🚀 Five Ways to Leverage GlobalComix to Generate Kickstarter Sales
Day 23: My Lump Dog™ Kickstarter Campaign Journal
It is a harsh reality that revenue is low to non-existent for digital comic sales of traditional North American comics, especially for new independent titles. I speculated that, outside the Manga world where things are quite different, most new creators make more selling PDFs via Kickstarter than on any other centralized platform. A very unscientific poll I recently conducted among fellow crowdfunding veterans supported this hypothesis, with 100% of respondents confirming this is the case for them.
Some platforms like OmniBus and DSTLRY are not open to independent comic creators. Some more established creators do sell on Gumroad and on not-Comixology Amazon Kindle, but sales on these platforms tend to be incremental at best. The site I am most hopeful about is GlobalComix. The team at GlobalComix is doing everything it can to try and provide opportunities for independent creators, but this is still a work in progress. Most creators are not going to make a lot of money directly on GC either.
Is putting your comic on GlobalComix worth it? Absolutely! Ironically, using GlobalComix to help you promote your Kickstarter campaigns may actually be the most profitable way to make money via the platform. GC offers several indie comic-friendly features you can use to do just that.
1. Use GC as Social Media; Reach Your Warm Audience
The first issue of The Lump Sum Saga is available on my publisher page on GlobalComix, and it is free to read. Since I submitted my comic, 604 unique readers have read it. Almost half of that audience discovered TLSS via the app itself. For the cost of a GlobalComix subscription and the time it took me to put the comic online (less than an hour), I reached 275 readers who I wouldn’t have discovered TLSS otherwise.
But we all know that doing work for “exposure” is a trap. The real magic happens when you can turn those readers into customers, and one of GlobalComix's best features for this is the “Follow” feature.
To date, I’ve done a poor job of encouraging readers to “Follow” my comics, and that is a lost opportunity. The reason? GC makes it very easy to keep these followers up to date about your comic. Much like the newsletter you should be are carefully cultivating, GC followers are a “warm” audience that has actually asked to hear more about you and your comics.
The core of the magic is the “Activity” tab on your publisher page. Unlike traditional social media, all of your followers are notified about everything that appears in this feed! Some notifications are even self-generating - for example, when you post new comic content, your followers will be notified. If you are preparing to launch a Kickstarter, want to provide updates about your active Kickstarter, would like to announce a contest or Shopify store opening, or simply ask for feedback, you can do that here. I believe this feed has the potential to be second only to your newsletter in terms of usefulness for staying in touch with people who are likely to purchase your comic - physical or digital.
How do you get more followers? One hack is to use the new Marketing feature (settings→marketing from our publisher page). The QR code is a particularly useful option. If the person scanning the code already has an account, they’ll see a button to follow you. If they don’t have an account, they can enter their email, and a GC account will be set up for them that automatically follows you.
2. Use GC to Announce Your Campaign
Did you know that you can officially announce your crowdfunding campaign on GlobalComix? This will propagate a countdown banner across several pages (web & mobile) related to your comic that links directly to your campaign. On mobile, this link will even launch the Kickstarter app!
It’s a little tricky to find the setup page. Go “Settings→Series→[your series]→Advanced.” (Aside: There is also a “Read Now Button Widget” available on this page that can be used on pages that support HTML.)
3. Use GC to Provide a Sneak Peak of Your New Comic
Many of us post a set of sample pages on our Kickstarter story page. This campaign I am trying something new. I took those same pages and created a comic preview and posted that on GlobalComix with an ad page included, in this case, as page 2.
In the time it has been available, this chapter has been read by at least 11 readers and has generated at least one sale. I want to make this “sneak peek” a common feature of all subsequent campaigns so that my followers expect it.
4. Use GC for Social Proof
The comment section associated with each series can potentially be a place to pick up reader “pull quotes” for your series. Be sure to respond to followers who have gone out of their way to say nice things about your work.
I also include a link to the series in my Kickstarter story. You would think that this might actually reduce the number of digital sales in the campaign (and I have no way to prove that it doesn’t), but I’ve actually had people pledge for the exact same comic they could read (and download) via GlobalComix! People want to support you, and proving you can actually make what you promise can go a long way toward providing confidence in your campaign.
5. Use GC to Understand Your Audience
GlobalComix offers a lot of data to creators that can be useful for fine-tuning paid advertising. For example, if you look at your followers list you will see each follower’s country listed under their name. Because of this, I know that artist Sergi’s style seems to translate well to a European audience. Knowing I have readers in Croatia is more than an ego boost. It’s an opportunity to focus ad spending and even, potentially, create localized language editions of each book.
Are you familiar with Google Analytics? Be sure to set your “Google Analytics Tracking ID” under “Brand page details” ([Creator page] -> Identity). Setting your code will give you even further insight into your comic’s readership.
Bonus: Use Promo Codes to Give Backers Early Access
Unlike my last campaign, Lump Dog is still in production. While I haven’t officially announced this yet (as it will depend on how my creative team wants to do things), I am considering uploading individual chapters of the book as they are created, hiding them behind the paywall. My Kickstarter backers will get free access to these chapters as Lump Dog slowly comes to life. To accomplish this, I plan to “comp” backers using promo codes ([Creator page] -> Promo Codes) to grant free access to this new content as it becomes available.
GlobalComix continues to impress me with its efforts to support independent creators. Providing great infrastructure for supporting crowdfunding campaigns is just one way the platform is becoming integral to the success of our industry.
🚀 Day 23 : My Kickstarter Journal
There is just over a week left in the Lump Dog campaign, and we are so close to funding. Based on my calculations, the last 48-hour push should get us over the top, but it sure would feel good to fund before then, so I’ll keep grinding.
Tasks
posted to Bluesky for the first time and this actually generated some pledges.
recorded a “plug” for the end of the ComixLaunch podcast.
created a cover artist spotlight template on Canva for Instagram reels.
edited an unboxing video when the lenticular cover stickers arrived. (I’ll post this as a cover artist feature, likely tomorrow.)
Gratitude
I am grateful for the view outside my window. I have a crow feeder that is a constant source of amusement (and research, but that parts a secret 🤫 ).
Lessons learned
Doh! Don’t wait to submit your “plug” for the ComixLaunch podcast until the end of the campaign! (Thank you, Tyler, for fitting me in at this late date!)
Snapshot (What I’m currently monitoring)
KingSumo Campaign: 535 contestants, 10,455 Entries, 10.62% conversion rate
All other advertising is currently paused.