Algorithm for Promoting Comics: Key Stages

I’ve always been curious about how launching a comic book differs from launching a game or a startup. If there’s no difference, could we use the same toolkit to create a unified launch algorithm for a commercial comic or manga?

Well, let’s start creating this document. I’ve drafted a lot of rough versions, and now we need to gather everything into something presentable. Blogging helps structure thoughts, so I’ll be transforming these drafts into final versions and posting them here.

Today we’ll start with the main thing - the key stages. I tried to look at the path from the desire to create a comic to its release. I explored what should happen and why. As a result, I came up with the following model of stages for creating and promoting a comic.

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Today we’ll take a look at it. I’ll briefly describe the essence of each stage. In the following posts, we’ll dive into each stage and see what needs to be done there.

Let’s go.

1. Finding an Idea

The very first and most crucial stage. We look for the comic idea that we will create. This is an analytical stage where we study the market, competitors, the audience, and our capabilities.

If we are talking about commercial development with the aim of making a profit, this stage will help us choose an idea with a higher chance of success. It’s important for the comic to be potentially interesting to both the audience and ourselves.

We’ll talk more about this key stage next time. We’ll discuss the parameters for evaluating comics and what to pay attention to when searching for an idea.

2. Testing Idea Perception

We need to understand whether our idea sparks interest among the potential audience. We must ensure that the next 1-2-3-6 months are not wasted on creating a comic that no one cares about. Therefore, we create elements of the comic, snippets, and show them to the audience. If we see interest, we move forward. If not, we go back to the previous stage and search again.

At this stage, no one has read your story yet. The full story probably doesn’t even exist. There are trial pages, a GIF, and a description of the idea. If this already hooks readers, we can move on and test their perception of the gameplay.

3. Testing Story Perception

It’s good when there is interest in the GIFs or the first pages of the comic. But this does not guarantee that the comic itself will turn out well. Everything can fall apart if the story itself doesn’t captivate readers. Therefore, the next stage is creating a pilot version that can be read by the audience.

This could be a “pilot,” an “animation,” or anything that you and the readers can engage with to experience the new world. If the comic resonates with readers or shows potential (basically liked but needs further work), you can move forward.

At this stage, we can still test the concept’s perception and promote the comic. Since the first version appears, you can record more animations, make GIFs, new screenshots, and so on. All this is shown to readers. If it results in additional wishlists and attention, it’s a reason to believe more in the game.

4. Development and Promotion of the Comic

This is the main stage in terms of time and is entirely dependent on the previous ones. If an idea was found that readers are not interested in, all subsequent work will be a torment and disappointment. You’ll do a lot but get few results. It’s frustrating.

During the development and promotion stage, we already fully believe in the comic and are engaged in its creation and gathering wishlists (there will be a separate post about them). We will break down this stage into sub-stages because the list of marketing activities before the pilot is one, and it increases after the pilot.

6. Release

We release the comic and try to attract maximum attention at this moment. The accumulation of wishlists was precisely for this purpose - super attention at release. Here we have a number of unique marketing opportunities, and we will talk about them separately.

7. Post-Release

This is the stage where we continue to profit from the comic. We no longer attract attention just for the sake of it; we try to sell. We work on attracting new audiences and ensuring that those who have us in their wishlists buy the comic, at least during sales.

Next, we will analyze each stage in detail. I will likely make separate posts for each stage and show them on the blog. Share your thoughts in the comments. I read everything.