This Mortal Coil at the Alternate Press Expo 2017

Over the weekend of September 23-24th I flew up to San Jose to table at the Alternate Press Expo with my friend Yang, who is a fellow game developer/engineer and comic artist. She makes the shoujo manga Red Reminiscence which you can read on Webtoons.

I’ve never exhibited or sold my own art before, and this is the story of how I did that and how I almost didn’t make my #1 best selling book of the weekend, that is my comic The Rabbit and the Moon.

Read on to find out how I prepared for this convention and my thoughts on APE.

Alternate Press Expo: A Big Comittment

I spent the last two and half months preparing for the Alternate Press Expo.

Yang and I talked about it as far back as March of this year. I might have hesitated at the idea when she introduced me to it, but in the end I said yes.

I know it’s a big commitment. I’d have to make merch. I’d have to publish the book. What would my table look like? What else would I have to prepare that I didn’t know about? Would I be mentally prepared for this?

Even though I agreed to it, I still harbored a strong sense of doubt.

”This Mortal Coil will never sell”

“Why am I even doing this?” I think a lot of my self-doubt comes from years of asking that question as I worked on This Mortal Coil. In the end I’m proud of my work, but it’s a tempered, battered kind of pride.

It’s not a perfect story, not even close. The story’s muddled in places. It’s slow to start. I cringe at the awful dialogue (not all of it, but some of it). Some pages look terrible, but I think in almost every respect I improve as I go along. I fought off perfectionism and focused on shipping. I learned how to solve my production problems, cut content, and tighten things up as I made my comic.

The work was hard (and fun), but it was the mental gymnastics I put myself through that was harder. When you get a few years into a project and you don’t have a sense of validation good or bad about what you’re doing, it becomes a hard sell, even to yourself as to why you should continue. In my mind the words still linger:

You could be doing almost anything else, why this? Nobody asked for it. You can quit anytime.

Somehow I always convinced myself to continue. I was always more drawn to the characters and their potential, the art style, and the story I was crafting. All of that overcame the self-doubt. I argued this with myself nearly everyday and though I have the fruit of all that labor, what I remember is the doubt.

I often forget that there is positive praise for This Mortal Coil from peers and friends. When I check my analytics I’m always glad to see someone come by and binge read the comic. I answer the few comments left behind as well. Yes, it’s not all terrible, but leading into July, my first thought was, “This Mortal Coil will never sell.”

Social Media also fueled this lack of validation and a blow to my ego. I’m a terrible marketer, PR person, and social media guru — what do you expect, I’m an engineer, but that’s not much an excuse these days. In order to make it in this new world, you have to be a jack of all trades and willing to step outside your comfort zone.

Still, I don’t know how some Instagram sites have tens-of-thousands of followers and why I can’t crack 300. I hashtagged, pinned, tweeted, liked, hearted, and whatever the new buzzword-thing Silicon Valley web 2.0 wanted me to do. It’s addictive to get likes and followers and disheartening to see the latter disappear as fast as it came. It’s an unhealthy addiction for me, and you know what the best way is to deal with addiction?

Just Quit.

My priority isn’t to post on Instagram or Twitter anymore. I still like browsing on Instagram every so often because of artists I like and Japanese Lolita models I follow. I like connecting with other webcomic creators on Twitter, but beyond that I don’t look to those apps for audience building. When you dig deeper and see how other folks are playing the game it makes me wonder if those apps aren’t just empty shells claiming to be mansions.

Experts tout social media as a means to grow your presence online, but I don’t think “likes” equate to dollars. Having retreated away from social media, I realize I don’t have many traction channels to grow as an artist. I’ll still share. I’ll hashtag on Instagram — I mean heck, I kinda know how to do it, but I’m not going to try as hard as I did, nor organize my activity around those apps.

All of this, left me thinking there was no point to try and sell my work.

Fast Foward to July…

I committed to this venture, and in mid-July I turned my attention to preparing for APE.

First off…the comic book.

I looked at sites like Print Ninja which wanted at least 250 books printed and would cost a couple thousand dollars. It’s a hefty price tag to invest when you’re preparing for failure.

I didn’t want to print a run of the book only to be saddled with hundreds of unsold copies that nobody asked for or wanted.

I could try printing an issue of the comic, like the first 32 pages. It would be a cheaper failure.

Or, maybe it wasn’t worth it to do the book at all. I could do art prints and other merchandise. Maybe I’d only have the coloring book. It made some money on Amazon making it a safer bet.

I told Yang I wasn’t going to do the comic book.

She told me that was a stupid idea.

Well… I’m sure that’s what she thought. She told me I might regret it if I never do it.

She pointed me to some print-on-demand sites like Kablam and Wellspring that would do smaller runs.

I could print 20-25 books. A couple hundred bucks to test the waters. That’s much more reasonable.

And she was right, I would regret not presenting my body of work. If I never do another convention again, I’ll have missed my one and only opportunity. The Rabbit and the Moon has been my artwork for 6 years now. I poured thousands of hours into it to craft a 128-page story, and I owe it to myself to finish this journey.

I went with Kablam as my printer and did a short run of 25 books. Before I submitted to them, I had to rework my manuscript before I could submit it. I asked them a ton of questions which they patiently answered for me. I bought a single copy as a proof before I did the 25 books.

The print was beautiful compared to an earlier one I did with Createspace. If you’d like to see that version here’s the video:

With the Kablam print there are some binding errors with the pages in the front of the book. But, most of the 25 books they sent me turned out decent and I sold those. I’m left with some of the bum copies, but they are perfectly readable even if they aren’t perfect products.

The investment paid off.

I sold 13 books at the Alternate Press Expo, and later a few friends picked up some more copies. At the convention, I got a lot of compliments from folks about the high contrast art style. Sure it’s not thousands of likes or whatever, but hearing people say it and buy the book because they liked the art or like the story I pitched felt validating.

Oh, and having money in the bank is way more validating than any number of likes on a post.

I’m left with 8 books: 7 printed ones for the convention and the original proof I did. If you want one they’re $25 dollars and in limited supply right now. Contact me and I can send you details on how to get one.

If you’re curious, here’s the completed list of what I accomplished between July and September to prepare for APE:

• Created a vertical banner for the booth
• Bought other things to setup stand - cork board and book stands.
• Applied for temp seller permit with the California Board of Equalization
• Sent out TMC order on Kablam
  • Finished cover interior
  • Test print with 1 book — looked most good, asked them about errors.
  • Printed 25 books
• Created Bookmarks and printed with GotPrint.com
• Created 6 11-by-17 inch art prints and printed with CatPrint
• Made cheap business cards with Vista Print — make a simple design
• Square for credit card transaction and app inventory