Campaigning in the Trenches
Some tips on running your comic campaigns and more!
Greetings Knights of Von Kingdom,
I’m finishing up the Terror in the Trenches campaign and as I type this we’re $44 away from 91K raised.
How did I take an old dusty character from the golden age and generate this much? I have a few tips that might help.
SHOW AND TELL YOUR PROJECT
I’m astounded I have to say this, but SHOW YOUR ART! I can’t believe how many projects hide art that could potentially sell their book. No one knows who you are so your book is all you got - get “naked” with it and show it to the world. The TELL part is also so very ignored. Tell people about your project coming out and why it’s going to blow our minds. Tease us if you must, but tell us. Hype is about getting people talking and wanting to be part of “cool thing”. If you don’t tell us and show us what you’ve got we can’t get hyped for it.
COPY SUCCESSFUL TACTICS OF OTHERS
Look at successful campaigns for books you enjoy or are within the genre you’re using. Ask yourself what worked or didn’t work with each campaign. Write a list of the things your campaign should have to be effective based on this. There’s no shame in learning from others, campaigns are another animal for a lot of people. Fun ideas for deals or products can help make campaigns more appealing
HAVE A SHORT HOOK
Be able to tell us your story and why we should want to read it in one to two sentences. This is called a log line in the film world. I just call it a hook. Hook us to your story with one sentence. It’s an art and not east to do but if you look into log lines online and study them you will get the craft of it. Once you get good at it you’ll realize having a good hook is a super power. It will help sell your book.
HAVE A TRAILER
This one is debatable because I know many people don’t watch the trailer, but guess what? When I see they have a trailer I take a campaign more seriously. Every brick you can stack to make sure your campaign is taken seriously enough to convince someone to open their wallet to you. Having a short 30 sec to 1 min trailer helps me take you more seriously because I see it as taking your project seriously.
HAVE CLEAN GRAPHICS
Another brick to build with to win over people’s trust and then their support, is professional looking clean graphics. Simplify and keep it clean. Easy to read and understand graphics and text wins over customers into understanding that your product itself is professional grade. Some people use no real graphics on their campaigns and I believe it hurts them. The love you show your campaigns comes back to you when customers are concerned.
CREATE PRODUCTS THAT FIT IN A COMIC BAG
I bag and board all my comics before I mail them out to people. It’s a standard I have. So that’s a free bag space available for other things like extra items or stretch goal bonus freebies. Patches, stickers, posters, and prints all can fit easily into a comic bag. This simplifies the process and helps get your products safely and cheaply to your audience.
PROMOTE LIKE HELL
We should know your book exists before your launch and when your launch is. We should know it’s name and hero and conflict and hook. The only way to do this is to promote it like it’s the greatest new human discovery to benefit mankind eternally. Use social media to connect with customers and use youtube to pitch your book to the masses. Never let up and you’ll see results usually.
***LOW NOISE TAPE AND ROLLERS ARE A GODSEND
Not a must, but I have to say finding custom QUIET TAPE on TAPE JUNGLE and then combining that with low noise rollers made for a much more pleasant experience packing. I could hear the music and movies instead of horrible stretching tape all day. Also you can put your logo on this tape to help with branding on the packages you send. It’s another win win scenario I recommend.
While fulfilling TITT was exhausting I can’t but always be in the gym of creation. Here are some sketches for character designs for a couple of NEW STORY IDEAS I have for the future. One a Cyberpunk tale called DATARACERS while the other is a Necromancer story called DEATHSLINGER. Deathslinger features some fun as Hell designs by ANTHONY GONZALES CLARK! Total bad ass.
