Experiment in progress! (continuation of a success)

[Pau]

Dear fellow creators:

I would like to share my experiment, before knowing wether it is successful or not, so you can make suggestions or advice during this month.

Next month I will publish myself the last comic book I made, a 120 pages story with no words. I could finish the story exclusively thanks to my patron’s support, in a critical moment when I was ready to quit drawing because I couldn’t find a publisher for my projects (in which I had worked for free for several months!) and I needed to feed our baby.

Now the comic is finished and printed. I could make some cash by pre-selling the book (not sharing money with shop and distributor), but instead I’m going to try to boost my Patreon page, which is of the biggest importance for me during the times when I don’t have any incomes from publishers.

I’m talking about success in the title because not only I could finish and print the story, but I also managed to sell the rights for Polish and English languages, and discussing the Italian edition! Quite a change compared to quit the profession!

What I am offering is to give the dedicated book as a present to those who become $20 patrons during this month. So, I hope some people will overcome their fear for Patreon, and English language. For $20 they will have access to all the best content and a still not published comic dedicated by the author, sent for free!

I tried to make them understand easily through this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOLdQ0u7yG8

I’m addressing only to Spanish audience, because they are too hard to get into Patreon, and because I couldn’t afford free shipping to other countries. Also, I don’t want to compete with my future US publisher. That’s why the texts are in Spanish in the video.

Even if they are $20 patrons only for one month, chances are bigger for them to stay maybe in a lower tier, or to come back later once they really know what Patreon is. That’s my goal.

Results so far (after one day): One new $20 patron… from Germany!

You can read the first 17 pages of the story here.

[Pau]

I added this explanation on Instagram. I think it’s easy to understand (in Spanish!), let’s see if it works!

[Pau]

Second new $20 patron, yuhuuuu!!!

Next week I will organise a press conference before boosting the last days of the offer (I still don’t know how).
I hope at least the local journalists will come. I want to present the new publishing house (basically me alone!), the new website and the special offer to buy Baboon! in advance through Patreon.
I think traditional media still work better than social media to make new people know about what you do, at least in my case, with not a huge amount of followers. You just have to be lucky enough they don’t have many things to tell in their culture pages those days.
And what’s sure is that propaganda works much better in person (most of my patrons heard about Patreon for the first time from me in person, in comics conventions, during excursions, in casual chatting…)

I know the new $20 patrons won’t last long. They signed in because they want the dedicated book. But at least they made the effort to sign in, and discover what Patreon is and what I am offering to the different tiers. So they are more likely to stay, even if it is in a lower tier.

And if not anything else, they will draw an interesting line in my patrons statistics for this month

[Pau]

I sent the video explanation to all my WhatsApp contacts… as a result, one $3 patron upgraded to $20 this month. Not very much, but they are already three new $20 patrons and still more than two weeks to go!

Today I will send the offer by email, let’s see what happens!

[Pau]

I beg you pardon if I’m bothering you… I think this “live experiment” is more encouraging if you can see that even if the start is not so good, success is still possible.

I look at politicians just before elections. They put all their efforts and even more, flying many times a day to attend meetings. Exhausting, but every single vote can make the difference!

For me, every patron counts, especially $20 patrons! So I will insist until the end of the special offer.

Yesterday I sent an email to my contacts (about 600), and today I have… three new $20 patrons! Little by little, but they are already six!

[Pau]

Wooohoooo! 50 patrons! I know, I know, they won’t stay (not all of them!). But they made the step to finally discover and join my patreon. I hope the will like it!

I did nothing special this weekend to promote, but apparently three more people who had seen the offer before found the time to join us, so now I have 9 new patrons, and one old $3 patron converted into $20.

That might not seem a lot, but my Patreon income increased by more than 50% this month! That is usually the most difficult for me, so it is a big success!! And I still have the time to double or triple, if I touch the key.

Next Friday I will (hopefully) have a meeting with the local press in my home town, to present the new publishing house, the new website, and this special offer. Let’s see if they can speak about this offer and make more people know about my patreon!

So, 10 dedicated Baboon! for the new patrons ready to be sent!

[mindy]

@Pau

my Patreon income increased by more than 50% this month!

This is HUGE news!! Congratulations @Pau on so many things; publishing your book, choosing to prioritize membership, and the growth in your Patreon. Thank you for sharing this process with us!
What’s the one thing you would do differently next time?

[Pau]

Thank you so much, Mindy!!!

I still don’t know what I would do differently next time, I will tell you after the offer is finished and conclusions made I still have two weeks to do things differently!

This time I focused on the Spanish market, because sending physical rewards overseas would take me to ruin. But I am thinking in digital rewards for the next international campaign (that is one of the things I could do differently). Baboon! pdf could be an idea. It is perfect for this because it has no words. But again, I won’t boycott my publisher in the English language market, I will do it only after them!

By the way, if any of you creators or staff would like me to try anything during this campaign, I’m all ears!

Thank you!

[kayla]

This comic is gorgeous! I really admire that you’re shipping it to your patrons. Just became a patron–excited to watch your work grow!

[Pau]

Wow Kayla, thank you very much! and welcome to the studio, I hope you’ll enjoy the content, and please feel free to make all the remarks you want!

[Pau]

I know, it won’t last, but I reached $500/month! (thanks to Kayla!) Super happy, and wanting to achieve $1000 before the end of September!

I should have a meeting tomorrow with the local press, but… This weekend it is the “Arts night”, when all the galleries are open at night, so journalists will be so busy that they recommend me to change it to Tuesday, when they won’t have anything to tell about culture. No problem!

One of the rewards for $20 tier is the finished books. But I decided to send them as well to $10 patrons, and to $5 patrons who supported me for a certain time… by surprise! I hope that will make them feel like keeping on supporting me!

[Pau]

I haven’t published a book in the last three years. I had a baby and since I finished Atlas & Axis’s Saga I couldn’t find a publisher interested in my next three projects. I was about to quit my profession and look for a job, but I gave a try to Patreon. The money wasn’t enough, but the engagement with my Patrons was, and thanks to their generous support (and my savings) I drew Baboon! (120 pages!), finished TURBO, and worked in the other two.

Then I started a crowdfunding campaign to self publish my Atlas & Axis’s Saga in my daughter’s mother language, Catalan (normal editions are usually unsustainable due to the smallest market). The huge success gave me the chance to publish it also in Spanish! (the price of the printing was much better when doing both editions at the same time).

So, thanks to that support in a critical moment, now I am ready to launch a publishing house to publish four books of mine! And you know what? In all that books there will be an ad to my Patreon! I guess that can bring new patrons!

I will print 700, 1000, 1500, and 600 copies of these books, so if they sell well the add could be seen by 3200 people who like my work, or even more!

So, if things go well, I could have the support to draw my most ambitious project: The five flags, that tells the true story of my grandfather during the Spanish Civil War and WWII, written by himself in the 40’s. Again thanks to my patrons, I have been working in the documentation for the last two years, a very interesting but hard work, usually not paid.

For all this, thank you patrons, and thank you Patreon!

P.S: I had a new $20 patron today!

[Pau]

I had the press conference two days ago… Nobody came around!
It was the wrong day again! There were politicians talking about culture, and they go first! ( the institutions spend a lot of public money advertising in the newspapers!)

Luckily, at least the newspaper with which I collaborated daily for 13 years interviewed me by phone later and they published the news yesterday. It had many reactions on facebook, and I sold some books through the new website and… got some new patrons!

The title is good: I started a publishing house to be able to continue drawing comics.

The special offer finishes next monday, I have to try anything… two more patrons and the monthly amount will be twice as last month’s!

With the mailing list I learned one lesson: Most of my new patrons come from the list of people that already supported me in my previous crowdfunding campaign to publish my series in catalan. So keep the contacts with that people! They are a very special kind of people who love your work, and like to support you!

I published on my social media the new online shop, where the book is available. With the shipping it is more expensive than becoming a patron, and it is not dedicated by the author, I hope it will convince more people to join now!

Let’s see!

[Pau]

I just shared this ad on Facebook, twitter and Instagram, let’s see how it works for the last two days!
I will email it too!

[Pau]

Well, I guess the special offer is finished. Let’s see what happens in October with all that new patrons, but to me, this has been a success! No idea where they came from, because I got almost a new patron everyday, although I know many of them come from the mail list I made with the supporters of my successful crowdfunding. At least some of them will stay for a while, I saw they downgraded to a lower tier (so, not leaving!).
These are the very nice statistics!

I think new patrons liked what I have to offer, but they only know because they became patrons! So yes, the special offer was a good idea, and I will try again with my next books!