Do you promote your work... and how?
duckbomb
Posts: 585
Ok, here's a question. I wrote a comic book. Ok, that was a sentence, but I did, and now I'm curious as to what to do with it. I know all of my options with regards to the comic book, itself, but Im more curious about what you all do about your works as a whole. OR, your "brand". For instance, when a movie is coming out, espeically if it is already part of a larger "world" (we can use the MCU for this, although there are plenty of other viable examples that came before) they do a certain amount of advertisiing ahead of each subsequent movie to re-enforce the idea that 'IF you like this, then there's more!'. So, my question is this:
Do any of you do any special advertising, like posters, or short comic panels designed to spark that element of intrigue in any potential reader (think, like, a commercial or something, only in picture form)? I'd be interested to know.
All I've done, so far, is simply post up what I create and use it to point people to where all of my other work is. I'm not one to "build up the hype", but if this is a viable tactic to draw people in who may otherwise overlook something they'd enjoy I'd give it a go. Any good (or bad) experiences out there to share?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2026 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Mostly what I do is spam Twitter. It's free, and if you pick a few hashtags that either a lot of people follow religiously or ones that get picked up by bots with wide reaches, you're promotion gets in front of a lot of eyeballs. I had someone reach out to me after finding me through a hashtag they regularly follow, so it definitely works.
Another thing I've discovered, and I have no real idea what impact it actually has, is that many of the comic catgories on Amazon are sparsely populated. If you get people to buy your books or read them through KindleUnlimited - even just a couple people a month - you can stay on certain charts indefinitely. A couple of the lists don't even take that many sales or reads to hit #1 for an hour or two or three. Any book landing on any chart gets visibility - think of it like free advertising. But be careful taht your books are at least remotely relevant to the categories because Amazon does watch the comic categories and did try to pull some of my titles from a category even though they clearly belonged. Problem you as an indie has is that Amazon owns Comixolgy, and they tried flooding the comic categories with titles carried through Comixology - even if they have less than zero relevance to the category. If your comics stick in a best sellers list, they will target you. It's not just my experience, but I've seen a lot of my competition delisted from the comic categories if they weren't Comixology titles. Still, if your titles are relevant and you're willing to fight with Amazon, you can place on the best sellers lists in certain categories.
Last year, I set up a Patreon page, and eventually a DeviantArt page. I've been struggling with how to use DeviantArt as a tool. In the last 3 months of 2019, I decided to pull most of my titles from Amazon's KU program and try to sell them on DA, Initially I was disappointed to the point I was ready to give up and relist them in KU, but there have been a couple sales this month, so I'm hopeful, and I'm going to see if I can grow the market there. The thing that makes DA interesting as a platform is in how people can either favorite your work or add it to their own "collections." Because if you happen on someone who likes work similar to yours, your work will be displayed in their list of favorites, or in whatever folder they added you to. For example, if your specialty is rendering Victoria 4 in various skimpy outfits, and someone likes one of you pictures, they might add it to a collection called "Victoria 4 in skimpy outfits." If for whatever reason, another scantily-clad V4 fan comes across their page and looks into their folder, they'll see your picture along with other V4 artists. The more the pictures are liked, the more exposure they get. And no one will be able to get for free any content that you set to be sold, so it's not like people are wildly taking your work for free when you want to charge for it.
Well unless you have a huge advertising budget it's probably a big waste of money to you but peanuts compared to what big advertsers spend.
Publish your comic on Amazon and let whether people like it enough to recommend it to others serve as your advertising. That's the only practical and affordable thing you can do really, although there may be other publishing outlets for your comic that might get you more realiably noticed and after that notice you use that to go to Amazon and big publishers.
It used to be I remember hearing the way you got published was to write something really good and give it to a literary agent or publisher to read, but that's sort of like being a garage band and trying to get one of the folk that sign new acts at Warner Bros Records to listen to one of your gigs. You might succeed as a complete stranger asking for a review like that but most people wouldn't tell you to count on it.
There are, I know, 'independent creative' startup / discovery websites but it's probably all college drama and music students trying to be discovered. They might have comic book/graphic novel section and they'll certainly having writing, editing, and scripting sections.
Personally, I considered using 3rd party ads in hobby video games when I get around to publishing them but then decided against it (I get enough players such that the peanuts from placed ads is substantial earnings then I better be a lot smarter at monetizing that many players than what those ad payouts pay to a person like myself - peanuts - talk about being at the bottom of the totem pole) & instead I would just create a private advertising for my other hobby video games within each of the games I made. No use if you ever get lucky with a successful game with lots of players sending the players off to play 3rd party games - send them to play other games I wrote too. Those other 3rd party games have massive advertising budgets with ads already placed everywhere they can already anyway.
You could do the same with your comics. Sort of a prologue & epilogue is I think the fancy literary terms for that. Or cross-title stories.
THank you, both, this is great and very helpful information. Thanks for taking the time to respond with such meaningful stuff!
First off, I wasn't aware you could really use DA as a selling platform. I actually have a rather sizeable community built up on my DA page, and every day I'm fielding requests for commissions, although my motivatoin is to provide a story in it's entirety so I always have to turn them down. I was looking into Amazon as a distro platform, but I still wasn't sure what I'd do for promotion, so this gives me a lot of food for thought. Honestly, I decided to avoid Patreon because the first thing that irked me late last year was the fact that they increased the amount of their own "take" from new artists, but the old ones were "grandfathered in" at only 5% instead of the new 12%. It would bug me that somebody is making more on their own content than I was simply because I waited to bring my quality up before creating one. In addition the amount of children out there that assume their sketches are worth 10 dollars a month is mind boggling, and for now I'd rather not be a part of that. This is NO WAY a commentary on the quality of your work, or that nobody should have a Patreon, it's just a personal hurdle for me to get over because the masses colored it in a way for me and I think I need to just get over it. Thanks @jjmainor! Your advice is very much appreciated!!
Also, I do agree that paying an external company seems like it would be a bit of a waste of money, and hearing what you said @nonesuch00 only serves to confirm that. Thank you for that, I do think including some sort of prologue and epilogue pages is a good way to go, I guess I just need to put some thought into how to build that up, where to point people, and not make it look like a tacked-on addition. I would think ads in games would be even more important than in comics, where the time investment (and usually money) is higher, so if you came to this conclusion then it absolutely makes sense for me, as well. THis was very helpful!
Do either of you, or anybody, create special one-off material for promoting your stuff? Like, either the two main characters bantering "off screen" or some extended preview kind of things? I guess I'm asking because it seems to me that it could be a good tactic to providing free content that suggests what your artistic (or comedic, or storytelling) tone might be like. On the other hand, it feels like a LOT of extra work, almost like creating a whole new comic to go alongside the other one that you'll give away for free. Also... it can when some of those guys on DA pretend their 3D models are real people, and so I suppose I'd have to be careful to not cross that line.
I guess, at the moment, I'm thinking to distribute through DA, and use that same platform for self-promotion, but my big lingering question is "what would you create to promote yourself"? I think... I'm just pretty bad at it. AND I'd rather be creating new pages than adverts for old ones. Again, I think maybe this is a hurdle I just have to GET OVER lol.
Thanks again, it's encouraging to hear what you are doing, and is food for my brain as I consider how to do mine :)
I surprised you guys didn't Post some images right in this thread. There is nothing wrong with self promoting your hard work.
HEY @FirstBastion this is AWESOME! Is this the kind of thing you would typically use for promotion? It looks like it could be a wallpaper, or something, is that your intention? The time it takes to put something together at a larger scale, like this, would be the same amount of time I would need for a full page spread, so the tradeoff is that people on DA get itchy for new content while I'm working on promotional stuff for my old stuff. I'd LOVE to have a few things up, or even banners available, that I can use to promote my stuff, but as you see I dont' even have a forum signature. Maybe I should consider that...
And NO nothing wrong with self-promotion. I'd like to think we're all basically in the same game, or at least the same "sport", and I'm interested in what ALL of the players are doing :) I was thinking of opening up a self-promotion thread in teh art gallery... not just for pics and stuff, but to see your promotional material. I feel like I've posted a lot recently, though, and I don't want to overstep or spam everyone lol.
.It takes a while to build a following, but this has to be the best time in human history for average folks to bypass all the gate keepers and get your stuff out there to the audience that is just waiting to be entertained. BUT Making money off it, well that's a whole other discussion
demo reels. i'll watch a demo reel before i'll read a blog
and aptly named.
Are you talking about mostly animation/video stuff, or would you also do this when it comes to 2D images, print, or comics? Creating a "demo reel" for a comic is a very intriguing idea, to be sure!
And @FirstBastion, I think you're right here. Honestly, I'm not too concerned with making money, and as for the following part I completely understand that. In fact, I've been doing this for a while, offering stuff for free, and generally "entertaining" people in DA, but the demand for paid, or custom, content has gottent to a point where I need to consider a charging model. Before I do that, though, I want to make sure I understand how I can best advertise (the technical "how", not the process "how") so that people are both interested and have the full scope of what they would be buying, without giving too much of it away for free. Perhaps I'm not asking this well, and perhaps the answer is right in my face. I'm a little worried that all of a sudden changing to a model where some of my content isn't free will upset some people, and I really just want to make people happy. I just also need to at least get to the point where the money I make from this warrants the continuation of these large projects.
Yes, you shouldn't set you heart of making lots of money, it'd be nice for any of us for sure, but just do comparitive quality analysis of what's deemed good and successful in the public now and it's clear entertainment is mostly pushed, not demanded. There are rare exceptions, but that kind of advertising pervasiveness takes lots and lots of money as well as controlling the distribution channels.
First, "you wrote a comic". Do you have a finished (illustrated and ready for market/reading/selling) comic? Like, done and...finished.....?
Like, Guys, here's the first 10 pages.....
I'm not one to "build up the hype", but if this is a viable tactic to draw people in who may otherwise overlook something they'd enjoy I'd give it a go.
I think this is a mistake.
1) Short attention spans. No one is going to wait for anything. Have it ready now - if you can get someone interested, get whatever it is that you want from them- while they have that temporary interest.
Instant gratification is key. Instead of saying "This is coming" you might was well say "This is here, go get it".
2) It takes several hits to make someone act on an interest. Seeing one impression won't be enough to budge the casual. Most people don't have an engine to create three separate impressions/hits.
Get all you can from every eyeball on your stuff.
3) Hyped for what? What's the hook that makes ANY BOOK so special that it's worth being HYPED over? So what you got a comic coming? What's special about it? That's specialness is what will get eyes- answer that -- and once you have answered that, why would you choose to make a potential reader wait? No one is getting hyped for something with no track record to build trust in.
4) A movie trailer is scenes from the movie. Your comic 'trailer' is PAGES (sequential art) from the comic. Supply enough to make someone want more and be curious. Don't make anything extra. Give them a sample of what you are going to give them.
I got about ten more points. lol
Comicbook trailers if done with high production value, can certainly generate some interest with the short attention crowd.. DC has some great ones on youtube. The no name indy ones as well as the big name superhero classics. All in the 38-40 second range. Just enough to trigger interest.
Patreon can help once you establish a small following of regulars. Very important to have regular releases and output. Griffin Avid's advice on having it all finished makes sense. Or atleast a good buffer of finished pages so you are not always scrambling to get something uploaded. You need the quality control time built into the process.
A website. Paid, No ads. your publishing name dot com. Make sure you read up on copyright and trademarks.
And here is the money making gem. Release individual pages for free at regular intervals, on your various sites to generate interest, but offer the completed book for pay on a print on demand service like Amazon for those with the desire to get to the end and are willing to pay for the fast gratification. it's a value added option.
@Griffin Avid - Thanks for your thoughtful reply! I actually watched almost all of your videos you've done through Digital Art Live and found it very helpful and inspring. I agree with what you said. I do actually have the whole thing completed, and am now in a period of simple refinement. I completely hear what you are saying, though, and it makes a lot of sense. I guess when I said hyped, I meant hyped for what "they" had been asking for. I actually do have a large amount of traffice on my DA page, and I get notes almost on a daily basis asking me to put something out that's a bit longer-format. Now that I've done that, and considering the amount of work that went into it, I was wondering whether or not the time I would spend into appropriate "teasers" or advertising content would even be worth it to them, or are people just generally waiting for me to put out the product and call it done. Maybe advertise isn't even the real word, maybe personally I just want to celebrate finishing something so large at (what I feel to be) a high quality.
At any rate, that's all symantecs, and I certainly am not disagreeing with what you say. I appreciate how you brought the truth, and I'm going to take your advice and make sure that I'm not trying to build up any kind of false promises as well. What you said about people not wanting to wait, and also about nobody getting hyped for something that has no track record. While I like to think I do have a pretty solid track record, I've never put out anything so large, so with that in mind your statement has given me lots to think of!
And feel free to drop the other 10 points if you are so inclined! I followed your advice on the comic thread, and through the trainings, and I do respect your experience in this realm. Thanks!
@FirstBastion - THis is also very solid advice. I don't have a website, but I've often thought about it. Would you sell your comics from your own site? I also really like the idea of releasing pages for free and then offering the whole thing at once through a vendor. That was mentioned earlier, as well, and I had been kicking it around, but now having you reaffirm that makes me think this is a viable strategy. Thank you very much!!
FirstBastion tapped a bunch of them. So I'll remove the numbers.
Firstly, it's great that you already have it just about done. Sometimes I come across people asking for advice for a place that they are still heading towards.
Finishing something is very difficult. Probably just as hard as starting something. The true struggle is the consistent-working-middle, but you probably already knew that.
To make it short and neat, the answer is Choice D: All the Above.
You should complete the book and THEN you do the fake "sharing your work in progress' and start uploading your preliminary stuff and alternate pages with your most intimate and supportive circle. - Where you already have some sort of following. Sharing some finished art is okay as along as there's a definite launch day in mind. Everyone has 'unfinished stuff' everyone has a big plan they are working on. Showing progress- real progress becomes something to fall behind.
The closer the supporter, the more and earlier they should be getting 'behind your scenes'. Not every site should have your full discloser/disclaimer/behind the scenes exposure.
Pick a main one (sounds like Deviant Art for you) - then make that your home base and open up the most there.
As stated by FirstBastion, there's tons of communities for webcomics where you can share your works for free. The plus, is the readership that's already built in like YouTube, the downside is that those sites are about free content so getting free readers to become paying supporters is tricky. They are also like most social media traffic and rarely follow links away from the thing that they are into.
Overall, it's going to be a slow consistent burn with small spikes along the way- especially if we're always considering the free and low-energy paths to greater exposure and awareness.
I also (my personal opinion) think it's a mistake to think one book or release is going to get it done.
You might be leveraging what you learned in doing this first book and using that success to help your second book go further.
Certain doors only open after you walk through the first one.
---------------
In your particular case, you seem to have already built up the interest.
Go get em!
I also find that a lot of people who are not into comics give me advice about what would make THEM read or at least try to read a comic.
That's where the smoke and mirrors and baiting and redirects and grand-artsy-promises and extra-fluff-stuff and flashy trailer and music-infused action videos and cupcake sales and keychains are brought up.
People that are into comics always ask to just see the comics.
Most look at it and lean to a side.
Some say Wow, that's cool. Good job.
Some say Oh man, let me get one of these.
Some say How can I buy one?
I'd like to focus more on those that already like similar books.
Or *would* because they are already fans of the genre/sub-genre.
Well, where are they?
Already consuming those other titles, but that's now a whole 'nother can of worms.
All of your advice is very well received, but this is something I hadn't really understood until just now. I really don't work with that much of a "backlog" of stuff that I can post, but I can see the benefit of completing a project and then going back and posting up stuff you've already completed while working on the next one. It would give me time to plan and space out my posts so that I could maintain consistancy while I work through a new project.
I don't actually have a ton of unfinished stuff, mostly because 3D is only the base level of my pages. I do A LOT of post processing, to the point where people who aren't savvy with 3D wouldn't necessarily identify it as such right off the bat. As a result, though, any of my unfinished stuff would be in contrast to what I typically put out, and I'd rather not "lift the curtain" on some of my tricks I use, if that makes any sense. I think if you saw how the hotdog was made, then you'd always just see hotdog meat every time you looked at it going forward, so I don't want to do that with my stuff. I'm not tricking anybody, but I also don't want to break the illusion. I hope that made sense.
My pages are fairly large, however... perhaps what I can do is finish my comic, and then go back and snip out some of the larger and cinematic frames for sharing on DA? I would have to be careful to not give too much away from the story, but in the end I don't think it's my gripping narrative that pulls in the readers. I think that if they see some finished panels some will be fine with that amount (which is also fine with me), but some will then want the whole thing (which is also, obviously, the goal).
Thank you so much for your help! Maybe what I'll do is start up a promo thread in the artwork section where I can post some of the stuff I'm talking about.
Oh man, you seem to have a good handle on all of this AND have a good plan.
When I take panels from my comic and post them, I use the hashtag #PanelPull because sometimes I want the actual panel and there is often speech there.
That was a thing I experimented with.
Can't wait to see what you're cooking up.
I should comment to this, because I don't want to look like someone who asks a question and then isn't interested in the answer. I'd say I do have the "making a comic" thing down, but only because I've watched every tutorial (all of yours, by the way), subscribed to every youtube channel, and spent the past 4 years specifically trying to craft a new approach to 3D comics. I think it works for me, probably not everybody, but I'm very happy with the results.
I don't have the part that comes next completely worked out, and you've given me a TON to think about. I particularliy like your points about being completely finished and then kinda "faking" the WiP release stuff. This would be way less stressfull than what I thought I would have to do. I also certanly don't have any of the social media stuff down... I'm pretty bad with that, and I know I need to improve if I'm to be at all successfull, but it isn't in my blood. THanks to you, FirstBastion, and the others who have commented I have a VERY strong baseline for what I can do. I'm so glad I asked here because I thought I had a good plan with this until I talked to you all!
I like the idea of labeling it as a "panel pull", also, so people don't confuse it with a standalone piece of art that doesn't make sense out of context.
I'm so excited to share, also, and a little nervious. I've been working on this for quite some time, and while critical feedback is super important and necessary, I can't help but to be a little worried that everybody will hate it, even though all of the feedback I got on DA for my stuff is positive. THIS crowd is the 3D crowd, and ya'll are experts in compairison to my newbey-ness.
Thanks again!!
Plus use the signature here in the forum to link to your DA page.