Thanks for the new comment and the very kind words. Based on its subject (Wreslting), I think your book will do very well once you get enough content together for a trade paperback release. Professional Wrestling is huge and you’ll have a lot of opportunity for crossover. Get your affiliate programing going as fast as you can and start building it.

I’m still surprised no one has really followed through with that suggestion yet - allowing reviewers to use affiliate links is great way to help both sides (reviewer and publisher).

Thanks again and feel free to post any questions you’ve got (or email them to me) and I’ll try to address them in an upcoming video.

M

Thanks for the great tips on affiliates and marketing in general. I’ve listened to this particular update 3 times now to make sure I got it all and while I don’t think I can use it right now, its certainly interesting from an intellectual point of view. And yeah, some lazy heads out there, I can’t believe that they wouldn’t use an affiliate program. I think I read this on the other site (don’t recall) but offering reviewers an affiliate link is brilliant.

I’m glad you liked the article. I really am surprised more comic book publishers haven’t gotten in to running an affiliate program for their books — especially now that graphic novels and trade paperbacks are so widespread. An affiliate program would even work well for print on demand (POD) publishers because it would give them a sales/marketing force while still leaving them a good chunk of the remaining profits. No longer would they wind up losing money when trying to get their book distributed.

Feel free to drop by for more tips…oh, and my other site, New Affiliate Help, might have some additional information you’d be interested in. Check it out at http://www.NewAffiliateHelp.com.

-Mat N.

Thanks for the post and I’m glad you are enjoying the current series of articles. They are actually laying the groundwork for a book I’m finishing up on marketing techniques and tips for comic book publishers. A book I’m hoping to have finished and ready for release here in the next couple of weeks.

What was your friend doing to sell his books at the local wrestling shows? If you’re talking about shows with 25 people attending, then he really shouldn’t expect much in the way of sales.

Our main book, the Cadre, features a former wrestler as a superhero (the White Dwarf) and we used that as an “in” with a few different smaller wrestling promotions as well as with the retail division of the bigger shows. We did switch out backcover ads which were different (and supported) each promotion we were working with so they had a bit of a vested interest in helping to push our books.

The key is all in your build up and what you are doing to market your sales at the shows BEFORE you get there. Press releases, flyers and posts online are great…we’ve even run targeted local cable ads right before shows to show people we were going to be at a show. Sometimes you can even get the promotion to kick in for a co-op on the commercials, especially once they find out how cheap cable advertising can be.

I go in to a lot more detail on this stuff in the book. Keep your eyes peeled on the Nifty Comics home page for details very soon.

Mat N.

You mentioned selling at wrestling shows in the first part and again in part 3 here you talk about teaming up with a smaller fed. How has that worked out for you? A guy I know was selling his book at the San Francisco show a few months back and mentioned it was kind of a bust. I go to local wrestling shows, like the ones in the hotel ballrooms and indy shows like ROH and SHIMMER but they seem big enough to have a dedicated following, but not really big enough to support any cross promotion. Which is why I ask if it’s worked out for you.