Advice on the whole comic-pimpery thing

[bluemeanie]

So I've been told I have to do a website about my book thats coming out.
Dont worry ..... it contains ZERO "please donate money to help fund my dream" bullshit.

That said I suck at self promotion and am struggling to come up with ideas to basically disguise the fact the website, like all similar sites, is basically just a big advert

So, if you got two minutes can you have a quick look? Any comments, suggestions gratefully received. Its my first book out (well, technically the 2nd but the first out in Jan is kinda naff) and I wanna give it a good go as I'm kinda proud of it. Site is live obviously but not gonna pimp it out for a week or so yet

http://damagedgoodscomic.blogspot.com/

cheers

[Trout]

Looks fine to me, mate.

I'll keep an eye out and spread the word when the time comes. All the best with it.

- Trout

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Dont worry ..... it contains ZERO "please donate money to help fund my dream" bullshit.

[Emperor]

Make a trailer video and get it on YouTube.

Then pass that around with a bit of a press release.

The comics review sites (useful for later when the book is out) also tend to accept press releases and the ones I mentioned tend to be the higher profile ones with the most traffic and smaller sites pick up news from them:
http://www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,26052.0.html

Also get it on social media and perhaps run a competition on some of them - getting people to retweet something on Twitter to be eligible, for example.

That is just the basic bog standard stuff - if there is a "hook" (perhaps something controversial - a zombie clown raping Jonathan Ross with his suppurating comedy penis?) then you can use that to leverage some publicity. If you were feeing cheeky you could send someone like the Daily Mail information on the comic in a sensationalist "ban this disgusting filth" manner (if you were feeling uber-cheeky you could send the email as a concerned member of the public worried about the effect this will have on our already degenerate youth - "they'll be raping dogs on our drives after this!!") as that kind of coverage will also do the rounds of blogs and comics news sites generating a tonne of "well if they say I shouldn't be reading that only makes me want to read it more" publicity.

[DoomBot]

Content looks fine, but it took me too long to figure out what the book was called. Write the title bigger and bolder.

Congrats and Good luck

[NeilFord]

I think the website design lacks focus, it took me a wee minute to work out what was going on, and i already know what the subject is.

The book cover is so good, I'd be tempted to make more use of that, work a wee theme in that will establish what the book is about and let the cover sell it?

I've mocked a wee design up in 5 mins, based only on the notion that the cover looks a little like looking in a bathroom mirror - given more thought, a packing crate with blood ooozing from it [damaged goods? ] might be better... anyway, you will have more idea of the content than me.

Just my 2 pennys, hope it's useful.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

I would buy this. Simply because I love Chilly's art and ADMIRE McAuliffe's blogging skills. I would recommend a Facebook page - always a good idea. And rigid rigid conventioning.

[bluemeanie]

Thanks for all the tips and especially that art Neil.
If I can find a way to make it a permanent thing on the first page would you mind if I used that?

[SuperSurfer]

I reckon you need to be bolder with this and shout a bit. It's a bit subtle for the subject matter. You've got a lot of great images to work with. I would suggest a wider main banner – span the whole width of the page.

That animated gif is fine but I don't think that is the right spot for it. I would put it in the right hand margin. Beautiful cover image (well, ugly but you know what I mean) but you don't necessarily have to show it thumbnail size in the banner as it's impact you require. You can pull it apart. Have the title on one line and zoom in on one of the eyes or mouth perhaps.

I would use the text style of the cover for main head.

What about using one of those templates on blogger where you have a background image on the sides. Like this forum or as on Twitter pages?

I would also say you need to make it more obvious that this is about a new book, rather than a horror blog called 'Damaged Goods'. Need to be more direct on that one.

Might as well use some colour in the text headings and links. Could use colours in main image perhaps.

I would lose the techy type blogger diagonal lines – need to be bit more rough for this.

Hope that helps.

Ok, did this super fast. A bit of a mess and maybe too dark but gets across some of what I am on about.

[NeilFord]

No worries Rich, use in anyway you like. Could do you a quick custom theme if you like, wouldn't take too long?

[bluemeanie]

Thanks guys. All taken onboard. Am gonna have another crack at it tonight

Any and all help appreciated Neil but dont want to put you out mate.

[SuperSurfer]

I came across this which illustrates some of the things I was on about – especially regarding boldness of main header. http://www.thedeadcomic.com/issue-1

[bluemeanie]

Thanks again gents

Have given it a premiminary working over based on advice given. Gonna keep at it tonight and tomorrow