Basically, I’m building a virtual machine to sell comics. Or really, whatever writing I do, but that’s currently comics. I think of it as The Machine, but it’s really just a system.

The central idea is that if I’m selling books through Image, selling 10,000 copies an issue of singles and 10,000 copies of the trade is enough for everyone involved to get a solid living wage out of it.

On one hand, these are not actually huge numbers. I’ve hit them a decent chunk without much in the way of my own marketing. Of course, I’ve also NOT hit them a lot.

And while I use the Image stuff to model this, the ability to reliably do this is not JUST useful for stuff I do through Image. If I have a system where I can fairly reliably get an extra ten thousand sales on a book, I can also, you know, ask for a lot more money on work for hire.

Likewise, my long term plans involve more merch and direct sales on my own, so this is all meant to help drive that goal. Which, IF I can do it, I expect is years worth of work.

Basically, the core goal is to build my fanbase, and get as many of them as possible to sign up for my mailing list. The mailing list is both an actual thing but ALSO kind of short hand for just making sure I can semi reliably contact them.

I mention the semi reliably, because there are a LOT of roadblocks between me and them. Without pay for play, for instance, maaaaaybe 5% of my FB fans will see a post. Insta tends to do a bit better at 10%, and occasionally stuff does much better.

And while I’m not against actually paying for FB to show my stuff to more people, I am, and I know this is a shock to many of you, what with me working in comics, not actually made of money.

Beyond that, though, FB also makes the rules, and they can do whatever whenever. I don’t like that lack of control. That said, it’s not just social media.

If you get on my mailing list, there’s a decentish chance that despite you wanting to get those emails, your email provider won’t show them to you. I could get into my feelings about this kind of tech paternalism, but it’d be long and off topic.

But basically a way to contact people who like my stuff that isn’t pay to play. The biggest advantage I have there is that I actually DO have a lot of stuff I can just give away.

Not just for people joining the list, but I can run webcomics for years with just the stuff I already have. And I’ve got a couple new things I want to do where I can basically be putting out new free content five days a week.

That said, while it’s the core, it’s not the only thing. The reason I think of this as machine (other than an occasional flare for the dramatic) is that it all works together to do the actual end goal, which is selling my stuff.

The other parts are, in no particular order:

– A retailer mailing list. Which in an ideal world is also backed up by the ability to show them a lot of what I’m doing. I want to get to the point where I can have a full arc done before solicits for just this purpose.

– A librarian list. For the same purpose as the retailer list, although it would run different, because I’m selling them something different.

– A press list. So that I can at least attempt to get the word out through the media.

– A reviewer list. Similar to the press list.

– A larger social media platform. Essentially, growing my FB fan page, my Insta and my Twitter, and keeping on top of whatever else there is.

On one hand, this is a flawed system that’s not superuseful on it’s own, and not enough to devote a lot of time and money to. But it is useful, especially in synergy with everything else.

It’s also a selling point. Saying hey I’ve got an audience of X number of people does make people more inclined to back the books and such.

– Advertising. When I can, I am actually willing to pay for eyeballs. Like a lot of things, it’s hard to say for certain how well it works.

This is all predicated on putting out stuff people want to read. But I think, generally, the quality of my stuff is pretty high. The issue doesn’t seem to be that I’m putting out crap that no one would want to read, but getting eyeballs on it to begin with.

So all this is designed to fight that. It’s just an ass ton of work to get built.