Media interviews -- they sell comics!

DaleLazarov

Hi folks!

I did an interview with The Outhouse (a snarky comics website) and we sold 32 digital comics in 24 hours.  (I don't have a number for the hardcovers we sold during that time.) So I am very eager to do more interviews with comics sites.  Do you guys know who I could contact to set up more of those?  (No podcasts; they're not effective at selling stuff since there is no click-through opportunity although they are fun.)

If you're curious, the interview is here:  http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/features/128945-interview-dale-lazarov-talks-smart-wholesome-gay-comics-smut-censorship-that-infamous-milo-manara-spider-woman-variant-and-the-iphone-6.html

Cheers,

Dale

DaleLazarov

Do people actually respond to posts or am I speaking into a void?

JasonFranks

If we have answers, yeah. 

I don't know who you could contact to setup more interviews. I expect the thing to do is to query the different sites individually and see who bites. Maybe approach individual journalists, if you think they'd be interested in your angle.

DaleLazarov

OK, I'll work on that.  Cheers!

marvinmann

Truly an excellent interview, Dale and a terrific set in influences. Hard to know just where else to go for you, outside of the usual comics websites. The gay sites and erotic sites you've already explored, near as I can tell.

I'd be interested in drawing something for you at some point. Lets talk.

marvinmann

Any interviews available on European sites/magazines, since you seem to have an audience there?

ShawnRichison

I think another way to put it is: Creators who have done interviews on the board, how were they set up?  Through the publisher?  Did you journalists directly?  If so, how did you go about it?  Any advice on approaching an interview, specific to the material?

(I'm looking at some of our higher profile creators... @JustinJordan @BrandonSeifert @Jimmie_Robinson @TrevorAMueller @SteveHorton @RussellLissau @EricPalicki )

BrandonSeifert

On my WFH books, 75% of the interviews were set up through the publisher. Most of the other 25% were either people I didn't know contacting me, or journalists I knew either contacting me about it or me contacting them about it.

For my own projects 95% of the interviews were set up between me and the journalist in question. Either they contacted me, or I contacted them. (This goes for the reviews, too.)

To find comics journalists to interview me, I'd:

1. Find a site where coverage of my project might fit in.
2. Read up on who does what for the site — is it one person, a bunch of people, is there an editorial staff, a features editor, etc.
3. Either contact (a) the editor that seems to handle feature stories, or (b) contact a journalist who's covered comics similar to my project. Briefly tell them who I was, what my project was (and why they should be interested!), and ask if they'd be interested in talking about it for their site.
4. If I didn't hear back from them... follow up a reasonable amount of time (two weeks, 1 month) later and politely let them know I'm still interested in talking.

(Note: Actually finding goddamn contact information for goddamn comics journalists and news sites can be incredibly goddamn difficult. Only rarely do they actually list the info I need on the website. Generally, once I've got the name of someone I think might be interested, I have to research them a bit. I've hit people up for interviews via email, Facebook message, @ replies on Twitter... all kinds of places.

ShawnRichison

That's some invaluable info, thanks Brandon!

DaleLazarov

@marvinmann Sure!  Right now, I am working on a script for Adam Graphite but, after that, we can talk about what you want to draw and etc  And thank you  I tried *Gay Times* but my contact there is no longer there. :-/

@ShawnRichardson Thank you for rephrasing my question and calling in the big guns

@BrandonSeifert Yes, there's a certain, uhm, opacity and unavailability when it comes to folks who can spread the word about you.  Some folks are genuinely busy while others use it as a kind of power-play since you know that, at the same time you're e-mailing them, they are posting pictures of cats wearing capes on Facebook as if they have nothing else to do.  Which is weird, because you've answered every e-mail they've sent you asking for your opinion on whatever cray-cray anti-gay thing a comics celebrity has said or done.  And thank you for the very clear process analysis.

BrandonSeifert

@DaleLazarov:

"Some folks are genuinely busy while others use it as a kind of power-play since you know that, at the same time you're e-mailing them, they are posting pictures of cats wearing capes on Facebook as if they have nothing else to do."

I assume that at least some of the people you're referring to are like me. If I'm posting a bunch of stuff on Facebook or another social network, it's not because I don't have work tasks to do. It's either because I'm so daunted by the sheer number of work tasks I have to get done, that I'm blowing off steam by dicking around online. Or it's because I've hit the point in my work day when I simply can't complete any more work tasks, and am blowing off end-of-day steam on the internet. No "power plays" involved.

JustinJordan

Yeah, I agree with Brandon. I'm sure sometimes it's a power play, because assholes exist, but that's behavior that generally you probably ought not to assume is malicious.

For instance, I get 50 to 100 emails a day, essentially every day. In fact, I was gone from my computer (I don't have a smart phone) yesterday for 24 hours and had 71 emails in my inbox. It'd have been more except I was gone overnight rather during the day when I get most of them.

If I get behind on emails, it becomes A Thing. Where sorting through hundreds of emails is stressful enough that I procrastinate. Which, reasonably, I shouldn't do and, frankly, I feel bad because I'm lightly fucking people over.

Even beyond that, if I waited until I was done with work to screw around online, that'd be the last anyone ever saw of me, because my work is literally never done. The printing press always needs fed.

BrandonSeifert

One of the weird axioms I learned in journalism was "Don't attribute to malice what can be more easily explained as incompetence." Keeping that in mind has served me well over the years.

(Especially when it comes to working in comics.)

Jimmie_Robinson

@BrandonSeifert - well said.

DaleLazarov

One of the weird axioms I learned in journalism was "Don't attribute to malice what can be more easily explained as incompetence." Keeping that in mind has served me well over the years.

(Especially when it comes to working in comics.)

Fair enough...

Jimmie_Robinson

I've been guilty of this in other ways. Often I've sat on the sidelines waiting for the phone to ring and thinking that I've been forgotten, when the fact is I should be making those reminder calls to those who need to become aware that I'm available.

It's mostly my fault for waiting to be invited to a party instead of crashing the party. I can be too polite at times.