{"id":143,"date":"2008-03-03T12:37:28","date_gmt":"2008-03-03T18:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/?p=143"},"modified":"2013-07-04T21:51:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-05T03:51:38","slug":"131-dr-debunko-and-onward-sept-26-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/archives\/143","title":{"rendered":"131. Dr. DeBunko and Onward Sept 26, 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chriswisniaarts.com\/images\/blogimage.jpg?resize=144%2C216\" onmouseout=\"undefined\" onmouseover=\"undefined\" title=\"undefined\" align=\"left\" height=\"216\" width=\"144\" \/><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Well I\u2019ve heard from basically everyone I was waiting to hear from after San Diego, and it\u2019s looking like everything is a no-go.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Image thinks the Doris Danger books are just not marketable enough, even though they enjoyed them.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>AIT\/Planet LAR thinks Limbo Cafe is too weird for them.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The movie studio I was talking with really enjoyed the Lump, but wasn\u2019t expecting the tabloid twists I threw in at the end, and prefer to finance more straight-forward horror stories.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>So once again, I\u2019m back to self-publishing.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>On the other hand, I\u2019m building up contacts, so that each project I finish, I will have more people to send it to for potential future projects.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">I got the orders for \u201cDr. DeBunko: The Short Stories,\u201d and was disappointed to see them at 279, which is my &#8211; third? &#8211; lowest selling, lowest grossing title to date.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I had spent a lot of time trying to hype and promote it, so this was especially a disappointment.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It makes me wonder just how much the hype actually helps, since in this case, it appears not to have helped.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>In my usual insecure, pessimistic fashion, I wonder if I shouldn\u2019t just do whatever the hell I feel like, and if people buy it, great, and if they don\u2019t, then at least I didn\u2019t waste all that goddamn time trying to hype it.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!-- google_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5034466104138562\"; \/* 336x280 Large Rectangle *\/ google_ad_slot = \"3084999835\"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; \/\/--> <\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> <\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Here are some things I did to try and hype the book.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I sent out emails to fans and shops on my spam list, and to editors and online comics organizations.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I sent 600 flyers to my distributor to get out to stores, which they never did anything with (because my new representative apparently didn\u2019t know how to do what I asked him to do, so he just didn\u2019t do it), despite all the time and money it cost me to produce them and get them to him.<span>\u00a0 <\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">For the first time ever, and I\u2019ve been told this is just what you have to do (see how I learn with experience), I sent advance copies of the full issue to a dozen interviewers and reviewers.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The only hype I know of which it received, as a result of this, was from my steady supporters at www.comixfan.com (Thanks a ton, guys!<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I don\u2019t know why you keep doing it).<span>\u00a0 <\/span>They did an unprecedented interview AND sneak peek.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I felt excited and good about that, but then frustration ensued\u2026<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Their website allows viewers to include comments of their own, and before I had even been informed that the interview was up, a reader had publicly posted a comment, directly following my interview.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>He flatly announced he would pass on my book, because of my overuse of the word \u201cwhacko,\u201d which he determined was my synonym for \u201cmentally disabled.\u201d<span>\u00a0 <\/span>He concluded that I must be a \u201creal winner.\u201d<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Then at the bottom of his character-bashing announcement, he used the opportunity to invite readers to see a sneak-peek of his own upcoming comic.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Unbelievable\u2026<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Glad I could not only be the public demonstration of your ridicule and scorn, but also be used as a marketing opportunity for you, friend.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">I guess I should be grateful that after two years of self-publishing, this was my first attack against my work or my character.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>But I really took it personally, and was in a funk for the rest of the day.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I spent that time concocting a reply to his slam, in which I politely and defensively explained that I don\u2019t really despise people with mental disorders.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>He actually wrote back again that he accepted my apology, which is good, because if he had tried to escalate things, I would have had to have let him have the last word, rather than continue an idiotic dialogue on the defensive.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Interestingly, he even admitted he should check out the Skeptics Society, which I suspect may have been a part of his offensive reply to my interview.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">What this has taught me is that my paranoid fear of saying things that will be either accidentally stupid, or taken out of context, misconstrued, or that will piss people off, is absolutely justified!<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I had better be even more paranoid from here on out!<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!-- google_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5034466104138562\"; \/* 336x280 Large Rectangle *\/ google_ad_slot = \"3084999835\"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; \/\/--> <\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> <\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">But other things are looking up.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>While sending out hype for the Dr. DeBunko book, I have managed to wrangle up a new potential friend through comicon.com THE PULSE, who was kind enough to put together an interview on the subject of Dr. DeBunko and even a little hyping of the upcoming Doris Danger sixteen page comics.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Another ally that I\u2019ve been in contact with for years, who is at last doing me another huge help in the marketing department is the Skeptic Society.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Their Skeptic Magazine\u2019s official podcast, Skepticality, has asked me to participate in a podcast, and I\u2019m both excited about it and worried that who the hell knows what crazy-assed stupid thing will come out of my mouth, when I\u2019m trying to wow basically all the literati I wish most to impress and get in good graces with.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m breathing hard just thinking about it.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Doing books on a monthly schedule for three months in a row is a weird feeling.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I only just send out an announcement and start getting images printer-ready on the first book, and all of a sudden the second book\u2019s announcement is due.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>On top of that, I suddenly decided \u201cDoris Danger Greatest Army Battles\u201d just wasn\u2019t quite working for me, and a month before it needs to go to the printer, I decided I need to completely redo three pages, followed by needing two new pages for the following month\u2019s \u201cDoris Danger in Outer Space.\u201d<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Five pages is usually nothing for me to complete over a two-month period, but now\u2026I have a kid\u2026<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Having a kid is like this.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>He screams and screams, so you hold him and rock him and shush him, and the next thing you know it\u2019s time for bed and you haven\u2019t been able to do anything else all day, except trying to keep him from crying all that time.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It feels like what little time I have to do something, I\u2019m rushing to pound out just a few minutes of work, since I know that sleeping angel will be screaming again long before I\u2019ve finished what I need to do.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Once again, Elizabeth, my wife and the mother of my child, is so supportive of my struggling comics career (I say struggling because despite working hard and trying everything I can think of, I remain unknown in the industry, and I\u2019ve lost thousands of dollars every issue I\u2019ve put out). She\u2019s been willing to take our little Oscar and let me work, way more than I deserve.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5034466104138562\";\n\/* 336x280 Large Rectangle *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"3084999835\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">I\u2019m realizing, as soon as I get these last couple pages finished, I have no books necessarily planned.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I can theoretically start any project I want.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s kind of an exciting sensation to think about that, because I always enjoy the excitement of the new ideas more than the execution of the old ones.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">Although I do feel like 1. I should do another twenty pages of Doris Danger stories, and then collect them in a second humongous treasury with the two upcoming issues, and 2. I might like to pound through Limbo Cafe and put that project behind me as well.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">So most likely, that will be the game plan, just completing as much work as I can, as quickly as I can.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well I\u2019ve heard from basically everyone I was waiting to hear from after San Diego, and it\u2019s looking like everything is a no-go.\u00a0 Image thinks the Doris Danger books are just not marketable enough, even though they enjoyed them.\u00a0 AIT\/Planet LAR thinks Limbo Cafe is too weird for them.\u00a0 The movie studio I was talking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary-of-a-struggling-comics-artist"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"cwisnia","author_link":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/archives\/author\/cwisnia"},"uagb_comment_info":37530,"uagb_excerpt":"Well I\u2019ve heard from basically everyone I was waiting to hear from after San Diego, and it\u2019s looking like everything is a no-go.\u00a0 Image thinks the Doris Danger books are just not marketable enough, even though they enjoyed them.\u00a0 AIT\/Planet LAR thinks Limbo Cafe is too weird for them.\u00a0 The movie studio I was talking&hellip;","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}