I’ve had several years as a touring webcomic and several years working as con staff. I’m like that chick on She-Ra with the face that rotates. If any of you have the opportunity to staff a con, I highly recommend it. Oh sure, you will likely work a ton of hours and go insane, but the benefits far outweigh the craziness.

When I began staffing cons, I gained a different perspective on the industry. I was able to see my work as staffers saw it. Here are some tips I can give you that will make you much more attractive to conventions:

- Location: Make sure you have an “About” page on your comic’s page that is easy to find. Make sure your location (at least by state) is listed and that this is easy also to find. Why? Many cons have small budgets, especially when it comes to webcomics. If the comic lives close by I am more likely to invite them because they are probably more likely to be able to come. If I am really tired, I may be put off if I can’t find a location listed at all and decide to come back later. I might forget to come back later. Make who you are, what you do, and where you are from easy to find.

- Con Invite Manners: Always reply to con invites within a few days. Even if you can’t go say something positive about the event. It’s just good manners. Con Staff often feel very close to their events. Their con is the same as your webcomic. It is their creative baby. Make them feel wanted. They work just as hard as you.

One con staffer probably staffs anywhere between 2-6 different cons in a year or two of varying size. We all know each other. The big cons know the little cons and vice-versa. You do not want one of us telling another con that you are a douchebag that never replies to emails or replies as if you don’t care about the person’s event. Even if the event is not for you, man up and say something nice.

The best business people know that posting a link to the event and publicly thanking them for inviting you doesn’t cost you anything, and it’s a great way to spread some good will. For example you could reply with this:

“I’m sorry, I can’t make it this year because XX. It’s a shame because this looks really cool! If you’d like, I can post a link to it to drive some traffic your way. Good luck!”

Then follow up with this on your next blog post:

“Hey guys, I was just contacted by XX from XX Con (Insert a clickable link). I can’t go, but you should really check it out. They are doing some pretty cool stuff!”

If someone did all this and posted a link to the event I was working on, I’d file them in the back of my head as a real stand-up person that I could think of the next time I have something good to throw their way. This person knows how to market to their fans and is clearly a value-add to an event.

- Train Your Fans to Listen to You: Just like the previous point – if you are always telling your fans to click on things that you post they will get used to looking toward your blogs for their information. This gives you more power to drive traffic. Even small comics can have a more powerful ability to drive traffic than a comic with a larger fanbase. I’ve seen it many times. Years ago when I just started out and was an unknown I still had a huge posse gathering to see me at cons. A much larger comic approached me and asked me how I “did it”. I was rather shocked because…this person was not unknown. A quick look at his website showed a neglected blog that barely posted a sentence each time it updated. How I “did it” was I talked to people on my blog and let people get to know me.

If you communicate regularly and well to your fans, your value as an internet personality is much higher than someone who never says much. Your blog is just as important as your comic. If you want to be attractive to events, you need to train your audience to listen to you. What good is a webcomic guest who can’t get anyone to buy a ticket?

So, Oni – What Does it Take to Get Invited to a Con?

The honest truth? It isn’t always talent. The best and brightest are not always rewarded if no one knows who they are. The people who get con invites often fall into one of these categories:

1. They have a ton of traffic.
2. They are friends with or dating someone who has a ton of traffic.
3. They have contacted the con and asked them if they could please come.
4. They paid to get into a convention’s Artist’s Alley and made friends with the staff who got them invited next year.
5. Someone who has decision-making power at the con is specifically a fan of theirs.

It’s not about your skill as an artist or writer, but these things are factors. The biggest factor is either your traffic or your charisma because these will get you on the radar of the people making the decisions. When I started doing this, I didn’t have any friends in the industry or a magical “in” to get me on anyone’s radar, but I got in and I did and am doing well. If you aren’t already famous, your best bet is to be nice, don’t give up, and make friends with as many people as you can. It would be much easier if all we had to do is sit, draw, and post the comic but that’s not how it works for most of us. I had the hard road just like most people. Your ability to network and do good business is almost more important than how skilled you are.

Own it, rock it, and never give up!

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The whole “How To Twitter” thing has been done to death, but I’ve never seen a post that addressed the human side of promoting your comics. The human element is the most important factor but also the most overlooked by creators. Here are some points that will help you not look like a jerk:

1. Be Interactive and Nice:

You are a brand. You are trying to build your brand…

No one cares!

Yep. Sorry to break it to you. No one cares about you, me, or the person sitting next to you. This is why promotion is so tough.

Twitter is about them, not you. They didn’t start a twitter account to bask in your godlike glory. They started a Twitter account because they wanted to for themself.

Twitter is about conversation.

How do you make people care? Be nice! Talk with people, not at them. If someone sends you an @ reply – reply to it! This person cared enough about you to say something. I’m sure the 2 seconds it will take to reply won’t kill you. I get a lot of @ replies and I get to as many as I can by logging in through my phone when I’m waiting for something.

It is part of my job. I like talking to people because I am very grateful for their support. If you don’t share my tendencies – maybe you should switch fields. This field is something you have to love because it is not easy. Your fans and friends are all you have.

If you ignore people all the time it comes off as if you don’t care about them at all. Their support doesn’t matter to you and you are just another annoying salesperson. Be yourself! Give them a face to care about and invest their time into.

2. Follow everyone back:

Opinion is divided on this, but I firmly believe that you need to follow everyone back. Personally I just like meeting new people. It also shows that you care. Again, Twitter is about them, not you. If you want to just follow people you know in real life – start a secret twitter for friends that isn’t attached to your comic. You made the decision to start a comic, now you have the responsibility of being the face of your brand. It is just a fact that potential fans and friends will often feel turned away if you don’t follow them back.

I follow and unfollow everyone back. I mirror. If I’m not worth someone’s time, they aren’t worth mine. If they want to hang out and talk, I’d love to and will interact as best as I can. This is how I personally see it. You might not see a follow/unfollow as personal, but a lot of people do. I mirror because it just seems fair.

(NOTE: Twitter glitches sometimes knock people off your follow list and sometimes fail to alert the user when they get a new follow. You can check your follows at FriendorFollow.com.)

People like @garthnell are exceptions. He is a fictional character from my comic that tweets out his perspective of the story as it is being told. He follows absolutely no one and he appeals only to people who are already fans of my work and following me. He is not evangelical – he is a value add for people I have already told about my work. His twitter feed is also populated on my website RSS, populated on my site’s right sidebar and on my iPhone app.

If my team had more bandwidth we would ideally follow and interact from that account as well. However since we can’t he follows absolutely no one so that everyone is treated the same. He doesn’t even follow or reply to me.

Consider your fans’ and friends’ need to feel accepted. Either follow all or follow none on fictional accounts only is my personal suggestion.

3. Don’t make every tweet a link to your website:

I know. Yeah I know. YEAH I FREAKING KNOW YOU HAVE A URL I KNOW MY GOD ITS IN MY FACE 9 TIMES A DAY MAKE IT STOP!

You will be associating with 2 main types of people on Twitter – Potential Pans and Other Comic Creators.

A. Potential Fans - Potential fans may look at your comic when you post it the first time, but if you are always tweeting your URL and never tweeting any other conversation you are going to become annoying really fast. Think of your URL as noise and your conversation with other people as signal. Signal is the sugar that makes the noise medicine go down and sound awesome. This needs to be balanced to be effective. I only post my URL when there is big news or something notable about my update that would be useful or appealing to my audience.

B. Other Comic Creators - Other comic creators are not your potential fan. They are a peer. An equal. A brother or sister. Some other creators may like your comic, but consider that a bonus. Most of us work with and socialize with hundreds of other comic creators. As much as we would like to, we do not have the time to read everyone’s work or the money to buy everyone’s T Shirt.. We certainly don’t react well to hard sales tactics from a stranger.

Personally, I love looking at other people’s work, but I like it when it comes out of a conversation and is not a stranger yelling their URL at me. Asking people for advice or their thoughts on your comic is a much more tactful way to interact with a fellow creator.

Other Comic Creators are your friends. The scene helps each other out by mentoring, helping you get traffic, getting you into conventions, and just plain having fun together. Do not try to hard sell to other creators. It will get you a bad rep. You will be the person that everyone avoids.

In addition to this, a list of URL reminders is what RSS feeds are for. I will not follow back a repeated list of your URL. I don’t think fans will either, especially if you are a stranger. Attempting to gain readers by following everyone you can with a repeating list of your URL is like taking off your pants and putting your junk in someone’s face. At least make an effort to talk to other people!

You cannot will people to click your URL. Don’t try. Pay attention to whom you are addressing and realize that they are not the same type of person. Take an interest in others because no one cares about a self-centered stranger. Log into Twitter and just reply to people’s tweets. Be awesome and conversational and the rest will follow. There is no shortcut to promotion if you are a one-person operation. You have to really love the field and love what you do – the rest will happen over time. The more you want to force something, the less it will happen. Be yourself and engage in conversation. People will respect you for that.

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New artists might find themselves in an Artist’s Alley at an Anime/Comic/SciFi/Fantasy/Furry/Whatever Con. The AA can be both a good and bad place to be. Today I’m going to give you a quick rundown of what to expect if you should choose to exhibit your work here. Hopefully this tutorial will keep you from feeling like a crazy monkey.

How does this work, then?

Summarization time!

In my experience, the AA can wildly differ depending on what kind of con you are talking about. There are fan-run cons and pro-run cons, as well as different genres of cons. For the sake of brevity, I am going to have to speak about this generally and focus on fan-run cons. These types of cons are much more common.

Fan-run cons often are less organized due to everyone working on a volunteer basis, but they often cost less to rent a table. They are very popular these days since anime fandom has become more mainstream. At fan-run cons, table prices can be low so it goes to follow that there is no skill or maturity level that you have to achieve to get into the AA. All you have to do is apply while there are spaces available. You usually do not get any extra setup time for your booth, or any security. You could also be sitting next to an obnoxious kid that needs a large dosage of Ritalin, or a professional working artist. Sometimes cons also put their guests in the AA.

Let’s Rock!

Survival Tip #1: Never Go Alone:

If you plan on going to one, bring a friend with you. You will need to leave your booth at some point to use the bathroom and eat, so having a table helper is necessary.

Survival Tip #2: Bring Food:

It is best to bring a lunch, snacks, and water. You may not have time for a break. The rooms are very dry so it is easy to become dehydrated.

Survival Tip #3: Bring a Jacket Even in the Summer:

It is also very cold in most convention halls and hotels, so bring a jacket even if it is 90 degrees outside. Nothing is worse than shivering all weekend because of some overactive air conditioner.

Survival Tip #4: Bring a Fort:

You may need to stack boxes around the perimeter of your booth for security. This is easy because usually your merchandise will be brought in boxes.

Very often the people setting up the logistics of the AA don’t take theft into account. I was at one con where the tables were arranged in a horseshoe shape with the artist’s facing inward. The problem with this was that while customers were walking around inside the horseshoe, nothing stopped anyone from walking around outside the horseshoe and stealing things.

Survival Tip #5: Set the Cash Up Right:

Be sure to bring a locking metal cash box to hold your money. Of course you should bring lots of change, too.

Survival Tip #6: Get Your Measurements:

Be sure to get exact measurements of your table before you get to the con. Sometimes the tables provided may be wide, but they could be abnormally thin. I was at one con where we had such skinny tables that it was tough getting all of my merchandise on the table. Do not expect that the coordinator is going to give you all of the information you need, because they may not.

Survival Tip #7: Hoist That Banner:

You should invest in a banner of some kind so that people can find you in the chaos. I find that ones that you can raise up high above your head work well and take up less “behind the table” space. You don’t want your logo to be behind where you are going to stand, anyway. Here is the banner stand that I use.

Survival Tip #8: Label Everything:

Label all of your merchandise clearly. Customers will not ask you for a price. I repeat: customers will not ask you for a price, so label everything or you will lose a sale.

Survival Tip #9: Vary that Price Point:

Make sure that the price points of your merchandise is varied enough to accommodate all budgets. I have things that cost .50, $1, $5, $10, $15 and so on. If someone likes your work they can buy something small if they don’t happen to have the $20 for the t-shirt. Very often they will come back next time for something larger. Before you know it – you have a regular customer. This is how you grow your fan base – allow people of all financial levels to get hooked on your work!

Survival Tip #10: Business Cards:

Bring lots of business cards that have your URL and email address written clearly on them. Place them on your table and label them with a sign that says that they are free. Believe it or not, people sometimes hesitate to take things…even business cards.

Conclusion:

In closing, I want to remind you to not look at sales numbers as a measure of your success. Getting your brand exposed to new people is a longterm investment. I have gone to some cons not intending to make a profit because my goal was to put forth a great promotional effort for my brand. It builds slowly as people recognize you and then it will pay off.

Good luck, everyone!

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There is a secret to all of this. SURPRISE! Everyone gets rejected.

Think of any celebrity. Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Audrey Hepburn are all famous. They have also suffered more rejection than you could possibly imagine. The reason they are so famous is because they got through it. The trick to being successful is to get through your first few thousand rejections. Don’t let it make you stop!

In art school they used to say that every artist has 1000 bad drawings to get out before they can start making good drawings. I say that every career has over 2000 rejections that they have to walk through before they find their audience.

There was a fandom around the pet rock. It was a rock. Yes, a ROCK. There certainly is a fandom for your comic. You can find it if you keep going.

Rejection Analysis, Your Target Audience, and You:

When you hear some negative feedback about your work, the first thing to so is look at it from a neutral perspective. Is there any validity to it? If yes, note this and use it to make your work better.

There are two types of people on the planet. There are people who are your target demographic and people who are not. Negative comments are often being said by people who never would like your comic in the first place.

It helps to think about who your target audience is. How old are they? What do they like? If you do a comic about why being a Dallas Cowboys fan in the best thing ever, don’t be surprised if a Pittsburgh Steelers fan hates you. This is good hate. You are doing your job properly.

Awhile back some random guy said that my comic had nothing interesting to offer at all. That is no surprise because he was a fan of comics that were about guys and gaming. My comic is about a girl and it is definitely not a gaming comic. Of course this person wasn’t interested in my work. It is not for him. Gamers read my comic because I am a huge nerd, but not gamers who are only into gaming jokes and nothing else. I just don’t post jokes about games every day, that’s all.

Consider the source of your criticism.

You need to plow through the people who are not your target audience and find the target audience that is yours.

Haters Rock:

I have to tell you that haters give great links! The best promotional linkage for my work has been done by people who were telling others why they hated it because they went the extra mile to describe it. People clicked to see what the deal was, and I got new fans in the process.

Rejection is a growth process like any other. It’s necessary, inevitable, and sometimes even helpful. Think about it intelligently and don’t let it get you down.

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I think that a positive attitude is so very important when it comes to cultivating a successful webcomic. Having a positive attitude comes from understanding when there are things that you cannot change and working around them rather than hitting them in the face with a tunafish.

For example – I was on a panel several years ago with another webcomic artist who was totally angry that her friends were not reading her comic. She stated that if she found that a friend of hers hadn’t read her comic in awhile she ceased being friends with them because in her opinion they had abandoned her. She then expressed anger that Penny Arcade didn’t reply to her email when she asked them to post a link to her comic.

She went on to spit hateful fire and venom about this so loudly that the entire audience was turned off because of her negativity. It backfired, and I haven’t seen her since on the convention circuit.

Your friends and other comics in the scene are not necessarily your target audience. I am friends with people who never read comics. They know that I draw a comic, but they just don’t enjoy reading any sort of comic.

This is OK.

As far as the big comics go – most of us veterans know each other and respect each other very much, but we just don’t have time to read everyone else’s comic all the time.

This is also OK.

No one but me is obligated to read or promote my work. I really appreciate it when people read me and post links to my comic, but I consider it to be a bonus.

A relaxed attitude is a must if you don’t want to scare people off. Not everyone is your fan. They might still be your friend. This is all OK. It’s physically impossible to be universally liked. Accept this and move forward. A positive attitude is so very important when it comes to being a brand that people feel comfortable around. Forcing people to do things they don’t want to do never works, anyway.

While you are busy being nice, you are creating real connections through friends in the scene who are more likely to be able to help you when you need it. Just remember to help them if you can in the process to get a combo bonus of comics fun!

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The key to not overloading yourself when you have a tough schedule is as simple as tricking your brain. I work an office job during the day and then come home and professionally work on my art and comics. Clearly coffee is required!

If you get behind, your brain will shut down, you will get depressed, and start procrastinating. I avoid this by planning flexibility into my week and not putting too much pressure on myself to do specific things on any one particular day.

- First, I decide what I realistically want to get done this week.

- Then I designate after work days for work and fun.

I cannot stress to you how important it is for you to plan fun into your day and week. Moving from an office job into more work in the same day is tough. You will not be able to do it every day for very long without chewing your arm off like a squirrel.

Daily Fun:

Examples of daily fun for me can be sketching during your dayjob’s break or going to get a fancy Starbucks drink.

At this point you are probably groaning at how un-fun that sounds, but I can assure you that you have to be able to dedicate a good part of your life to your business if you want it to work. Some days, Starbucks and a sketch is all you get, but because you are so great at planning and time management, your output keeps going and you can do awesome things later. For example, like affording that trip to Disney World or those $300 boots.

I speak from experience. Nothing is handed to you, but the rewards can be great.

Sliding Days:

I work full time and I have a 2.5 hour round trip commute. All of my art stuff is done at home after work.

I have a loose guideline of work/nonwork days that I follow to get the acceptable minimum amount of work done, but I often exceed it because I am not always in a state of panic with this method.

- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: At least 2 days from this group are work days. One is a fun shopping/errand day. If I feel too tired on Monday, I will just work on Tuesday and Wednesday, or work extra long on one of those days if I can’t work on 2 days.

- Thursday and Friday: Thursday is almost always a work day. Friday almost always is not because I am too tired and I have a vocal lesson after work that day. (I sing too! Yay!)

- Saturday: I have learned that I rarely will work much on Saturday, so that is always a fun day unless there is a convention coming up. Even then, I tend to take my fun days seriously, so I probably won’t be working on Saturday even then. I need my one day to go out and have an adventure or I will go nuts. This is the day I can go to NYC, the zoo, an amusement park, or something else. Often I just take a 4 hour nap because I’m so drained.

NAPS = SERIOUS BUSINESS!

- Sunday: Sunday varies. Sometimes I work, sometimes I go to the supermarket and buy the 5 frozen lunches (Oh joy…) that I will be eating that week plus snacks. Sometimes there is a nap involved.

In this way I can shift around the days that I work and still get everything done without feeling like I have to do X on a particular day. Artists know that if your mind doesn’t want you to do X today, you’d better be able to switch to Y because no amount of coffee will get X to come out. This is why I always have my Index Cards of Doom on hand to redirect me to the next highest priority if I experience a brain freeze.

The second I stopped planning hard tasks on each day was the second I was able to do more work that was better. I hope this can help you as well.

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They don’t teach business or workflow in art school, so unfortunately a lot of creative people find themselves wanting to hide in their studio. I’m here to give you the power back to take control of your creative business and your motivation.
 
The human mind reacts very well to writing. I learned Japanese by writing, so after having yet another useless try and using technology to organize my life, I figured why not swallow my pride and go back to basics? What I found was that not only was it a better method for me, but it helped me stay motivated. I use index cards. A quick glance at an index card told me exactly what to do and prevented any time wasting. Now I will share my method with you.
 
The Method:
 
All of my To Dos are kept on a deck of index cards fastened together by a binder clip.

Card 1:
 
The top index card has 3 columns: Now, Waiting, and Goals.
 
Now:
 
Now has things that I need to do the next time I sit in front of my desktop computer. This could be a new piece of art for a promo campaign, the next Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos comic, writing a tutorial, or something as simple as answering an email.

Things that can be done in a few seconds or minutes get done first and immediately. Deadline items (like the next comic) get done before freeform art because the comic must happen above all.
 
Waiting:
 
Waiting is for things I can’t work on now because I need something from someone else. I check this column daily and and ping the people I am collaborating with periodically. Often this is handled in weekly review sessions or by just asking the person how things are going.
 
Goals:
 
Goals are big things. This could be attending a convention, a website or book launch, or something like “increase website traffic by 10,000″.
 
Card 2:
 
The second card is my shopping list. We are talking about things like milk, Count Chocula cereal,  or a new pair of shoes. I also keep errands like going to the tailor or returning something.
 
Card 3:
 
The third card has notes about the Stupid and Insane universe. I forget things I’ve written…like the fact that William eats brain trees and that I need to bring back the evil unnamed girl from the “Descent into the Deathside” story arc.
 
My sketchbook contains My Annoying Life ideas, since those come to me randomly. Sometimes I sketch them on post-its and stick them inside the book.
 
All other cards are used for spontaneous notes. As I check tasks off of the first 3 cards, the tasks are rewritten on new cards. Similarly, the spontaneous notes are integrated in this way. When I rewrite stuff out my mind is re-engaging with the priorities, so I almost never forget about a task. My index cards are my life. I feel I control my life in this way, so motivation comes naturally. The second I started doing this, I forgot about any depressive feelings and was able to focus on goals and the steps that make up those goals.
 
If you find yourself lost, unfocused, and depressed this might be a good thing to try. I think you will find that when difficult things are broken down into smaller steps that you can physically see – everything starts falling into place. The best part is that by utilizing your goals column, you can actually see your progress. Seeing your progress is so very important because you will be able to see what you have done when you are having a bad day. This is your motivation to keep going!

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