typing in several keywords into the search engine and seeing how many results pop up. Google will tell you the amount of terms related to your search. The higher, the better. 

 

 You can also run this search by going to the Google Adwords Keyword Planner, and typing in your search terms to get an idea of how active and popular your search terms are with people around the world. 

 

 Then I head over to Amazon and check the rankings of products. Again, I type in some similar search terms to what I’m trying to create. Then, I click on the most popular products and see their popularity index on Amazon as a whole. 

 

 After that, I’ll know exactly how popular the product is, how likely I am to find an audience, and roughly how much I can expect to raise from on Kickstarter. 

 

 Finally, I will run similar searches on Kickstarter and Indiegogo to see what hot topics there are in my category.

By doing this very quick search at the beginning, I will see if somebody has already created my idea. If so, I would abandon it in most cases.

 None of the above are guarantees, though. Just because there are no searches on Amazon or Google that return what you are trying to create, it’s not necessarily a bust. It just means you’ll have a longer row to hoe.

Lesson 2: Finding your target audience

Finding your target market, and growing it, is the best predictor of how much you are going to raise. Most people think they are going to click the launch button and magic is going to happen, but that’s just not the case. It’s a lot of hard work finding, building, and nurturing your audience. 

 

 However, if you find your target market they will tell you exactly what they need and how to build a product that suits them. They are going to be your best beta testers and your best brand ambassadors. 

 

 They are not hard to find either.

 

 I start finding an audience before I ever leave the house my joining Reddit forums and Facebook groups. I join early and provide relevant comments and links to the members. I engage with them and find out what they are about. I truly care about what’s going on, not just as a marketing gimmick. 

 

 Then, I leave my house by finding Meetup groups in my area.While there may not be an audience for the exact product I’m trying to build near me, there is usually a group in the broad range of product class (i.e. if I’m trying to build a motorcycle motor, there is a motorcycle club even though it doesn’t specialize in repair).

 

 I join these groups a LONG time before I finish my product, provide updates, find friends, and talk shop. Then, when my product launches I KNOW people want it because I have a community of hundreds of people that told me they want the product.

 

 I hope that helps. Next, we talk about the best time to launch a Kickstarter product. 

 

 Lesson 3: The Best Time of Year to Launch

Finding the best time to launch is one of the biggest challenges with Kickstarter. There are several factors to consider, which all starts with picking the right time of year. 

 

 Here’s the truth: launching a Kickstarter after Thanksgiving or when school isn’t in session is usually a bad idea.

 

 Why?

 

 Well during the summer people tend to be on vacation, so they are less present online. 

 

 During the holidays, people are thinking about spending disposal income on gifts for people…NOT a product they won’t be getting until 4–6 months down the line. 

 

 Also, during the holidays you are competing with rock bottom pricing from Amazon and other retailers. 

 

 Another traditionally bad time to launch would be right around tax time because everybody has a tax bill due so the last thing they are thinking about is purchasing new stuff.

 

 On the flip side, right after tax season when people are flush with cash is a great time to launch a product because most people have disposable income at that point. 

 

 But that’s just one factor that goes into picking the right time. Another factor is buyer mentality. You want to hit a buyer with a product when it’s hot in their mind.

 

 We have a free ebook that talks all about this. You can download it here. All you have to do is register for an account.

 

 The Coolest Cooler was one of the biggest Kickstarter ever, and the creator launched his product in June (which goes against what I just said and proves there are no rules in business) when people were thinking about summertime activities. 

 

 However, did you know that he also tried launching the SAME product the previous December to disastrous results? 

 

 There are many contributing factors to that, but most experts attribute this to the idea that nobody was thinking about, or cared about coolers, in December, so nobody bought it. 

 

 Another factor is your convention season. Every industry has conventions, and it’s generally not the best idea to launch a Kickstarter during the biggest conventions because every big company is making announcements during CES and other shows. 

 

 While I do love having conventions as part of your launch strategy, I recommend smaller conventions where big companies aren’t launching competing products.

 

 There’s just no way to compete with Samsung and Apple. They will destroy you. 

 

 The last factor I consider is to backer psychology. People buy more when they are depressed. People are the most depressed during early months of the year, less so during the summer and around holidays, then there is another uptick around Labor Day until Halloween. 

 

 If I had to pin the best time down, I would say right after the New Year until March, and September-October as long as you can delivery by Christmas, are great times to launch.

 

 However, it may be different in your industry and it’s important to check for yourself using the factors we discussed.

Lesson 4: The Most Important Part of Any Kickstarter

The 99% of successful Kickstarter backer and pledge curves are the same. They are parabolas, with the beginning and end accounting for most of the backers and money raised.

 

 You can see this by checking out campaigns on Kicktraq. 

 

 As you’ll see, there will ALWAYS be a lull in the middle of a campaign where you only have a couple of people backing a day.

 

 I’ve only seen one campaign that was able to maintain momentum the entire campaign. This one. 

 

 If we accept that as fact, then the most important part of the Kickstarter is building for a HUGE release on the first day. 

 

 Seriously.

 

 You need to raise 33% of your backing on the first day. If you can do that, you’re nearly guaranteed to succeed. If you can’t, your path will be much harder. If you fall below 20% on your first day, you’re in for a very long expensive haul to get your project funded. We have a free ebook that talks more about this. You can check it out here.

 

 Having a fantastic first day means so much.

 

 It means that your backers are going to be spreading the word about your campaign all throughout your campaign. That’s a lot of free publicity. 

 

 Additionally, it means you will show up higher on Kickstarter, you have a better chance of people seeing your campaign, and when they see your campaign they see it as a success.

 

 People love to back a winner. If you can hit that 33% mark on the first day, people will want to back your campaign b/c success breeds more success. 

 

 Additionally, the higher your backers are at the beginning, the more people will back during the middle of your campaign. The higher your first day, the higher the minimum pledges will be in future days. 

 

 So finding those backers on day one, and telling people about the campaign, and getting as many people to back as possible is critical and you need to start early to do it. The bigger your network, the bigger your reach, and the more people you can hit on that first day. 

 

 Lesson 5: Creating Your Campaign

Creating a campaign comes down to three sections: the video, the copy, and the rewards. 

 

 First and foremost, you MUST have a video. No exceptions. Almost 70% of Kickstarters without campaigns fail. That means if you don’t have a campaign video, you only have a 30% chance of succeeding. 

 

 Additionally, people want to see you in the video, because they are buying you as much as your product. On Kickstarter, you and your product are intrinsically linked. 

 

 There’s a really simple strategy for making a video. It’s three steps. An Introduction of no more than 15 seconds, then a product demo where you show the coolness of the product for no more than 1:15, and finally you coming back on camera and making a plea for no more than another minute where you talk about the history of the product and why you need backing. Keep it positive!

 

 Total run time should be no more than 2:30! That’s two minutes and thirty seconds, not two hours. Keep it short. 

 

 Second is the campaign copy. You have to break up sections into easily digestible tidbits and assume people are going to fall off throughout reading it. Therefore, coolest thing at the top accompanied by an awesome image, then break up sections throughout the campaign to show off your product. 

 

 Remember, this is a marketing piece, not a short story. Nobody wants to reach big paragraphs. They also don’t want to wonder what you are talking about. If it doesn’t keep them interested, they will click off. 

 

 Finally, the rewards. Rewards need to be simple, concise, and explain what people get for their pledge. They do not need fancy names, just clear concise information. Each of your rewards has a purpose and should be targeted at a specific buyer profile.

 

 The key to a successful campaign is to make is simple, concise, and make sure you are clear about your goals.

Lesson 6: Distributing Your Campaign

Now you know how to validate an idea, find a target market, when to launch your campaign, what the most important part is of any Kickstarter, and how to create your Kickstarter campaign! 

 

 Now, we have to talk about getting your campaign into backer hands.This is where the rubber meets the road. 

 

 This is where most Kickstarters go bankrupt or at least end up massively in the red. That’s exactly why budgeting appropriately is so important.

 

 Getting a high-quality project into backer’s hands is the only way you can possibly hope to build an audience for the future, and that’s the goal of Kickstarter.

 

 If you think it’s about getting your project funded, you are WRONG.

 

 Funding the project is a part of Kickstarter, but it’s only a part. Your goal should be building an audience so you can keep doing Kickstarters forever. 

 

 In order to do that, you need to precisely know how much it will cost to get your project into backer hands, who is going to produce your project, how you are going to distribute it, how you are going to ship it and build in contingencies. This needs to happen before you hit the launch button. 

 

 You need quotes from your fulfillment, distribution, and shipping companies before you launch, and at different levels depending on how many people back. 

 

 Additionally, you have to keep your audience updated on everything, both good and bad. Here’s the thing. In order to build an audience, you have to communicate with your audience, be honest with them, and get them their project in a timely manner.

Lesson 7: Building Toward the Future

When you’re talking about building to the future, you have to deliver that Kickstarter first. Not just that, but you have to over deliver.

You have to add everything in your power to make people say WOW. Once they are wowed by your professionalism and quality, they are very likely to back again. 

 

 Now, once you finish your Kickstarter the first thing you need to do is find an email program like Mailchimp or Aweber and start communication with your backers on at least a monthly basis. Do not wait until your next project to keep people informed. They will forget about you. 

 

 Then, you need to start planning your next project. You are no longer a hobbyist. Once you finish your campaign and start to launch your next, you are a business. However, you can’t really go full force until after backers get their rewards.

That’s it for our free Kickstarter course. I hope you learned a lot that can help you crush your next campaign. If you want even more help, I have set up a fantastic course to help you crush it on Kickstarter. Usually $197, you can get a great deal right now by heading to www.thebusinessofart.us/kickstartercourse.

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This week on the show we have Madeleine Holly-Rosing. Madeleine is the writer and creator of Boston Metaphysical Society and a Kickstarter expert.

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Madeleine solidified her status as a crowdfunding authority with the book Kickstarter for the Independent Creator. Here is a bio from www.bostomemetaphysicalsociety.com:

A TV, feature film and comic book writer, Madeleine is the winner of the Sloan Fellowship for screenwriting, and the Gold Aurora and Bronze Telly for a PSA produced by Women In Film.

She also won numerous awards while completing the UCLA MFA Program in Screenwriting. In addition, Madeleine teaches a Kickstarter class for independent creators at Pulp Fiction Books in Culver City and has published the book, Kickstarter for the Independent Creator.

BOSTON METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY webcomic is the recipient of an HONORABLE MENTION at the 2013 GEEKIE AWARDS and was nominated for BEST COMIC/GRAPHIC NOVEL at the 2014 GEEKIE AWARDS.

The comic has also been nominated for a 2012 Airship Award as well as a 2013, 2014 and a 2015 Steampunk Chronicle Reader’s Choice Award. Her novella, Steampunk Rat, was also nominated for a 2013 Steampunk Chronicle Reader’s Choice Award.

She currently has novelettes, novellas and an anthology (print as well as eBook) based on the BOSTON METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY universe available at all major online retailers. Her goal is to eventually develop a series of novels based in this world.

Formerly a nationally ranked epee fencer, she has competed nationally and internationally. She is an avid reader of steampunk, science fiction, fantasy and historical military fiction. Madeleine lives with her rocket scientist husband, David, and two rescue dogs: Ripley and Bishop.

Madeleine is a big get for me even though you might not know her name. Ever since I started seriously going to cons about three years ago she has been a staple of all my favorite shows. Back before I exhibited myself and the bright shininess and mystic wore off, Madeleine was a bit of a mythical figure to me. Even back then she was building buzz around her book and people were talking about her.

There are two major ways to build a brand. Well, there are actually three. The third one is You are the brand. In the beginning, you and the brand are always synonymous, so I usually discount that as a given. There are two branches from you being the brand: your product can be the brand or your company can be the brand. For me, the company is the brand. Not one title defines Wannabe Press. Wannabe Press defines the titles we carry. However, you can also flip that and it’s equally strong if not better.

Madeleine has chosen the second path with Boston Metaphysical Society. She has chosen a singular product and built her brand around that brand. Because of that, she is as synonymous with Boston Metaphysical as I am with Wannabe Press. And she’s built the brand well. She’s nurtured it, grown it, and even grown beyond it as an expert in the field of crowdfunding.

But she wasn’t always an expert, and I love that before Madeleine had a strong brand, she started by doing reviews for our good friends Fanbase Press. Fanbase Press allowed her to learn more about comics, make friends with creators, meet influencers, and have her name linked to comic books well before she had a successful comic book of her own.

This is a great strategy and textbook for people that don’t have a strong brand themselves. If you are developing a product, you need to link yourself with other brands that deal with that product. Reviewing products is one of the easiest ways to start building a name in that space. You don’t have to have a finished product and you can already have bylines linking you to the major players. There are dozens of review sites that are looking for reviewers. I can’t recommend this strategy highly enough.

Once Madeleine had enough content, she launched a Kickstarter to produce the entire graphic novel version of her book. However, that book failed because she was looking for $25,000. She ended up raising a respectable $7,000, but with Kickstarter it’s all or nothing.

So she went back to the drawing board, took a look at her assets, and decided instead of trying for 6 issues she could just go back to Kickstarter for print funds just for issue #3 which she already had in the can. She did, and ended up raising $8,000! That was enough to print issue #4 too!

This is a perfect example of rapidly failing, regrouping, taking stock of your assets and then relaunching with the knowledge you learned. Madeleine talked about how the landscape of Kickstarter changed in 2013. It went from people throwing money at Kickstarter in almost ungodly sums to a more careful platform once people got burned one too many times with not receiving their goods.

She realized this, pivoted, and ended up having a massively successful campaign. We can all learn a thing of two from this, especially the idea that one doesn’t have to launch their dream project first. If you don’t have a big enough fan base to warrant a $25,000 campaign, figure out what you can support and make that. You shouldn’t be doing your dream project first anyway b/c it will never come out as well as you hope.

Madeleine proved her mettle dropping tons of knowledge bombs about Kickstarter, building and audience through cons and social media, and developing a successful brand. You could literally write a case study on how Madeleine built her brand. It’s textbook business strategy for somebody that wants to become a consultant. It was a delight to have her on and I hope you guys love it too.

If you like this episode, please click here to subscribe, rate, and review the show. And don’t forget, you can receive our entire Crush it on Kickstarter course, usually $197, for just $7.00 by clicking here!

Today on the show we have Tom Hutchison from Big Dog Ink. Big Dog Ink merged with Aspen Comics a year ago to create a mega company of awesome.

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For the past year they have been doing reprints of their old books, but not it’s time to light the fires and get some new projects cracking again through their new Kickstarter for Lights, Camera, Jungle which launches August 6th. Here is a bio straight from www.bigdogink.com:

Founded in 2009, Big Dog Ink is an independent publisher of diverse comic book properties such as PENNY FOR YOUR SOUL, URSA MINOR, CRITTER, KNIGHTINGAIL, and REX: ZOMBIE KILLER. Since its inception, Big Dog Ink has quickly become a top publisher in the industry with its hit series, THE LEGEND OF OZ: THE WICKED WEST, which has consistently charted in the “Diamond Top 300” list. BDI has gained a loyal fan following due to our high quality art, stories, and dedication to elevating the art of small press and creator owned publishing.

I’ll be honest, even though I knew of Big Dog Ink, I haven’t read a lot of their titles. However, their company always stuck with me because when I was getting into comics again in 2010, Penny For Your Soul was one of the first books I picked up.

I definitely didn’t know Tom before this interview, like I know most of my guests, but I’ve been friends with Frank who runs Aspen Comics for a long time. He was actually one of my first general meetings I took when I came to Los Angeles. Sometimes I still think about turning Shrugged into a movie and where that meeting could have taken me.

But it didn’t. I stopped working in TV/Film soon after and focused on publishing, and Frank went on to build an amazing company full of great stories and wonderful art. After meeting Tom, I understand why Aspen and BDI merged because both their founders are amazing.

Tom came on to talk about his new Kickstarter for Lights, Camera, Jungle, but he gave wisdom about everything from how he started his company to how they launched their first title, to how the grew their title over time.

What I dug about Tom was that he is a con vet. He started by taking his comics on the road all around the country. Within the first year of his company’s formation he’d been to Baltimore, Florida, Chicago, Seattle, and many others. He is the classical touring musician of comics. Somebody that built a company one fan at a time by being in the trenches.

But Tom didn’t want to be a publisher at first. He wanted to be an artist, and then fell into writing. He went to one of my all-time favorite sights, Digital Webbing, to start his company just like I did. Once he got his book, he realized it was impossible to get into comics without having a company formed to sell them. So he founded DBI and set out to sell comics all over the country.

BDI was a means to an end for Tom, and I totally understand that feeling. He was an outsider, and nobody wanted his work, so he set out to build a brand from scratch. So many creators could take a lesson from him, and he drops value bombs galore about how he got started.

I loved when Tom talked about how he deals with submissions. Basically, even though he’s heard hundreds only three have ever made it to publication. The commonalities were these: He knew all the people involved and they already had finished product.

If I could give any two pieces of advice for getting published, it’s to know the publishers personally and have finished product. Aside from that, you are just hoping against hope, and it probably won’t work for you.

He also talked a lot about Kickstarter, and why he’s going to it with his new book, Lights, Camera, Jungle. I was interested to see why he’s using Kickstarter now after so many years, and Tom laid it out for me.

For the past year. Aspen has been doing reprints of their old material, and its time for them to get some new product out. However, LCJ is very different from their usual books. Instead of action and adventure, it’s a slice of life book which tells the story of a girl who becomes a star by being cast as Jungle Girl. The story is the casting couches, and the crappy craft services, and all the things that happen to her.

Instead of going to series first, Tom needed to validate the concept to make sure people want it. I use Kickstarter in the same way. He also wanted to expose new audiences to his work. A lot of Kickstarter people have never heard of Big Dog Ink, and this allows them to get a wider brand and a stronger audience.

That’s very smart, and one of the ideal uses for Kickstarter. Kickstarter, as Tom says, has almost become their own distribution platform for comics. They are currently the #2 publisher (if you consider them a publisher) in terms of gross revenue, in comics today. You can check out Lights, Camera, Jungle on Kickstarter starting August 6th. They will be at Dragon Con and Kansas City Con to promote the Kickstarter, so check them out!

If you want to find out more about BDI, check them out on Facebook, @tjhbigdogink on Twitter, @crittersdaddy on Instagram, or at www.bigdogink.com. He also said he’ll friend you up if you find him on Facebook personally.

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Query letters seem like they should be easy, right? After writing a script of several thousand to a hundred thousand words, writing a one-page email should be cake.

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So why do so many people have problems with it?

It’s because they don’t really understand the purpose of a query letter. A query letter is not designed to tout your greatness, it’s to interest other people in joining your project.

Most query letters are junk because nobody ever takes the receiver’s needs into account, but that is the purpose of emailing somebody right? To get them interested in your project? And the only way to get them interested is to show how your project can help them in concise, tangible terms.

So today I’m going to show you some of the keys behind a good query letter, and then I’ll show you a template I use to query people effectively.

This process can be used for querying artists, writers, editors or publishers. First, let’s talk about some of the keys to a good query letter.

1. It’s all about what you can do for the them

Any artist that is good enough to help sell your project with their art has several other ways they can make money without working with you.

They might be contracted to work on a project already. If they don’t any work at the time they can make money selling commissions and prints. Or they can make creator owned work, build their own product line, and increase their residual income streams.

If you are looking to hire an artist, you have to convince them that your project is better than all of the other projects they could focus their time. What makes your project great? What makes it stand out above the rest? Why is their sensibility uniquely qualified to work on your project? What value to do you bring to the table above just giving them a check?

Most creators think they are doing a favor for an artist by hiring them. In reality, it is a symbiotic relationship. You have a vision for your project that you cannot carry out by yourself. Which means that if an artist does not agree to work with you, your project cannot be completed. They are essential to the process of creating a sellable project.

When I contact artists I speak about my convention schedule, my distribution chain, my payment history with artists, and my ability to finish projects and release them successfully. I give references if they don’t know me and make sure people know I am pleasant to work with and that I can help further their career.

I didn’t always have a track record of success. in the early years, I just showed passion and enthusiasm. I was willing to pay a large deposit upfront (though that’s not always recommended) and kept encouraging them as a partner during the production cycle so they wanted to keep working with me.

My goal has always been that when an artist looks back at their career, they name our project as their favorite work.

2. You are the business owner.

If you are querying an artist, you are a business owner looking to hire a freelance consultant for work. If you are querying a publisher you are looking for an investor in your IP. Either way, you are the business owner.

This is why when a writer who is trying to hire an artist says “I think we both need to get paid”, I cringe.

Yes, it is important that eventually you are both paid. However, business owners are not paid in the same way as employees. Business owners do not collect salaries. They make money on the long term success of the product over time, not on the immediate paycheck for completing work.

It is also essential to think about this when querying publishers. Why would that company be a good fit for investment in your business? Why would your relationship be mutually beneficial? Remember, if you make a bad mistake with your partner you could be left with nothing except a hefty bill from your artist.

3. Construct your emails professionally.

Emails need to be professional at all times. They need to be spellchecked thoroughly for grammar and spelling. There is a free program called Grammarly that can help you spell check all your emails.

They also need to be polite and energetic.

You need to keep the query email short. There is no need for a novella. You can get the same information conveyed in 500 words as you can in 5,000. A longer email is going to turn busy people off from working on your project. A one sentence email is just as bad. Be like Goldilocks; not too long and not too short.

Remember, this first email is a simple introduction. You wouldn’t give your life story at a cocktail party to somebody you just met. Don’t give it inside a query letter, either.

Also, make sure your paragraphs themselves are readable and relevant. Most query letters smash together multiple thoughts into one paragraph.

I hate that.

Make sure every paragraph has a main point, the next sentences support that main point, and the concluding sentence validates that main point, just like we all learned in school.

4. Read websites thoroughly before emailing your query.

There is nothing more grating than receiving an email asking for my submission guidelines. They are on my site. When I receive such an email I automatically know that person is lazy. I never want to work with a lazy person.

Most artists and publishers have some sort of submission guideline on their site. Look for them thoroughly before you submit.

5. Make sure they are a good fit before emailing.

Most artists have a favorite genre or type of project. Some only want to work for hire on anthologies. Others are only open for pin-ups. You must know what the artist specializes in before emailing them, and let them know why you think your project would be a good fit for them.

That’s not to say if an artist specializes in fantasy project you shouldn’t email them your horror script. They might be looking for a project like yours. However, you will only intrigue them if you can make a compelling case why they are a good fit for your project.

6. Unless asked, don’t send any attachments in the first email.

An attachment is a commitment. It’s like asking somebody to marry you on the first date. Sure, you can do it, and sure it might work one in a million times, but everybody else is going to be turned off by it.

7. If an artist or publisher doesn’t respond right away, don’t flood them with emails.

Just because somebody doesn’t get back to you right away doesn’t mean they aren’t interested. Maybe their nose is down on a deadline. Maybe they are on vacation. Maybe they only answer emails once a week. Give people time to get back to you. If you are querying an artist give at least two weeks. For a publisher give it at least a month.

You should always end your emails with an expectation to follow up. Here is an easy one that isn’t pushy. “Please respond so I know this didn’t go into spam. If you don’t, I will email you next week just to make sure you got it. I don’t want to be a pest. I am just really excited to work with you.”

Alright, so now we’re talked about some of the finer points to a good query letter. Now let me show you a good template to use.

1. Introduce yourself. Give your name, company, and a link to your past work so people know you are legit. This is not an excuse to send them to your script. It’s just so they can get a taste of who you are and what you do.

2. Say something nice about their work. This isn’t kissing ass. It’s an honest appreciation of work. If you want to work with this artist or publisher tell them why you were drawn to their work in a quick sentence. You also want to include a quick bit about why this project is a great fit for them. Not too much yet, just a taste.

3. Introduce the project with a logline. This is just a quick one sentence about the project, the length, and the format.

4. Give a one paragraph introduction of the synopsis. Make it short and sweet. One paragraph does not mean 50 sentences. Five sentences max.

5. Talk about why this project is a great fit. Now you can get into a very short reason why this is a good fit. You can’t say “I feel this is a good fit”. You need to provide research behind your data. For instance, “I see you do genre books but don’t have many fantasy books. I think this book would fit your aesthetic because of x reason.”

6. Talk about the scope of the project in slightly more detail. Include time frame (if you have one), budget, and your plan for marketing. If you’ve finished an ashcan let the publisher know the time frame for finished production. This is where you can get into some detail because it will help the publisher or artist know if your project fits into their timeline. For artists, it will also help them price their work. If you have a tight deadline and require all their attention, they will charge more.

7. Sign off with a follow-up expectation. Tell them how much you look forward to hearing from them, set an expectation to follow up, and say goodbye.

With this, you should be able to interest artists and publishers with a lot more ease and they will thank you for your brevity and professionalism.

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Point of view is more important than raw talent

I was at the Broad Museum this week. It’s a gallery in downtown that displays modern art, which apparently isn’t very modern at all.

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Did you know that modern art includes works created from the 1890s to 1970s, while contemporary art includes art created from the 1970s to now?

Isn’t that weird?

Modern art isn’t actually modern at all and contemporary art eventually won’t be contemporary. That’s crazy to me.

I waited two hours in the heat to get into this gallery and honestly, it was one of the most worthwhile lines of my life. I was blown away with the quality of the work.

There were mixed media pieces hung in the gallery. There were enormous chairs. There was one painting that was just a flat green. There were metallic balloon animals twenty feet tall.

The thing is, the work wasn’t necessarily good. I mean none of it measured up technically to Frank Miller or even Frank Cho. They are technically gifted artists making incredibly proficient art. The artists at the Broad couldn’t hold a candle to them in raw talent alone.

I felt something at each piece in that gallery, but it wasn’t about the technical proficiency of the work. What I saw had a point of view. Everything was meant to evoke an emotion or comment on the human condition. Every bio of every artist talked about the themes in their work and the commentary they were making on the world.

The Broad artists reminded me of zine heads. I love zines. Even though they aren’t as technically proficient as most mainstream comic artists, they mean more to me because they are so much more personal.

There was only one painter in that gallery with technical skill that could rival the masters.

He did a painting of a face that looked like it could have been a photograph…and it was hidden in the back corner of the gallery at the end of a long hallway. If you know anything about gallery hangings, that is not an important spot.

Meanwhile, the artist who just painted green on a canvas was hung at eye level when you entered one of the main gallery rooms. A painting hung at eye level across from a doorway is considered an important spot.

So while one artist was more technically talented, a painting of flat green background was hung in a more prominent spot in this very prestigious gallery.

Why?

Point of view. That green background painting talked to minimalism, calming your mind, and cutting out distractions.

The other painting was nice to look at, but there was no point outside of its own beauty.

That got me thinking about our own careers and why some very technically proficient artists can’t get work while some others have no problem rising through the ranks.

Then it dawned on me. It comes back to point of view.

It’s hard to have a point of view when you are starting out, but that’s what gets people over the top. Readers want to feel something. People are emotional beings.

The artists who chase fans fade. Some of the most talented artists I know can’t sell a single painting because they have no point of view.

The ones with a point of view stick around, even if they aren’t as technically talented as others. Look at Frank Cho, love him or hate him that man he has a point in his work.

There is a point to Frank Miller’s work. Alan Moore’s stuff means something. Jhonen Vasquez was trying to say something with his work. Skottie Young has a point of view, as do Neal Adams and Darwyn Cooke.

You can see it all over their work and that’s why they stand out from the rest. So don’t be scared to say something with your art, because it’s in saying something that you evoke a reaction. It’s in evoking a reaction that leads people to be drawn to your work.

When people say “You aren’t anybody until you have haters,” it’s not because haters are good. It’s because hate is an emotion. If you can evoke that emotion, it means you evoke others like love from people as well.

So I ask you, what is your point of view?

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Today on the show we have Joie Brown (pronounced Joey, not Joy as I’ve been saying for the past several years. Sorry Joie). She is an artist for books like Clucked and Heavenly Kibble Guardian Corgi, along with working as a colorist for both Lumberjanes and Adventure Time graphic novels among many more.

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Here is a bio of Joie straight from her website, www.heyjoiecomics.com:

I scribble cuteness, sketch quirks, paint attitude, and herd cats. Okay. Technically I don’t herd cats, but keeping-up with Photoshop layers is pretty much the exact same thing, right? I graduated with an MFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art University, and I currently do illustration full time. I live in Los Angeles with my pretends-to-be-a-dinosaur fiancé Joel and my jolly, stump-legged corgi Rylee.

Joie is an ideal person to come on the show because she makes her living as an artist AND believes in all the business principles necessary to run a successful business. She has been working on personal branding recently, and we started off our conversation talking about that.

It’s really hard to build a personal brand without enough data points, and it’s something I see people do again and again and again. They constantly try to build a brand before they even know who they are as a creator. I think that is a big mistake, which is why building a brand is the third part in my coaching.

We talked about a really great book at the beginning of the show called The Pumpkin Plan. It takes about this exact phenomenon of building and honing in what you are good at after you have enough date points to understand your business. Click here to check it out.

That was the next part of our conversation because Joie spends a lot of time working in her business and has recently worked toward strategic planning in order to cut away the far from her business. As you know I love strategic planning. I took all of December off last year minus a couple shows just to figure out how my business worked and it’s led to the most successful year in our history.

The brilliance of strategic planning is that it gives you time to see what DOESN’T work in your business. To go back to the book we talked about, if you don’t cut away the bad pumpkins you can never have the kind of garden which will lead to amazingly huge ones.

There are really two parts in strategic planning. The first is to cut out all the things you are doing that aren’t working. The second is to double down on the ones that do work. We talked about social media as an example. Social media is a low ROI proposition, which is why I automate a lot of it. I know the importance of building an audience and the importance of bringing value, but I can’t spend 20 hours a week on social media when it returns very little to my company’s bottom line. So I spend about $50/mo on all of my automation, and in return I get back hundreds if not thousands of followers to my account. If I were to place Twitter ads those would run me around $1 per followers.

If you want to know what I use: Tweetjukebox, Tweetbuzz, and Buffer. They combine to cut dozens of hours a month, maybe hundreds of hours of time spent on low initial return activities. Now, those activities will eventually pay off, but only if I focus on high margin activities like creating products. I know that the more products I can create the more revenue I will generate. So I need to focus my time on their creation. At $50/hour (which is the low end of what my time is worth) I only have to give up one hour pay in exchange for 20 hours a month of my time back to spend on high margin activities. To me, that is no brainer worth it.

Another thing we talked about for artists is making something once and repurposing. For Joie, that was videotaping her Patreon drawings so she can use them as speed draws on Youtube. This is a fantastic way to build more social buzz AND test out another stream of income without much extra investment. If people ask to buy her prints, she knows there is an industry in devoting time to unique sketches. That is a wonderful way to do something once and repurpose it multiple times.

Another one would be to write a blog post and repurpose it as a youtube video and a podcast and an e-book, and a course. These are all ways to leverage your time by doing something once and selling it (or using it for marketing) multiple times.

This episode was packed with information just like that and more. It’s hard to find a person we’ve spoken to which was so open about the business side of art. We got down and dirty for over an hour and it’s all gold.

We ended by talking about her awesome webcomic Clucked, about the last chicken in the galaxy who has to find allies to save its planet and her other great comics. What I dig about Joie the most is that she makes awesome stuff, she can sell awesome stuff, and she branded herself in a way that her brand speaks for her. It’s everything we talk about on The Business of Art, in one package.

If you want to find Joie, and I definitely recommend you do, she is most active on Twitter @JoieArtand on her website www.heyjoiecomics.com. However, she has a presence on all of the social media channels from Instagram and Facebook down on the line.

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“I’m going to stop doing shows.”

It’s a statement a lot of artists have thought, but more and more people I know are committed to stopping shelling out big money on shows when they aren’t even making table fees back.

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I used to hear rumblings about it once and a while, but I’ve heard it a couple dozen times in the past few months, and at least 10 times in the past week alone.

Artists say they are sick of going to shows, getting people to browse the table, and not making a purchase. The funny thing is, none of them want to change what they are doing. Sure, they’ll do some new prints, but they are stuck in a dying mindset. The old way of selling at shows is dead.

You see, there is a fundamental shift in the way business works today.

There is a glut of product on the market. Unlike ten years ago when buying prints at shows was the only way to find cool stuff, people have social media now where they can check out cool stuff easier than ever before. Additionally, there are just more shows than ever. Those shows fracture the already thin audience for prints at shows.

Additionally, there is parity like never before. There is great art everywhere. In order to win over fans, artists need more than something cool. They need to provide an experience.

Studies show that 99% of people’s buying decisions are based on experience. Whether it’s a hotel, a book, a restaurant, or a piece of art, there is so much great stuff that the best doesn’t rise to the top.

Or more accurately, there is so much stuff at the top that buyers need another reason to buy your art than just it being great. The only way to separate yourself is by the experience you give to your customers.

Remember what we always talk about? That having great content puts you in the game?

This is true now with art more than ever. Just having great art used to move you ahead of the game, but now there is so much great art the only way you can stand out is through experience. If you can give somebody an experience they connect with, then they will want to buy from you; maybe not today, but eventually and for a long time to come.

However, I still see most artists drawing with their head down. Even when they engage with people they look like they are being bothered. Even “nice artists” don’t bother to smile at people.

So bitching about miserable con sales is great, but how do we fix it? How do we sell more at shows? How do we make more money?

1. If you have to draw at your table, make it a spectacle.

Shows are for meeting new fans. It’s not for doing art. We get it, you are a great artist, but a show is for engaging with new people. If you absolutely must draw, schedule that into your con time and make it a spectacle. Advertise on your table that there will be a live drawing from 1–3.

Then ask people what they want to see and crowdsource the drawing. Have people vote on what they want to see drawn, and then they can come back to watch, or twitch/live stream it, or find it on Youtube by following your channel. Then if they aren’t at the show they can connect with you even from thousands of miles away.

This will keep your audience engaged and make you stand out. If 30 people watch you draw a Joker, and keep telling you the colors they want and poses, do you think those people are going to be more interested in buying that print afterward? Of course, because now they have an experience they will always treasure.

2. It’s not enough to just say hello.

I’m sorry, but saying hello isn’t enough to engage people. You have to ask open ended questions. You have to ask a lot of them. Saying hello, even for me, garners ZERO sales. The only sales I make is when I connect with the audience and more than hello.

You don’t have to ask them to buy, you can say “What’s your favorite part of the convention?” or “Do you have a room that you’re looking to fill today?” or “Who are you buying for?” If you ask open-ended questions you are interested in them and they are more likely to buy b/c your recommendation will be thoughtful.

3. Ask people what your next print should be.

Here is another great way to involve people. If they come by and ask for a print you don’t have, tell them you are trying to find the next print. Instruct them to put their name, email address, and print suggestion on a sheet of paper and stuff it in a jar.

Then afterward, you can draw a live stream when you get home of the print and crowdsource it on social media, so you can get all the engagement from the con at home and get more people to buy your stuff. In addition, you have their email addresses to continue marketing to them.

4. Frame your prints and give suggestions for where your customer could hang it.

People buy based on emotion. They want to envision where they can hang what they purchase when it comes to art. So to make a sale, you should show them how your piece would look in a frame. Super Emo Friends does a great job of this. They have their best pieces framed so customers can see how they would look through the glass of a frame.

Additionally, you want to ask people where they would hang their prints, what they are looking for, the color scheme of the room. Maybe you could make a sale if you changed the colors of the image to match their palette. Again, by asking questions you’ll narrow down and have the best chance of making a sale.

Even if they don’t buy, ask what they are looking for in order to make your table better for next time. Maybe they want something bigger. Maybe they want a gift. Maybe they love your style but they really love Donatello and not Raphael.

In fact, maybe you have what they are looking for, but it’s buried in a crate and they don’t have time to look for it.

You have no idea if you don’t ask.

5. Target your work to the right buyer

Most artists want any buyer to buy their work. That’s why they spray the world with prints and hope something sticks. But by going for everybody they end up attracting nobody.

Businesses are more successful when they niche. What is your ideal buyer?

Are you looking to be hung on dorm rooms? In art studios? In living rooms? Is your main clientele women, boys, or teens?

Each of these is people likes a different aesthetic, and if you can narrow your focus to just one of those then you will be able to get the right work in front of the right people and they will buy more at your table. They will also be likely to make additional purchases in the future.

Look at the greatest artists working today, they are all directing their art to one type of person, and by doing that they are able to resonate and sell more work for more money.

6. Set up your table to guide the eye.

Most artists set up their table to look pretty, but we all know some artwork sells better than others. We all know some pieces are meant to catch the eye and lead the customer to your better selling items.

Knowing that, set up our table so the bestselling items are front and center with the eye-catching items so people have the best chance to make a purchasing decision. If you don’t know what these items are, then you need to find out quick.

7. Ask for the sale.

You lose 100% of the sales you don’t ask for in the end. By just saying “What do you think?” or “Would you like to get one?” You will increase your sales massively. Even just saying the price of the piece will get people to think about buying it. Remember, it’s about triggering their buying instinct. People want to buy.

8. Don’t think of it as a loss if they don’t buy.

Just because somebody doesn’t buy, all is not lost. There is a funnel that happens in sales. First somebody has to know you. Then they have to like you. Then they have to trust you. Then and only then will they buy from you.

It’s great to get people to buy at a show, but it’s equally important to get people as far down the funnel as possible as quickly as possible. Just by being at a show you are meeting and connecting with your right kind of buyer. So make sure you get all their information so you can market them cool stuff later, so those people will buy next time. If you keep building your base of buyers, then your sales will increase with every show instead of decrease.

At the end of the day, a con is about the experience. People want to be entertained. I know that as artists we want our work to speak for itself, but it just doesn’t.

Your work isn’t enough anymore. Nothing speaks for itself. You have to stand out from the crowd by offering something specific to the right person and making sure to get the contact information of everybody you can so you can grow your business.

You can mope about it. You can fret about it. You can deny it, but it’s the truth. If you want to sell more you have to get over that hurdle. That’s the only way to rebound because all businesses are having a paradigm shift. Not just art, but everything from fast food to diamond rings.

The quicker you can adapt the quicker you can thrive.

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Let us end these Comic-Con special episodes with a complete look at our financials for this year. I will state for the record that I only have rough numbers for 2015, as I didn’t start keeping detailed financials until this year. However, I can tell you that in total we sold 350 units last year and made a total of $5250 in revenue.

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That roughly broke down to 153 copies of Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, 75 copies of Convenience Store Diet, and an assortment of Paradise, Gumshoes, and The Little Bird and The Little Worm which equaled the other 122 units.

I want to go into a detailed analysis, but before we go further let’s look at the side by side comparison for both years.

Total books sold

2015 = 350

2016 =247

Difference = -103

Total revenue

2015 = $5250

2016 = $3473

Difference = -$1777

These are the two numbers that I want to look at closely throughout the rest of this article because selling over 100 fewer books and making almost $1800 less revenue seems bad. It seems really, really bad.

And it is bad, but it’s not all bad. So let’s explore some of the reasons behind these two phenomena.

Why total books sold were down this year

1. We didn’t have a $5 product

Last year we had Paradise #1, which was the first issue of Paradise and it was only $5. We had 81 copies of those last year, so just those alone accounted for almost all of our item losses. This year the lowest price point we had was $10. However, Paradise cost $2.50 make, so this is a very low margin item which is why we did away with selling it at shows.

2. We didn’t bundle as much or make our bundles as low

Last year we bundled up to three books for $20. We would give Paradise, Ichabod, and possibly a children’s book for only $20, whereas the cheapest books were this year were 2 for $30. That means a lot fewer products sold, but far more profit on those books. Since Paradise and our kid’s book cost $2.50 each and Ichabod cost $6, we were only making $9 total on that sale, which is a very low margin for a con. By doing away with those bundles, we sold less but made more on each sale.

3. We moved from an exhibitor table to small press

The traffic from last year to this year was less than half. At the exhibitor table we were at last year we had a corner table next to the main aisleway. This year we were in small press and there was often no traffic at all through our row. I think Long Beach had more traffic than SDCC at some points, and Long Beach has a fraction of the attendees. If you believe, like I do, that sales are simply a product of a funnel, then fewer people going into the funnel means fewer sales.

4. We didn’t have any original art

Last year I made 60 pieces of original art and sold it for anywhere from $5-$20. A lot of our bundles also included a piece of original art. Having the original art really helped get people to the table and make sales. This year we had none of that.

5. We didn’t discount our books nearly as much

Last year we discounted Ichabod down to $10 during some hours of the con, which really helped them fly off the table. This year, we didn’t do any of that. We kept the price point $20, or 2 for $30, which meant that the lowest we sold the books for was $15, almost 50% more than our lowest cost last year. However, if we sell a book for $15 instead of $10 we can sell 50% less and still make the same amount of money.

The reduction in book sales, came down to several factors; we increased the price of the items at our table, didn’t bundle or cut rates of our books as much, moved to a less trafficked location, and didn’t have original art. None of this would have been so bad except that total revenue was down drastically from last year.

If we able to keep revenue up and increase prices, this would have been a fabulous year. However, we weren’t. So let’s visit the reasons total revenue was down this year.

Why Total revenue was down this year

1. My artist only ordered 100 books instead of 200.

The artist I brought with me to the cons ordered 200 copies of his books last year. This year he only bought 100, which means that right off the bad we were going to have $800 less revenue than last year.

2. Our booth costs were less than last year, so I received less revenue from that.

Last year our book costs were $250 more. Since I split costs, that meant I received $125 less in revenue. So far, just this alone accounts for $925 in less revenue. Which means that only $852 is unaccounted. Where did that other $852 go?

3. Location

As I mentioned, the location could have accounted for fewer sales because there was vastly less traffic than last year. This means there are fewer people at the top of my funnel and could lead to fewer book sales.

4. Fewer people buying our big books

At the end of the day, 42 fewer people bought our large titles than last year. In 2015, 153 people bought Ichabod. This year 111 people bought Ichabod and Katrina combined. That 42 fewer people is exactly $852 in lost revenue. I think the reason fewer people bought those books was the choice of multiple books at my table. I love having a lot of books on my table, but it meant decision paralysis for a lot of buyers.

5. We weren’t offering a good enough deal

People are Comic-Con are looking for a deal. Last year we had great deals. If people bought our books then they paid less for them or got exclusive stuff. This year, we were very stingy with our deals which helped profit margin but didn’t help overall sales.

Had we taken the 42 main books we sell and bundled it with the 61 books we were short this year (for a total of 103 books), we could have potentially made up that revenue, but at the expense of profit margin.

Why it’s not so bad

In the end, if you just take into account the overall figures above, things would look miserable for us. However, that’s not actually the case. In truth, last year was a horrible show for us financially. We got barely 50 people on our mailing list and lost $1,000 when all was said and done. Yes, we made more money, but it was a horrible marketing effort.

This year, in contrast, we had a 500% increase in making list sign-ups and made money. That’s right, we were in the BLACK for SDCC for the first time. I don’t have exact numbers yet, but we spend about $2,000 on expense, which means that we made a profit or right around $1500, or a change of $2,5000 in one year.

Why? Because we worried more about profits and margins than selling every book we could. Last year our margins were so razor thin that we had to sell thousands of books just to break even.

Remember, every book costs money to print, so if I bundle three books I have to factor in all those costs to my final profit and loss statements. This year, we had healthy margins and turned a profit at the show.

Still, it would be nice to increase revenue AND profit, right?

How do we fix this going forward? Clearly, we need to rethink the deals that we offer if we want to increase revenue. The more you can pile on to a deal, the better chance you have of closing it. We don’t want to increase revenue at the expense of profits, though. So we have to find a high margin item to throw into a deal.

So what did I think on the whole? Overall, this was a vastly better experience than last year. Our mailing list numbers were up AND our profits were up. Even though revenue and sales were down, I am pleased with the results.

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