viable models

I'm a big fan of web comics. One that I've been following for years is Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Folgio (the 'g' is silent.) Today they began raising funds on Kickstarter. Never mind they already made their first goal on the first day. Watching the whole process is fascinating, which got me thinking about my project.

My biggest obstacle is visibility. So far this month I've had 1 buyer. One of my friends knows about viral marketing. I think he might help me raise awareness of the book.

There is another guy I met named Howard Taylor. He writes and draws the Schlock Mercenary webcomic. I met him and he's funny, but what is so amazing is how he got started. He quit Oracle, where he worked as a network admin. and taught himself to draw. if you look at the comic when it first started and now... what a difference! He updates the comic 7 days a week and has never missed a day in over 13 years. That is unheard of among web comics. Howard is something of a rock star among the nerd set. To give you an idea of how he works, he can talk about the physics of starships and end with a fart joke. No seriously, he's done that. They're making money. They draw comics that have won awards. They have a huge fan base. They get money from advertisers on their websites. Howard also blogs about stuff and does movie reviews. The business model is viable. It is possible to pick up a little cash from this. Art to draw attract viewers, a meaningful blog to entertain and hold people, and advertisers on the website to pay for this.

You already know my form of entertainment is the written word. Today I was thinking about putting up Travelers Road on a web page, one chapter at a time. Not to underestimate people, but if there were just words on a screen, people would lose interest mighty quick. I've often remarked that TR would make a good graphic novel, but the time and expense would be problematic. Fortunately there is a middle ground. Let's say there was a chapter up on the web, but moderate sized sketches of the characters or scenes were interspersed through the narration?

Just an idea I'm bouncing around. I've got some of the pieces of that puzzle already, fitting them together is the trick.

I'm always thinking of stuff like that. What do you think?

I was going to  post some pictures, but my phone is recharging. I'll put them up some time tomorrow, I promise.