Friday, August 26, 2005

Canadian National Comic Book Expo Sales

Friday
Just got back from the Convention Center tonight. Although it was packed, it was also slow and comparible to Friday at Chicago Wizard World. I sold 46 books compared to 55 in Chicago, but the 46 number is a little inflated because I sold 12 books wholesale to some comic book retailers. But then again, there were three less hours for Friday at this show than at Chicago. I'm expecting better sales on Saturday. 81 is the magic number to beat from Chicago for Saturday!
Saturday
As expected, Saturday was really busy. But surprisingly it started off slow. The show opened at 9pm, but we didn't sell our first book untill 10:30! In the end, we did sell alot of books, especially in the afternoon. I had to host a panel on CGI for an hour from 2-3pm, so I was not expecting many for that hour, to my surprise, my wife and a friend of mine sold 12 books! Not bad at all! In total, we beat the number for Chicago for Saturday selling 87 books. But far short of the elusive 100 mark. Maybe next year when I have issue 2 out! You may note that around 4-5pm, we only sold three books. By then we were dead tired, and very hungry. We barely made an effort to sell untill we had some food in our stomachs. This is a very important lesson too, it shows that as an unknown comic book publisher, Crozonia as nice as it is, doesn't sell for itself. We really need to make an effort to sell. If all we did was sit back and relax, we would probably have sold less than thirty books.
Sunday
Just like Saturday, didn't sell a single book untill 1 1/2 hour after the show opened. The sales were down from Saturday, as to be expected. In total we sold 195 books. It seemed like we sold more, so I was a little dissapointed. We also sold 22 posters for $5 each. Selling 200 copies remains elusive, it probably won't happen untill San Diego next year.

















TimeFriday Saturday Sunday
9 - 10-0-
10 - 11-40
11 - 12-169
12 - 1-65
1 - 2-118
2 - 3-1215
3 - 4-138
4 - 5236
5 - 661311
6 - 789-
7 - 89--
8 - 94--
9 - 1017--
Total468762

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Canadian National Comic Book Expo



This is the third largest comic book convention in North America, and it boasts a stellar line up of comic book, sci-fi, anime, horror, and gaming guests. Although smaller than Chicago, I feel I can outsell what I did in Chicago because of a number of reasons. The location is in the middle of the exhibitor hall, I have some people who will be helping me, and I have learned some lessons from selling in Chicago. 300 copies sold is the goal! I'll let you know the results.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Chicago Wizard World Sales

While I was selling my books at Chicago Wizard World, I made a tally of the sales and broke them down by the hour. This should be very usefull for other self publishers to use as a bench mark and see some trends.

Thursday - I arrived late, saw that half the artist alley was empty, so I decided against setting up. It made more sense to walk around the convention floor, and make some business contacts and avoid line-ups.













TimeFriday Saturday Sunday
9 - 1026-
10 - 115126
11 - 1271313
12 - 16720
1 - 2899
2 - 379-
3 - 437-
4 - 588-
5 - 6910-
Total558148


In total, I sold 194 books. I brought to the show 300 books, and my lofty goal was to sell out. Even though I only reached the 2/3rd mark of my goal, I consider my sales a success because I didn't sell on Thursday, and I left early on Sunday and missed four potential busy hours. Also, I was there by myself. Notice on Sunday at noon, I sold 20 books in one hour! That's because one of the guys I traveled with was nice enough to leave their own artist alley table and help out. All he did was stand outside the table, and non-chalantly hand out the books as people walked by. I believe my product was eye-catching enough that most people would make an effort to look through it. Whether or not they decided to buy was another story.
The price point was $3 a book. On the last hour of Friday and Saturday, I sold them for $2 each. On Sunday, I sold them for $2.
Chicago was an eye-opener as far as learning how to sell. There are a few things I learned:
1. Don't sell too hard, but don't sit on your ass with your arms crossed either.
2. Don't do sketches for free, unless they buy a book. And sketch only your character. If someone wants a sketch of Spider-Man or Wolverine, then charge $10 for it.
3. Bring more than one product. It will increase and diversify sales. I was so worried about bringing these books to the border, I only brought the published books. At the Canadian National Comic Book Expo next weekend, I will be selling posters as well and offering package deals.
4. Bring help! My wife will be there helping me sell. Should help alot.
5. Bring a Laptop. This will show my CG reel, which will "reel" potential costumers in.

Any other tips, drop a comment PLEASE!

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Cross Promotion


During Wizard World Chicago, I had the pleasure of meeting Darren Davis of Bluewater Productions , who publishes a variety of comics through Alias Publishing including 10th Muse and the Legend of Isis. I asked him if it would be possible to draw a cross-over pinup featuring one of his characters facing off against Acaste. We could publish the pinup in both books to help each other, and Darren was gracious enough to agree. His line of books have a much higher profile than Crozonia, so it would be a good opportunity to raise public awareness of Crozonia, as well as draw a cool pinup!
I will be inking and colouring this piece as well, so check back on the progress of this piece.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Online Shop now open!

I have set up a shop using PayPal to sell the newly published Crozonia : The War Beneath the Waves, as well as the original black and white issues of Crozonia. What's great about Pay Pal is the store front is all html based using forms. So it was relatively easy to figure out. Go here to buy a copy! I'll have to start figuring out ways to bring in traffic to that page.
Stay tuned.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Mailing Costs

I need to begin to set up the online store to sell Crozonia on the web. I fear I may have made a mistake with the weight of the comic book. Yes, the book looks really nice, and feels like something special when you hold it in your hands. But after going to post office to get an issue wieghed with packaging (Document size Envelope, Comic book bag and board) the cost for mailing the book in Canada is $1.70! Even worse, the cost of mailing to the US is $2.90. This is because the package weighs 161g, over the 150g limit. This puts a serious blow to the viability of selling the books online. It eliminates any possible chance for International orders at the moment.

Here are the mailing expenses from Canada in $CAN:

Letter Mail
Canada
Up to 150g $1.00
Up to 300g $1.70
Up to 500g $2.45

US (in $CAN)
Up to 150g $1.70
Up to 300g $2.90
Up to 500g $5.80

So tentatively these are the prices including (S+H) that I have set up for online orders:
$5 US for American orders, $5 CAN for Canadian orders.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Back from Wizard World!


Wizard World in Chicago came and went. There were a few bumps in the road and lot's of traffic! I didn't get there on time to debut on Thursday night, and the artist alley that I was in wasn't a great location. Despite all of that, I would have to say the trip was a success!
I sold 200 books, but more importantly gained new readers, and made some important business contacts.
To see some of the pictures I took, click here.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Off to Chicago Wizard World!

I will be leaving for Chicago tomorrow to exhibit Crozonia for the first time in the US. I'm excited to see what kind of reception I will get. Wizard World is also boasting the largest Artist Alley of any kind (even larger than San Diego), so there will be some tough competition. I'm hopefull with the quality product as well as great pricing, that I'll be able to sell all 300 copies that I'm bringing.
I'll be taking pictures while I'm there, so I should have something to report after the convention.

Thanks CORE!

On the "day minus one" of Crozonia's release, I sold 25 copies to my friends and co-workers at CORE Feature Animation. Now only 2975 more to go!

Issue One finally printed!

The first issue of Crozonia: The War Beneath the Waves has finally been printed! The books look phenominal! They will be on sale startomg tomorrow at Wizard World Chicago, as well as available on the website very soon!
See you in Chicago!