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The Comic Book Women, an advocacy group helping raise the profile of women working in comics, had a great showing at Emerald City Comic Con this year with several panels this year. This wasn’t a case of putting women on a panel and focusing on their gender perspective. It was about providing a group of talented women that could share their experience and provide insight into how to make it in the comic book industry—resulting in a panel for everyone. What secrets did they share on selling your comic book?

Last week Titan Comics announced it had hired Lizzie Kaye,  formerly of SelfMadeHero, to the position of editor for their European graphic novel line. We talked with Kaye within a week of her jumping on-board the Titan Comics team about her new gig and Titan’s expansion into the bande dessinée market.

Edie Nugent: Congrats on your new position as editor for Titan’s European graphic novel line. How does it feel to step into those shoes after many years with indie publisher SelfMadeHero?

Lizzie Kaye: Thanks, it’s wonderful to have joined Titan, it’s a company that’s doing really interesting things and moving in a great direction. Obviously, it’s a bit of a change from SelfMadeHero, in terms of the kinds of books each company puts out, but I’m excited by so many of the titles we have coming up and can’t wait to see other people getting excited by them too!

Nugent: You have a background in literature. How you feel you’ll be able to draw on that knowledge in bringing bande dessinée to Titan readers?

Kaye: I think it’s most useful in that studying literature results in you being well-read, which leads to a good understanding of pacing, character, and plot.

This is something that the European market deals with differently than the US/UK market, as the standard length of an album is normally 48 pages. When they have the luxury of that page count, creators can take their time building characters and revealing the plot at a slightly slower pace.  A lot of, though by no means all, BD series are designed from the outset to be at least three volumes, so you could almost consider them as neat, three-act plays.

It also helps in that the European market operates within a slightly different outlook, and BD are often filled with literary references, even if the subject matter itself may not explicitly be so. For example, the series The Chronicles of Legion, the first three volumes of which are out now, with the fourth coming soon, is ostensibly a vampire story. But it’s also more than that. It draws heavily on the origins of gothic literature (before vampires could sparkle!) as well as using devices traditionally found in that literature, such as a story within a story and a layering of narratives. Form my perspective, a literary background helps in that I can see the references, and therefore am able to judge the tone and direction of the story, and consider how that may translate to a market less familiar with seeing those devices used in a sequential art format.

Nugent: Three-act play, it sounds almost like a more Manga way of telling a story. Do you think the BD market exists in that place between monthly single-issue sequential storytelling and the more fast-paced, multi-volume format of Manga?

Kaye: That is one way of looking at it. BD readers can sometimes have to wait a long time for the next volume of a series they are following. It’s important from the outset that the narrative is tightly constructed, and that the characters are memorable, in order to retain the reader. I don’t necessarily think it exists in a place between monthly single-issue releases and manga, more that it uses the medium of sequential art for a different kind of story-telling that is less episodic in nature.

Having said all that, there are of course a number of series that go into much longer runs, Samurai, the first four volumes of which will be released by Titan as an omnibus later in the year, being one of them.

Nugent: Titan has released BD’s of Snowpiercer, which was a French graphic novel-turned-movie starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, Elric, which is based on Michael Moorcock stories, and now Void. How does Titan decide which BD’s to put on the publishing slate? 

Kaye: A lot of factors come into play when we’re choosing which titles to put out. There are certain books that we’d love to see in the English speaking market that we specifically seek out based on our own love of the stories or creators, such as the upcoming Lone Sloane series by Philippe Druillet, and my own personal favourite, The Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal.

For others with creators that might not have had as much exposure in the English speaking market, we take a lot of time to consider the artwork, the story, the length of the series, and how we feel readers might react to it. There are a lot of incredible BD series out there, luckily, so we have a rich seam to mine, and we want readers to really love what we offer them.

Nugent: What series would you recommend to readers just starting to explore what BD’s have to offer?

Kaye: That’s a tough one, as there are so many great stories out there! It depends on each reader’s specific interests, and that’s the beauty of the BD market, it caters for all readers.

I think Elric is a great starting point, because it is so incredibly beautiful, each page is a joy to look at. It’s a good introduction to the more European artwork style, which tends to be a little looser and fluid with a more painterly aesthetic. Titan also has a wonderful new series coming out now called Masked, which is a European take on the Superhero genre, and would be a great entry point, too, and the artwork in that would probably be a little more familiar.

Want to find more about how graphic novel publishers are approaching the massive changes in comics readership and marketing now underway?

Then fire up your computer tomorrow at 1 pm EST for a webcast with

Howard Shapiro, author, The Hockey Saint/Animal Media Group

Michael Martens, vp of business development , Dark Horse

Matt Parkinson, vp of marketing, Dark Horse

Leyla Aker, VP publsihing Viz Media

Ashlee Vaughn, Marketing, Viz Media

I’ll  be moderating this chat but you can submit questions yourself.  And with such a smart group, this is bound to be a fascinating hour at a crucial time in the comics industry.

The event is FREE to attend. FREE!!! Just go here and sign up.  And tell ‘em The Beat sent you.

Marvel promises to reveal something “explosive” on The View tomorrow. Is it Mark Millar’s chili recipe? Is it who killed the Watcher? Is it a book aimed at middle-aged housewives?

Why is the Beat promoting an announcement about an announcement? Well, as we’ve mentioned before, The View audience is the elusive “fourth quadrant” that comics are said not to reach. Although The View has mentioned a few comics before—a Bluewater bio of founder Barbara Walters, The Walking Dead, and Northstar’s gay proposal—and co-host Whoopi Goldberg is very comics friendly, it’s still not the prime audience for male-centric superhero comics.

What is this comic likely to be? Something owned by Disney which owns Marvel AND The View.

Marvel is excited to announce that on Tuesday, July 15th, at 11AM EST, it will be announcing its latest explosive title live on the Emmy-Winning, daily talk show “The View”.
 
“The View,” a live, one-hour daily talk show from ABC (11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon, ET), features Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy. It’s the original forum in which real women discuss everyday issues, share their opinions and engage in colorful conversations. “The View,” broadcast in HDTV and produced in 2-channel stereo sound, is now available to watch online daily at 4:00 p.m., ET/1:00 p.m., PT on ABC.com. “The View” is owned and produced by ABC. Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie are executive producers. For breaking news and updated videos follow “The View” (@theviewtv) and Whoopi Goldberg (@WhoopiGoldberg), Sherri Shepherd (@SherriEShepherd) and Jenny McCarthy (@JennyMcCarthy) on Twitter.™
Tweet #theview during the live broadcast as select viewer tweets will appear live, on screen, during the show. 

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ComiXology’s Chip Mosher of Marketing and PR moderated a panel with Jeremy Atkins of Dark Horse, Dirk Wood of IDW, Mel Caylo of Archaia, and addition Hunter Gorinson of Valiant Comics with the goal of sharing tips and pro experience with indie creators and future marketers on Friday, March 29^th at WonderCon. The result was quite an entertaining panel featuring their professional blunders and secret discoveries about he ins and outs of comics promotion.

Mosher started out by asking for the embarrassing stories each had accrued in their work experience, “professional blunders” that contained teachable moments. Atkins admitted to the cringeworthy common mishap of hitting “reply all” on an email and copying a person specifically to be excluded from a conversation, with plenty of sympathetic groans from the audience. Mosher’s own tale of woe was equally relatable, reading an e-mail from Emerald City Con and then forgetting to reply afterward, thereby losing booth space for BOOM that year. Wood was more circumspect about his failures, noting that “25% of marketing is what I would call blunders” that can lead either to success or to a “thud”, and that he finds it impossible to tell which will happen in some circumstances. Persistence, he advised, is the key to forge ahead despite an unpredictable market.

Caylo dredged up his own worst moments with a story of “drunk tweeting” from the wrong account, declaring his love for someone, a tweet that remained up on a company account overnight whereas Gorinson stuck to the ever-present bugaboo of typos in press releases regardless of how many times the releases are checked before sending them out. Wood’s observation that some blunders can have positive results prompted the panel to consider whether they had similar lucky moments. Wood, particularly, “stumbled into successes” by having random, unlikely ideas for promotion like sending Godzilla costumed promo agents to “smash” stores, something that met with great success. The panel quickly turned interactive, fielding questions from the floor, and the first question, probably also the first on everyone’s mind, was how to run PR and marketing strategies on a shoe-string budget.

Mosher wittily commented, “This guy thinks that we have budgets” to his fellow panellists before Caylo took up the question with what became perhaps the strongest message of the panel event: “It’s all about relationships”. He suggested that those seeking press for comics go to shows, have e-mail conversations that are “not always pitching”, so that it’s easier when you do want to ask a favor to bring it up. He also added that “offer giveaways” on sites that increase “cross-promotion” are a very smart move. Atkins, who was particularly earnest and animated throughout the panel suggested that Twitter is a major player in promotion for building and continuing to cultivate professional relationships, including the retail industry in your list of contacts. Wood spoke to the indie creator’s situation trying to get books distributed. “Nothing speaks louder than a consignment situation”, he said, and pointed out that Top Shelf started through delivering consignment issues to comic shops, “giving books” to shops and allowing them to sell them rather than seeking solicitation. This involves “relentless beating of the pavement” since there is “no replacing grassroots”.

Atkins used this idea to springboard into a gambling metaphor: “In gambling and in life, you only win when you can afford to lose”. You shouldn’t expect return immediately, he warned, but trying different approaches and continuing to do so as long as possible is key. Mosher had strong feelings on the subject, reflecting on the example of a student protester who brough the New York Stock Exchange to a standstill by busking for dollar bills all day, then throwing a hundred bills onto the exchange floor. It was the perfect example, for Mosher, of “getting attention at low cost” and using the least resources to garner the “biggest impact”.

Gorinson focused on knowing your material and audience to get attention. Knowing the pitch well, and the many angles from which it might be interpreted, breaking out of narrow genre definitions, for instance, may win the day. He recommended top comics news sites as vehicles for spreading the word, as well as working “with anyone and everyone”, including small blog sites. Mosher’s experience at BOOM confirmed this premise. Starting out publishing only 4 to 7 books a month, he scoured blogs, put people in press lists, and sent them PDF review copies in an era before most comics companies were using PDFs in this way, and thereby grew a press list of 400 contacts.

Wood added that looking at comparable publishers and types of titles to the comic you are trying to circulate is a good starting point, looking to see how and where they are doing their marketing and focus your attack in that way. A common pitfall the panellists all agreed on is when creators send a pitch to a company for a comic series that’s a 12 issue proposal or longer. Companies aren’t willing to take the risk, they advised, and a 3-4 issue format is much more appealing at the outset of a project.

A follow up question from the audience regarded strategies to capitalize on the rash of superhero movies and growing movie fans who might never have read a comic. Several panellists felt that there’s no one single approach to bring film fans into comics, but a more surefire method is to “start them young”, reaching young readers with comics visual literacy. Mosher agreed, stating that there are more kids comics today than in the past decade, and comics continue to have unique qualities of storytelling that continue to appeal as a child grows up reading them. Gorinson added that Free Comic Book Day is an excellent opportunity to “get into as many shops as possible” and reach new, young readers. Mosher and Caylo both returned to the subject of cross promotion between films, tv, and comics, like the inclusion of ashcan comics in dvd box sets to show fans what comics alternatives are available for their favorite products.

A direct marketing question from the floor focused on the similarities or differences between selling comics and other products, like household items. Atkins felt there was very little difference at all, except that it’s more possible in comics to “know who that person is” you are targeting since “They are me, or some version of me”, as a comics fan. He continued with some other salient advice, such as “You have to believe in what you’re selling” and believe that you are “one of the best advocates for it”. Gorinson felt that marketing comics is different from marketing other consumer products because he often feels an “obligation” to live up to the quality of the work he’s promoting in his own efforts.

Gorinson and Atkins also suggested doing some research into major news sites to find out who on staff might be a comics fan, “finding” that contact, or locating dedicated geek blogging attached to news sites. Atkins and Mosher commented that using social media makes reaching out to news writers more and more direct. Mosher admitted that not everyone may have the desire or “skill set” to promote their comics properly despite attempts, and in that case, he advised, you should find a friend who thrives on that kind of work and collaborate on promotion.

The final big topic addressed by the panel, and one which inspired some lively reactions from the speakers, was the use of transmedia and multiple media formats to draw attention to comics. Caylo said that it’s all about “synergy” between comics, films, and related video games, based on his work at Archaia. Atkins clarified, however, that adding transmedia content to promote comics, such as an app or video game should still be “meaningful to the overall story.

I posed a last question to the panel before it came to a close, wondering what the biggest pros and cons are to using social media as a promotional tool. Gorinson replied that you have to be “clever” in different ways to use social media properly for this purpose, while Mosher commented simply, but with some emotion, “Trolls!” as his biggest con. Caylo was the most personally engaged by the question and gave the following run down: social media’s benefits are “accessibility” and the quickness and “ease” of getting the word out about your product, especially when doing it for free. The “dangers”, however, are that “You are open to trolls and people who want to bait you”. “Ignore them”, he recommended, since once they “engage” you, they’ve “got you”. Block them if necessary, and learn to take “the bad with the good” when it comes to social media.

The panel was surprisingly lively, with all the panellists more than willing to share from their personal struggles to find the golden balance when it comes to marketing with limited budgets, and each expressed an obvious commitment to the survival and growth of worthy comics through good strategies and trying innovative methods to see what works for each book and each particular situation. Building personal relationships, watching out for the wrong kind of blunders, and learning from them when they occur, were paramount for these indie publishing marketers.

Photo Credits: All photos in this article were taken by semi-professional photographer and pop culture scholar Michele Brittany. She’s an avid photographer of pop culture events. You can learn more about her photography and pop culture scholarship here.

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

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When I first began writing this column, my intent was to help creators and comics publishers understand the methods to the madness of landing a book on the bestseller lists. After the November 8th Beat posting of the NYT list showing several GN titles on the list, it’s really not a question of whether a GN can make the list, but more like how a book gets there. For a quick refresher the first post dealt with the market opportunities. Posting number two talks about obstacles and distribution. The third one is about outliers like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and why ALL AGES is a very bad business decision.

Going back to The Beat posting on November 8th, folks will notice that an overwhelming majority of the titles that do make the lists for NYT or traditional publishing awards are creator-owned properties being published by one of the major traditional publishing houses or one of their smaller imprints. One of the many differences between traditional houses and comics pubs is the publicity and marketing efforts. These folks have a basic punch list of marketing elements and publicity in place to make sure that the word gets out about the ‘next big book’.

Promotion Starts Way Before Pub Date: More often than not, the marketing for the book begins officially about 6 months prior to the publication date of the book. Advance reader copies or uncorrected proofs are sent out to a wide range of reviewers with the various trade publications and major newspapers. A sell sheet is also created for the wholesale and distribution market. Publicity teams review the calendar for trade shows and consumer book festivals, bookstore events, etc., where they can get the author placed.

Advance Reader Copies are Critical: More and more now the trade publications are accepting PDF/electronic copies of graphic novels because there is a better understanding of the costs associated with producing full-color hard copy books. For the creator who may be sensitive to sending out unfinished art, there are ways to protect your work but the truth of the matter is that the major trade publications are also sensitive to this and don’t want to risk their relationships with you or your publisher. You can trust them to keep your work secure. These start going out as soon as you can make them available. Don’t worry that the artwork isn’t complete; this is why they are called Advance Reader Copies/Uncorrected Proofs.

The Role of Sell Sheets: Also known as Tip Sheets, these are single pages of information describing the book. It has your basic info: Title, Story Summary, Author Info, Target Demographic, Pricing, Marketing(selling points) and Advertising Elements. Keep the story summary to the basic elements. Below is a story summary of a fictional book title I created for this post.

Ex: When The Bad Cats Ruled Portland

Story Summary “This is a dystopian fantasy about a boy with a magical stick who discovers he’s the most powerful cat wrangler in Portland. Josh Chipman is an orphan and he’s got two loyal cats who help him defeat the evil dark lord while also coping with the drama of middle school romance and homework.”

Series: If your book is part of an ongoing series, don’t assume the reader of the tip sheet knows anything about the series. Add the series info to the end of the story summary and keep it simple.

“This is book three of a 5-book series and in this book Josh discovers that his mom may once been married to the principal aka: Dark Lord, of his school. How will Josh manage his emotions and deal with the evil dark lord’s nefarious intentions?”

Selling points are things like previous awards and/or support quotes blurbs from other known or well-known authors and/or trade publications and blog sites. Keep a blurb to a single sentence if possible and try to keep one as clean as possible. While a quote from one of your heroes may be a thrill to get, you will need to keep the language professional. Remember that the person reading the sell sheet is a professional and may get a bit turned off by a blurb that says “This story makes me want to f*%#ing shred all my own stuff and start over!” I’d suggest going back to your author friend and ask them if they don’t mind an edited version for the sell sheet. Now for the promotion of the book to the general public? I’d probably leave the quote as is with the use of punctuation marks. We will deal with the public aspect of the marketing in a future post.

The thing that the sell sheet ultimately creates is the sales pitch for your book. IF you do it right, then everyone in your food chain, from the publisher to the buyer (at retail and institutional) to the bookseller and librarian will be able to repeat verbatim your story summary. It’s the basic ‘elevator pitch’ you need to create in order to clearly define what your book is about and what will compel someone to sell it.

Variant Covers are not a Selling Point in the Regular Book Trade: We all know that book covers play a major role in how a book is promoted on the shelves of bookstores (or online) and as far as variants go, the professional buyers in the retail, library and education markets really couldn’t care less about them. The reality is a variant can also do more harm than good because, if the artwork inside the book is not consistent with the exterior, it’s basically false advertising-especially if the cover is better than the interiors. (We will also deal with cover design in another posting) The thing about variant covers is that, in my humble opinion, they have become abused and overused. Ideally, variant covers are something created as a special prize for the loyal retailers to have and keep. They should be used as a reward for the love and support-that’s it.

Publicity and Marketing are Two Different Skill Sets: And they are critical to the success of your book. The stuff about sell sheets, promotions and creating of advance reader copies, along with advertising, are elements of marketing. Publicity is the art of getting the word out about your book. One of the best first examples I can recall for a graphic novel was in a Publishers Weekly interview with David Petersen (MOUSE GUARD) who said that things really started happening for the book after he hired a publicist. As it so happens, I know the folks whom he contacted at Media Masters and the reason why I include their name here is because they have a keen understanding of the book trade and they also understand graphic novels. A strong publicist will get your book placed into the right hands versus dumping copies everywhere and anywhere possible. They will tell you which are the right trade shows or book festivals to speak or sign at. They will connect you with the booksellers who have the most influential voices in the industry.

Publicity is not something you simply ask a boyfriend or girlfriend to ‘manage’. Would you let them perform surgery on you or repair your car? Unless they are actually a professional publicist, don’t dump this responsibility on someone who is not a pro.

You Get Back What You Put In: If you read Jim Zub’s recent post it’s a really good inside look at the effort required for selling a book. Raina Telgemeier (SMILE), Jimmy Gownley (AMELIA RULES), Jenni Holm (Babymouse) and Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) have all put in endless hours and miles to promote their books. They shake every hand; they sign every book as if each person was a new friend. Each of these folks have also taken the initiative to get out and promote, not waiting for the publisher to do it for them and it pays off. The publisher will and should help with some of the heavy lifting but the author who is a shameless self- promoter is the one who sells a lot more books.

As I will constantly point out, the effort to sell a book is equal to the effort involved in the creation. It’s a long haul but if you as a creator or a publisher have a basic road map then at least you have a decent head start. If your publisher says they can’t afford to do this stuff, or if you don’t think you need to do what a successful author does, then maybe you need to rethink your goals. Otherwise you have a very nice box of books that only your friend and your mom will know exists.