Knights of Von Kingdom,
I’m seeing a lot of new comic campaigns launch and I find myself in awe of how much people do to sabotage themselves from success. Even when the art in your book looks good, that isn’t enough to sell a story. I see people take a good product and ruin it by doing what I am calling CAMPAIGN DON’TS. I did some campaign DO’S on the last post, so let’s now get into CAMPAIGN DON’TS.
CAMPAIGN DON’TS by Von Klaus
DON’T
1. Have low res graphics - It makes you looks cheap and doesn’t reflect the beauty of the art, which is what gets people to buy it.
2. Have poorly designed graphics with unreadable words. - An illegible logo or overly complex cover can turn off many backers. If you can’t do it, find someone to help. Keep it simple and clean. Study what others have done to look as pro as possible.
3. Not have a trailer. Have one. It helps. - I know I go off about this, but even if people don’t watch the trailer the mere presence of one promotes a look of professionalism which is what helps sell your book to many people.
5. Hide your art. - Let a few spoilers happen to wet appetites. Just show a campaign for a book about dinosaurs fighting that showed ZERO dinosaurs and ZERO fighting. Just vague teasers. Terrible marketing. Don’t assume everyone is as enamored with your story as you are.
6. Leave out the conflict - good vs evil - It’s shocking how many people don’t bother telling us what the main conflict really is in their story. They never give us a reason to be interested. Show insurmountable odds to defeat and your hero will become more interesting.
7. Be a negative Nancy or drama hound on social media - Why do grown ass human beings think social media is a ventilation device to vaguely air your petty grievances? Check that shit at the door. No one wants to hear your whines or your jabs at fellow creators. No one thinks it’s cool to be emo over professional. Get your personal shit out somewhere else and don’t shit where you market.
8. Go against fellows in Indie, network and get along with them - I can’t believe I have to say this, but it’s true. I’ve ended both friendship and professional relationships over this. Some people look at the indie scene as a place to get attention through tribal warfare. These people don’t care about networking about much as the gratification online attention gives them. I’ve watched many a creator destroy themselves because they think this is how you do things. If you don’t like someone, cool, keep it to yourself unless they are doing something worth calling out. It’s not your job to fight others online, it’s your job to team up for success with fellow indie creators on the shaky seas of indie comic and SELL BOOKS.
9. Expect people to understand your genius or compare yourself to the success of others - Why spend so much time and energy worrying about others when you could have made a book with that? Some talented people make the mistake of thinking they are some undiscovered genius in dire need of constant praise. These people nearly always compare their success to others and cry that the world isn’t fair because no one “understands” their genius as they don’t make as much money or have the notoriety of others. This behavior hurts you mentally, but if you post it online it really turns off customers too. No one likes a smug “I’m better than you” type.
10. Be vague or wordy. - A lot of campaigns think the vague “Less is More approach” is some winning idea. It isn’t. Less is More only works in specific scenarios like approach to design or wording things just right. But in terms of art and story you need to show as much as you can and then some. One image or good one liner can be what tilts a customer to open their wallet. Having less does NOT intrigue people more, it makes them pass on you. Other campaigns have decided we want to read a wall of text about how great their project is - we don’t. We really don’t care to hear the story of how it was made or anything. We just want a good book. Don’t give a speech, give a reason to buy your book!
11. BLAME OTHERS - Taking responsibility is a good thing, but somehow squeamish people seem to see it has the bane of reality and avoid doing it at all costs. It’s always someone else’s fault their campaign failed. It’s always someone else’s fault they got fired. Blaming others spreads poison that comes back on you anyway. I’ve seen people blame social networks online for letting them down because god forbid they ask themselves what they are doing wrong on their campaign. You won’t learn or grow if you can’t own up to being human and making mistakes. Why do people treat responsibility like hot coals, anyway? I kinda like it. It gets things done and makes your more sure and confident in yourself in the long wrong. It won’t kill you to own what went wrong, it will make you stronger because you won’t keep making the same mistakes now and blaming others.
12. GIVE US AN EXCUSE NOT TO BUY YOUR BOOK - Think of a customer as a semi-interested party you want to win over into full 100% interest. They are LOOKING for excuses to not give you their time or money. All the things above and even more will be excuses someone can find to NOT support your book. Don’t give them any. Do everything pro and let the customer decide to buy based on positives instead of negatives. If you’re professional, run a clean and vibrant campaign, have a positive online social presence and get long well with others, it really can pay off.
Some really amazing things happening at Rise Again comics lately and I’m here to show you the behind the scenes surprises! This is for my paid Knights! Thank you! Come check out some new books of mine in the works and what my next campaign will be.