What am I going to blog about today? You guessed it. The fact that I’m running a Kickstarter campaign to reprint Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire THE COMPLETE SERIES Volume 2! Except it’s not going to be exactly about that. It’s a blog talking about talking about the Kickstarter. You read that correctly.
When you launch a Kickstarter campaign you have to become a Constant Promotion Machine. A living commercial. A carnival barker. A merchant at a bazaar hailing passerby. Pick the comparison you like the most, or the least, and it’s basically what it’s like to promote a Kickstarter. And it’s difficult for me because it’s exactly the opposite of what I’m like.
That’s not to say I’m no good at selling books. Anyone who’s come to see me at a convention can tell you that I enjoy talking to people, I can recite a brief sales pitch and/or summary of the books on my table, and I’m confident about anything that has my name on it. But once the pitch has been pitched, I stop there. I let the work speak for itself, or I’m interested in talking to the person who’s come strolling by as a person, not as a salesman. I thrive on a show floor.
But the modern internet isn’t a show floor, and there aren’t people to speak to face-to-face. For the internet to notice you, and in turn get you noticed, you have to constantly talk about the thing you’re trying to sell. Which makes sense. It’s a machine. A program. An algorithm or whatever. It needs to know your thing is a Real Thing, whether you’re talking nonstop about it or gaming its systems. The process is different, and for me it’s exhausting.
Fatigue comes with the territory, though. On the internet or in real life, sometimes you have to work hard about things you’re passionate about. Put the work in to get the results you want, and all that. Just make sure you don’t overdo it, or your exhaustion will become burnout and your passion will turn into something bitter.
Despite how exhausting promotion is, my passion for comics continues to burn hot, and I believe wholeheartedly in both the Oracle for Hire series and The Legacy.
As of this writing, the Kickstarter stands at 68% funded! With a little under three weeks to go, let’s cover that remaining 32%!