Commentary and advice on marketing, mostly for publishers (traditional and brands) and writers, but sometimes from a broader perspective.
SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE MANGA MAGAZINE!There are two ways to get Takuhai—in print and online—and each one has its own cool stories and articles.Your Takuhai Online account lets you vote for your favorite manga on the Web—plus, it gives you access to all the great feature stories, all the manga previews and all the how-to articles.Your subscription to the Takuhai print edition gets you a magazine delivered to your home via U.S. Mail. It's not available on newsstands! Every issue of the FREE Takuhai print edition will be packed with pages and pages of manga previews, behind-the-scenes with manga…
Support GOOD Comics! Try NEW comics!The column formerly known as "Try Something Different" has become something different. Instead of listing every single comic book shipping each week, the newly rechristened "On the Shelves" will instead take a look at select comic books being released tomorrow, 9/15/05. The full shipping is list available at ComicList.[NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com]ADHOUSE BOOKS Salamander Dream GN, $15.00Thanks to Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Project:…
Industry Buzz is my monthly roundtable column at Buzzscope, featuring some of the most outspoken creators, retailers, pundits and advocates in comics commenting on the issues affecting the comics industry. This month, we took a look at hype, and what, if any, affect it has on sales.Does marketing/hype help sell more copies of a comic book? Would, say, the first volume of Runaways have sold better if Marvel had promoted it half as much as House of M? What about reviews? Do they have any measurable effect on sales, especially of independent comics that lack the marketing resources of the…
Every now and then, these things are eeriely appropriate:Use Those IdeasThere is still a lot happening in your sign and in your personal life, Guy. The other great piece of news is that Mercury turns direct at the start of the week. This gives you the green light to go ahead with projects and ideas that have been on the back burner. You will feel a lot better now that you can move forward in confidence and get things moving. Venus moves into Libra on Tuesday, which is wonderful for any new commercial ventures you are involved with. If you…
This has turned into an insane week!PISSY WORK STUFFLate Monday afternoon I found out I had to put together three PowerPoint presentations for the first day of our summer sales meeting, aka tomorrow, thanks to our Publisher's unexpected and, for all intents and purposes, immediate move over to our Conferences division, leaving our senior sales guy caught out there having to take over at the last second. Among the many things on the two-day agenda is a presentation on a new magazine we're launching in October that primarily lives in the no-longer-Publisher's head. Because I've been working on the marketing…
Diamond Comic Distributors has announced this weekend in San Diego that Free Comic Book Day 2006 will take place on Saturday, May 6th, the second consecutive year the event will take place separate from the release of a comic book-based movie. Marketing will be in full swing for the summer slate of comic book-inspired movies, though, including Zoom's Academy, scheduled for release the following weekend, May 12th; X3, May 23rd; and Superman Returns, June 30th.It also won't fall on Mother's Day weekend again, a poor bit of scheduling that made it difficult for some fathers **ahem** to fully participate in…
In my never-ending quest for great independent comics, I've come across some real gems and promoted the hell out of them. 100 Girls, Fade From Grace, Western Tales of Terror, Elk's Run and Skyscrapers of the Midwest are all great reads that not nearly enough people know about. The latest inductee to that stellar group is...{drum roll, please} Debbie Huey's Bumperboy!I reviewed it this week for Buzzscope, but wanted to give it an extra special shout-out because it's THAT kind of good. Check out bumperboy.net if you want to really get sucked in like I've been. There's the great "Meet…
