"Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up."

Ok everybody, it's time for a little lesson... Carpet Bomb Style...

I promised last round I'd share some tips and tricks for getting the most out of this competition, so I'll go ahead and spill the beans a tad.

First, there's a common misconception in the comic book world with people starting out, trying to get their books out there, and failing miserably. Just because you have a good project does not mean people will buy it. In the terms of the competition, good project does not mean votes, amazing project does not mean votes... It's about a combination of quality and marketing. The sooner you come to terms that you have to sell your project rather than it selling itself, the better off you will be. This is NOT failure, it's life... It takes either working on a project with known characters (i.e. major Marvel or DC titles), have already busted your butt and have the attention of the masses, or you're a fluke. If you're not ready to hussle, pack up your toys and go home.

Second, get out there online... Get a Facebook going for your project, invite all of your friends, get more friends, invite them, repeat... If people don't respond to your invite, that's all the answer you need. Get a Blog. Why? Another place for people to check it out. Personally, I'd recommend a wordpress with some bells and whistles behind the scenes to do some of the legwork for you. For me, as an example, I post to my blog, it automatically posts a message to Twitter and Facebook. Convenient, huh? Leads me to the third... get a Twitter acount. Me, I didn't learn until late in the game last year that Twitter was pretty handy, too.

Third, update people... If you have a group, a blog, whatever, you need to continuously update. once you post images and such in the forums here, get them all over the web. You CAN post your images not only on your blog, Facebook, etc, but on other forums you might know about....

Forth, don't limit yourself to the internet... Get to comic stores, talk to owners, see if you can drop off flyers, go to cons, do the same.

Fifth, network...

That enough to get you started? I hope so and I really hope some competitors really pay attention and take advantage of the advice being provided here. There is one competitor I know of who followed what I did last year in the competition and is applying it now. Different year, different competitors, but some of the same "tricks" will help you to get fans coming back who will follow you through and following the competition.

Got it? Now go do it, take the guesswork out, fight for your place in future rounds.

Ok, now that all of the projects are posted, it's even more important to get out there and be seen. The line looms and is prepared to consume projects who are complacent and don't work to get people checking their books out. The audience you build now, you'll need in round 3!

If you guys have more questions about how to get out there, ask away… I won't give away all of my secrets, but there are some tested things I have listed above which do work. Some people (cough cough) were watching last year, so they know what's up.

Thanks for all the advice LastBard, I came into this one a little naive, underestimating the amount of marketing that will need to be done to compete, especially as a single creator! I've started posting on facebook, but also hope to take advantage of some other mediums. One thing I'm not to keen on is how to really network on Twitter, I have an account, have posted on there, but how do I get like minded folks to see the things I tweet about?

Do some searches in twitter for people talking about comics or mainstream titles anything like your book, start watching them and they may watch you. Also mention on your Facebook account about your twitter. Most importantly, post post post… There's something you can download on your facebook account that will pull your twitter posts with a "#fb" on it and others that will suck in all of your twitter posts, saving you time ~ post once, shows up multiple places. Just get out there and tell people to watch you on there and if you have interesting things to say, people will see.

On the FB/Twitter front, the Facebook ap "Smart Twitter" does a great job of updating your status with your tweets.  Check it out.