Help
How does a indy comic creator like yourself make your new book sell in the already-crowded direct market? How do you catch those cynical retailers' eyes and make them gamble on your little-engine-that-could book? How do you stand out from the crowd among hundreds of pages of other books all competing for the same few retail dollars? What can a tiny unknown indy creator like yourself do to make sure we retailers even see this shit and actually order it when those due-next-Tuesday (12/02) online retailer pre-orders are due?!
This, my friends, this is how you do it:
I got this in the mail today. 7 days before my orders are placed. These guys really nailed the world's best timing with this one (I can't tell you how many times I've gotten these kind of things too late for initial orders, huge waste of money!). The package was addressed to my shop, with a big fat "ATTN: James Sime" on the front of it. That's nice, I like to know they give a crap who is going to be spending his hard earned American dollars on their book. And although I won't use this poster, other retailers probably will, and I definitely appreciate the money and effort that went into the package.
All around perfect timing & perfect packaging.
Whoa! This preview book is full color? On glossy paper? Gorgeous!
But to be honest, it doesn't need to be quite so slick. What's most important here is this first-page pitch (which I think is really great in this case, by the way) and the fact that I'm getting to read this thing before those orders are due. I only know a few of these creators by name (GUN FU's Joey Mason on colors, anybody? Cool.) but it doesn't matter... I'm getting to read this thing right here, right now. And you'd better believe that SUPER HUMAN RESOURCES from APE Entertainment is going to be fresh in my head 7 days from now when I place my orders.
It's a fun book! And check out those hot Joey Mason colors!
I cut off the Joe Kelly quote on the back cover (even though it was a good one) because I wanted to highlight the smartest portion of this entire package... the please contact us to read the entire series part. You mean it's all done?! It's going to come out regularly once it hits (kinda rare in the world of indy comics)?! Seriously. I can actually read the whole thing right now?!
It also doesn't hurt that they're reminding me to order their book in the December 2008 Previews (that's my funnybook retailer order form). And hey, aren't those orders due next week? I said it before and I'll say it again... perfect timing!
Nicely done guys. Really nicely done.
(standing ovation)
This post has been edited by James Sime: 25 November 2008 - 09:18 PM
