anyways, since the idea won’t leave me alone here’s my pitch for a prince of the galra keith au where lotor doesn’t exist and canon is just a suggestion i guess. (under a cut part ways in bc uhhh it’s like 3.7k words. rip.)
for starters: krolia is human and zarkon’s his dad. a nightmare idea, i know bc uhhhh the same thing that occurs w thinking about how lotor exists is uhh “zarkon fucks?” yeah. yeah he does. which uhhhhh yeah. but bare w me here, bc he’s still an utter dick in this au and krolia is still a badass.
in this au, krolia was married to mr shirogane and had shiro before leaving earth on a garrison solo mission to pluto. she collided with a stolen galra ship manned by a prisoner who was trying to flee the empire, though the galra ship wasn’t damaged her ship was completely destroyed but she managed to survive for the prisoner to bring her aboard. together they tried to escape the empire, but they got caught. the prisoner was executed and krolia was taken to the arena.
(earth believes she crashed her ship in the rings of saturn, and honor her death. no solo manned missions to space anymore, and certainly not to places humans haven’t been before. it also delays plans to send more people up there, so the next manned mission isn’t until shiro’s mission to kerberos. mr shirogane dies a five years before that mission.)
there she fought viciously and won literally every single one of her fights with only a dagger she’d earned early on in her battles. even when they provided bigger weapons, she always came on top with just a knife which earned her high praise and approval. enough to gain zarkon’s attention.
idk why but he forces her to marry him, and when shiro’s 9 years old and krolia’s been in space for 5 years, keith’s born. he doesn’t actually go by keith at this point though because i doubt zarkon would let krolia name him that. not quite sure on what he’d go by though i quite like kyix of discordiansamba’s burgundy. krolia wanted to name him keith, and so calls him that when they’re alone as a secret nickname.
keith doesn’t look fully human. a la lotor style i guess, he looks human but has purple skin and yellow sclera. pointy zarkon-ish ears and fangs. he’s still tiny as fuck though and doesn’t grow, to which he’s furious about bc galra are big and he’s a shorty but no one mentions it to his face otherwise he’d stab them right where they stand.
krolia tries her best to raise him w good morals and lessen zarkon’s influence on him but she doesn’t fully manage it. he’s willing to please zarkon even if he’s not cruel about it, and he does wish for the best for the empire but knowing that his father’s reigned for over ten thousand years, he knows he’s probably never going to sit on the throne himself. doesn’t prevent him from getting all the training a prince would need (including a lot of combat training).
he’s never told much about earth because krolia finds it hard to talk about. she does tell him about humans as a species and teaches him the three earth languages she knows, korean (her native language), japanese (mr shirogane’s native language) and english. she especially doesn’t tell him about shiro, but she does say that she left a husband and her family behind on earth, that she misses them a lot.
back on earth, shiro goes to kerberos when he’s 26 (two years older than canon) and they still get caught. most canonical events in the year time zone go almost exactly the same. shiro gets sent to the arena, matt and sam still get sent off to the camps before matt’s broken out by the resistance, katie goes undercover as pidge, and lance and hunk are just regular dudes, but lance is in fighter class straight off the bat.
(to earth, shiro crashes the ship and dies just like his mother did. which is......all kinds of sad to think about.)
except when shiro lands on earth, the garrison trio decide to break shiro out on their own. they then steal a jeep and head out into the desert, finding a nice guy who owns a shack (canon keith’s father but not in this au, who im gonna call mr fireman bc he doesn’t have a canon name). he’s been doing some investigating some funky stuff (the lion), and lets the kids crash at his place bc kids shouldn’t be wandering the desert w/o any supplies at night it’s dangerous.
anyways, the shack conversation all goes almost exactly the same w mr fireman taking keith’s place. he goes with the kids, but he doesn’t get in the blue lion, she doesn’t let him in. mr fireman parts ways with the kids friendly-like, and the four of them head off to arus.
things.....largely? stay the same? when it comes to stealing the red lion off the ship, they actually have to get the lions to drag it out of the cargo bay because they don’t have a pilot for it but as long as the lion is out of the empire’s hands, that’s all that matters although allura does try to pilot it when sendak’s ship is destroyed. due to having no pilot, they can’t retrieve black for shiro. so they only have three active lions, but three lions are still pretty powerful.
from there i haven’t exactly worked out all the kinks but somehow they get in contact with rebels from their steady liberation of galra-controlled planets. they do small targets, taking out the weakest on the fringe of the empire and build up footholds while building the coalition. shiro fights with them on the ground, and using the castle with coran and allura when it’s not possible. sometimes he rides along with the other paladins.
sometime before they go the galactic hub, and skipping over crystal venom entirely, they join forces with the rebels and the coalition to pull off a mission to kill zarkon. they’d received intelligence to suggest that he’s visiting a less secure ship, to oversee a project for a few days. instead of taking the lions and just blasting the ship to pieces, they decide to infiltrate and take him out stealth like to guarantee his death.
only the information is faulty because it’s keith there instead of zarkon.
when they learn that keith is zarkon’s son.......they kidnap him.
their goal was to hold him hostage and/or interrogate him for weak spots in the empire, but somehow they end up thinking “hm maybe he can be redeemed bc his dad is literally an asshole and ehhh he can’t help who his parents are?” so they give him a chance....tentatively.
keith, seeing this huge opportunity to sabotage his father’s greatest opponents and eventually steal the lions back for his father, takes this absolutely for granted and fakes his redemption. he basically pulls a lotor, and ends up helping them in certain areas but sabotaging them in others. he’s unable to report back to his father for spying purposes, but he does leave clues and/or hints to weaknesses somehow. all the while, the real reason for these things going wrong isn’t thought of.
all the while, the paladins are trying to bond with keith. trying to get him to redeem himself, and they end up really liking him even though he’s still rather a loner, doesn’t pretend to be nice and trains like every day. he particularly gets along with shiro, the two of them forming a close bond that keith had not planned or counted on.
allura is the only one who’s still suspicious of keith. she’s not....hostile. not really, she pretty much acts like she does in canon when keith’s heritage gets out. though they do have a few moments where they could maybe see eye to eye. she’s still apprehensive and unwilling to think that zarkon’s son could be anything but evil.
this pays off when she investigates a major hit to the castle that renders it unfit for battle for a time and finds that keith was responsible for it.
at this point, keith has been seriously reconsidering his allegiances. thinking that maybe the right thing to do really was to redeem himself and help out voltron and coalition. he’s not completely blind to the shitty things zarkon did, he’s well aware but he figures that maybe getting his father’s approval isn’t worth all the suffering of others nor something to desire.
allura attacks keith and calls him out in front of everyone. providing evidence of literally all the times that keith’s fucked them all over. the team feel betrayed, keith is super guilty, and allura’s just pissed. keith doesn’t get a chance to explain before he’s thrown into a prison cell on the castle to wait until voltron can contact the coalition and decide what to do with him because it’s clear that zarkon hasn’t exactly been hurrying to find him.
but then zarkon attacks the castle of lions with a massive fleet headed by haggar, a force that’s way too much for just three lions to take on while the castle’s defenses are still down. the whole team is in trouble and it pretty much starts to seem like zarkon’s gonna win and the paladins are gonna get killed.
until the red lion reaches out for keith.
so he breaks out of prison (that he could have done within minutes of being confined there), and heads to the hangar. he jumps in and uses the element of surprise to disable the fleet enough to make them need to retreat.
the paladins are freaking out because uhhhh who the hell is the pilot of the lion? they do a little sound off like “allura that’s not you? coran? shiro?” but then keith uses the lion to communicate and basically says “sorry i broke out jail”.
when they get back to the castle keith awkwardly does a heartfelt explanation of his plans and how the paladins actually did sort of make him want to redeem himself and realise just how much zarkon needs to get murked and stuff. he apologises for fucking them over and he even offers to go with whatever punishment they decide to dish out with no retaliation.
the team go off and talk for a while. debating if they could really trust him anymore. allura is adamantly against it, pissed off that he’d already betrayed her trust after all zarkon did and the fact he piloted her father’s lion. lance joins her, upset he trusted him at all. pidge and hunk are apprehensive, pointing out that the lion must have seen the good in him to choose him. shiro believes in what keith’s saying and has faith in the kid to actually redeem himself.
they tell him he can stay but the only reason he’s not dead and/or serving time in prison is bc he’s the red paladin. they make a lot of rules about what he’s allowed to do and not to do though, which keith doesn’t enjoy but he doesn’t complain about them. one of them is that he’s only allowed to fight the empire in the red lion and no on the ground stuff.
now that the team have the red lion’s paladin they awaken the black lion and they form voltron for the first time. it’s badass, and the liberating of planets goes even faster than before.
the paladins start to bond again even slower than before bc they need to rebuild that trust. it goes....pretty rockily considering the fact that keith is still pretty prickly in personality, and the others aren’t entirely convinced he’s actually changed sides. but shiro is essentially the only one that actually makes any headway in rebuilding the trust/relationship.
one night he asks about keith’s mom. bc human far out in space? as far as the team knew there should have only been them and the holts, so he’s definitely curious. keith tells him about a pilot who’d been picked up in their solar system after their ship got destroyed and took them as prisoner. he tells shiro all about his mom and what she taught him of earth.
but shiro. he starts to wonder who on earth this pilot was. because, uh, only very few pilots have gone missing in space and one of them is important to him. so he asks her name. keith replies krolia. shiro asks “as in...krolia kogane?” and keith’s like yeah.
shiro mentally freaks out, doing mental acrobats all over the place but his thoughts mostly boiling down to a mixture of “HOLY SHIT MY MOM’S ALIVE” and “HOLY SHIT I HAVE A HALF-BROTHER WHO’S AN ALIEN PRINCE”. he manages not to let keith know he’s freaking out, and excuses himself.
they end up doing a covert blood test and yup keith is shiro’s half brother. this earns him points in “okay yeah he’s capable of change if we warm up to him”, so the team start to treat him more favorably, not that keith is aware of this new revelation. so it’s common knowledge to the ship minus keith. shiro tries even harder to bond w his little brother, bc uhhh yeah he’s never had a little brother and he definitely likes keith so far even though he was a little evil for a while.
keith at some point expresses to shiro why he’s fine with not telling zarkon that keith’s on the paladins’ side. that his mother would most likely be killed for turning him against zarkon due to the fact that paladins are humans, and that she’s still at central command completely unable to get away. like a glorified prisoner because, well, she is.
shiro suggests to the team that they pull off a rescue mission to free krolia, not only for keith’s sake but for shiro’s sake too. plus the fact that she’d been a prisoner for twenty three years. which then kicks of the finale of season 1. (yes we’re still in season 1. it should have been way longer than it actually was.)
things go largely the same, except that in allura’s place it’s krolia. when keith charges at zarkon his identity is revealed to him. they manage to rescue krolia, keith fights zarkon and thace destroys the shield holding them in place. they don’t go through a corrupted wormhole though.
then there’s a cute heartfelt reunion between keith and krolia. during which keith emotes more than he ever has in front of the paladins, who have pretty much all accepted that yep keith’s a good guy now considering he almost fought to the death with zarkon.
but then shiro steps up and calls krolia mom which confuses the fuck out of keith, the only one who doesn’t know. krolia shakily says “Kashi?” and they tearfully hug, krolia completely caught off guard that her other son wasn’t on earth where she left him. keith is confusion until krolia explains, and keith asks if that means shiro is his brother. they say yes and they have a big old threeway hug, to which lasts for like an hour because its big family bonding time. everyone is happy for them.
you’d think, huh is this the end of the au? this is pretty long already.....nope!! we’re just getting started!!! (this thing is a monster......hence why im never going to even attempt to write it out lmao)
we go into season 2 where krolia starts to talk to the others about the rebel galra group that she helped and kind of joined called the blade of marmora. she tells them that there was a galra named thace who kept her in the loop about keith, and the goings on of voltron. she tells them that they would be a very good ally in the fight against zarkon.
shiro then backs this story up with his memory of how ulaz helped him escape jail, and says that they should trust them. the team tentatively agree, but decide not to immediately go to them and focus more on building the coalition. krolia pulls keith aside and gives them a knife that they had given her to protect herself as zarkon prohibited her to carry weapons. its keith’s marmora blade that she was unable to activate because of her lack of galra blood, but they gave it to her to protect herself anyways.
canon largely stays the same for a while. zarkon still does the tracking thing, except when allura and keith go out in a pod, krolia comes with them. they have a little thing where they make clear with each other where they stand and end up having a little fun despite the tense atmosphere until the castle is attacked by zarkon.
when the team meet up with the blades, keith demands why they didn’t help krolia themselves. they’d already proved with shiro that they could free prisoners if they wanted to, and demands to know why they didn’t risk it for krolia. he wants to know why they never took a bigger part in taking down the empire and why they never stepped forwards to work with voltron themselves instead of letting the team come to them.
kolivan says that he only gets the answers, an alliance between them and gets to keep the blade if he joins as a member of their order and take the trials. keith accepts. the rest of the blades however, don’t like the idea that the son of zarkon was joining up and taking the trials. but when keith passes and pretty much immediately tries to kill memory zarkon on sight, he proves himself to them. the blades ally with the coalition and voltron.
again, season 2 goes quite a lot like canon. except!!! in the finale they actually do end up killing zarkon along with haggar and shiro doesn’t go missing! hurray!!!
but. that means with no prince lotor, and a dead zarkon instead of comatose zarkon, there’s no one to lead the empire. hence a kral zera is called.
(here is where i mention i have vague memories of s3 onwards and haven’t seen past s4. so i don’t...actually know how most canon events from here on out go in explicit detail. its all pretty vague.)
the plan from there is for keith to attend and win. if he gets crowned the new emperor, he could officially announce the end of the war, and significantly reduce the amount of fighting the resistance would have to do to bring peace to the known universe. the coalition & blades don’t fully trust keith however, thinking that once keith is on the throne he’ll just betray them.
keith understands and explains he doesn’t actually want the throne. he suggests that they just kill everyone on the planet when the kral zera is called, with no more candidates, the empire will be severely fractured and would still be easier to defeat than having a leader. in the end, they go with the idea of having keith become emperor, but the coalition there in case people fight back against his orders.
keith wins, some back down and obey and some don’t. the coalition and voltron take down those that fight back, and from there it’s a lot of “keith orders galra to release planets and those that don’t, get liberated by the resistance”. its a lot of politics where keith frees all the prisoners of the empire, lets them get back to their home planets and finds sam returning him to pidge and matt.
he sets up a colony in an empty solar system for the civilian galra to live governed by the blades, while he sees to it that those that were soldiers are put on trial and punished for their various crimes.
again, still not entirely sure what happens in late canon, but i guess from there it does the whole...sendak takes earth thing? but it’s actually a pretty easy mission considering they have the might of the entire coalition (which is almost the entire universe at that point) and the blades and voltron. but after the defeat of sendak there pretty much isn’t any opposing galra resistance to keith’s reign? so from then on it’s just the paladins, allura, coran and krolia back on earth experiencing things.
krolia busts into the garrison like “hey guess who’s not dead! also meet my alien son who’s king of an entire race of people, and my other son who’s leader of the universe’s most powerful weapon also with a sick glowing arm”. the garrison sweats under the pure power and skill the three of them exude. especially when krolia utterly annihilates all records on their simulators/actual ships. and then keith and shiro join in on it too and they end up giving them all the awards and accolades bc no one is going to top that ever.
the paladins go to disneyland. keith is still technically emperor but considering the blades have been overseeing all galra activity anyways, he’s not really needed. so he just bums around earth for a while, getting to know the other half of his heritage that he never really got to.
krolia meets mr fireman and they end up getting together bc krolia deserves good things and a desert hermit who helped get shiro back into space and eventually to her with is a good thing. they still live out in the shack tho bc mr fireman is committed to it at that point, bc he ended up living there through sendak’s invasion pretty well.
and then uh i think that’s pretty much it. keith is a normal teenager, allura and coran get puzzled by human shit, lance reconnects w his family, hunk does too and cooks a bunch of food and pidge works w the garrison in making it less shitty while also just tagging along with whatever dumb things they decide to experience.
end of au!!!!
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March 7th-March 13th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive
The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from March 7th, 2020 to March 13th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:
What is your overall marketing/promotion strategy for your webcomic?
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I don't know if this counts as a strategy, but these are some of the things I do to promote my comic or my work in general. 1. Most important from what I've noticed (which I have been failing at due to stress and self-doubt lately) is to post updates to your comic frequently and consistently. It seems somewhat silly that simply putting your work out there is the best way to grow an audience, but it really is. Newly posted chapters frequently get shown on more pages and thus detected by the algorithms and potential readers. It also helps to establish trust with current and returning readers. 2. Participating in art/comic events, forums, and other comicking communities (such as this one). In a way, this isn't really marketing directly, but it is good to build connections with other creators! 3. Conventions! I actually have gotten a several new readers/followers from attending cons. It's also nice just to talk to people, get your name out there locally, and to make a little bit of money while at it. 4. Social media promotion. Tbh, this hasn't been super helpful to me, but more eyes is always a win in my book. I try to post almost every day, even if it isn't art or comic related. Having some kind of social media presence at all, even if it's small, shows people that you are working hard to connect to others. Also finding the right hashtags definitely helps with visibility.
kayotics
Overall, my strategy for marketing is to be authentic and just keep plugging my stuff. People will come if they like it. I work as a marketer for my day job, so I know what I COULD do, but I really don’t do that much since a whole marketing plan would take a lot more time than I have available to me. Some of the stuff I do otherwise: - regular updates. This ones pretty important for retaining viewers I already have. Any good marketing strategy is thinking about retaining people, not just getting new ones - self promo: this usually is on top webcomics or on social media. I get a LOT of traffic from top webcomics, and I get a good handful of people from social media. - conventions, like mentioned before, can be a great way to get people’s eyes on your stuff. I have a postcard that I hand out to people if they come by or they purchase something. - the thing I don’t do enough is post more art outside of the comic, or even just little previews. If I were dedicated to marketing, I’d be sharing sketches or illustrations on social media to grow my audience.
DanitheCarutor
Ah you know, I don't really have much of a strategy. At some point I promoted as much as I could on Twitter, adding my comic to those share/promo thread, getting in on relevant hashtag events, participating on WebComic Chat (whenever I remembered to). I've done a little promotion on forums, but there is really only so much you can do since only so many people hang out there and if your work is super niche like mine, they will pretty much avoid your promos at all cost. Lmao Other than those I don't really do much, at some point I attempted to use Instagram but the site/app is very stingy about offsite links. I also started a Facebook page, although if you don't have the money to boost your promos and don't usually have a lot going on with your comic outside of weekly updates, it won't get a whole lot of attention. I've also tried to be more active, but I'm not a good conversationalist, and I tend to be kind of a thread/conversation/mood killer so I try to avoid talking outside of Q&A prompts like this.
eli [a winged tale]
Same Dani, I used Instagram for a while too and I just don’t think the platform is a good fit for my vertical scroll comic (see exhibit 1) Twitter is a mixed bag as well and I think unless you have a solid following already, it’s hard to gain traction. What really helped was being on Webtoon’s staff pick for a couple days. I’m not sure how Tapas picked up but it’s reassuring that there’s a couple of followers gained every week when I posted regularly. So it really does sound like the first step is to have a steady update schedule (working on the buffer! Got a month’s work down today). It’s just challenging because while I could upload one page a week but on the vertical scroll sites it seems like a longer episode (6-7 pages) is valued more as a solid update. Love hearing everyone’s thoughts and hope to learn from y’all! (edited)
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Consistency and con attendance were big ones for me, but something I learned worked well (and was really fun to do) was creating really fun, really dumb, non-canon bits of art every now and then. Following meme prompts or funny ideas from other people. If your comic can afford some humor being thrown its way, making people laugh is a great way to get some attention. No one needs to know the details of your story - they just need to relate to the characters/humor somehow. I had more than one person come across my dumb, meme-y ancillary art and go “Welp, I want to read your comic now.”
eli [a winged tale]
Memes to the rescue! What has been your favourite to do? And which one has surprised you in its relatability/popularity?
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Two shots of vodka.
Also that terrible sweater meme. Everyone is required to do the terrible sweater meme. People eat it up.
eli [a winged tale]
Too good
Ahh I can’t wait till I can actually write silly adult characters
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Now that you mention it, the nice thing about the terrible sweater meme is it works with a WIDE variety of comics.
eli [a winged tale]
I would love to do a meme with y’all
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
"Came for the story, staying for the sick memes"
Spring-heeled Jack
I try to post updates every friday when my new pages go up on Patreon. And then I make my big post when my tapas and website update at the end of the month. Between all that, I have little flyers that I carry with me and if I'm ever in a shop that has a little self promotion section, I plan on tacking up a flyer. I do conventions, and this will be my first convention season while actively making a comic, so flyers will be handed out then as well.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
My comic isnt very comedy-heavy, and even for the funny scenes, my sense of humor isn't compatible with most people's. So a lot of the memes out there just don't work. But terrible sweater meme doesn't have to be hilarious. It can be just cute, or even weird.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
For me, uh lmao. I sometimes make some funny strip panels and it was received well even though it's not polished for my liking lmao
Spring-heeled Jack
Keii, I feel you. I'm not good with comedy and my comic isn't meant to be funny, either, so I don't know how well a comedy meme will help me.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
overall, I try to be honest with just self promo and asking when I have a chance "Hey pls check out my comic lol"
eli [a winged tale]
Or maybe just something relatable? Seen a couple caption this on tumblr
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I think instead of memes, what I'm gonna do is my characters cosplaying more well known characters from works that have some tonal similarities with my own. This isn't just for advertising purposes; it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time for myself. But I'm realizing it can serve some of the same purposes that memes do.
Spring-heeled Jack
That's extremely cute!
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Keyword being "SOME" Tonal similarities... Some of them aren't very similar but have a couple of parallels, etc.
Spring-heeled Jack
Oh for sure. Even if you could find that 'perfect match', it might not be a great cosplay for them, and give too much away
Are "draw the squad" prompts still a thing? I love those
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
The One White Dude and the Tiger Dude in my comic will definitely cosplay Calvin and Hobbes at some point.
Spring-heeled Jack
LOL
omg please, Keii
eli [a winged tale]
YES
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Yeah, not every comic will have super memeable humor - but whatever you can do to break down that wall between you and a potential reader and go “Hey! Look at this. Is this relatable? Do you get the reference? Etc” Is a very good bet
Also yes squad memes are PERFECT
You can boil down your comic’s relationships so simply.
Spring-heeled Jack
I have four couples in my comic so those "ship dynamic" posts might be fun
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
What are squad memes?
eli [a winged tale]
I also need to be educated about squad I mean all the memes
Spring-heeled Jack
OH MAN!! They are fun as heck. You can find templates and it's a very simple character design in the template, but the poses are super silly. And then you just draw your characters in place of those simple figures(edited)
If you google "Draw the squad" you will find a bunch
renieplayerone
Oh! Ill have to try that! These squad bases look fun!
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I still have one of those I need to finish Back when I first started sharing my work, I was surprised and delighted at how quickly people shoved it through a meme filter.
Maybe that’s another thing! If marketing opportunities present themselves as a surprise, try running with them and see where they take you Within reason, of course. Never feel forced to follow anything that people respond to in a particular way. Just take it into account and see how you feel about it.
renieplayerone
(Im here to lurk on this week's question, i have no strategy and need ideas haha)
eli [a winged tale]
Omg draw the squad looks
too many to choose
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I love draw the squad poses so much TuT I wish I had more time to draw within more of them. I think I always get a little dishearten about making memes because I feel like I need to make my jokes full illustrations but I never have time for much extra content beyond ballpoint pen sketches :T
Mei
Honestly I don't have a marketing or promotion strategy for my webcomic. I make updates every week, and I post it on my twitter and kinda plug it there. I'm actually god awful at trying to make people read my comic because I'm a little bit nervous about it, to be honest. So I just sort of leave it there and see if people find it, half the time. That being said, I tried to promote it pretty hard at conventions last year. But that didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I'm hoping to make flyers with QR codes so that people can scan it, and it'll take them to the landing page/tapas for the comic. That might be a bit easier than getting them to just search the title, plus having a flyer is a nice bit of promotion if I get the opportunity?! Making memes and drawing characters in different clothes or in squad things sounds like super fun tho and I might look into that in the future
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's nice to hear everyone talk about this topic. TBH I had completely stopped promoting my comic because I got too scared of backlash, being a disappointment, etc. (Initially I'd attracted a number of people who weren't actually my target audience, and that led to some less than ideal results.) But some time last year, it occurred to me that 1) I'm making this comic for my reader self (or my "hypothetical taste twin" as I like to call it)... which means 2) I only have to appeal to people like me. So I started asking myself, "What would I have to say/do to get me to read this comic?" and that made it significantly less intimidating. I haven't actually started doing self promo (though I did start plugging my updates on Twitter at least). But most future self promo I do will be based on that ^ question.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
(oh god, I was just checking out the latest update for one of the Korean webcomics I read, and the new episode is about a hikikomori... who says "I want to change, but I can't step outside because... maybe there isn't a single person out there who will understand me." THAT WAS ME but with comic promo. Well, I'm getting better and I also hope this character will, too, though knowing this comic his chances aren't so great lol...)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I hope that wasn't too awkward to share! Tl;dr I really think the "what would I have to say/do to get ME to check out my comic" is a good approach for anyone else feeling intimidated about doing self promos.
In the same vein, but on the opposite side of the coin: I'm curious to know, what were some things that got YOU to read someone else's comic?
Some of my own answers to that aren't very relevant to what we can do for our own comics: e.g. I'm Korean and when Naver has a new comic in their pro comic lineup, I may check it out. I'm also a member of SpiderForest and I check out the applicants' comics during the app season. Stuff like that aren't really good promo options that we can take. But things that may be relevant: - 'Evocative scenery shot that doesn't show the face/ doesn't focus on the face.' MY WEAKNESS. That kinda pictures feel subtle and kind of lonely to me, even if it's a group shot. And I like stories with those vibes. -Promo includes an evocative quote. Could be from the comic itself, or from something else like a classical literature or whatever. The creator of Ark (https://www.arkcomic.com/) does this sometimes and even though I'm already following Ark, those promos get my attention.
eli [a winged tale]
Definitely the art promo now that I think of it! Merch, posters, banners etc. If the art intrigues me, I definitely take a look at the site/blurb/first chapter
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I wonder if we can semi-workshop promo art at some point? Not really intensive like "change xyz" because that's not always feasible with art, but just impression feedback like, "this pictures gives me these vibes, and makes me expect this kinda story"
I would be curious to see everyone's even if we don't workshop
eli [a winged tale]
YES
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
Yesssss
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Yes please. I don‘t promo besides update notices simply because I have no clue to start.
Mei
Sometimes I get really attracted by the style of the story? I immediately started reading Wolfsbane because the art was cool and different from a lot of whta I'd seen on Webtoon up until that point. And then the story was perfect for me. What keii said about writing for yourself is right. Patrick Ness once said you should write the stories your younger self would have loved to pick up on a shelf
and I think that's a pretty evocative thing. At the end of the day, you should be enjoying what you're writing (hopefully). And if you enjoy it and you're having fun making it, that can rub off on the people reading it, or you find the people who like that similar vein of story?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
(It's also 100% legit to write stories for your current self )
Mei
(oh yes 100% that's what i'm doing HEHE)
Tolkein wrote LOTR because he was like
in love with worldbuilding
was there a market for such a strange type of novel at the time? No. Definitely not. Did he write it anyway? YEAH HE DID
Deo101 [Millennium]
I really wanna do an art workshop yes.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Aight, anyone who wants an impression feedback from me, post your promo art in #art_help
Warning, my impressions may be totally off lol
Deo101 [Millennium]
Also I don't do much marketing. Mostly I try to get in with communities and learn about making comics, I just want to improve my craft. All I really do is make my updated every week, and share whatever art Ive made on my Twitter or whatever
Okay! I think I only have my cover on my phone, but on my computer I also have my banners and icon. So I'll share all those in a bit when I'm at my computer
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
(off topic but I'm sick, and when I'm sick or very tired I constantly misread words. I read "my banners" as "my bananas" and I was very confused for a couple seconds.)
Deo101 [Millennium]
My bananers
Feather J. Fern
I am terrible at marketing my own work, but I am very good at marketing other people's work. I use the "you would like it for this reason" to grab people. Unfortunately I can't do it for my comic because I am bad at seeing the good in my own work oof. I am getting better at it though.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's a really good way to do it!
And I can relate. My own hangup is a little different, but it can be extremely difficult to be brave for sure, whether in front of other people, or just in front of your own brain that constantly judges you.
Feather J. Fern
Yeah I was talking about a friend's comic and then the person I was talking to was like "Don't you write comics" and I was like "ahfoofjw yeah but don't look at them"
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I was thinking a lot about the whole "it's like [well known work] meets [another well known work]" approach that was discussed earlier. And I think that could be relevant here. Like, think of something that has either influenced your comic significantly, or just happens to have some core similarities. How would you market that thing? Could you market your own thing using a similar approach -- since there are similarities?
I'd thought of a really good example to compare HoK to. Then I got sad because the said example is extremely obscure outside of Korea. But now I'm like, hey, people don't have to KNOW that work. I can do this differently. I can talk about HoK the way I could talk about it.
('it' as in the other work that's obscure outside of Korea)
Feather J. Fern
I do think that's a good fast shortcut but I don't like using it becuase the shortcut sometimes makes people angry when they don't get what they like out of those two things
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's why I said to NOT actually bring up the comparison work
Don't name it
Just list the traits that are shared in common
Feather J. Fern
Oh sorry
I miss read
(And my name changed colours all the sudden?)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's a confusing topic, so no worries
It means you leveled up
Feather J. Fern
OWO!
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Say you want to compare your work to... I dunno, DBZ, because it's got super strong aliens duking it out barehanded, blasting ki-like energy attacks, etc. Don't name DBZ. Talk about your work the way you'd talk about your favorite aspects of DBZ. "My comic has super strong aliens duking it out hand-to-hand! YEEEAH!"
OH MY GOD I NEED TO DO THIS NOW.
Feather J. Fern
Yeah! That's what I would do. (But it also helps for me that my comic has no hard reference points) but for my new comic, people are gonna compare it to Zach Bell, and Angelic Layer i think
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm gonna write up some drafts that I will revise and tweet at a later time
Feather J. Fern
So I jsut got to you know, not promo it as such XD
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I want to do this too for a quick pitch
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Do it (shop talk or story help maybe?)
I'm writing a vomit draft for mine
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Yee
Feather J. Fern
I think I will do it for Story help
(Also so I can help flesh out my new project lol lol)
eli [a winged tale]
Kei I might be suuuuper off since I read only the beginning but I sort of thought inuyasha but Korea and handsome boys
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Sometimes you don't even realize your story can be marketed as "blah meets blah" until much later down the line - I've only started realizing the number of existing properties I've absorbed unintentionally into my comic. It's not how I'd market it on a serious front, but to a friend for story help, heck yes.
But a lot of people on Twitter seem to do that strategy for PitMAD and it works great for them, so... shrug
I guess it still belongs in a "pitch arsenal," as it were
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, the one "blah" I just thought of is something I hadn't realized for all these years. But it makes so much sense now that I look at it.
eli [a winged tale]
See that’s where I got confused but I think this is what I’m gonna aim to do: - pitch to readers: inspiration but this awesome unique thing in the comic - pitch to other comic makers: the Logline - pitch to agents: comparison works if requested and longer pitch depending on their format - pitch to family: just read it plzthanksbye
renieplayerone
or alternative pitch to family: Please dear god never read this
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's me
Oof... Writing the 'promote your comic by talking about the traits it shares with Another Person's Work,' I made myself cry, and that is definitely a sign I'm on the right track.
eli [a winged tale]
Right track is good!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It took me years to even think of an 'other more popular work' comparison for Children of Shadow. XD But at the same time, it's really different from the works I compare it to, so it's hard to say 'Read this if you like X or X because it has a few similarities in theme and tone, but is still very much its own thing'.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah which is why I'm not even gonna namedrop my X.
I'm just straight up gonna talk about 'My comic has [this trait]' (and X shares that trait, but no one needs to know for the purpose of that pitch)
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
To answer the weekly question... I really don't have a marketing strategy. Marketing is my achilles heel, so I generally just throw pages up and hope someone sees them. I don't really understand social media nor do I have the energy to sink tonnes of time into it, which seems to be one of the biggest requirements for being picked up by algorithms. So my marketing strategy is just.., keep making comics and talking to other creators and hope for the best
eli [a winged tale]
I think that’s still solid Capn
Ultimately you need a product to promote
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's something that helps me, because while I can talk about my favorite works done by others, I feel stuck when trying to do the same with my own. So it's basically telling my brain, 'hey, you already know how to do it with other stories. Do the same thing with your own.'
eli [a winged tale]
So true Kei
renieplayerone
thats my strategy too. best case you market it great, worst case you've made a new friend so win win :3
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
My incredibly low numbers after 14 years of making webcomics beg to differ but... maybe someday I can hire someone to help me market.
eli [a winged tale]
I’m using the comic platforms rather than my own site so... sort of relying on their algorithms. I imagine it can be harder if you just post on your own website?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Sometimes the platforms don't help much if their audience isn't into the type of comics you make
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I post on both my own website and on platforms, but the algorithms for WT and Tapas don’t seem to like me, haha.(edited)
renieplayerone
yeah same
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
One of my top favorite webcomics got a front page feature on Tapas once, but it wasn't the kind of a story that gets a lot of traction there, so it still didn't get very popular. And that was in no way a measure of its quality. It is an excellent comic, just not a good fit for that particular place.
renieplayerone
I get far more views on my site, but I get way more engagement on Tapas and WT
I actually treat those two mirrors AS marketing for the main site(edited)
eli [a winged tale]
Exactly renie! Good perspective!
I never know what different platforms tailor to...
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah, what Keiiii said. I make dark fantasy comics and both WT and Tapas favour romance, especially comics geared towards a female audience and drawn anime style. My comics aren’t particularly feminine and romance isn’t much of a focus, so they’re just not what that demographic is into.
eli [a winged tale]
I’ve been trying to remember how I came across my favourite comics and usually it’s through the art (interesting characters, unique dynamic style that I enjoy) and the first chapter holding promise (able to see what the character wants/will have to change into)
Romance has always been the best seller in the story world I think
Oh and most recently hiveworks and other web publishers have great recommendations too per genre
And comic conventions are always fun to meet creators. Sometimes If I feel I jive with someone I’m an instant fan
renieplayerone
I absolutely need to get better at having confidence enough to make friends at conventions x_x
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I have noticed my audience grow a bit since joining Spiderforest. They’ve helped me get a bit better at promotion, though marketing just isn’t my talent, lol.
renieplayerone
im always terrified haha
eli [a winged tale]
It’s a big step for sure renie! It took me like... three years going to VanCAF as an attendee before actually exhibiting and making friends(edited)
Mei
I know i'm late but i personally detest the 'this book is X meets Y!!', even though I get why people do it. I just wish they'd describe it to me like what if I'd never read either of those books......
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I would really love to get out to cons, they sound like a great opportunity for connecting with other creators. One of these years I’ll be able to get to one!(edited)
Deo101 [Millennium]
yeah im usually kinda like "okay, well are you doing anything new or are you just doing those things :/"
renieplayerone
I exhibit with the Boston Comics Roundtable and I still havent gotten the courage XD
Mei
yeah, cons are really fun even to attend or to make friends! I find it really tough though, I'm so intimidated;;
yeah Deo... same... it's like
sure, I could pitch a story as two things. Like I don't know "The Walking Dead meets Shaun of the Dead" which is semi redundant anyway
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I only use it to give people a framework for the kinds of tones and themes they can expect from my work when I have to keep my explanation short and sweet.
renieplayerone
they should have badges that say "Hi i want to make friends but you are all so awesome its intimidating be kind"
Mei
or you know... use those words to just describe the story? It may be a personal preference, some agents LOVE comparisons
Yes renie, yes!
i'd love a badge like that like
pls talk to me i'm scare
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Sometimes a few words can’t fully describe a story as well as saying: ‘It’s a little bit like X meets X but if you add [insert unique thing your story does]’
Mei
I personally find that it depends a bit too much on people having read those books or stories before. BUT if you're pitching to an agent, they've usually read those books
so then they get a sense or vibe of like, what the genre is
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It’s all down to preference, really. Your own and the person you’re pitching to. If you don’t want to use comparisons to describe your own work, that’s valid, but try not to dismiss people who do.
Mei
so I get it, I just don't like it personally xD I think a lot of the times it takes away from your own voice and story
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That too is part of the reason why I'm not namedropping the works
Just having my self-promo self learn from my 'promo other people's stuff' self
Mei
yeah for sure, it adds that level of excitement to your own work that you'd give to others?
eli [a winged tale]
I think a cool exercise might be to check out someone’s work here and see how you would promote it
It’s always good to see from someone else’s perspective
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
yessssss, all of my friends have been much better at promoting than I am
mostly because they have no shame regarding it but they also just... know what sounds cool
Mei
Oh i'm very good at promoting my friends' work
I sold his DnD book to a kpop stan who doesn't like DnD and doesn't play, and it was a crowning achievement
eli [a winged tale]
Like for yours I’d probably say... Manta Ray princess finds herself very much dead but is given a second chance to revive her friends and save her kingdom... just need to find someone very much living and very much not afraid of the seaghosts they have become
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
SOLID
though now I imagine Phaedra as a Manta Ray in a dress which is... not entirely untrue
eli [a winged tale]
LOL omg I haven’t even thought of that! Just thought manta Princess is a hook
Mei
Me, pointing at Cheth "I mean look at him, LOOK AT HIM and tell me you don't want to read this"
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I guess for my work I market it from four potential angles: 1) The princess is cool and has a sword, 2) The villain is the best character, 3) The environments ain't bad, and 4) THERE'S A DOG
again, you gotta know who you're talking to and what they already like
eli [a winged tale]
In a world where a fallen god became trapped in the sea, a dead princess is given a second chance to fight for her life with a mysterious sea-bitten boy and undo the sea ghost curse that plagues the world.
Dammit I repeated world
Mei
hey... the environments are GREAT
eli [a winged tale]
Yeah Lady your environment shots are
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
ok I do try BUT BACK TO MARKETING
The number of times I see someone marketing their comic with very epic-sounding descriptors or broad generalizations... then that one day where they're finally like "oh, I have a character who turns into a hamster at nighttime" and people are like 'I'M SOLD'
And then they go ".... THAT'S WHAT YOU ALL WANTED???"
often it's those little weird details that get people interested
Deo101 [Millennium]
I wanna read about the were hamster please
Mei
sometimes I think the simplest and maybe slightly silly lines are what grabs people?
when things sound TOO epic i feel a bit intimidated
eli [a winged tale]
takes notes
Mei
but if someone were to sell me a big adventure epic as "it's hamsters and they fight the forces of evil" i'd read it
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
god yes
"Four small creatures band together to defeat a great darkness overwhelming their homeland."
No.
"Hamsters fight evil."
YES
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I.... I have no idea how to snappily describe my comics. XD
eli [a winged tale]
Same... I got to kids with wings for hair then my brain short circuits
Mei
i'd say it's the way you'd tell the story to a close friend
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
The best I came up with was 'Teenagers with supernatural powers team up with woodland critters to defeat monsters' but it sounds more adventure-y and doesn't really get at the fact that it's a dark story with horror elements and everyone's mentally ill.
Mei
like they come up to you and go "what's your comic about" "oh you know, my stupid comic's about mutant hamsters that take over the world" or something
(don't call your comics stupid none of your comics are stupid they are great)
Deo101 [Millennium]
"plant man and his goth boyfriend babysitting a ton of bozos" would probably be mine then
Mei
BEAUTIFUL
i'm sold
Deo101 [Millennium]
ghsakgjhgkhkgahgk my target audience...
Mei
i do think tho like this form of comedic one-lining may not work for something dark?
Unless you go "Spooky horror about cats that become humans at night!"
would need experimentation
eli [a winged tale]
It’s a balance I think.
Kids stranded on an island with weapons explore the darkness in human nature - Lord of the Flies
Mei
ooh yeah that's a good one!
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
A space explorer stranded on a foreign planet must join forces with the indigenous population and save his ship before his life support runs out.
Alternately
Small man goes to war with small carrot people
Pikmin
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) I wonder if one could describe CoS the way how people might describe Evangelion, but with magical powers instead of mechs.
Teens, monsters, mental illnesses
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Probably. Though I've never seen Evangelion, but those three words work very well.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
The relationship dynamics are way different, but yeah, those three things...
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Also add trauma and cute lil animals and you have Children of Shadow. XD
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Evangelion also has trauma (though I don't know if you'd like it; this isn't a rec, just a promo discussion!) and it was refreshing to see at the time
A teen trying to fight huge monsters, even if he was doing it inside an equally huge mech, could lead to traumatizing experiences, and it was the first time I saw that seriously explored
Hmm, so I guess "teens, talking animals, monsters, mental illnesses feat. trauma" ?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don't know if it's similar at all, but that description reminds me strongly of Eureka 7. Wow, was that series intense,
🌈ERROR404 🌈
I really liked how the end happened - it was a nice solution to the lack of budget issue and told the story of his psyche reall well
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Though Eureka 7 was intense in a good way. I found the ending kind of unsatisfying, but admittedly I find the endings of 90% of animes unsatisfying (probably a cultural clash). But I enjoy them for the journey more than the ending.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I haven't watched Eureka 7, but the storyboard artist (one of the storyboard artists maybe?) for that anime is one of my favorite artists.
DanitheCarutor
Ah, a little late, but regarding the snappy promos I'm in the same boat as Cap'n with not knowing how to make one. At least one that would be ridiculous and totally not fitting the darker themes. I agree with all the people who have a generally hard time coming up with a pitch for their work, while having an easier time promoting other people's comics. Honestly my comic can be super boring to people who don't like pretentious, non-fantastical, angsty, character study types of stories. So it's really hard to think of a way to make it sound interesting without spoiling anything. Man! That thing when people come up to you, asking what your comic is about! Me: "Oh! Ah, it's uh, kinda sad and it has uh mental illness" -trails off with uncomfortable laughter- Them: Oh cool. -has a look of complete disinterest- Someone was actually extremely enthusiastic about the vague description of my comic, which somehow made me a mix of uncomfortable and excited.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I saw the conversation about blurbs and I just thought of one for a comic I'm working on! "An ecologist and a bird have a conversation about ethics"
I haven't started the comic yet so please send your critiques(edited)
and first impressions
(of the blurb)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
"Angsty character study with a heavy dose of mental illness" <--- Could this descriptor work? @DanitheCarutor
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
kei said exactly what I was just typing
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Great minds
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
oh, i just realized i've read dani's comic
I think your description is fine?
The artsy, angsty comics I follow all have kind of short, tongue in cheek descriptions
it's hard to capture the tone of an emotional comic in one sentence so they either joke about it or make it intentionally misleading
for example Drop Out's description is something like "two friends go on a road trip" and Fritz Fargo's description is "a human dumpster fire in the 90s"
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
The dumpster fire one is insta-effective
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Dani, maybe make your description shorter if anything?
Something like, "An emotionally stunted alcoholic attempts to make amends"
and then follow it up with kei's line about it being an angsty character study
RebelVampire
Im not gonna stop the convo cause it is on topic. However, i do want to remind ppl these #creator_babble chats are permanently archived. So thats something to keep in mind if youre gonna workshop.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I asked before in this discord about making my own blurb better. The main critique I got was that I included too many things that I thought were interesting and unique that a new reader probably wouldn't care about. Like how the mc's powers work. But though it's unique and important to the story, it's not going to be a main reason someone reads the comic. I revised the blurb to remove extraneous info and make the tone of the comic more apparent, and I think now I didn't lose anything and made it more concise.
I think maybe agtahr could also be summarized a bit more succinctly
DanitheCarutor
Yup, you did once upon a time but said you stopped reading it a while ago. (which is totally fine, the reason is understandable.) The mix of yours and Keii's descriptions do sound a lot better than mine. Lol Thank you Fish and @keii’ii (Heart of Keol)! I've noticed people really like the word 'angst' when you describe heavy stuff. At least when I was a teenager everyone found it appealing. I'll tinker with it a bit and use Drop_Out and Fritz Fargo as a reference. Anyways, I'm going to stop talking now, don't want to bog down the main topic.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
That's a good point; 'the best things about this story' and 'things that should go in its blurb' have an overlap, but they aren't always the same.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Yeah, I did but I'll probably pick it up again eventually. I remember enjoying it. If you do want to keep talking, we can move to shop talk?
mirandalorian
babbling I have the first three episodes of my webtoon ready to post tomorrow and I’m really excited and feel kinda proud that I made it this far...even though it’s not very far. It’s far for me without posting immediately end babbling
Feather J. Fern
I forgot to ask, but if people are tabling at cons, do you guys have promo stuff at your con tables for your comics?
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Mostly a business card, but yes
carcarchu
i never did but my table partner one year had free postcards she gave out with purchase / to passerbys with her comic info and an illustration on it
kayotics
I always keep free postcards to advertise my comic on the table right next to my business cards.
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Yep, the free postcards did wonders for me last year. They disappeared quickly!
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
Buisness cards and postcards~
Feather J. Fern
Seems like Business and Postcards are the way to go.
Mei
business cards!!
i might be making flyers/postcards for my comic next time though! :D
sagaholmgaard
I haven't done much to promote my comic but I've gotten some good ideas reading through this, thanks! I currently plug my updates in twitter and instagram with a cool/fun panel from the new page. I do also share WIPS and try to engage through my instagram stories (Asking things like, 'what type of benders would the Reclaim squad be in an avatar au' and making doodles for the answers), but that only reaches those who follow my IG. its good fun tho. I've done memes with the characters a few times but I didn't get much attention, LOL. But it's fun so maybe worth trying again
Spring-heeled Jack
Today I went into a locally owned comic shop and went to the guy that owns it and said "I'm a local artist and I'm writing a comic. Could I give you some small flyers to let people take?" And he said yes, and then asked if I have any physical copies. I don't yet but told him I'll bring some by when I have them. He then let me know he carries other local artists! Something cool to think about if you have a local comic shop.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
ooo that's good to know
I droped off my zines at my local comic shop but maybe I'll drop flyers of my webcomic too lmaooo
Spring-heeled Jack
I also just ordered a business card carrier so I can tote some around with ease. I carry my flyers in my sketchbook. You should totally ask, it never hurts! Carry a few extra just in case you find yourself in a new area and find another cafe or comic shop.
I ran mine off on my at home printer on some nice quality but regular weight paper. I might need to get some more professionally done.
Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)
I keep a handful of business cards in my wallet -- that way, any time someone says "hey, that looks cool, what are you drawing?" they get a card with the title and URL. Slowly but steadily burns through the supply.
DanitheCarutor
Seeing if my local book shops will carry copies of my comic when I print them eventually is something I'm kind of excited about! My town is hardcore into supporting local artists and writers, so that'll be something neat to try out. Although I'm a little nervous that the rating might be a little too mature for what the vendors want on their shelves.
I know of using postcards to advertise, but never heard of fliers. Maybe I'll give that a try.(edited)
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I use double sided business cards, so on one side, it showcases some of my art, and the other side has contact info, a link to my comic website, and a QR code. It's been pretty helpful so far at conventions.
Nutty (Court of Roses)
You guys have all these sophisticated answers to this and my answer is just "scream on every social media platform I can reach and every person I meet about my comic."
Though I may not scream at people irl,,,
snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)
Let's see... I have a twitter where I repost my comic pages, and a couple mirrors that help reach different audiences. I've also carried around business cards that have my comic's URL on it. One fun strategy I've used is doing review-exchange things, in an I-critique-your-comic-if-you-critique-mine way (with the assumption that most people who read all the way through Super Galaxy Knights end up liking it). Though, that isn't really viable anymore now that the comic is 600+ pages, cuz nobody would ever agree to that trade lol. And... that's pretty much it? Though, I should note that my goal with Super Galaxy Knights isn't to make the most popular comic I can so that I can make a living off ads or patreon or print sales or whatever. If I ever do manage to make money off the comic, it'll be in "spinoff tech" (basically, video games or other media based off it). (it's the reason why a bunch of early Starstuff Stories fleshed out the abilities of the characters they focused on) I would like people to read the story because I think people would like the story, but it's not like my future depends on its popularity.
Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS
We (me and Q) are gonna (hopefully) tabeling at cons this year! I thought about doing free non permenant tattoos with our comic things. Also we have beautiful zines of the first chapter to sell. but a free postcard is also good
Desnik
promotional strategies...ah...the biggest thing I did for my first webcomic, RAWR! Dinosaur Friends, was simply update on a general platform (tumblr), using a consistent schedule and the same tags every time. That allowed some of the bigger biology/humor/critter blogs on tumblr to find me and I got a lot of people reading from their generous reblogs. I found some more niche crossover from sci-comm blog comments and dinosaur toy collector forums, because sometimes I'd have a comic that would coincide with paleontology news. It was mainly about finding my niche and bringing my stuff to that niche. To those struggling with finding readers, I would recommend distilling the contents of your comic and then reaching out to people who buy/read things like your comic. I've definitely made friends from general 'webcomic' forums and discords, but in terms of building a readership it's all about finding the niche and catering to it in a human way
In general I highly recommend shopping around for stuff like hobby blogs/forums/groups/discords that have some relation to the content of your webcomic. Those people DO want new content related to their hobby, but they don't really deal well with salesy pitches. Just be human and also a nerd for that hobby, too (nerdy enough to make webcomics about it)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, it's like fan comic for an existing IP with an existing fandom, except it's a fan comic of a 'thing' rather than an IP (e.g. you make a pirate comic? Great! Nobody owns pirates, but there are lots of pirate fans out there!).
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
The very first customer I had at the first con I tabled at, came over and said "I like ghosts! I like the ocean! I'll take it!" And wrote me later saying it was exactly what they were looking for.
And honestly it's all because I make sure every cover has something spooky and something watery, and the genres are in the title I make it very easy for people to understand what it might be like.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
omg the genres are in the title
that's genius
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Definitely not planned But it helps so much!
I think if authors have a rule on certain symbols/motifs they MUST make sure come across on covers/posters/etc, that can be a good marketing strategy. With some wiggle room, of course.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I... I feel like I can barely even describe what my comic is, which makes it so hard to market. 'Do you like comics with cute animals and eldritch horrors and angsty teens that have superpowers and hidden religious symbolism everywhere?!? Then my comic is for you!' What even is that demographic, because I sure don't know.(edited)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
@Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios) If you take away the cute animals part, that actually sounds like stuff a lot of teens are into/ a lot of people were into when they were teens. And most people love cute animals, so adding that to the mix, in theory, shouldn't reduce the accessibility too much. Buuuuut CoS has its unique flavor that's decidedly different from all the "angsty teens, eldritch horrors, religious symbolism" stuff I consumed when I was younger. I don't know how to describe that flavor, nor how to utilize it for marketing. But yeah, maybe some food for thought?
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I've used short phrases that are sort of representative to describe my comic. Examples include "consensual mind control" "a guy whose ideal life is not being entirely alive" "friendship" and "anticlimactic conversations"
I have no idea how effective any of those are
someone tell me pls
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
As someone who just started reading your comic last night I think consensual mind control is a really cool descriptor. I haven't heard that too much before.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
!
that makes me happy
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) Heh, I'm not sure what that unique flavour is, either, but it might have something to do with me avoiding the typical 'chosen one' structure that most teen fantasy literature has. The characters are all (except Fawna) a part of the hidden world already rather than discovering it, and everyone's pretty much running around like chickens with their heads cut off rather than having any power over their situation (which is kind of a huge part of the theme of the comic). It's definitely different than the typical urban fantasy, so it's been really hard to find which audience that appeals to. From what I've gathered based on the people who comment on my website, it's mostly academics in college or beyond, for whatever reason. XD
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Honestly I think for almost all comics their first pages were what convinced me to keep reading. Even with Phantomarine I was ambivalent about the description but then I saw the first page, and though, yeah, I'm into this.
Maybe my own comic can be the same way
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
Exactly the same with me and your comic - I was also all about that first page It's a powerful thing! I think for anyone about to delve into a comic - which is, by nature, a very visual thing - it's going to be that visual that ultimately pushes them over the edge.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
maybe my description should just be ascii art of my main character O-O |
-(edited)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
^ It's why I tinkered with the first page of HoK soooo many times even after it went live. But it wasn't enough; it still gave off the wrong impression as to what kind of a story one should expect. Finally, more than a year after I started posting it, I redid like 1/4 to 1/3 of chapter one from scratch. Even though it will never be perfect, I can live with it now. chapter 2 on the other hand... It's an imperfect intro to the right story, rather than an intro (good or not) to the wrong story.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
To be honest, my intro probably doesn't hit the right notes to explain what my comic is about, which may be part of my problem. It starts out seeming more like an anthropomorphic fantasy than a dark urban fantasy / horror story. That's just something I think I'm going to have to live with, because I'm tired of reworking old pages (I already do it far too much). I think my best solution is drawing a new cover that showcases the tone and subject matter better than the one I'm using now.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
oh god, you reminded me of the 3 cover pages I spent hours on only to later scrap. Then my current cover page I did in one hour after it came to me at 4am(edited)
and it was perfect
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
XD
and my page redoings were after the reboot.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
Cap, I don't know how representative it is of the story but I looked up the Ashes cover page and it's very impressive
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Yeah, I already redrew my intro once.... and this is the third iteration of this comic. And I'm currently redrawing the first two chapters of my other comic. I'm so sick to death of starting over. -_-
@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Oh, thank you!! I like to go all-out on covers, heh.
Kabocha
Promotion... ... is that a thing you can eat? ... A few things I've tried is business cards -- tweeting about it -- posting about it on dA... I try to stay away from services like Tapas and Webtoon because I'm not formatted for those sorts of things, and I fear I'll probably just frustrate myself. It's a delicate balance right now between remaining happy with my work and getting it seen, but overall, I guess I'm not too stressed about it since it's not a source of income for me... I just... like making comics. I've also done conventions -- Conventions are fun, don't get me wrong, but nowadays they're a really low return on interest for many shows for original stuff (except slice of life and "oh no I did a bad" types of zines -- people seem to really enjoy things like that since it's often pretty easy to relate to). They feel like they used to be easier for selling original work, but the market's gotten rougher because there's so much competition and only so many dollars. if I ever print, I'm probably going to have to lean on some marketing-savvy friends for help... Hopefully things haven't changed too much by then. I think the tool that's worked best for me in the past few years has been doing guest comics here and there, as well as using topwebcomics, oddly enough. TWC was pretty good for referrals when I started doing comics way back in 2006~2007...
sagaholmgaard
Since the topic is about promotion... Do yall know if there are any twitter hashtag events for webcomic creators? My friends in the indie game industry have certain hashtags that people can post in during specific times every week - do we have anything similar?
Kabocha
#Webcomicchat!
https://webcomicchat.com/for-creators You may also find this page helpful
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
#webcomicchat is great because you get to talk shop while talking about your own work! It's not just "look at my comic"
sagaholmgaard
Ahh!! Thank you!
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
I know some people do #WebcomicWednesday - not sure how official it is, but it gets some attention!
sagaholmgaard
I'll check that one out as well!
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
There's also #comicartistsunite too
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
webcomicchat always looked like fun, but I definitively am on the wrong side of the globe for the times it's going on
mirandalorian
Promotion is difficult. I always feel like I'm being too pushy, even for something that's free. I also feel like I built up a following that had nothing to do with comics or art and so when I switched directions to head that way, i don't get the response I would like. Reading all the thoughts here has been really helpful tho. Just got to put them into practice
Feather J. Fern
I think my current attempt for promotion is at least being more willing to promote. I have to force my fear of "I shouldn't tell people because it's not as good as (blank)" and just shove my comic into a spotlight
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
If anyone is worried about bothering people, putting variety into your promotions will make things more palatable for people for sure. I have one person on my timeline spamming the same exact post over and over again, almost daily, and it doesn't seem to be doing them any favors There's no need for a promotion every day. The people I see that do a more-obvious promotion tweet, like, weekly, or every two weeks, seem to get good results from that Sometimes less is more
mirandalorian
I need to get to that point Feathery. And ya, daily is a bit extreme imo. But I have to figure out the good balance
Feather J. Fern
Even weekly I don't do it because I feel like I am spamming and I feel awkward
Oh! Speaking of promotions, one way I found I got my comic promoted was by doing guest comics for other people! I got lots of viewers after each guest comic I did
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, for social media promo, e.g. on Twitter, you want to make your actual tweets have value -- not just things being linked off the tweets. (This is where gag-a-day kinda comics have an advantage, because each strip has entertainment value and you can just post the whole strip in a tweet.) Obviously this doesn't apply to every promo tweet; so like, weekly promo tweet that's solely about the links, as mentioned by others, is fine. But yeah, aside from those, you wanna make your promo tweets fun to read.
Feather J. Fern
Also cameos! Cameos are a great promo
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Not gonna lie, I am lowkey paranoid about doing cameos. Someone I know had to remove their cameo of someone else's character, because that other person objected to their character being in the print version of the comic.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Uff
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
oh rip
Feather J. Fern
Oh man, that's rough.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'll never even print HoK but I can still imagine someone being all "NOPE, I CHANGED MY MIND" at a later time
Feather J. Fern
I am planning to do some cameos for other people, not that Go Figure will ever be in print but I can see that problem. I think what I would say is that if you want a cameo you have to be 100% certain
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Might be a good idea to have a very simple agreement thing you can have them sign
Feather J. Fern
Yeah I was going to have a written consent form
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
"I agree to let you do a cameo of my character, and to not be a jerk about it at a later time. Signed"
Feather J. Fern
Signed and dated by both parties XD
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
There's also the broad hashtags like #webcomics and even things more geared to genres like #drama and #fantasy and so on. Doing art memes helps sometimes, too.
mirandalorian
What do you think the best hashtags to use are? Is webcomics too saturdated?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I'm not sure about the best hashtags, but my biggest thing about hashtags on Twitter : don't use a bunch of hashtags in a single tweet!
For broad hashtags like #webcomics or #fantasy, I gotta wonder if anyone's actually checking those out...
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Yeah, I usually tag my update posts with #webcomic and my comic's name, but honestly I have no idea if #webcomic has ever helped out my post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
mirandalorian
Ya, I typically keep it to two or less, but i always wonder if webcomic is actually useful lol
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
takes note to use something more specific than #webcomic in my next update tweet
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I think it may potentially be useful as a label for someone who's just found you on that platform, and is not sure what you're promoting. But beyond that...
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
I usually use #historicalfiction and #webcomic. Not sure which one helps more, but well, there it is.
mirandalorian
Ya, I should use the genre tag too.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Do people even search genre tags for that matter lol (a bit pessimistic, but still a genuine question)
like, I'll be the first to admit, I don't hashtag search to look for new comics to read. I don't think I ever hashtag search ANYTHING, unless it's like..... a very active trend that I am interested in (e.g. an upcoming video game that I'm looking forward to)
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Well, the tags are popular enough to be suggested by twitter so I'd think some use them, probably likeminded folk.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Same keii. I mostly use hashtags to look for fan art, exclusively on Instagram.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
There's also a trend of "art sharing" tweets. I have found a couple of artists and webcomics through that kind of event, but again, the turnover isn't anything to write home about.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I wonder if readers make use of the search more than us creators do?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I doubt it, Lee
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
:/
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I never use it as a reader, at any rate, though I don't know if others are like that.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Though, actually that's not true, I have used hashtags to look at more things being posted within art events. So inktober, mermay, hourly comic day, etc.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
But art event hashtags are useful, because -- like I mentioned before -- those tweets provide entertainment value without anyone having to click on offsite links. e.g. the #StartToFinish tag that's hot right now.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I have followed new artists from those tags though and then checked out their off-site stuff. It's definitely a more round about way than someone specifically looking for comics to read via hashtag
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
From my limited observation, when people are looking for comics to read, they tend to ask for recs rather than do hashtag search?
"Anyone know of some good magical girl webcomics?" etc
which is a bit of a bummer for us creators, because that is completely outside of our control. Nothing we can do about it.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
here's the popularity for the #webcomics tag
So SOME people use it.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
@Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight) I'm gonna guess it's mostly creators using them to promote, rather than readers using them to search.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Also it seems to be peak in popularity in the USA
@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) the graph implies interaction, really.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
What counts as interaction?
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
tweeting it and searching it
what I'm saying is we can't know.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t so much in Twitter, but I personally DO search hashtags on Insta to find new art.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's true, we can't know. I just personally can't imagine anyone searching for #webcomics to find stuff to read
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Insta is definitely hashtag game city.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, IG is a different beast
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Comics don’t generally gel so well with Insta’s format, though, so I’m usually seeking art and not comics.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
just to be safe, occasionally use it
To be honest, I'm probably more likely to find and become a fan of webcomics here on this server than any social media
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, I wouldn't say "don't use #webcomics" -- use it if you have no other, more specific tags to put. But on Twitter, you don't want too many hashtags, so if you got more specific ones... use those instead!
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
I feel somewhat self conscious in getting an instagram. But I'll get one most likely.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
It might be a good idea to switch up your tags regularly? Choose two or three from a relevant list each update and see if any of those tweets get a noticeable boost in engagement.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Yeah that sounds a good strategy
speaking of, any other creators into historical webcomics?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I don't seek them out, but there's some that I read.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
yours is touching upon the historical keii with the joseon-style elements.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
It's definitely not historical but yeah, got the aesthetics going for it!
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Yeah!
I must admit, I'm a bit starved for like-minded creators. I mean people that create historical webcomics. I know and follow a few but that's not nearly enough.
(if I'm babbling too much for creator babble please tell me!)
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Babbling is fine! But this might be better for #general or possibly shop talk as it's not related to this week's topic?
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
oh sorry, there's a specific topic here too?
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Yeah, all the channels under CTP Activities have a... topic thingie that changes weekly
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
okay got it. I'll take it there. Sorry :/
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
Don't be sorry, be glad to chat about this stuff in another channel
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
With insta please be mindful that if you‘ll always post with the same hashtags, their algorythmn likely will assume you‘re a bot.
mirandalorian
Oh really?
I definitely did not know that.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Yup, it‘s a big annoyance. At least it was that way half a year ago, how is the algorythm now? Nobody knows.
I kinda hate insta, but it‘s the platform with the most interactions for me, although I don‘t know if it goes beyound liking my panel cutout.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Instagram does it‘s darnest to lock the user into theor own ecosystem.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
Yeah, hard same. I definitely get the most likes there, but I get very few referrals from insta.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
Funnily, the only social media where I KNOW I got at least one reader from is pillowfort and their teeny-tiny webcomic comunity!
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I keep wanting to hop over there, but also starting a new social media sounds exhausting TuT one day.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I need to start using PF
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
It‘s pretty chill, reminds me of the hey-day of livejournal, with great filtering - more intended to create many small communities than one giant pot like twitter.
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I don’t think any platform’s algorithms like me. I get very low engagement no matter where I post. I’m just not good at figuring out what these platforms pick up.(edited)
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
I still have three invites left for this week.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Does cross promotion work for you guys at all?
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
A little bit? But I think my comics are a hard sell, so I generally don’t get a lot of referrals when I cross-promote with other creators.
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
It‘s how I found this community; but otherwise, nope.
Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)
Now I need to check out your comics Lee. I'm intrigued!
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Haha, if you want to! If they’re not your cup of tea that’s a-okay.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
I still have three invites left for this week.
@chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa] if you don't have plans for those invites, I would definitely take one and follow you first
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
About the hashtag thing on Twitter..... I have found the hashtags #webtoon #webtooncanvas and #celebrateCANVASday to be particularly useful for those of us publishing on Webtoon Canvas. I have gained a few new readers from this, and the official Webtoon Canvas page often retweets when these hashtags are used.
mariah (rainy day dreams)
That's good to know. I'm planning to start mirroring on Webtoon so I'll have to be sure to remember to use those tags.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I need to fix my series on WT first. But I'll give those hashtags a try once that's been done
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I tried using webtoon hashtags a few times, but their page never retweeted me. It seems either random, or there’s some hidden requirement for getting a rt.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
i use the tag sometimes but I found it more responsive if you have a vertical scrolling format comic
then they're more likely to respond to you
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
Oh, yeah.... I use a traditional page format.
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
same rip
Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)
I do combine all my pages into long episodes at the ends of chapters, so it’s kinda scrolling, but they’re just traditional pages stacked on top of each other, lol. WT definitely doesn’t like that, but I don’t have the time to reformat hundreds of pages.
Feather J. Fern
Also promo thought, I randomly joined people's streams before and then got hooked on their comics after seeing them draw on twitch or something like that
Pistashi
I struggle a bit with promo stuff, because I get too self-conscious about self-promoting and I'm the type of person that ends up doing too much of it or none of it
at the moment I'm working on making a press kit and sharing it with some blogs and networks about comics
but still, what I usually do is join groups and try to talk with people that works with art and comics
this is kind of more inclined to networking and meeting new people to talk about what we like than promoting my work to potential readers
nothing wrong with that, but looking with a more critical eye I still have a lot to learn about building an audience and reaching people who could become future readers
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
I wonder HOW much a large social media following is worth. Insta‘s shown me that it isn‘t necessarily translating into readers.
carcarchu
in my experience followings on different platforms are non-transferable. same goes with having a large following on your comic itself, doesn't necessarily mean having a lot of followers on your art accounts. that's why they say "don't build your sandcastle in someone else's sandbox"
Pistashi
that makes a lot of sense
kayotics
If you’re building your following around your own content (original art, comic updates, etc) then the likelihood that the following is transferable is higher, but it’s still not 100%. You’re competing with everything else on their timeline too.
RebelVampire
i think a thing to consider with webcomics especially when it comes to social media is that a good portion of people who follow comic creators on social media are other comic creators, not people who are just readers. and the good majority of comic creators do not have a lot of time to read other webcomics. While there are certainly exceptions, I see those very few and far in between. So the conversion rates for social media right now are super low until the dynamic of the communities on the platforms changes.
kayotics
I’d agree with that, but also having a social media presence has definitely opened up some doors to being seen by other creators, many of whom are professionals. It’s good for networking, might not be the best for gaining and retaining readers.
RebelVampire
Oh yeah for sure. My point was about conversion factor
its factor in networking is a whole other matter entirely
and is indespensible
kayotics
One thing that I didn’t mention for myself is that networking has helped a LOT with getting new readers. Word of mouth, is always the best way to advertise, and other webcomic people giving you a plug can see some really strong results
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