Category Archives: Self-Publishing / Xeric

“Tonoharu: Part One”—SOLD OUT! (Almost–see details below)

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Just got some cool news from my distributor: they’ve ran out of the second printing of Tonoharu: Part One!

I intend to reprint, but I’ll have to do a lot of prep work for it, so it’ll be months before a new printing comes out. I don’t expect to have it out until sometime in 2013…

So if you want Tonoharu: Part One for the upcoming holiday season, get it now while you still can!

WHERE TO BUY TONOHARU: PART ONE:

Direct From Me:
My distributor is out of copies, but I personally still have a couple dozen pristine copies left & available for sale. Not only that, but they’re from the first printing! AND a limited number of them (about 10) are signed! (I’ll update this entry if the signed copies run out.) I’m in Japan so I can’t sign more until I visit home next summer, so if you want a signed copy (or a copy at all, for that matter) order now!
Link to My Store>>>


From Amazon.com
As I write this blog entry, Amazon says they still have 2 copies. I don’t know if those are the very last two, or if they’ll be getting one last shipment or what, but either way, they’re scrapping the bottom of the barrel. There’s also some really, really cheap new/used copies being sold through third party sellers on Amazon. I imagine they’ll go up in price once the book is listed as out-of-print, so get ‘em now while they’re cheap!
Link to Tonoharu: Part One on Amazon.com>>>


From your favorite local bookseller
If they have a copy, grab it, because it’ll be a while before they get any more!

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That’s it for now! My sincere thanks to everyone who supported me and picked up the book, making two sold-out printings possible! Here’s hoping printing #3 does okay too!

Oh, and there’s still a TON of copies of Tonoharu: Part Two left, so… pick that up too, won’t you? Ha ha…
(^^;)

3 Things I Learned When My Site’s Traffic Increased 25,000% in One Day

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Unique visitors per hour. The flat line at the bottom is how many I usually get.

For the past few months, my site has averaged maybe, oh, 75-125 visitors or so a day. Then for a 24-hour period beginning on May 10th at 9am CST, 48,342 people came to my site. That’s more unique visitors than my site had gotten in the past three years combined. Here’s what happened:

I released a couple new e-comics two weeks ago (yup, gotta get a plug in for them somewhere) so I’ve been looking for ways to promote them. I’d heard of Reddit, a social linking website, and had visited it a couple of times. I’ve always had a vaguely positive opinion of it, but never made it a part of my regular internet surfing routine and wasn’t intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the site.

But I figured I’d give them a shot, and submitted the first installment of the Kameoka Diaries to their comics section. I figured I’d get, oh, 100 visitors and maybe four or five comments.

So yeah. I got a few more than that.

The whole thing has been a real learning experience. Here are three things I took away from it:
Continue reading →

Self-Publishing Presentation

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A few months ago, I gave a presentation about self-publishing graphic novels at the Loft Literary Center. Daily Cross Hatch correspondent Sarah Morean taped the whole thing, and recently assembled it into a series of web videos, which can be found here:
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2011/02/04/self-publishing-with-lars-martinson-parts-1-8-of-8/ 

Thanks again to the Loft for having me, and to Sarah for making the presentation available online!

Upcoming Presentations!

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Just a reminder that I have two presentations that are just around the corner:

This Friday, January 28th, 2011, I’ll be speaking at the University of Minnesota about Japanese Calligraphy and how it has benefited me as a cartoonist. All the details can be found here.

Then just a few days later on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011, I’ll be talking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design about my comics, and my experiences with self-publishing. Details for that one can be found here.

So if you’re in the Twin Cities area, come out if you can!

(Note: I’m running myself ragged trying to finish up these presentations, so there will be no new blog entry this Friday.)

Lecture at MCAD with Yours Truly

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I’ll be giving a lecture about my work at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011. I plan on discussing both the artistic and logistics of cartooning/self-publishing. The event is free and open to the public, so come out if you can!

Presentation Details
What:  Lecture at MCAD with Yours Truly
When:  Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at 1:00pm
Where: Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Auditorium 150, 2501 Stevens Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404 [Google Maps]

Thoughts on Selling Comics at Conventions (Part 2)

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Can I sell you some cartoon books, sir or madam??

Last Saturday I had a table at the Twin Cities Book Festival. It’s the third show I’ve ever “tabled” at, and was my most successful so far.

This was probably due in large part to the fact that I had a new book to sell (Tonoharu: Part Two). Or maybe I just got lucky this time around. But I think part of it was that I’m getting better at convention sales.

I’ve previously written about my thoughts on selling at conventions here. For this entry, I thought I’d write continue writing about that, with a focus on table presence.

****

At the last convention I did (the Minneapolis Indie Xpo) I took a picture of my table so I could use it for a blog recap I wrote about the event. It wasn’t until I looked at the photo later that I realized how sparse and depressing my setup was:


The empty coffee cup was a good design choice, don’t you think?

So this time around, I tried to jazz up my space a bit more (see image at the top of this post). At MIX, I noticed many exhibitors brought a table cloth to decorate their table. It’s a small thing, but it makes a difference. So I did that this year. I also got little book stands to give the book covers more visibility.


My entire creative output for the last seven years

I only have three books for sale, so to fill up the rest of the space I designed a tabloid-size poster with quotes about the book, to try to pique people’s interest. If you want to closer look at it, you can download a high resolution PDF of it here (file size: 1.1MB, right click to save). Feel free to print a bunch out and hang them up around town, folks! :-)

I also brought framed original art. I didn’t sell any, but they served as good conversation pieces when I talked to people about my work. And again, they filled up the space and made for a more appealing table.


Either end of my table

I also finally got business cards printed up. (Okay, I know; that’s Networking 101, and I should have done it ages ago.) They were good to give to people who were interested in my work, but who weren’t ready to buy. Quite a few people grabbed one as they passed by. Since I had them printed up specifically for conventions, the cards just have my name and website. I figure that’s all most people would want anyway; a reminder of who I am and where they can find out more about my work.


My card

Well, that’s it for now. See you all at my next convention appearance, at the Miami Book Fair on November 20th-21st! (You’re all coming down for that, right?)

Previously: Thoughts on Selling Comics at Conventions (Part 1)