(AVG. READING TIME: 6 mins.)

(Photo Credit: kevin dooley)

Comic Conventions are crowded, overly crowded. The venues are often huge and packed that it tends to get somewhat difficult to look for a title that’s new, interesting, and unique.

The big problem, then, is how to attract those potential buyers to your booth.

This post will help you discover …

1. Why Being Remarkable Is Critical
2. How to Stand Out at Conventions
3. Real-Life Examples
4. 3 Simple Ways to Be Noticed

Why Being Remarkable Is Critical

When you walk into a bookstore or a comic book shop, what’s the first thing you see? Books. Tons and tons of books, all lined up in rows and columns. Let’s say that you’re a no-name comic book creator yourself and just recently had your first issue published. You head to the counter and ask the saleslady if they have your title available. They say that they’ve never heard of that book before.

You decide to search for it yourself amongst the load and loads of issues lined up on the shelves and tables. They’re alphabetized, so it’s pretty simple. Yet you can’t help but feel that no one’s ever going to buy your comic book. There are just too many other options that they could easily choose from. And that’s the big question you have to ask yourself…

“Why should anyone buy your comic over other, more popular titles?”

The fact is that they shouldn’t. You’ve just got a first issue. There’s no reason they should choose your book over the rest.

What’s that you say? But your book has better drawings, better coloring, better story than all the other overly-hyped material that’s out in the market? Oh, I don’t doubt that possibility for a second. But that’s not the problem. A lot of good stories get shoved down the ranks for their lesser alternatives. It happens in Hollywood all the time, for one example.

I mean, why did Firefly and Freaks and Geeks get cancelled, whereas shows like Gossip Girl get 6 seasons? There’s no justice in that! (No offense to Gossip Girl fans)

“What do I do, then? How do I avoid obscurity?”

Well, the problem here lies with our modern day lifestyle. We find ourselves in a world where there are WAY too many choices, and not enough time. We’re bombarded with all sorts of alternatives and mediums for entertainment: TV, Tablets, Smart Phones, the Internet, Video Games, Movies, Books. And oftentimes, many would prefer all the rest over reading a book.

“So how do I get attention for my book already?”

That’s what we’re here to try and find out.

How to Stand Out at Conventions

A convention is just another big comic book store—but with more people gathered inside all at once. Try to imagine it as one big bookshelf. You see the spines of every single book on the shelf. You don’t know any of the titles there, making it harder for you to decide which one to buy. The trick, then, is simple:

Make your comic remarkable.

What is remarkable? Brilliant author and marketing expert, Seth Godin, defines remarkable as “WORTH MAKING A REMARK ABOUT.” And then he retells his parable of the Purple Cow.

Let me re-envision the parable using my earlier example of the bookstore:

Let’s say you’ve got a short amount of time left on your lunch break—say, ten minutes. After work, though, you’ve got a long commute and you want to keep yourself occupied. So you decide to buy a book.

You walk into the nearest bookstore and find it’s totally cluttered, disorganized, and filled with titles you’ve never even heard of. Nothing catches your eye at first glance, and you don’t want to just pick up any book. You want your money’s worth. You try to scan one shelf, one book at a time, for the remainder of your break.

“Book, book, book, book… wait a minute, what’s this?”

When Seth Godin sold his first 10,000 copies of Purple Cow, they were inside purple milk cartons. When he sold his follow up, Free Prize Inside, the books were contained inside cereal boxes. (Both were snatched up almost instantly, by the way.)

Imagine that on the bookshelf for a moment: book, book, book, book… milk carton? Cereal box?

Now imagine that put into practice at a comic con. Imagine people walking around carrying milk cartons and cereal boxes. Is it remarkable? Of course! It would get people talking and asking questions, “Why is everyone carrying around milk cartons and cereal boxes?”

Why, you just got the whole convention talking about your little product! You got their attention! Now you have to sustain it by churning out a comic that is in itself remarkable. It has good art and a good story. If you’ve got all that working for you, you’re in business!

Real-Life Examples

In the publishing world, a certain number of books have taken the world by storm with their innovative way of marketing and packaging their books.

1 The adventure novel series, The 39 Clues is one that sold 8.5 million copies in 2 years, and has been translated into 24 languages. What’s different about it? The book comes with collectible game cards that facilitate interaction with its young adult audience. It’s a small, practically inexpensive innovation that greatly affected the selling of the book. Why? Of course, kids that bought the book would show their friends and classmates the book and the cards. It would get them talking, spreading the word.

3 What’s so different about Mouse Guard? It’s a square book, for one. At the most it contains up to four panels per page. It looks like a children’s book at first glance. Its coloring is amazing! Completely different from your typical digital coloring in most comics. All these elements of design worked together to create this gorgeous comic book.

3 Simple Ways to Be Noticed

Conclusion

The conclusion is simple, then, if you want your comic to stand out amongst the rest.

BE REMARKABLE.

What does that mean, exactly? Two things…

1. Go to the edges. Be different.
2. Don’t play it safe. Safe is boring. Safe is risky.