Cover Matters 2

If you want to earn the favor of someone, you have to speak their language. You have to present to them what they expect of you, whether they be your parents, your friends, a lover, or an employer. This is a crucial part of the marketing mix. To be able to connect to what your audience is looking for is a foot in the door towards making a sale.

So far, in the comics industry, you know a comic book when you see one. The covers are pretty standard, pretty traditional in execution. There's a whole culture surrounding it. Despite the innovations we've seen over the past decade, the overall sensibility remains the same. And this sensibility has been successful in drawing the comic book crowd in.

However, it's possible that these covers reinforce the stigma surrounding the medium. If we're looking to attract a non-comics reading crowd to our work, we need to speak their language. Our closest point of reference is the bookstore.

With that, the graphic novel covers shown above aren't real. I cooked them up as an experiment. (Trademarks belonging to Marvel.)

If, the moment you first laid eyes on these make-believe covers, you've been hit by at least squint-level curiosity, then what does this say about the power of a cover to get the attention of a passerby?

Granted, the Scarlet Witch and the X-Men are somehow familiar to comics fans, but what these covers seek to do is to rip these characters out of context and present them in a different light--one that doesn't scream superhero. To the comics person, these covers may seem baffling. There's no image of any character on the covers. There's no dynamic pose, no speed lines, nothing to suggest a superhero story.

But I'll go back to what I said in the first installment of Cover Matters. The cover is a promise, and the promise can be as fundamental as red shoes. To some of you, the Scarlet Witch cover can be mistaken for a piece of "chick lit." Think "Devil Wears Prada" or "Shopaholic," in a genre that I'd suppose could inspire an interesting superhero-drama story involving Wanda Maximoff.

Wanda: "You don't understand how I feel! You're incapable of feeling anything!"
Vision: [attempting to compute]

The X-Men cover moves the mutant superhero story well into the sci-fi realm. This cover can may as well fit in the science fiction section of a bookstore. The story can contain the usual flashiness of an X-Men tale, but the cover envelops the story in a non-superhero context. For these two covers, the only thing that gives them away is the tag "A Graphic Novel." There's no deception involved.

So will these covers really attract a non-comics reading audience? I honestly don't know. But what I do know is that if you want your graphic novel to reach a new audience, you need to think out of the box. And a good place to start is finding out what your target audience is looking for in a book cover.

Create Your Own Niche

Happy New Year! I hope 2007 proved to be a good one for all of you, and I wish that everything will turn out really bright this 2008!

One of the things you can begin doing as you build yourself as a graphic novelist is to identify your niche. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned how you can gain more mileage in promoting your book by zeroing in on a specific audience. When you create a romance graphic novel, you can direct your marketing efforts towards venues frequented by women. Same goes if your graphic novel is about a special interest, like gardening or the American Civil War.

As you go through your creative life, you'll notice that you focus on specific modes, aspects, hooks, styles, characters, or themes, and you'll discover the kinds of stories you're most comfortable creating. For instance, you might be the kind of creator who tends towards female leads who struggle against a patriarchal society. Or you feel more at home writing about teenage guys who deal with peer pressure and conformity. Or you often play with what-ifs involving "loss of innocence."

This doesn't mean that you aren't flexible. Your tendency towards certain characters or themes has largely to do with how much they have influenced your way of thinking and feeling, whether or not the experiences were your own. In my case, I find myself juggling thoughts on "relationships that could not be," and have noticed that my stories have plot elements that explore that idea. I can still be versatile with my stories despite this, since I can alter a lot of the other elements.

You can test this by looking through works of prose writers. The characters of Haruki Murakami have a similar vibe about them, mostly young sarariman trying to make sense of their mundane lives in bustling modern day Japan, with some weirdness or magical realism thrown in. Nicholas Sparks, on the other hand, seems to often explore the idea of love in absentia, the emptiness that it leaves, and the journey towards wholeness. Anne Rice has always been about eroticism, long before her vampire novels came out (let's not talk about her Jesus novel, though).

With movies directors, the same principle applies. You wouldn't tag Tim Burton with a dizzying CGI-laced action film any more that you'd tag Roland Emmerich with offbeat modernist fantasies.

And then there's you. What do you usually explore in your stories? What are the common elements? Specific personalities? Specific themes? A particular attack or style?

When you've isolated that, make it your "stamp." Let that help you grab your niche.

The advantage of having a niche market is that you become reliable to that market. When you hear the name Neil Gaiman, you know that "legal thriller" isn't the genre that comes to mind. If you're a fan of those stories, you'll most probably go to John Grisham's newest take on the subject. It's a marketing tool that helps solidify your position in the industry, for good or ill, and any new customers that fall under your niche will see you as the reliable source of material they're looking for. Granting, of course, that you've created and released enough material.

The disadvantage of a niche is that it seems very limiting. What if you want to try something else? Well, let's take a look again at John Grisham who, after a string of successful legal thrillers, took a risk with a baseball drama and even a Christmas comedy. The lesson here is: if you're good, you're good. You just need that niche as a stepping stone.

What you must consider, though, is that niches don't come in one size. Plus the fact that a very large niche will also have a lot of players competing for pieces of the pie. That's why it's recommended that when you discover your niche, do some research on works that may be similar to yours. Then determine where you're different, making sure that the difference is significant enough to be distinct.

For instance, the romance novel market is really huge. But there are authors who specialize in modern day cosmopolitan romances, gothic/horror romances, swords and sorcery romances, Civil War romances, and detective romances. This can get broken down further by age group--teenagers, young adult women, middle aged women, etc.

The bottom line is everyone has his or her place in the world. Focus on your place and be known for it, then see how far and wide you can go.

Writers: Take Control!

I've heard one too many concerns from writers who want to get into comics, only to realize that comics publishers aren't too hot about taking in new writing talent compared to those who can work magic with a pencil. It's a sad state where we find many comics "writers" who don't have much of a writing background, virtually bastardizing the craft. Comics may be a visual medium but, as far as I'm concerned, great art can't save a terribly-written story.

So I'm going to pitch an idea to any enterprising writer who wants to take matters into their own hands. It's going to take some coordination work, but I believe that the end product will justify all the effort.

The finished project can either be a self-published effort or coursed through a literary agent who can represent graphic novels. If I had to do this project, I'd do the latter.

Working Title
Naked America: A graphic anthology

Description
An anthology of ten graphic (comics) stories or vignettes of 12 to 28 pages each. Each feature is a slice-of-life featuring one lead character of no particular demographic, placed in a quirky or weird situation that touches on social--not political--issues America is currently facing. These stories are humorous but insightful, frank but poignant, and never forces the issue.

Sample stories are as follows:

1) A 50-ish Nebraska woman decides to go back to her first love--teaching elementary school. On the first day of class, she discovers that her students are goblins, ghouls, and gremlins, who change back to human form when they leave the classroom.

2) A 35 year-old man, down on his luck and contemplating suicide, decides to get lost in the Colorado wilderness. Deep in the forest, he indeed gets lost, but discovers a crater containing a meteorite made of pure gold. It is huge...and very heavy.

3) A struggling 20-something actor in New York gets a high-paying stint in off-off-off-off-off Broadway. The stage play is a dramatic love story between a man and a zombie. On opening night, the actor discovers that the audience is composed of high-class undead.

These are akin to Twilight Zone stories, and for the most part there isn't much difference. The point, however, of the anthology is to present social issues in a non-abrasive manner. The key is telling highly entertaining and quirky stories, with the thesis of issues only evident to those who look hard enough. (See Selling Points for more information)

Physical Specifications
200-page paperback (content only), 6" x 9", 80lb book paper (interior) and 160lb matte board (cover), full color cover, one color interior

Potential Audience
Naked America's primary target is anyone who's into American pop culture and the social sciences. University students and young professionals are included, with a balance of male and female between 20 and 28 years old. Because of this, the language can be a bit off-color as per the needs and treatment of a story. There can be a spillover to older audiences, possibly capping at 35 years old. Those who read Wired, Slate, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and GQ are also potential audiences.

Selling Points
1) Naked America is innovative and in-tune with the times, telling stories in an entertaining but insightful way, without dumbing itself down.
2) The commercial success of graphic novels with contemporary themes has yet to be fully exploited. Works like Jimmy Corrigan, Ghost World and Persepolis have paved the way for similar material, though Naked America won't use "depressing" as part of its editorial policy.
3) There aren't a lot of graphic novels that provide a multi-faceted view of social America. This anthology presents ten.
4) Naked America can be sold to professors of the social sciences to reinforce their teaching. This is a built-in audience.
5) The success of this first anthology can pave the way for more Naked America anthologies, thus starting a lucrative publishing franchise.

Benefits to Comics Writers
1) A writer is only required one story of 12 to 28 pages. It won't eat up a lot of time, and provides an opportunity to flex writing and craft muscles because of the editorial requirements.
2) Naked America provides a venue for solid insight and an opportunity to showcase one's unique voice, very much an advantage in the fiction writing world.
3) When marketed successfully, Naked America is an aspiring comics writer's business card. Even though royalties/profits will be divided over so many creators, the potential boost in reputation is priceless.

How To Set It Up
If you're a writer of an enterprising sort, ask your fellow writers to join in on this project, with you serving as the editor. "Editor" meaning the guy who's going to do most of the work.

Because your story will just be between 12 to 28 pages, your initial investment will be relatively low. The stories will all be in black and white, so a fee of about $20 per page to an artist who's also looking to break in can be acceptable. (Better than asking for art services for free.) Convince your writers to pool some money together to pay the artists. Oh, and make sure that at least one of the artists knows how to prepare artwork for prepress in case not one of you writers do. Pay extra for the service.

Once the scripts are done, pass them around your fellow writers for some nice and healthy critique and edits. You're all in this together, so you've gotta make sure everyone puts their best foot forward, with zero ego.

The entire process from script to finished pages can take anywhere between two to four months, depending on how fast the writing and art stages go. The good part is that artists don't have to worry much about going full "Marvel" style, since the anthology isn't for the superhero audience. Ixnay on the hyper-indie styles, though, since this can alienate some of your potential audience.

Once you have a few completed stories submitted, you can opt to contact some literary agents who represent graphic novels. If you haven't done this in your life, do some research on how to go about communicating and dealing with agents. They would need information about the project, a few samples of completed work, and perhaps even some input on sales potential.

If one agent doesn't bite, try another and another. Or, better yet, if one of your writers knows someone from a publishing company, you can take the short cut. In my book, the less you spend on printing and distribution, the better. Some experts, like self-publishing guru Dan Poynter, will tell you that a good deal of promotional activities will have to be done by authors, so let others worry about distribution and collection while you sell the book.

What do you think of the idea? Any takers?

Cover Matters

Before I start, here's something you can do. When you've pinpointed that special something your graphic novel has to offer, as well as a possible potential audience, head for the bookstore and dive into the fiction books section.

Find books that more or less match your graphic novel, and pick out the covers you like, but ignoring those books that have big-name authors. Relative unknowns or debuting novelists are your targets. Read the description on the back cover, then return those books that don't appeal to you that much.

The remaining books you have can serve as your template for the kind of cover your graphic novel will have.

For the aspiring graphic novelist who's contemplating on a cover design, there's one overall principle to designing an effective cover:

A book cover is a promise.

And that's the most fundamental idea to keep in mind when you design your graphic novel cover. This is why we pick up books. We see the cover and the images, or colors, or titles appeal to us in ways more than other covers. These appealing covers make us curious, giving us enough reason to pick them off the shelf. Saying, "It spoke to me," applies strongly here.

We look at the back cover, and read what the book is about. The description offers a premise, more often with a simple description of the lead character. These descriptions contain a form of magic--the words tickle and entice, intrigue and mystify. They're telling you subliminally, "Have we got the story you want to read! Buy me! Buy me!"

Front cover and back cover work together to form the book's promise.

Book designers go over the book contents and talk to editors, searching for that one aspect of the story that will appeal to an intended audience. Romance novels succeed by displaying images fulfilling a women's deep fantasies, while horror novels love to use dark colors with generous servings of red or silver. Sometimes a cover will feature a mysterious object, or the facade of an ancient structure, or a landscape, all suggesting certain moods. Other covers make heavy use of a special typeface, the titles covering up most of the front cover, meant to stand out from a bookstore shelf.

Of course, the results of the above exercise shouldn't constrain you in exercising creative freedom. But do note that your cover is like the face of a person, and the expression of on that face tells the world what lies in the heart and soul.

Going to superheroes as an example. There was a time when comics readers complained about that trend of painted covers, featuring a character (more often female) in some superheroic or pseudo-erotic pose. While these images looked good they defeat the purpose of the cover. While the character is indeed in the book, the book itself is not painted. And a simple pose gives little hint to what's going to happen in the story. This strategy may have worked for fans, since they'd pick up a book no matter how the cover is rendered, but in principle it fails to attract newer readers who only have so much money to spend.

Some of the better graphic novel covers I've seen are Blankets, Maus, and 30 Days of Night. Each have their way of presenting their contents, and they make a promise that the stories keep. So when you're contemplating a cover, make several options. Because the so-called cool covers are pointless if they don't serve their purpose.

Make Your Character A Brand

In the previous post, I gave a few tips on how to humanize your characters in order to establish a link between your story and a reader. In this post, we go back to a more solid marketing concept, which is branding.

The website Marketing MO defines a brand as "the entire experience your prospects and customers have with your company. It’s what you stand for, a promise you make, and the personality you convey."

Put simply, a brand tells everyone, "This is who I am and this is why I'm not like that other guy." While Disney and Nickelodeon both have cartoons, Disney has successfully aligned itself with "family entertainment," while Nickleodeon has always presented itself as "fun for kids." Brands tout messages that target segments of people of a certain age bracket, financial status, lifestyle, even values and ideologies. Logos, taglines, websites, promo gimmicks, advertising--all these are meant to reinforce a brand.

In the field of career development, experts have stressed the need for people to identify their own personal brand as a way to gain an edge in a competitive job marketplace. As what Robin Fisher Roffer explained in her book, Make a Name For Yourself, people can possibly have successful careers when they distinguish themselves from others who do similar work, affirm their true identity, highlight their talents, and establish their reputation in business.

Another way of looking at a brand is representation. Mac computers represent the creative, artistic and innovative, while PC manufacturers have for the longest time focused on business productivity and efficiency at a competitive cost. Axe is the deodorant for men in their 20s, while Old Spice appeals to the older set.

Now let's look at superheroes.

Why has the X-Men been so successful? Because they've hammered into comics fans who they are and what they specifically stand for, an anti-bigotry ideology that no other superhero team has been able to lay claim to, a tenet that readers can strongly relate to. Why has the JLA been so successful, because they've solidified the idea that they have the mightiest and most iconic superhero guns ever.

Superman is about "truth, justice and the American way," a very patriotic tagline. While Captain America may also represent that, he is first and foremost a soldier with a military way of thinking and method of engagement. Very unlike Superman, that.

So if you have a superhero, define who they are and, more importantly, what sets them apart from similar superheroes. Lock a unique history, way of thinking, method of operation, manner of speech, ideology, combat strategy, specialty (like Psylocke's classic "focused totality of telepathic powers"), quirk, maybe even a unique battle cry or expression, as well as a symbolic costume. Seal that part of the character that your reader can relate to. You can even pattern his personality after a few people you know.

When you've completed your character's identity, ensure that the character delivers that identity consistently and strongly in your story, but short of being campy (unless that's what you want). Make him stand out in his unique way. Remember that for the longest time, readers couldn't relate to Cyclops of the X-Men, perhaps because they didn't know what Scott Summers was really all about. He wasn't the innocent "gentle giant" that was Colossus, or the majestic Storm with the "goddess complex."

Even if your story doesn't involve superheroes, branding your lead characters can help delineate one from the other, offering opportunities for various subplots and interesting dialog.

The scene is teeming with characters. Make sure yours stand out.