Jamais Jochim
Bio
I'm the guy who knows every last fact about Spider-man and if I don't I'll track it down. I love bad movies, enjoy table-top gaming, and probably would drive you crazy if you weren't ready for it.
Stories (296)
Filter by community
The Usual Marketing Problems
I'll probably run this into the ground, but artists suck at marketing. While you should definitely take a class or three in marketing, this means that you need to be aware that you are likely to commit some of the of the worst marketing mistakes known to man when you first start. It can only help to figure out what those mistakes are ahead of time so you can at least attempt to head them off at the pass. As these mistakes can cause the death of your project before you even begin, it is worth discussing them at the early stages of your project, preferably before your premier day.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
The Lines That Separate Homage, Parody, and Infringement
You do not want to get between a mama bear and her cubs. A mama bear will do whatever it takes to protect her cubs and it doesn't matter if the danger is perceived or otherwise. Some companies are the same when it comes to their intellectual properties: Even the slightest challenge is a reason to unleash the lawyers. While some companies are more casual letting others infringe on their rights, all companies will only let others do so much with their IPs.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Digital Marketing Venues
One of the things that a lot of people tend to forget is that books do not market themselves. A lot of people have this idea that when you publish a book that is all you need to do; it becomes part of the rotation of advertisements on the site that you published it on and that's it. You don't need to lift a finger and you can move on to the next project.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
How to Build an Audience
One of the hardest things for most writers is establishing an audience. This is an extremely important issue that needs to be solved; without an audience, you are writing to the ether. Without an audience, you have no one to build a buzz for your book, no one to buy your book, and no one who cares. Even if you are just posting pages to be read online, you need someone to read your pages; that's your audience.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Using TikTok For Marketing
TikTok is sort of an interesting creature. It's a social media platform where you post short videos; the topic of those videos can be whatever you want them to be, and people definitely take advantage of that. Better yet, TikTok has a rudimentary editing interface that allows a user to edit video recorded by his phone or computer. This makes it great for those looking to get the word out about their writing or associated merchandise and possibly expand their audience.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Don't Market Like an Ice Cream Truck
One of the highlights of summer is the ice cream truck. There are few sounds that bring as much pleasure to kids during the summer as the bright, cheerful sounds of the ice cream truck. While the treats can be downright scary looking as the eyes of some treats are partially melted before refreezing, the kids don't care so much for what they look like so much as the sweet, sweet taste.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Why You Should Crowdfund
Crowdfunding is something every independent artist should look into at some point. The concept is pretty simple: You put out your shingle on a crowdfunding site, market the heck out of it, and hopefully it will help you raise the money you need for your project. In most businesses you have investors; crowdfunding just makes that a little more transparent. In this case, you let everyone know that you have a project that needs to be financed and that there are different tiers for different investors; then those interested contribute as much as they feel the project is worth.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
How to Create a Great Blurb
It's a sad statement that books are sold by their covers, and that definitely applies to the back cover. The blurb can help or harm the book's chances of being sold; this makes it a vital part of the book's marketing. The problem is that most writers simply don't write marketing copy very well; it just takes a different sort of mentality to write copy for marketing than it does for the book itself. Thus, writers need some instruction on how to write the blurb for their work.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Reasons to Love Instagram
Of all the various social media platforms, none is better for an artist than Instagram. The site allows the artist to post their works with limited commentary, as well as look at what other artists are doing; given that artists should always be looking into what others are doing, this is pretty good for artists. However, artists also need to be able to network and use a platform to sell their works; while sites such as Deviantart have served this function in the past, too many of those platforms have faded into the various stripes of irrelevancy.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
When to Start Selling Merchandise
One of the problems with running an online business is the merchandise side. Online businesses chiefly make money through three different aspects (advertising, books, and merchandise), with most money generally coming from merchandise. That is, while advertising is lucrative and easy to set up and creators wish books would be the primary sellers, the reality is that most of the comic's profits will come from t-shirts, toys, and other items. However, most people have a problem in determining when it is the best time to start selling merchandise.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
How to Watch For Scams
One of the biggest problems with being a self-publisher is that scammers seem to love targeting them. They have already essentially killed the vanity press industry (which didn't really need the help), and are starting in on the hybrid publishers, However, with some simple advice, you should be able to detect them and thus keep them from taking your money.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Loooking For Something to Sell? Merch to Debate
When you hit a certain degree of success, you will no doubt start debating how to take advantage of your success to launch some sort of merchandise line. While there are plenty of different options available, you'll see the same range of different options being somewhat universal; these items are popular because they work for so many different situations: For example, would you generally prefer to win a T-shirt or a bar of soap? Most people would prefer the T-shirt; we have our own preferences for soap and there are more allergy issues to worry about when it comes to soap than most shirts, sure, but we would just prefer to wear our prizes than use them.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Lifehack
