Hello! Sorry I haven’t updated the blog in a while, to be honest nothing exciting has been happening in my life!
However, in regards to Crazy Sunshine, there are lots of exciting things I want to talk about!
Fan Art
Thanks for all your submissions! There’s always room for more, so if you have something you want to share, send it here and I’ll upload it to the Extras page right away!
Fan Comics
There’s also been an influx in fan comics! The first few were uploaded to the Facebook Page by the lovely Patrick Norton and can be seen here! If you have a Crazy Sunshine related story you want to tell, send it in!
Fan Stories
Deviantart member T-FighterX9 uploaded some Crazy Sunshine literature, go check them out! Unfortunately I cannot host these on the main site (as that would require a brand new page or even a new Extras section!) but if you have a story you want to tell, link me to its location and I will let the world know!
A big thanks to everyone who has contributed something back to the site, I really appreciate it and it really makes my day, never stop being awesome!
Ask Me Stuff!
Did you know you can ask me stuff on Tumblr? Hopefully this means the comment section of each comic strip won’t get too convoluted. Also, maybe you’ll learn something new! You can ask about anything, my personal life, my work, living in Japan, the comic, or even what I am eating right now (its fried chicken!) Don’t be shy!
Social Media
I hate bringing this up. I really do! But by simply liking the Facebook Page or following on Twitter you are doing the comic and myself a huge favor Social Media is the future, and the more people who show an interest, the more I can gauge the size of Crazy Sunshine’s audience, which means much more goodies in the near future.
For example, recently lots of readers have asked about merchandise, but through eyeballing alone, the current amount of followers/potential buyers would put me at a massive loss if I made anything and it doesn’t sell well. I need a way to communicate or positively be sure readers are showing an active interest in the comic before working on such a big project as merchandise, and simply hitting Like or Follow resolves this tremendously! That’s all you have to do! Until these numbers hit a comfortable threshold, I will not be making plans for releasing merchandise that I inevitably cannot sell.
So tell your friends, your family, even your pets, and I promise I won’t bring this up again for a while!
Thanks for all your support so far!
You could try starting merchandise that is exclusively digital, like wallpapers or commissions. That way you don’t have a bunch of unsold product in your house.
I don’t think commissions are a good idea, purely because I have no time to make them. The problem is not having stuff lying around my house. The problem is gauging interest from readers and fans of the comic.
If I make, say, a book, and put all my effort into it (I would have to take hiatuses from the actual comic) and spend every moment I am not at work on it for it to sell 1-2 copies I would be devastated as an artist and most likely quit.
Currently I cannot tell how active the readers are if people do not subscribe to these social media outlets. If 3-4 people like my status updates – does that mean 3-4 people will know I have released a book and will buy it? I don’t know. How many people read this without commenting? I don’t know. How effective would releasing these goods be? Well if active followers are anything to go by, I would sell 3-4 books. This needs to improve, but I cannot force or tell people how to do so, I can only humbly ask.
Just do commissions when you at conventions.
I won’t be at conventions, I live in Japan.
I don’t know if this is related to “Fan stories” but what about guest comics for when you feel like you need to take a break?
Yeah, if I take a hiatus I plan to ask for Guest comics, but the plan is unless I am working on other projects (Making a book etc.) I don’t want to have to resort to that.
Though if you play your cards right you could make an interesting investment with a rather nice payoff….
…does the term Penny Dreadful mean anything to you?
Yes, I know of Penny Dreadful. No, I will not be releasing NSFW images of my characters.
Also…I do know of a way to gather some attention…but this is an event that only occurs during Valentine’s Day.
I’ll email you the info. Let me know what you make of it.
Haha, okay. Please don’t keep spamming comments though, having to go clean them up is quite annoying.
Sorry. Some of this stuff kinda comes to me at the moment and I don’t think I can edit the previous comments. Just trying to help.
I only have Google+, but I’ll try to remember to +1 your comics more often. I don’t use social media very often in general, so I forget to fave/comment/like/whatever. You can smack me in FFXI when you update and I’ll go +1 it for you XD no one really follows me, though, so not sure how much good sharing it would do you.
I second the idea on the digital merchandise, though. Have a premium section with stuff like high-quality wallpapers or bonus comics or stuff for sale. Some even have an entire premium storyline, often the same characters in an AU story (Lacie runs amok in Vana’diel? XD idk) and you could have a monthly subscription for the premium content or just pay-as-you-go or something. There are many different models for it.
Also, one thing some comics do is they have a donation progress bar towards bonus updates… like, “Donate 10,000 yen for an extra page!” which you’d just upload whenever you finish it outside your normal update schedule (some comics are more timely than others when it comes to this, do whatever works for you and your schedule).
Also, you could just put up a donation button without any incentive. There’re always some people who just like to support artists. But incentive is usually better. Even just, “Thanks for donating. Have a wallpaper that is just a bigger version of a strip panel.”
Aside from that, you could do something simple like a CafePress store so people can get shirts and stuff and you wouldn’t have to worry about inventory or losing money off batch runs or anything… the profits might be slightly less than other methods, perhaps, but with less risk.
I tried this “Premium” trick with the Extras page. All readers had to do was click Like on Facebook and they got the access code for the page, which is full to the brim of extra comic strips, wallpapers, videos and fan art. But people stopped doing that and instead just demanded the numbers from me in rude little E-Mails!
If I have to ask for money to view things like that would make me feel dreadful and I would hate to see the hatemail I get from that kind of chance…!
I am looking into Cafepress and asking around other artists for other means of Merching, thanks for all your help though!
This isn’t about making money, just about making stuff!
If you’re looking to make physical stuff…how about t-shirts to start off with? They’re kinda simple to make these days and you can put them in a set.
If mochi feels pain does diafaku feel it,and I think shirts would be a good idea they be a print of mochi’s face haha
heads up i just sent a question through tumblr and heres the thing the oe in joesan did not register for some reason when i it those keys. so that is me. don’t have any intentions to confuse you or anyone. have a good day/night.