As many of you know, I kick off each year with a certain mindset. I wouldn't call it a "resolution" as more of a goal. A set of goals in fact. It's like, being on a boat at the beginning of a year long voyage and setting all my dials to point me in a certain direction. I then set sail aiming for that imagined spot on the horizon. But, as life and metaphors go, things rarely sail smoothly. The boat could spring a leak. It could encounter a huge storm and throw everything off course. Or maybe the winds are just low, making the trip much longer than expected.
Now that I've reached the half-way point of the year, it's time to check back in with the ship, and the dials and see how far off course I am from when I began back in January.
At the beginning of the year I enthusiastically announced that I wanted to "Maximize Current Resources!" Which I defined as meaning something along the lines of, use the stuff I already have in place to their full potential.
I've got a website, and a portable art booth setup and an Etsy shop and a newsletter, all of which can be leveled up in order to maximize sales, experience, and outreach.
Besides going back through all the ways I said I could level those things up I'll go ahead and spoil the ending for you: besides my art booth, I did not maximize those resources.
Quickly: My Etsy sales are quite down from years before. It's not entirely Etsy's fault as I don't really put a lot of energy into marketing my shop. I just...don't have the energy to keep plugging Etsy all day every day. I did attempt to revamp my website, but gave up choosing instead to build a quaint page on my website about my comics with links to Etsy for those interested in purchasing physical copies of my comics. It's not ideal, but it's something. What I did do-and continually do-is find ways to level up my art booth and get closer to nailing down a sort of brand identity that the booth can bring when at shows. I've made incremental changes in how I display my work, and what work I'm choosing to share (which I might could go into at another time). But, my booth is what's gotten the most attention since the early days of 2024.
Somewhere in that same New Year's post I mentioned increasing my newsletter subscriptions which...I finally implemented (just a month ago) at a recent show and it was pretty successful!
But isn't all. I also listed some "tangible" goals that I wanted to meet by the end of the year. They were:
Kickstart, print, and deliver The After Death Book Two
Finish the comic Tourists (for real this time?)
Start (again) saving money
Finish at least two other comic projects-no matter how big or small.
Reach financial stability enough to not have to stress about anything relating to money.
Take my family on a Big Bend trip in October/November.
So let's go over those.
Kickstart The After Death Book Two--working on the campaign now, hopefully will be fully funded and will happen in the next couple of months.
Finish the comic Tourists--god this book...it haunts me. I did finish drawing and inking the entire thing, so partial credit at this time. But the jury is still out if I'm able to get it finished by the end of the year. Recently I've had a mental break-through concerning this comic and I think it's next on my list of hills to climb. Stay tuned.
Start saving money--Okay, we do have a very small nest egg. Very small, but it's a start.
Finish at least two other comic projects--I was already wrapping up We Were All Lions by the beginning of the year, so that one shouldn't count. And I'm about to send SHOPsquatch off to print. So that's at least one. I'm pretty confident that by the end of 2024 I'll have one more under my belt-NOT including The After Death.
Reach financial stability--a constant battle that I'm still fighting.
Take a trip to Big Bend in Oct/Nov.---this one looks like it's actually going to happen! We're making plans as we speak.
After writing all this down in black and white, looks like I'm not doing too bad here in the middle of 2024, eh?
The reason I do this little check in at the middle of the year is mostly to take a moment to re-evaluate. Like I mentioned: I set my sights on a certain spot on the horizon before I set sail. Now's the time to look at what direction I'm actually headed and to think about the best way to move forward from this point on the map. It's obvious my whole Maximize Current Resources bit was a flop. I do not need to put all my eggs in Etsy or my website's basket. The idea was to try and find ways to increase my bottom line. But, if I'm being honest, I'm still at a point in my career as a cartoonist where I'm just happy to be noticed. That bottom line will increase naturally the more I find myself in front of people.
At the risk of stretching short attention spans even further, allow me to unpack this a bit.
I do believe that social media as a tool for finding a new audience is at an end. Which has creators like me wondering what will replace it? I think that's the wrong question to ask. I don't think anything will replace what social media was. Going forward, I want to learn the lessons that the false promises of social media taught me. Which essentially is: you can't wait around for someone to find you. No more tossing my artwork into the tornado of the endless scroll amidst a thousand other creators who are all tossing their artwork into the same digital storm. The question I need to ask is "What new ways can show up in front of people." Not just my artwork, but me-as an artist. As a person. In Real LIfe. This is the strategy I'll be adopting from this point forward in the journey. Getting in front of people.
I'm not the only one talking about this either, Michelle Warner-a small business strategist-says:
People need to know you exist.
Then they need to like you.
Then they need to buy something from you.
I'm still in camp number 1. There's still a lot of people who don't know I exist. And I already have number 2 in the bag because shit, I'm a super likable guy. And when it comes to the question of "What if no one likes my art?" I lean pretty heavy on what comic creator Terry Moore said to me once in answer to that question:
"Not possible. Too many humans for that. With this planet covered in humans you can be assured there are people who will be in sync with you and enjoy your art."
What's the next step then? Just getting in front of more people face to face. Another step in this direction is happening as you read this, as I'll be at The Greater Austin Comic Con-a big two day long convention. My first "big convention" of the year and one I hope will add to my figuring out just where my audience is on this big huge planet.
I don't have all the answers yet. Each show, each appearance, each meet-up informs the next one. But, I'm trying to take solace in the idea that if you want different results you have to start doing things differently. I know that now, and so I'm setting a new course. Hoist the sails ye scurvy dogs, I've got stories to tell!
