Book
By Arnie on November 23rd, 2009Posted In: Thoughts
It's been a bit nuts around here, so I've pretty much only been able to update the strip and otherwise participation has been fairly limited. So I thank you for coming back every day (maybe) and hopefully, I'll get a chance to be around more from now on.
I would really love to put out a book collection of the strips so far. By the time I get around to it, I guess there's probably going to be around 300 strips, a longer original story plus some other things. The response to the poll recently was underwhelming, but that may be because my readership seems to be dwindling a bit, which I find very frustrating.
But anyway, printing the book is a bit of a risk financially, so I'm thinking I might have to do a pre-order thing and then print more or less based on how big (or small) the interest is. I'll keep you updated.
I can say one thing for sure though -- if I'm not able to get more people to the site soon, it's very unlikely that Cock and Bull will hang around in the current daily format. I appreciate EVERYONE who's reading, but putting out a strip a day is a lot of work, especially when you don't get paid for it. But that's how webcomics work and I always knew that getting into it. And as long as I'm having fun, I'll probably keep going for awhile.
Part of this frustration is that a translated version of the strip got pissed on in Norway recently, adding to the current theme. You may very well see this reflected in the content in the near future! 
Just mentioning these thing so that you won't be completely caught off-guard IF the strip gets scaled back.
So a good way to make sure the strip stays around would be to buy the book when we get around to that and I might also put up a little Paypal donation button or make prints available for sale again, in order to raise a bit of cash for advertising to bring in more readers.
Anyhoo... On that happy note, good morning/afternoon/evening/night, and I'll talk to y'all later.
aww man. That sucks. Also, DEATH TO THE NORWEGIANS! Beat on them. Make their lives hell with your cock (and bull)
Yeah! Damn us Norwegians! Damn us all to hell!
Tell me who’s responsible for the pissing and me and Mr. Chainsaw will have a little chat with the sorry individual…
But seriously, roughly 90% of all comics translated to norwegian loose some or most of their geniousness in the translation prosess. There’s a reason why I get most of my comic “fix” on the web.
A thought or two…
1- I’ll get a book whenever it’s on, just plug it into my veins.. or brain…
2- Don’t assume everything based on the results of a poll. Polls are successful if you talk about it more than a couple of times. Lot of peeps are reading the strip from a RSS reader (me included) and they may not realized the poll is there all the time.
3- But you are right tho, this is the webcomic reality, and making money is unfortunately one of the number 1 priority of every human being in order to survive.
So, whatever you do, I support you man!
Thanks guys!
Dang! Upon further review, this post is a bit whiny. I love doing the strip and I hope I’m able to keep going. But I know that my schedule is going to get tighter after Christmas, so I’m worried the strip will have to suffer. I hope not.
arnie … have you checked this out? … http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php
basic premise … get yourself 1,000 ‘true’ fans (willing to spend $20-100 a year on you … books, t-shirts, bumper stickers, beer glasses, underwear, condoms, reprints, stuffed animals that talk, stuffed animals that hump) … do the math.
kevin kelly had another interesting thought about ‘free’ that i think applies to web comics … http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php
basic premise … don’t try to sell the comic, sell stuff that can’t be copied … check out how http://www.joecartoon.com does it.
maybe you know and tried all of this?
by the way … i digg the cartoon (literally) … but i agree with a comment above … i subscribe with google reader … i can see your full cartoon and nothing else on your site … no other ads, not even the share links … you might not even be getting any web traffic credit (unless you’re using feedburner) … there’s a good chance a lot of your ‘web comic’ fans are savvy web users …
oops … i see you are using feedburner …
Thanks swanie! I’ll check those things out. I’m actually not as concerned about the money aspect as it might seem like, believe it or not. I certainly have no delusions about making a living from this… I could do a lot more with merchandise and hopefully, I’ll have time to do things like the book, t-shirts, etc. but I haven’t prioritized it.
Instead, more disconcerting than anything is the fact that I’ve spent a lot of money on various advertising trying to jump start things and yet, in the last month I have lost over 10% of daily visitors according to Google Analytics… That bugs me a little, but as I said, I’m really not complaining because the main reason I do this is because I really enjoy it and I love interacting with all the people who comment here and on Twitter, etc.. Having tons of readers would be a nice fringe benefit, though.
I always knew those neighbors of mine to the west were freggin’ idiots.
Yah, bastards. No wonder I moved!
Remember the contest I mentioned awhile ago? Didn’t make it into the top 30… Sheesh!
I’ve been here since #6 and I’ll stay to the bitter end.
(I did check the archives and read #1 through #5, so I’m all caught up) Even if you only publish once a week, keep C & B alive.
Arnie/E,
I feel your pain..It’s hard to do all yer promoting yourself, pay for stuff when u have to do other stuff to pay the bills…plus yer going thru the animation thing as well..SOMETHING has to suffer..and usually it’s the thing you love to do dearly,but make no money at.
marketing,networking, all stuff that has to be done daily to keep yer good name out there…
Whenever I can I will do what I can to promote your good name .
How bout opening it up for some more guest strips to take some load off of you for a little bit?
run some interspaced between your strips to get thru the time sucking holidays or something?
just a thought…
I find myself now just doing my own stuff when I feel like it.and the new webcomic for that site cuz I have to…lol
anyway, whatever I can do, I’ll do..I love COCK and BULL…they say what I can’t..
cheeers,
patty
i see … and i can relate … i ran my first online comic and could only build a ’subscribership’ of 12 after one month … that was a lot of work for not enough viewership … i didn’t get anywhere near the ‘monetize’ stage … maybe my cartoons sucked … i didn’t think they did, but most fools don’t know they’re fools, right? … now, everything I read says ’stick with it for at last three years’ … dang, that’s a long time to just stick it out and see how it goes.
the reality now is that everything on the web is free … you are competing with other content out there, not for the reader’s money, but for the reader’s time … that’s their only cost … time … makes me think if i want to try another online cartoon, i’ll have to get smarter about how to deliver the cartoon to the reader instead of always asking them to come and visit.
andertoons.com does a pretty good job at that … but he’s also a traditional media cartoonist … and that may be the reality … most people like cartoons when they see them in other media … new yorker, for example … but the role of the cartoon is to enhance the publication … it’s not the sole content the reader is there for … only comic fans will seek out cartoons … question is, are there enough of them and how do you find them or how do they find you?
2 more things you may want to look at (apologies if you already know about them):
http://www.lulu.com
http://www.kickstarter.com
Thank you! I’ve done a book through Lulu once and it came out pretty good. I hadn’t heard about kickstarter, but that looks like an interesting concept, even if it might not be the right thing for me at this point. Thanks for the suggestion though, I really appreciate it!
hey man, I’d LOVE to see a book collection. and boy do I ever understand about the workload. If you have to scale back you hav eto scale back… the content will remain fresh and funny, and we’ll look forward to it that much more.
I missed this post somehow, but am impressed by the outpouring of support. Also troubled to think of a world without cockNbull. I’ll keep digging and stumbling upon cNb and hope that helps some.
There has to be some way to get this out there and viral.