Hey there, guys and gals.  It’s Mat Nastos back again with another bit of marketing advice for your indie comic book publishing adventures.  Today I’m going to talk about how to keep from losing your audience while you are making it grow.

Stan Lee is a genius.  Everyone in the comic book industry knows it.  Unfortunately, most people don’t realize his true genius lies outside of having created Spider-man, the Hulk, the X-men and the Marvel Universe itself.  The real force behind the genius of Stan Lee was that he knew the reason why most businesses lose customers. 

I know what you’re saying to yourself right now.  You’re saying, What in the hell are you talking about, Mat, and what on Earth does it have to do with drawing the Wolverine?”  Truth be told, it has absolutely nothing to do with drawing the Wolverine and absolutely everything to do with why a lot of comic book publishers lose sales after their first issue and, eventually, cancel their comics.

The major reason why comic book publishers (and businesses in general) lose business is because of customer apathy.  In other words, most comic book publishers are chasing away customers by ignoring them after the initial sale.  Marketing experts estimate that over 65 percent of all business lost in the US is from apathy after the sale.  And even back at the beginning of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee knew this. 

…most comic book publishers are chasing away customers by ignoring them after the initial sale.

You see, even back in the early 60s, Stan Lee knew that selling product to a new customer costs 10 times more than selling to an existing customer.  Realizing this, he knew that continuing to sell and resell to his existing audience was as important as selling books to new customers (and was considerably cheaper).  In present day terminology, he knew that keeping his current email list active with new marketing was just as important as the marketing dollars spent on reaching new customers. 

…selling product to a new customer costs 10 times more than selling to an existing customer.

This is point where I realize a few of you, my readers, are going to jump up with your hands in the air and yell “Wait a minute!  You’ve been telling us the whole time that finding new readership is the only way for the industry to survive and relying on current readership is a chump’s game.”  To that group I say, “Sit down and shaddup!”  You’ve missed the point.  What I’m talking about here is making sure not to ignore the readership you’ve developed and the email list you’ve developed (or should have developed).  One of the absolute dumbest things you can do is to ignore someone who has already spent money on your product or allow them to forget about you.  The reason for this, as I just mentioned, is because your conversion rate (your SALE rate) is ten times higher with a previous customer than with a potential new customer. 

With that sort of conversion rate a comic book publisher would be foolish to allow apathy to develop in their current customer base.

How to Combat Customer Apathy?

So, what can a comic book publisher do in order to keep customer apathy levels to a minimum?  The key is to develop a follow-up strategy along with your regular marketing strategies.  The follow-up marketing strategy you develop will dictate how you will follow-up with your current customer base and how often you’ll do it.  This strategy should become your guide for helping to avoid a decrease in your customer base and, more importantly, a decrease in your sales numbers.  The thing to remember is that this follow-up strategy should become a part of your day-to-day business activities.  When you wake up every day you should not only be working on getting new customers but also on how to keep your current ones.

I know, it sounds like a lot of work, and it can be, but this additional work is what it takes to make enough money to publish comic books for a living instead of just working at a comic book store.  In the old days, Stan Lee used everything from his Bullpen Bulletins to the Merry Marvel Marching Society to keep his readership strong and active.  In the 21st century we use email.  Either way, we’re doing the same job: combating customer apathy.

Stan Lee used everything from his Bullpen Bulletins to the Merry Marvel Marching Society to keep his readership strong and active.

Now, the first thing a comic book publisher should do after making a sale is to send the customer a thank you message.  This very simple thing can make the difference between a return sale and a lost customer.  As a comic book publisher, when was the last time you sent out a follow-up thank you note to a customer?  From now on, that thank you note should be a permanent part of you marketing arsenal.  Have either your shopping cart software or your email system set up to send out an automatic email to a customer once they make a purchase.  Thanks to modern technology this is an incredibly simple thing to do and most customers have been trained by companies like Amazon.com to expect it.

This thank you email is also a great place to offer customers an incentive for a return sale — offer $5 off their next order, a free poster or whatever.  If you don’t go out of your way to GIVE them a reason to buy again then they won’t have a reason to buy again.  Make sure to personalize the email so the customer begins to relate to you on a more human and less business level.  Give them a “face” to go along with the name of your company. 

A smart comic book publisher will follow-up (there’s that phrase again) with their customer again after 30 days to make sure everything went ok with the sale and to see if the customer has any questions, comments or problems.  This note allows you to continue to develop a relationship with your customer, and developing those relationships is going to be the key to your survival as a business. 

The 30-day follow-up email gives you another opportunity to offer a return incentive to your customer…to give them another reason to buy from you while your company and your product is fresh in their memory.  10% off or free shipping on their next order are great little things to toss in — or, a free artist sketch or signed & numbered upgrade edition work well.

Develop and maintain the relationship

90-Day Follow-up: Continue to follow-up and maintain that new relationship.  Send another email after 90 days to announce any new products you have coming out.  This is especially affective if the new product is related to the customer’s original purchase — perhaps a new issue is being released. 

Six-Month Follow-Up:  From there, you should follow-up after 6 months to announce a sale (sure, this sale may only be offered to those receiving the email, but that is fine).  Give the customer a deal on purchasing additional back issues of the title they ordered, or give them a sale on a related title or book they might be interested in.  Developing this sale in a personal way for the customer to relate to or identify with.  A great piece to add on to the 6 month email is to offer a “refer it” program to the customer.  Give them a chance to send out a “check this out” notice to three of their friends and give them an additional 5% off their next purchase for sending out that notice. 

A 9 month follow-up is going to be very similar to your 90-day follow-up.  Detail any new offerings you have online and discuss any new features or services you now have.  I also like to give “exclusive” information or deals at this point — talk about a “huge” sale coming up or give behind-the-scenes information on upcoming projects.  A sketchbook, creator-interviews and the like are all great.  This makes the customer feel connected and closer to you because of this “exclusive” relationship they have with your company.

The one year follow-up is an opportunity a lot of business forget or miss out on.  This is your chance to send the customer a “one year anniversary of your first sale” message.  Thank them for their continued support and offer them the biggest discount so far.  If the customer hasn’t purchased anything in the year, go as far as to offer them a free copy of the latest issue of your comics.  In marketing this is called a “loss leader” and can be a great way to turn an old customer into a new one.  The theme behind the one year follow-up is thanks and appreciation for the customer.  Let them know their business means a lot to you.

Continuing the Follow-Ups

From there I’ve found the best tactic for a small press comic book publisher is to continue to follow-up with the customer every 3 months.  Any more than that and your messages can begin to feel like SPAM, any less and you run the risk of the customer forgetting you and your comics.  Continue to announce new products and services, continue to offer discounts and special sales for return customers, and continue to let your customer know you appreciate them.  Solidify the relationship and you’ll build an incredible bond with your customers. 

Doing this and developing your follow-up marketing strategy will turn a one-time customer into someone that could wind up buying three or four times a year and who refers your comic books to three or four of their friends.  With luck, you’ll have turned a single sale into four sales or more all at the cost of a few free emails.

In the end, ignoring your customers may cost you more than keeping them.

-Mat Nastos, Comic Book Marketing dot Com
http://www.ComicBookMarketing.com

Here are what I like to call…

The 7 Comic Book Publishing Realities

1. Most comic books suck, and yours probably does too
This may be a painful thing to hear and I hate to be the Simon Cowell of the industry, but the majority of comic books produced today are unprofessional and poorly done. With the advent of print-on-demand (POD) technology, there are now more bad comics available for purchase than at any time in the past. If I was forced to take a guess at the percentage of unsellable comic books on the market today I’d have to say 99.9% of independent comics aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

Far too many publishers rush to press with talent well beneath the pro level, and a lot of creators feel their work is a lot better than it really is. Since I’ve already made a Simon Cowell reference, it isn’t that great of a stretch to compare the comic book industry to American Idol. We’ve got a lot of talentless hopefuls but only 1 in 20,000 contestants is actually a winner.

What this means for most of you reading this book is: more than likely your work falls into the talentless hopeful portion of the industry. They may be a harsh realization for you and I’m sure most are either spitting venom at me or are in complete denial of the fact. Luckily, there is hope for you. Keep practicing. Keep putting out comics and get your work to the level of a professional. Sure your books may not be able to stack up to the latest comics from Marvel or DC but you will get better with practice.

2. Brands Sell
Another stark reality is that independent comics are a very hard sale without the support of either a recognizable industry name or a familiar licensed property. Without one of those two pieces most comics will fail. There are a few exceptions to that rule but they are just exceptions. It doesn’t happen often. A “Name” or licensed properties are two great hooks to bolster the marketing of your products on.

The truth of the matter is, if you took any well-known person in the industry and stripped him (or her) of their bankable Name (i.e. their Brand) and their contacts then their books will fail just as quickly as yours would. With creator egos as insanely over-blown as they currently are, most big name creators will probably scoff at the notion that their name makes more sales than their “talent,” but it is true. Branding is more important than talent or skill.

3. Independent Comic Book Sales Suck, even through Diamond
The cold hard truth is most independent comic book publishers will sell less than 250 copies of their books through Diamond Comic Distributors. So even if you get accepted in to the Diamond sales channel the chances are you won’t sell enough to even pay for your print run. Diamond will stick your book in the back section of Previews and leave you there to die a quiet, sad little death. They don’t sell or market your books; they just list them in a portion of their catalog, a section that most comic book storeowners ignore outright.

4. Most Independent Comic Book Series last less than 2 issues through Diamond
Ouch. That’s right, because of Diamond’s minimum sales requirements (which are in the range of $1000 from what I recall), books not reaching sales quotas are no longer carried by the catalog. Again, there are a few exceptions where a book is a favorite of one of the sales reps and will be kept on, but in general not meeting your Diamond minimum will put your book on the chopping block.

5. Low Diamond Sales Gets all Orders Cancelled
A recent policy change at Diamond now cancels pre-orders for titles not meeting the minimums. In the “old” days, Diamond would still ship an order not meeting the minimum requirements with Diamond placing no orders for future issues. Now, your orders just get cancelled and you make no sales at all through Diamond. Meet the quota or get canned is now a small press publisher’s call to action.

On the positive side, this means getting rejected by Diamond really won’t cost you that many sales or that much visibility. This is a very good thing because it means you really don’t need to subject yourself to their poor treatment of small press comic book publishers. Yay! The negative side is you’re going to have to do more work to get sales.

6. Comic book stores are not looking for your books and will not order them
Since you are an unknown creator working with an unknown publisher and put out an unknown property, comic book stores won’t be ordering your books. They don’t know about it, they don’t know about you and they’ve never heard of your publisher. Worse yet, the majority of comic book stores will only order an indie title if one of their customers orders it for their pull list (and some won’t even order it even then!). Your books will never make it to the shelves of a comic store…most store owners/managers find the small press to be more of an annoyance than anything else and would prefer you just went away altogether.

7. Comic book readers are not looking for your books and will not buy them
Even though you have your own website, your own MySpace pages, your own order page on IndyPlanet.Com AND you’ve been telling people about your awesome new comic on the forums at Dimestore and Digital Webbing, actual comic book buyers have no idea you even exist. Real buyers don’t really frequent those places, other creators do. Unfortunately, comic creators are poor and most don’t buy very many comics from other creators.

No one really buys comics from small press creators. The majority of the industry is going to be completely ignorant of your existence and the fact you have a comic to sell. If the Gods of Luck are on your side and someone has heard of you, they’re still not going to buy your book. The reputation for small press publishers never finishing storylines and disappearing after an issue or two will scare away most educated buyers. Readers are going to be looking at books from the larger companies – books they know will be around for a long time and books they know will ship on time (mostly).

Wow, this is all beginning to seem quite gloomy, isn’t it? This is where the good news comes in. I’d like to introduce you to the overlooked 8th Reality for Comic Book Publishers:

8. The Mainstream LOVES Comic Books, just not yours…but you can fix that!
In spite of everything I’ve said, the mainstream audience – those who have never stepped foot into a comic book store – absolutely loves the comic book medium. They may not know who you are or ever heard of your book, but you can fix that by following the tips and techniques found on this website.

I like to ramble on in this space from time to time about my experiences as an independent comic book publisher. Recently I wrote about some of the things I do to expand the sales and reach for the comics I publisher under the Nifty Comics banner. I also talked about how our initial orders (meaning upfront orders that come in either before printing or right as the comics are released in the first week afterwards) have started to hit the 8000 mark.

Now, I’m going to tell you why getting 8000 in sales can be a bad thing if you’re not ready for them, using Nifty Comics as a case study.

Ok, you’re a small publisher (like Nifty) and you’ve done insane things to get advertise and market your new comic book, the Ex-Men. You’ve gone out to all the big box retail outlets (Borders, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, etc.) and gotten them to agree to carry your new on-going series. The orders start to roll in and you quickly discover your order totals are far beyond anything you could have imagined. You’ve just sold 8000 copies of the Ex-Men #1. Holy crap! You are a comic god.

Now, you head over to the printer you have set up who is giving you a per unit cost of 60 cents a book. Awesome…or is it? Holy Crap turns in to Oh, Crap as you realize you are now in debt $4800 (plus shipping) to get the books printed and out to your sales channels (the stores). You stop yourself from hyperventilating and remember that you’ll be paid 35-40% of the $3.50 cover price which will more than pay for the printing and shipping. Quick calculation gives you this: 8000x$3.50 (cover price)/.35 (your cut) – $5500 ($4800 plus shipping)=$4300. That’s not too bad (from there you still have to calculated expenses and royaties, but that is a topic for another day).

Unfortunately, you missed a very important detail: your buyers won’t be paying you before the printing bill comes in…or even in time for release. Most of your buyers will be on terms of some sort. Some may be on 10 day terms, others on 30. The killer is when you find out the big boxes won’t actually be paying you for as long as 6 months from delivery of a book. That’s right. So what that means is you will be in debt for $4800+shipping (figure $5500 total) right out of the starting gate.

That’s a lot of cabbage.

It gets more painful than that if you’re doing an ongoing title. That’s right, if you’re doing a bi-monthly book (like Nifty does), you’re going to find yourself in even more debt because you’ll have put out 3 issues and have to pay their printing costs before your distribution outlets will have paid for the first issue. In otherwords, $5500×3=$16500.

I don’t even want to think about what the total would be like for a monthly book ($33,000!!).

Luckily, Nifty Comics built up to its sales fairly slow — we started out under 1000 copies on issue one and built up orders every issue. However, our current levels of sales actually mean we’re having to run our overhead a bit tighter than when we first started! On paper we’re doing pretty well, but that’s not the kind of paper you need to pay the bills!

If you’re looking to move your comic publishing business to the next level make sure to be prepared for “success” to make your life more difficult and give you even less money than you had at lower sales levels.

Be warned…success can hurt as much as failure!

Mat Nastos
http://www.ComicBookMarketing.com

Like most comic publishers I spend quite a bit of time thinking about the state of the industry and how to make it better – well, truthfully, how to make my little corner of it better. After spending a lot of time thinking it over and discussing what everyone perceives to be the main elements leading to the downfall of comics (the distributor monopoly, for example), I realized what the biggest problem and killer really is: the industry.

I believe most of the problems that we encounter “in the industry” come from the industry itself. First off, comic companies tend to publish only for those who are already in the industry. Comic publishers usually target their marketing towards those who are already here and creators tend to create product only for those who are already well-versed in industry. Very rarely does the thought of bringing new readers in really ever pop up, which is insane. That would be like Hollywood only creating films for those who work in film and television. As wacky as it sounds, this seems to be the mentality of the industry at large.

Magazines like Cosmopolitan are fashion magazines, but their audience is the average woman (or girl) interested in fashion and not members of the industry itself. Their advertising stretches beyond fashion industry trade publications and into the mainstream itself, where its buyers reside. Why short sell your books only to the 50,000 or so members of the active comic community and not go for millions of people out there who enjoy action movies?

Comic publishers aren’t the only ones to blame, either. Creators themselves are as big a deterrent to new readership as anything else. If you want to know why, take a look at a modern comic versus one from as late as even the mid eighties and you’ll see one very big difference. No, I’m not talking about paper or printing processes. The art itself is the main problem with comics. Solid, clear storytelling has become a thing of the past. A new buyer will find most modern comics unreadable because the solid storytelling of days past (along with gutters – remember, full page bleeds on every page get confusing) is gone.

Do you know why a lot of new readers are picking up Manga titles? It’s because they are easier to read than US ones. Even with the flipped format, most Manga has straight forward enough storytelling that even the most uninitiated reader can follow what is going on and which panel comes next. This can’t be said about most US titles (indy or mainstream). The fact that the current trend in the US is for over rendered, poorly thought out computer coloring, doesn’t help readability at all.

Comics and comic art have become so inbred the only ones who can stomach them are their sister-mothers. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The general public will read comics if you can get yourself out of the industry mindset and start creating comics for readers instead of for an industry more interested in John Byrne’s latest social blunder than in buying your books.

Some places to consider for your books (depending on its target audience) are non-chain book stores, new age shops, record stores (Tower is starting to have a great selection of indy and small press ‘zines), libraries, corner markets, magazines with a similar areas of interest, schools, local area mailer compilations (such as the little coupon books you get in the mail), area events (concerts are a great spot), swap meets, arcades or game stores. There is an endless list of places that might be willing to carry your work if you let them know it’s out there. You might have to spend some money to advertise. Get used to it. The old adage, “you have to spend money to make money,” is true for any business.

Here are some tips for making your books more accessible to general audiences:

9 Tips to Producing a Sellable Comic Book

1) Market your books outside of comic-specific areas. Figure out who might be interested in your book and pursue those outlets. There are tons of places out in the world that would be willing to sell your comic…but they have to know it exists first. I’ve had success at art festivals, flea markets, record stores, sci fi magazines and more. Get as creative with your marketing and sales as you do with actually producing your book. It’s worth the extra effort.

2) Get rid of full page bleeds on every page. Don’t be afraid of negative space around your pages. It will actually open up your pages and keep them from looking cramped.

3) Don’t forget the gutters! Overlap panels are interesting from time to time, but gutters help to keep the art readable and from blending together. They’re also great for pacing in your storytelling.

4) If you’re going to color your books, don’t go for the over-rendered look that most comics use. It’s muddy and unclear. Look at animation or places like Disney Adventures for reference on coloring. Most “cartoony” books are well colored because they want to make sure the work is readily accessible to readers of all ages. Not every panel needs to be a fully digitally painted work of “art.”

5) Think of storytelling. The most important thing in a comic is that you do not lose your audience. If at any point your readers get confused as to where to read next, then you’ve failed at your job as a storyteller. And, remember, “style” is no excuse for poor storytelling (or poor artwork in general, but that’s a rant for another time)

6) Don’t have large blocks of text or dialogue in each panel. There’s an old unwritten rule in mainstream comics (and one that has been largely forgotten or ignored): never have more than 26 words in any balloon or caption box. Anything more than that and the words will run together, potentially causing readers to skip over sections of what is on the page.

7) This one is going to cause any comic collector to cringe: get rid of issue numbers. Or, if you just have to have them, place them in the indicia only. Issue numbers are one of the big obstacles for new readers, especially in periodical product like comic books. A reader needs to be able to come in on any issue and not have to worry about having to read 10 back issues to know what’s going on. Sure you can let them know there are other stories they can read (and, which will be available in trade paperback), but don’t make those stories required reading. Follow Cosmo’s lead (or Playboy’s) and just have the month and year on each cover. Comics should be entertainment first and foremost. Get out of the collectible mindset.

Forget the mantra, “comics aren’t just for kids anymore.” It’s old, played out and is part of the death sentence of the industry. Creators have spent so much time trying to prove that comics can be for adults that they’ve forgotten to build the next generation of fans by only making comics for older fans who are already in comics. Without young readers there is no future in the industry. As a second part of this thought, just because your comic has adult language, nudity and graphic violence doesn’t automatically make the book for adults. Vertigo and “Ultimate” writers take note.

9) Be prepared to get your hands dirty and do some work. Publishing is a business and, at first, you may find yourself putting in as much time marketing as you do creating. That’s not a bad thing.

My heresy will end with this statement: the only way to save comics may be to let the comic industry, as it exists right now, shrivel up and die. It’s on the road as it is, with everyone racing to tear whatever pieces they can get from its still (barely) living corpse. The industry isn’t the heart of comics and didn’t make them, so dare to be different. Put down the latest issue of the comic industry death watch, Wizard. Ignore the party line that an indy book will sell less than 250 copies – there is a world outside of the Geppi chokehold.

A bit of inspiration for you: Nifty’s main title, the Cadre, sells over 5000 copies per issue and 90% of that is outside of the comic industry. Not bad for a black and white, mainstream style super hero comic.

The world is a big, beautiful place full of potential new readers. You just have to venture out and find them.

-Mat Nastos
http://www.ComicBookMarketing.com