Thinking of making a book of my web-comics

Thanks all.
@Levi, I had a look over Blurb before committing to Lulu. I think I came to the conclusion that they might be better for one-offs. I'll be sure to take another look to see if I missed anything.
 
I've never had a deviant art account. Has anyone else had any experience? Is it worth posting the comics there too?
 
I've got a DA account. It's a bit faffy. Some genuinely brilliant artists on there though.
 
DA as said has some quality people on there but you really need to search hard to find them
 
Bit late to the thread here but found it a really interesting read! Well done Ken for taking the bull by the horns and going for it, I think its a great idea.

I dont think you should worry about charging for something that is available for free on your site. A book can be bought as a present, read on the bus, flicked through on a tea break, etc It will appeal to a market that maybe wouldnt normally check your website for updates, plus it collects a large range of strips into one place so its much easier to flick through than clicking through a site.

Really looking forwards to seeing how this progresses!

p.s. that portfilio book looks brilliant jimlad, might look into that myself as a self promo piece!
 
Thanks guys.
@Dave glad you enjoyed the thread. As usual on DF it's helped me no end to get a project going and push through with it.

I think I'll give DA a go as part of my marketing push. If I get involved over there I might catch a few peoples eyes that currently know nothing about my blog and comic. Plus it'll be nice to have a place specifically for my illustration work.
 
As I wait for the proof copies of the books my mind has started turning towards thinking up a small marketing strategy.

The main question I have is this: Should I remove the first 50 comics from my website? This will make the only available via the book. Would this be good or bad? I can't make up my mind.

I'll make a small advert on my website for the books linking to the store. I'll put this at the bottom of each new strip I publish.
I also plan to promote via facebook, twitter and possibly deviant art (if I can put together a decent profile and network well.)

I'll also email other design blogs I've guested on and have some sort of a relationship with to see if I can get a mention there too.

Any other suggestions would be greatly received.
 
seems a shame to remove all of the comics, what about if you dramatically reduced your online comics to 10% of what you have now, then add a line like "to read more why not buy the book..."

That way it gives people a little taster of the book, hopefully leaving them wanting more.

Also, it may be worth using the usual social media routes, twitter has been amazing for me in getting noticed, Ive also got a really good facebook fan page that is a good way of communicating with people interested in my work. Plus Im not sure if you have used Pinterest, but its great and could be perfect as a marketing tool to show some sample comics with a link to buy the book.
 
Cheers Dave.
I think I'll take most of the comics down and compile a top 5 post as promo/sneak peak for the book.
My reasoning is that they have been up on my site for a long time now. I think it's fair to take them down and replace them with another option that has to be paid for. Anyone disagree?

I'll have to look into pinterest. Seem to be seeing it all over the place at the moment.

I've plunged into Deviant Art. You can see my profile here:
kreynoldsdesign on deviantART

Feel free to drop by and we can exchange follows, or whatever they call it.
Thanks again for the feedback.
 
Hi again.
I've been enjoying DA, managed to find quite a few other comic book artists and groups to submit to. I think it'll be a good place to promote the strip.

I also received the proof copies from Lulu:
book2.jpg

book1.jpg


I'm very happy with the inner pages. The colour print is excellent and the black and white is a good as I could have hoped for.
My only issue is the colour reproduction for the cover. But this is down to how the Lulu system works.
To display the colours correctly on the lulu site you have to submit RGB artwork. CMYK comes out as luminescent horrible-ness.
The same artwork is used for print so is then changed to CMYK I'd imagine. Obviously this makes the outcome unpredictable. As a result the pink of the face on the cover is a little too pink and more worryingly the grey of my logo on the back is far too dark and blue.
I've sent away for another proof copy after trying to tone them down a little. If this is successful I'm hoping to put them up for sale by the end of the week.

Generally I've really happy with the general design of the pages etc. It looks like a real book! Sounds like a dumb observation I know, but until I was holding it it was difficult to tell how it would look physically.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
They both look brilliant Krey! I thought lulu wanted PDFs uploaded as CMYK? Having them as RGB makes no sense whatsoever.
 
If there are any people out there interested in buying the comic book, I might be able to save you a bit of money.

Lulu are running a 'mystery' sale until April 6 2012. Simply add an item to your shopping cart (my comic book for example) to find out how much you can save.

You can find both versions of my book easily, by following this link:
Ken Reynolds's Books and Publications Spotlight

Cheers
 
Aww, I missed the mystery sale. You did an excellent job with it though Krey and I absolutely love the panatone on the side!
 
Thanks, don't worry about the mystery sale, Lulu often run coupon codes, a quick internet search will root them out.
 
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