Comic Sales Soar After Artist Engages 4chan Pirates 305
An anonymous reader writes "Steve Lieber, the artist behind the graphic novel Underground, discovered that someone on 4chan had scanned and posted the entire comic. Rather than complaining, he joined the conversation, chatting with the 4channers about the comic... and the next day he saw his sales jump to unheard-of levels, much higher than he'd seen even when the comic book was reviewed on popular sites like Boing Boing."
Fighting 4chan? (Score:2, Interesting)
Fighting 4Chan is a bad idea. But exploiting them for money? That's new! Will this trend extend to other vendors such as Doritos or Mr. Pibb? Maybe that infamous "Dollar Menu? I'd hit it!" ad that seems to advocation burgersex was actually aimed at 4Chan.
Re:Imagine that! (Score:5, Interesting)
Engaging your customer base is good for business...
People looking for entertainment spend more money when they have more fun. That's one of the main reasons actual losses due to piracy aren't calculatable.
Good people skills (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Imagine that! (Score:3, Interesting)
This is one of the reasons why I release all the music I make on last.fm and in a torrent...both of which will be freely available and supported by me when the time comes to put my stuff up for sale.
Granted, I'm not trying to make a living off it, but still...the more access people have to it...
New graph in 3...2...1... (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't wait to see his sales graph after he adds the /. effect. How do we stack up to 4chan in terms of economic power?
I'm ordering the TPB. I got back into comics about a year ago after dropping out for a decade. Wish I'd noticed this when it came out.
Re:Imagine that! (Score:5, Interesting)
Here you go [last.fm]. Look in the "shout" section for a link to the torrent.
It's all a combination of spacey ambient ("Transient Unknown" project), drone ("Implied Reality" project), and chilled-out head nodding stuff ("Lost on the Way to the Laundry" project). I have a LOT more than what is on there, but that's what I've publicly released so far.
Re:New graph in 3...2...1... (Score:4, Interesting)
More importantly, how many of us would be ordering mainly because we want to read the book versus we want to reward the author for being a non-jerk, and hey this book looks neat too? I'd fall in the latter, if I were to read it.
On the other hand, that's exactly the reason I deliberately look for Baen-published books at the bookstore when I'm looking for something new. Read about their awesome policies, read Honor Harrington online, bought some (not enough!) novels in print later.
Re:Imagine that! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Imagine that! (Score:3, Interesting)
For what I make, I'd take a crappy set of headphones over a nice set of speakers any day. The way textures are layered and placed, a LOT of the directional dynamics rely on having speakers strapped over or in your ears. You can listen to it through regular speakers just fine, but you'll be missing out on a LOT of the details...even on a high-end set (again, it's all about layering and positioning.)
Publisher get no % of royalties, or rights (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Imagine that! (Score:2, Interesting)
Which one do you think most people have access to?
Re:Imagine that! (Score:5, Interesting)
Or the forward to any of Cory Doctorow's books. From Makers: [craphound.com]
Emphasis mine. Oh, and BTW, the book is available for free at the linked page, in many ereader formats. It's a pretty good read, except he uses too many hyphens (parking-lot, shopping-center, etc)
Re:the other trend (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Imagine that! (Score:4, Interesting)
Baseball is an old boring game that is almost exactly not like cricket.
Re:What Monty Python Did (Score:1, Interesting)
Citation please. Who was this guy, what was this great game he produced, and where's a picture of him homeless on the street?
Re:Imagine that! (Score:3, Interesting)
The RIAA/MPAA aren't artists, they're middlemen. Artists directly engaging their customers is the *AA's worst nightmare, since it makes them unnecessary. That's why they fight all alternative forms of distribution tooth and nail.