Promote your comics the Jesus way
Comic Reviews - Week Ending 02/27/2022
Good morning, my friend,
I was captivated by a question on Twitter posted to the #WritingCommunity about writers promoting their self-published novels. This gist of the tweet was twofold:
Should I promote my book on Twitter?
If so, how much or often?
The replies varied widely from “not at all” to “sometimes” to “all the time”, and it struck me how many ideas missed the mark about promotion - both in the question and the replies.
I see a lot of creators miss, whether novelists or comics creators, the basics of promotion, sales, and marketing. Creators should take at least one course on marketing since it would help go a long way to helping their comic get sold, but without the funds or access to marketing courses, I urge you to look no further than the ultimate marketer and salesman - Jesus.
Wait! Hold up! Before your communion wafer crumbles, this isn’t a post about religion. It’s a post about learning the marketing lessons from the greatest salesman of all time - Jesus Christ.
There’s not enough time or space to recount Jesus’s exploits here. I urge you to read the first four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) of the New Testament for the details. But, what I will do is encapsulate what Jesus did, how he did it, and how it applies to promoting comics, whether indie or big publishers.
Jesus established a marketing model that’s survived and thrived for two millennia, and if you apply this model to your comics promotion (with tweaking and adjustments as you go), success is almost guaranteed.
What did Jesus do?
Jesus traveled the Middle East looking for hurting people and healed them as He found them begging for help. Once they saw what He could do for them, they followed Him and helped Him spread his message.
Simple enough, but let’s break this down into bite-sized chunks.
Jesus traveled the Middle East. Meaning: He looked for people where they are and didn’t wait for them to come to Him.
Jesus looked for hurting people. Meaning: He looked for people with a specific need He knew He could satisfy.
Jesus healed the hurting. Meaning: He gave the people something that satisfied their needs.
Jesus healed them when they asked. Meaning: He gave them what they wanted in the simplest, easiest terms possible. Ask and ye shall receive.
Result: The people followed Jesus for more and told others about him.
These bite-sized chunks are the fundamentals of sales and marketing that have worked throughout history and are still taught today. In a single sentence, the model looks like this:
Find out what customers want and give/sell it to them where they are and make it easy.
If you’re an indie comic creator or you work for a mainstream comics publisher, this is exactly the model you should be following every day. If you don’t already have this down, start with the simplest questions and go from there.
Who are the customers for my comic? The people who love this type of story and art? Get all the information you can.
Where are these customers? Are they in certain countries? Do they only hang out in coffee shops or libraries? Find out where they are.
Is the purchasing process simple, easy, and convenient? The customer should never have to do work or jump through hoops to get your comic. The more work it takes, the fewer sales you make.
At the risk of sounding dismissive, everything, after you nail these questions down, is basic logistics. Truly, these questions are the hard part. If you get these right, your comic will sell.
That’s all for now (before I run out of Substack space). If you’d like to learn more about how to properly market and position your comic such as tools, methods, and more, send me an email at gabe@comicalopinions.com with your questions. I’ll get to them as soon as I can.
Now, let’s get on with this week’s reviews.
VAMPIRELLA/DRACULA: UNHOLY #3 – Review
BARBARELLA (VOL. 2) #7 – Review
RED SONJA (VOL. 6) #6 – Review
PURGATORI (VOL. 2) #5 – Review
GRIMM FAIRY TALES (VOL. 2) #57 – Review
THE HARBINGER #5 – Review
BELLE: QUEEN OF SERPENTS – Review
YUKI VS. PANDA #7 – Review
DANCING WITH THE DRAGON #4 – Review
REDSHIFT #5 – Review
IMPOSSIBLE JONES #3 – Review
THE SHEPHERD: THE VALENTINE #1 – Review
WOLVENHEART #11 – Review
THE LAST SESSION #3 – Review
BATTLECATS (VOL.3) #6 – Review
PACIFIC RIM: BLACKOUT – Review
MARA #1 – Indie Review
DROWSE #1 – Indie Review
Carriers #3 (Red 5 Comics)
Robyn Hood: Shadows of the Past (Zenescope Entertainment)
DIEnamite Never Dies #1 (Dynamite Comics)
Hell Sonja #3 (Dynamite Comics)
Sheena: Queen of the Jungle (Vol. 2) #4
Swamp Dogs #2 (Scout Comics)
Doctor Wilder #1 (Blackbox Comics)
Big Bang Adventures (Indie Submission)
That’s the shortlist. We’ll add more as time and resources allow.
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Have a great day!