Comic Book Marketing 101
by Mat Nastos
Copyright 2011 by Mat Nastos
Smashwords Edition
OTHER WORKS BY MAT NASTOS:
CHRONICLES OF THE WALKER
Cora and the Clockwork Men (short)
AEGISTEEL EMPIRE
The Old Sergeant (short)
FENRIS CASEFILES
Frank Versus The Vampire
NOW ON DVD
Stinger
Bite Me, Fanboy
DEDICATION
To My Parents for buying me that copy of Warlock #14 back in 1977 and starting my life-long comic book addiction.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
WHAT THE COMIC INDUSTRY IS SAYING:
Mat's advice has been invaluable in helping me self-publish and sell thousands of comics books. I've made a few mistakes along the way but far fewer than I would have without his words of wisdom. -Shawn Granger, writer of "Familly Bones", "Innocent", "Gene Gardens" and currently working on a Southern Gothic mystery novel.
When it comes to comic marketing, Mat Nastos is my hero. His articles never fail to entertain. Also, I agree with him a lot. That helps. -Shaun McLaughlin, writer/director, former producer at WB Animation.
Whether you publish 100 issues a month or you're just getting started, not having a solid marketing plan for your comic is the #1 reason for series failure. Mat Nastos has compiled nearly 2 decades worth of experience on not just successfully finding readers that will love your comic, but how to keep them coming back for more! -J. Wichmann, writer/artist of "The Thief of Hearts"
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 - Comic Book Market Analysis - Why the Hell Aren’t You Already Doing it?
Chapter 2 - What is Your Niche Market?
Chapter 3 - 4 Simplified Steps of Market Research
Chapter 4 - Expose Yourself With Keyword Research
Chapter 5 - The 4 Parts of a Successful Comic Book Marketing Plan
Chapter 6 - 2 Ways to Make Sure Your Comic Books Will Actually Sell
Chapter 7 - Google Yo’ Bad Self: The Importance of Online Branding
Chapter 8 - The Failure of Licensed Comic Publishers
Chapter 9 - 7 Quick Tips for Creating Comic Book Content With SEO That Scores in Search Engines
Chapter 10 - The Sad Tale of a Comic Book Publisher’s Failed Product Launch
Chapter 11 - How to Launch a Comic Book Series - An Introduction
Chapter 12 - Building a Foundation for a Successful Comic Book Product Launch
Chapter 13 - Connecting With Your Audience
Chapter 14 - The Curious Case of Moonstone Books: E-Commerce Mistakes to Avoid
Chapter 15 - The 3 Steps to Getting Retailers to BUY Your Comic Book
Chapter 16 - 5 Tips to Going Viral
Chapter 17 - 4 Tips for Social Networking Your Way to More Sales
Chapter 18 - 4 Ways to Use Your Email List to Increase Your Comic Book Sales
Chapter 19 - Getting Your Work On TV, Google TV Ads That Is
Chapter 20 - 5 Tips for Successful Comic Book Blogging
Chapter 21 - The Failure of Licensed Comic Book Publishers Redux
INTRODUCTION
What you’re holding in your hot little hands is the result of about 14 months of my bitching and complaining about the horrendous state of marketing in the comic book industry - with a focus on the Internet marketing side of things. That “bitching and complaining” was a result of my deep-rooted love of comic books as a medium, combined with my own experiences as an Internet marketing guy.
During the writing, I had a lot of fun, met some really cool new people and, most importantly, pissed off a lot of the so-called “marketing” people at various comic book publishers. One publisher was so pissed off after I turned down work with him that he blocked me on Twitter and Facebook, and started a very impressive campaign of trash talk. At another publisher, a marketing guy was let go because of the information I was posting freely online.
It was interesting to see the anger that came out of a lot of the marketing people currently working in comics, especially from those freelancers who were trying to sell shoddy service and no results to small publishers for way too much money. Surprisingly, there are a lot of those charlatans out there!
On the flip side, there was a ton of fantastic responses to the material and the fact that I was so free at releasing it. I was given support from some of the top comic retailers in the country (shout-outs to Jimmy Jay of Jay Company Comics and Larry Doherty of Larry’s Comics!), indie publishers (Chip Mosher at Boom Studios, Michael DeVito of Th3rd World, Jessie Garza of Viper, Andy Schmidt formerly of IDW, and others), and creators (way too many to list).
In spite of my ranting and raving, I believe there is still a HUGE amount of untapped potential for growth in the comic book industry, with Internet marketing in particular, and I hope that my work and research can help that growth.
Please enjoy the material here in this book - it is a compilation of 21 of my most popular articles on comic book marketing/sales/distribution. If you do like the work, feel free to follow me on Twitter (@niftymat) or on the web at www.MatNastos.net.
Take care!
-Mat Nastos, 2011
CHAPTER 1: Comic Book Market Analysis - Why the hell aren’t you already doing it?
One of the single most asked questions I get in terms of selling or marketing comic books is: “Okay, Mat, I’ve got my comic book done, how do I get people to buy it?” Being the incredibly rude person I am, I generally answer that question with a question of my own. That question is one of the single most important questions for a comic book publisher (or anyone with a product or service to sell) to ask:
“What can you tell me about your market?” Or, “Tell me about the market analysis/research you’ve done.”
Unfortunately, instead of well-thought out answers to one of the most basic of business questions, I’m usually met with blank stares. Worse than those whose looks of confusion give me my answer are those who smile smugly and say, “Comic book fans.”
Those individuals in the latter group, which does include most of the mid and larger tier comic book publishers, are the ones I want to punch right in the Gooch.
One of the most important things a comic book publisher must do - heck, anyone looking to invest time and/or money into a business - is to know their product and know their market. If they have an idea for a product (be in a new comic book, new computer or new feminine hygiene product) then the following questions must be asked as early in to the product development cycle (in this case, the creation of the comic book) as possible:
1. Who has a need for my product and how many potential customers are there?
2. How much are they willing to spend to fill that need?
3. Does my product fill that need? If so, does my product fill that need in a new or unique way? In other words, what is it about this product that appeals to a customer enough to make them open their wallets?
4. Where are those potential customers found?
Answering these questions is essential for any product to succeed in business - even within the comic book industry. You should be trying to answer these questions at the very beginning of creating your comic - even as early as in the idea/concept stage. Yes, that’s right, I’m telling you that business and marketing needs to come in to play as soon as you start thinking about creating a new comic book. This may sound counter-intuitive to a creative person, but it will save you money, time and frustration in the long run. I’m not saying you have to BEGIN the creation process from a marketing stand point, although it can be a successful path to development if the creative power is there, but I am saying that all ideas should be checked with those four questions from the very beginning.
Have an idea for a new comic based on basket weaving? Jump online and analyze the market a bit. Find out who buys basket-weaving paraphernalia. Figure out where they congregate. Find out the size of the industry, how much money is spent within it each year and so on. Try talking to actual members of that niche market to get some baseline reactions to your new comic.
As you answer these questions, you will begin to put together a better understanding of the “big picture” of your market. From there you will continue to drill down in to the specific that will affect your product.
In other words, discover the market and then gain intimate knowledge of your potential customers. Find out exactly what they are thinking and feeling, and why they do so.
As you drill down in to your research on your market, you’re going to be looking to find out the following information. This information should help you determine whether or not you’ve found a market that can support your new product (your new comic book - I know some people are uncomfortable calling their comics “products,” but that is what they are). The specific information you’re going to be interested in finding out is:
Market Information:
This is everything to do with the make-up of the market itself and includes:
1. Market Size: We’re taking number of potential buyers, how much they spend per year and the total dollar value of the market itself, along with the projected future of the market.
2. Market Growth Rate: the percentage the market is growing or shrinking each year. One of the things to be wary of, especially if you’re looking at a long-term comic product, is a shrinking market. If you discover an intriguing shrinking market, you need to figure out why it is shrinking and what that shrinkage means to the future of your product.
3. Market Profitability: Will the size of your chosen market, and the dollars available in the market, be significant enough to offset your production costs and still give you a profit large enough to be attractive. This profit is affected by the spending power of the buyers, discounts to suppliers/vendors and any other barriers to marketplace entry.
4. Distribution Channels: This is going to be similar to what you’re already used to dealing with in the comic book industry. Figure out what distribution channels are in place - in other words, where is the product most often sold/bought and how does product arrive there. Finding a market with a solid distribution infrastructure in place, and one open to new product, is essential to success.
Market Segmentation:
This will include all information on the make-up of the buyers in the market itself, in terms of both business-to-business and the end-customer themselves. You’ll also be looking at any divisions of the market itself into segments or subgroups - be it by geography, demographic differences or any other.
Market Trends:
This one is going to be the most difficult to figure out if a comic book product is new to your market. What you’re interested in figuring out is the ups-and-downs of the market over a set period of time. When is the market busiest, when is it slowest, does the size of the market vary, and so on. Part of your research here will focus on any competitors in the market itself for your product. Even if there are no other comic books in your chose basket weaving market, there are most definitely going to be competitors for the limited number of dollars spent in the market itself. Find out what those competitors are and, as I mentioned above, begin to figure out if your comic book fills a need no other products currently do.
Now, as a comic book guy myself, I know that this stuff looks like it can be a real pain-in-the-butt. I mean, we all do comics so we don’t have to do all that crappy business stuff, right? Well, that particular attitude is one of the reasons so many comic book fail…and not just those from tiny independent publishers. This sort of market research - and choosing the correct market to take a product do - is sorely lacking from the industry at all levels. What is even worse are those companies out there who are producing product that could address a need in a number of given new markets and who are ignoring the potential. To me, there is nothing worse than leaving money behind due to sheer laziness.
Yes, I’m talking again about licensed comic publishers. Damn those poor bastards.
Ahem. But I digress.
What I’m saying here is that, as you are coming up with new comic books to put together, while you’re doing that amazing fun and rewarding portion of the job that is comic book creation, take a few minutes to ask yourself these questions:
Who is going to buy my book?
Why on Earth should they buy my book?
Where are they going to buy it?
If you can answer those questions in some way other than “comic book fans,” “because it’s cool” and “at comic shops,” then you, my friend, have a shot at creating a successful comic book business. If those are your only answers to the questions, then you had best add one more to the list:
“Would you like fries with that?”
CHAPTER 2: What is your Niche Market
I’m going to start off today’s article by correct a horrible error that has been propagated by comic book fans and pros alike. The statement I’m about to make may or may not cause you to think I’m an idiot. OK, MORE of an idiot than you already do.
Here we go:
Comic books are NOT a niche market.
Comic books are a medium - like music, but they are not themselves a niche market. Well, they’re more of a format or delivery system for visual storytelling (as CD’s are for music), but let’s not nitpick. For the sake of this post I’ll be using “comic books” as a stand-in for “visual storytelling” to keep things from getting too complicated and off-topic.
That’s right. Comic books are NOT a niche market. However, the comic book INDUSTRY has turned itself into one and that is one of the reasons it is in such bad shape. You see, when a format or medium becomes a niche market, then it is on the road to disappearing from the marketplace. 8-track cassette collecting may be a niche market, but music will never be. The comic book industry has quickly allowed itself to become 8-track cassette collecting and is in danger of going down that dark path to obscurity and derision. Luckily comic books (or, visual storytelling for those of you who are anal), by nature, are not a niche market.
The reason I spend the extra time and space on pointing that out is because of the answer I get from comic book publishers/creators when I ask the question “what is your niche market?” The answer I almost universally receive (even from larger publishers) is “comic book fans” or “comic buyers.”
Needless to say, hearing that makes me want to cause physical harm to anyone unluckily enough to be near me. What an answer like that says to me is one of two things:
1. The “publisher” has put absolutely no thought in to the business aspects of comic book publishing or sales. Or,
2. The “publisher” is a complete retard.
More than likely, knowing the comic industry as I do, it’s a combination of the two.
So, that brings us back to today’s topic: what is a Niche market and how do you develop one for your product (yes, yes, your “comic book”)?
“The definition from Wikipedia reads:
“A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact.”
That’s a pretty good definition, but may be a bit too “business” for comic book publishers. Let’s try something a bit less specific, from Wictionary.org:
“...a relatively small and specialist, yet profitable, market”
Hmmm. That’s a bit too broad. Here’s one a bit closer, from Groundbreaking.com:
“An easily identifiable market that can be targeted for direct promotion”
I kind of like that, but let’s try this one from Entrepreneur.com:
“A portion of a market that you’ve identified as having some special characteristic and that’s worth marketing to.”
There we go! That’s as close to a perfect definition for “niche market” as I’ve seen anywhere. A niche market is specific group of buyers (or fans or whatever you want to call them) who are tied together with an interest and who are (hopefully) responsive to your product. In other words, a group of people who want to buy your comics.
That brings us to one of my most asked questions - one I hear almost every day from comic book publishers and creators looking to sell their product:
“How do I find my niche market?”
As I’ve talked about a few times before, to have the best chance at success, finding your niche market should be done at the product development stage and not once you have a finished product. Use your niche market research to help make sure you have a sellable product before you pay to have it produced - I don’t necessarily mean for you to begin the process with the niche market research, but use it as a “check” to make sure you have a commercial product.
Here is a list of steps in the process of finding your niche market.
3 Steps to finding your perfect niche market!
1. Define your market.
Take a moment to think about what it is you are selling - look at the essence of the comics you want to produce. Analyze what it is that you are selling and what you want to sell. Start with your analysis in the most general of terms: who might be interested in this? Let’s use my buddy, Shawn Granger, and his book Family Bones as an example.
Family Bones is the true story of a pair of serial killers, the Copelands, who lived in Missouri.
Here are the questions I’d ask him: Does your comic interest people interested in true stories? OK, now that’s a pretty general market, but it’s a good place to start. Does it interest those who are in to true crime stories? Getting a bit better and more defined, but we’ve still got room to focus. Yes, you could stop there, but you’ll find with a bit more thought there could be an even better focus. Does your comic interest fans of serial killers? Bingo!
From there you could also pursue those interested in the history of Missouri, as well. Once you have your main niche market down, it is easy to expand your target a bit. Let me repeat that - once you have your main niche market down. In other words, start smaller and then grow.
The better you can define that group of buyers, the easier it is going to be to track them down and get them to buy your books.
I know there will be a few people out there who say “but isn’t that limiting my chance at sales?” Not really. If you go broad - say with “anyone in the world who reads English” - you have no practical way to market your material. You are also going to be faced with a lot more competition. And, you can always grow your market once you have a base established. Become profitable before you worry about growth. Don’t be Crossgen.
As a sub-question here you also need to answer: “Is there a sufficient demand for your product” and “is the niche market big enough.” Find out not only if there is a demand/need for your product but also if you’ve narrowed down your niche too far. Too tight of a focus can be worse than not focusing enough.
2. Who is your customer?
At a glance, this may seem like the same question as number 1, but here we are talking about the actual buyers themselves and not the market. You’ve found out WHAT your niche market is and now you need to figure out WHO they are. Once you’ve defined your market, as with “fans of serial killers,” you can begin to figure out who those people are, where they are and what they want specifically.
What you’re doing here is called “defining your customer’s worldview.” Define your potential customers - who they are and what needs they have. Figuring this step out is one of the most important and it will begin to answer the last portion of the question: where are they?
The best way to do this research is to go out and actually talk to members of the niche market you’ve selected. Find members of the market online, in person - anywhere you can. Talk to them. Knowing your market is essential.
3. Answer the question “Why Buy From You?”
Defining your base niche market is only the beginning because even the best niche markets will have competition in them. You may not be competing against other comic books for sales, but there will be other product (generally already established product) fighting for a niche buyer’s attention and cash. This is where you have to answer the standard marketing question “Why should I buy from YOU?”
How do you stand out from the crowd?
How you answer this, and it should be with considerable thought and reflection, will help determine your success in the marketplace. If you can’t give buyers a reason to buy your product, then they won’t buy your product. It’s as simple as that.
From here the tactics become those I detail over in the chapter “Expose Yourself with Keyword Research”. This is where that keyword research comes in to play. Rather than recapping that, I’m just going to direct you over there.
As I wrap this article up, I do want to address something else I hear a lot, which are publishers asking me “how do I pick a niche market” or “what niche markets are out there that want comics?”