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Adult Comic Marketing
How We Market Your Comic
MARKETING
How We Market Your Comic
The marketing cycle for your comic is designed around 3 stages: pre-release (before your first episode’s publication), comic run, and post-release. The objectives and pricing strategy change with each stage.
1
PRE-RELEASE
- Build anticipation for the comic run
- Help finance the complete run with pre-order discounts
2
COMIC-RUN
- Earn as much revenue as possible during the run
- Discounts are not normally offered during the run
3
POST-RELEASE
- Generate ongoing revenue for a finished run
- Aggressive discounting to reach untapped, price-sensitive buyers
MARKETING
How We Market Your Comic
The marketing cycle for your comic is designed around 3 stages: pre-release (before your first episode’s publication), comic run, and post-release. The objectives and pricing strategy change with each stage.
1
PRE-RELEASE
- Build anticipation for the comic run
- Help finance the complete run with pre-order discounts
2
COMIC-RUN
- Earn as much revenue as possible during the run
- Discounts are not normally offered during the run
3
POST-RELEASE
- Generate ongoing revenue for a finished run
- Aggressive discounting to reach untapped, price-sensitive buyers
PRE-RELEASE
1
Marketing during the pre-release stage is designed to build anticipation for the run and generate pre-orders. Sometimes authors have only invested in illustrating the first 1-2 issues of a run and will use the pre-order sales of the series to finance the illustration of the rest of the run.
Although pre-release sales are heavily discounted, customers who purchase the pre-release are acquiring the rights to the complete series months (or even years) before the full release of all episodes in the series.
PRE-RELEASE MARKETING ACTIONS
- Botcomics.com Homepage
- Announcement to our pre-release newsletter (8,000+ members)
- Posts/stories on all major social media networks
- Posts on specialized media forums / bulletin boards
- Pre-release discount campaign for buyers who decide to pre-order the entire run
- SEO campaign for your “Botcomics Author” profile
1
PRE-RELEASE
Marketing during the pre-release stage is designed to build anticipation for the run and generate pre-orders. Sometimes authors have only invested in illustrating the first 1-2 issues of a run and will use the pre-order sales of the series to finance the illustration of the rest of the run.
Although pre-release sales are heavily discounted, customers who purchase the pre-release are acquiring the rights to the complete series months (or even years) before the full release of all episodes in the series.
PRE-RELEASE MARKETING ACTIONS
- Botcomics.com Homepage
- Announcement to our pre-release newsletter (8,000+ members)
- Posts/stories on all major social media networks
- Posts on specialized media forums / bulletin boards
- Pre-release discount campaign for buyers who decide to pre-order the entire run
- SEO campaign for your “Botcomics Author” profile
2
Depending on the size of your graphic novel, the comic run might be anywhere from a few months to several years. Our marketing team will discuss the options with you and we’ll decide on a publication schedule.
Long comic runs over a 1-2 year period are typically the most successful, since the comic has time to build an audience, generate a following, and each new release is an opportunity to sell not only the current issue, but all previous issues to new readers.
COMIC-RUN MARKETING ACTIONS
- Botcomics.com Homepage
- Announcement to our new releases newsletter (15,000+ members)
- Posts/stories on all major social media networks
- Posts on specialized media forums / bulletin boards
- Ongoing SEO campaign for your comic’s keywords
- Promotion on Botcomics’ Affiliates websites
COMIC-RUN
Depending on the size of your graphic novel, the comic run might be anywhere from a few months to several years. Our marketing team will discuss the options with you and we’ll decide on a publication schedule.
Long comic runs over a 1-2 year period are typically the most successful, since the comic has time to build an audience, generate a following, and each new release is an opportunity to sell not only the current issue, but all previous issues to new readers.
COMIC-RUN MARKETING ACTIONS
- Botcomics.com Homepage
- Announcement to our new releases newsletter (15,000+ members)
- Posts/stories on all major social media networks
- Posts on specialized media forums / bulletin boards
- Ongoing SEO campaign for your comic’s keywords
- Promotion on Botcomics’ Affiliates websites
COMIC-RUN
2
POST-RELEASE
3
After your comic’s run, our primary goal is to generate ongoing sales for your comic, even though no new issues will be produced. Normally a comic that has had an extensive run will have sold all its issues to the most interested fans during the run.
Potential customers who have not yet purchased the comic during the run are more price sensitive, so our strategy involves heavy discounting and “event” sales to capture these price-sensitive readers.
Post-release discounting is aggressive and can include free giveaway events for the first issue along with a coupon for subsequent issue purchases.
POST-RELEASE MARKETING ACTIONS
- Discounting & coupon-based promotions
- Inclusion of the comic run in seasonal sales promos (winter blowout, summer sale, black friday, etc)
- Giveaway events for the first issue to our entire mailing list (40,000+ subscribers) + social networks
POST-RELEASE
3
After your comic’s run, our primary goal is to generate ongoing sales for your comic, even though no new issues will be produced. Normally a comic that has had an extensive run will have sold all its issues to the most interested fans during the run.
Potential customers who have not yet purchased the comic during the run are more price sensitive, so our strategy involves heavy discounting and “event” sales to capture these price-sensitive readers.
Post-release discounting is aggressive and can include free giveaway events for the first issue along with a coupon for subsequent issue purchases.
POST-RELEASE MARKETING ACTIONS
- Discounting & coupon-based promotions
- Inclusion of the comic run in seasonal sales promos (winter blowout, summer sale, black friday, etc)
- Giveaway events for the first issue to our entire mailing list (40,000+ subscribers) + social networks
Comic Marketing FAQ
- As much or as little as you wish. If you’re willing to participate, we’ll send you an author marketing kit of items you can prepare (blog posts, social media posts, author interview, etc) to help us market your comic. If you just want to leave the marketing up to us, that’s fine too.
- Adult comics sell fewer issues than mainstream comics. That’s why the pricing is higher. If you have an existing fanbase and you’d like to offer your comics at a reduced price via a coupon or a special link from your website, that is something we can easily accommodate.
- However, for maximum earning potential we do not recommend you discount your comic’s list price during its run. Nevertheless, if you insist on selling at a lower price, we will accommodate your request.
- Over the life of your comic you can expect it to be put in front of more than 100,000 potential buyers via our website, email newsletters, social media, forums, messaging apps, etc. Very few adult comic publishers can make the same claim.
- Most likely you can do this with Botcomics as your publisher. You can add a link to your comic on Botcomics.com on any website or social network. If you’d like to sell through channels we don’t normally offer, let us know where you’d like to see your comic available for sale and we’ll get in touch and see how to make it happen. Any channel that helps make sales is something that’s going to help us all.
- By far, email. Our email list has been built over 20 years with more than 40,000 total adult comic buyers. Our list is segmented based on customer interest, and we have the audience your comic needs to generate sales.
- Before the release of issue 1, we offer a pre-release discount to customers who are willing to buy your entire comic run before its release. Your run might last 6 months to a year, but these customers are committing to buy all issues of your run before the first chapter is even released.
- This is your comic’s time in the limelight and when it should earn as much as possible. During the run we build anticipation with fans with each new upcoming release and sell at full price. At the most we’ll offer a small $1-2 pre-order discount on upcoming issues. However, don’t offer large discounts during a run, since this is the time of maximum sales performance for your comic and discounts during this time can hurt your total sales performance.
- A giveaway event is a 2-3 day time-limited event (normally over a weekend) where we promote your finished comic to our entire user-base and social media by giving away the first issue for free. This does not mean simply allowing anyone to download the file. They need to create a Botcomics account and go through the checkout process for the comic and add it to their cart and make the purchase with a coupon.
- Giveaways are always coupon-based and the same coupon that works for the giveaway will then allow the user to buy your other issues at a reduced price. The goal is to let customers have a “free trial” of your comic and then see if they are willing to pay to see how your story unfolds. This is why we recommend all authors to end issue 1 with a cliffhanger. If customers enjoy issue 1 they will buy the next issues to see how the story resolves.