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HELP! Need advice on how to promote a web-comic at a convention
brad!
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello all,
I am going to be attending a local Sci-Fi/Comic convention next month to promote my new web-comic. I plan on giving out flyers with the link and stuff. Anyone have any other ideas on how to promote a webcomic at a con?? This is my first one, so any advice would be extremely helpful, and if you have any feedback on the flyer I'd love to hear it.
I am going to be attending a local Sci-Fi/Comic convention next month to promote my new web-comic. I plan on giving out flyers with the link and stuff. Anyone have any other ideas on how to promote a webcomic at a con?? This is my first one, so any advice would be extremely helpful, and if you have any feedback on the flyer I'd love to hear it.
brad! on
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So I did. I may have to let it pass as I think they're already gone to print, and it costs $$ to change it now
Print them again, and let the added cost be a lesson that you need to proof read next time.
My apologies
It was proof read by a couple of people, but I guess no one picked up on that.
I am contacting the printers now to see what it would cost to change it. I appreciate the advice, and if I can change it now I will.
Besides the flyer can you think of any other ways to promote at a con??
We've had a merch table where we sell books, buttons, video games, prints, sketches, sketch cards, paintings, and original art, and in addition we give out flyers and business cards by the hundreds to everyone that stops at our table and they all end up in the trash at the end of the day.
I know this because I can go to a convention where there are about 3-6 thousand people in attendance, hand out over 100 flyers, make 20 or so sales, and on Monday I can check our site stats and see that we received little to no traffic from it. I'm not trying to break your spirit or anything, but I do have some real world advice here.
Go to a convention as a fan if you can't afford a table yet. See what other artists are doing, talk to them (but don't linger and ask a million questions as they're trying to work too) and go to their panels and learn from their experience and mistakes. Have fun at the con and try to meet people in the industry that will hopefully one day become your peer group.
When you have enough merchandise to warrant a table, and I mean serious merchandise, like full comics, even if they're ashcan prints (photocopied kinkos stapled comics), some original art, nice sketch paper for sketches, etc. when you have all of that, consider an artist alley table. They're usually somewhere between $50 and $150 at the smaller to mid size shows and they'll generally include a table and chair and a badge for the show. THEN you can start really marketing your comic.
Having said that, I would DEFINITELY reprint your flyers. It's a learning experience that will cost you money but as someone who has had to reprint $100 worth of stuff because I forgot to put the right URL on it I can tell you that it makes a difference to get it right. Also, if you're dead set on doing the flyers, take them to the show and put them on the "free merch" table at the information desk (pretty much ALL small and midsize shows have this, and some will even let you put your flyers in the gift bags for free or for a small charge if it's a smaller show) but DO NOT just walk around handing people flyers, especially without the permission of the convention itself.
If you've got specific questions about conventions, merch, saving money at shows, etc I'm happy to help.
Thanks a lot for your advice, it is very appreciated.
I am lucky enough to be sharing a table in artist alley with another web-comic artist. If it were a bigger con in a different city I wouldn't consider getting a table, but this is a small, local convention, so it seems like a good jumping off point, and a way to get my feet wet. I will be selling some art prints (unrelated to the webcomic) as well.
Oh and side note, the flyers are updated with the correct spelling.
Thanks again!
1) Get there early each morning so you're not setting up when people are walking by. I see a lot of artists who get there late and are still setting up a good hour or more into the show and personally I hate it.
2) Make friends with your neighbors. Find out what they do, look at their work, make conversation. Most of your professional contacts starting out are going to be made within two tables of your table and they're good people to know, especially if they've been doing shows for a while.
3) NEVER, NEVER poach potential customers. If someone walks by your booth, and stops for even the slightest second to look at your stuff, then feel free to give the sales pitch, (and I can offer up some GREAT sales pitches
It's a sure-fire way to get hated by everyone around you if you poach customers. I can't tell you how many shows I've been to where some t-shirt vending asshole or guy who sells swords or some shit will try to pull people away from my table while I'm talking to them.
4) As Brad Guigar once said (and I'm paraphrasing): "If you're the guy who brings some doughnuts or cookies and shares them with me, I'll gladly and trustworth-ily watch your table when you go to grab a coke later" It's sound advice.
5) This is the most important: Don't get discouraged. My first show ever I made my table and half of my hotel expenses back, and I felt vindicated. I thought "man, in like a year I'm going to be doing this full time without losing any money and it's awesome!" Cut to two years later and I JUST finished a show where I spent over $500 in travel and table costs and made about $100 of that back because the turnout sucked and no one was in the mood to buy anything (I sold 4 t-shirts, three books, a handful of buttons, and a few sketch cards, and over 150 people stopped by my table and got the sales pitch). Conversion rate at a con is generally you get about 10% of the attendees to stop at your table when you're not a big name (so if it's a show of 3000 people you'll get about 300 to stop and talk to you) and of that you want to try to convert 10% of those into sales (so 30 sales if you're lucky starting out, but hey, if your stuff is $10 a pop that's $300!)
You learn something new at each show and some just aren't worth doing a second year, while some might be amazing for you.
Be confident in your comic, act like a professional who deserves to be there, and someone, even if it's just one person, will come by and say "this looks like a cool comic and I want to support indie artists so here's $10" and you'll feel like you just smoked crack... It's pretty awesome till you get home and realize you still have to pay rent : )
GOOD LUCK!
Im really not going into this with any expectations. Im confident in my comic, but it is just starting. Im really going for the experience, and to prepare myself for next years con when I can have printed books to sell etc.
Question: Do you think dressing professionally (ie blazer etc) is the way to go? Or go in casual?
Just don't cosplay. I mean cosplay is cool, but not when you're selling your comics. If you sell costumes then cosplay, but not when you sell comics.
Having said that, something we do (we make buttons) is we give away free buttons to kids because kids rock and more of them need to read comics, and if someone comes by in a cool costume we give them a free button and take a pic (with their permission) and tweet it, so we interact with the attendees/fans. That has turned into a sale a few times, but not always (a lot of time they spend all their money on the costume and con fees)
I even used to turn all the pics into a big collage comic to put up after the con just to not have to draw something as soon as I got back.
A lot of people (we used to do this too) give away food (like snickers minis and stuff) but a lot of cons are cracking down on this for health code reasons so I'd just say avoid it (we stopped doing it a few months back)
All great ideas for future cons. Thanks again.
Here's some stuff I'd like to add:
- Seriously talk to people that are checking out your booth. Comment on their t-shirt if it's related to anything you are interested in and talk to them on a personal level. Even if they don't buy anything, people will remember you being a nice person and that can go a long way as well.
- Conversate and interact with other artists. Even though technically it's competition, get to know some of your peers. You might come to discover a bunch of other unknown artists that are really good. Don't be afraid to speak good of them or even recommend them to other people. It's not a contest really. People will appreciate you more if they know you appreciate other artists as well.
- Hand out stuff to people you feel deserve it. If someone sincerely seems interested (see my first point) but is low on cash or something just give them a comic. They'll remember you forever.
Honestly the best advice is, be appreciative and approachable and just basicly a nice person. It'll go a long way.
Use the con as a chance to make professional friends for sure. Also yeah don't be afraid to give out free stuff to the guy or girl who comes by your booth three times to look at stuff but doesn't have the cash.
My wife and I are relatively unknown, so we make almost no sales on Friday and few sales on Saturday because people are at the show to get autographs and buy stuff they know. However when they come to the booth and actually stop, I always ask how their con is going, let them flip through my books, and ask them what they're into. If they're into sci-fi, comics, pop culture jokes, etc then I tell them that we've got them covered, and my elevator pitch is that my book is about retail, romance, and a telekinetic penguin. That usually gets a laugh. They remember it, and when they come back on Sunday with that last $10 they haven't spent yet, they buy a book or a t-shirt because they remembered me.
Seriously there's two types of convention goer.
1) The person that shows up to wear a costume and/or party and enjoy themselves, and they almost always NEVER buy anything or bring any cash. They're fun to talk to, but they aren't ever going to support you. They're cool though and tell their friends about you so be nice to them : )
2) Everyone else who comes to the convention with money. These people come to buy things, and they never say "well I got what I want so I'll save the last $10 for a burger on the way home" They bring money to a convention to spend, and they WANT to spend that money. These are the people who will one day become your fanbase and supporters. We had two sales at this past convention from people who we met a year ago and haven't seen since. They remembered us and bought all of our new merch. Good people, and we made damn sure to throw in a few freebies with the deal.
Also if anyone comes by with a camera or microphone doing a podcast, make sure to talk to them if they offer to interview you. Even if their show has 10 listeners that's 10 people that might buy a print at the next show or check out your comic.
Lastly, and this a new one for us. This past con offered $10 tokens that customers could spend at any booth, and we'd turn them in at the end of the show for cash to the con runners. DO THIS IF THEY OFFER IT TO YOU!