Friday Archive Dive: Coupon Codes

Today's Archive Dive comes from Oct. 25, 2013, when I shared a Pro Tip on Coupon Codes:

How often have you been buying items for your comic -- like supplies or convention items -- and saw a field during checkout offering a discount if you enter a coupon code. And of course, if you're like me, you never have a coupon code when you need one.

Here's a little trick I recently learned. Open up another browser window and Google the terms "coupon code" along with the Web vendor you're using. often, you'll find an entire repository of coupon codes that you can use at that site.

Comment under the original thread.

Jumpstarting creativity

In 2009 -- in the very early days of this site --I wrote a post that was titled Writer's Block: It's a Myth. It was a terrific lesson for me about choosing an accurate headline for my posts. See, I chose a sensational title  to grab people's attention and generate links (this was before the site switched to a subscription model). And the headline did just what it was intended to do. It stirred up excitement -- much of which was in the form of anger from people who had experienced serious problems advancing their writing that felt very real and un-mythlike to them.

The content of the post, however, holds a very good thought to keep in mind for those times that you experience writer's block:

• Ideas aren't as important as what you do with the ideas
• Often, what we call "writer's block" is more accurately defined as a lack of confidence in your ability to execute the idea in front of you well.

It's worth a read, if you haven't yet. But I'd like to move past identifying the problem and push forward to sharing some strategies to getting your creativity flowing during those times when it's just not happening naturally...

The "On The Spot" Hot Seat

Since we've finished up the Hitch It / Ditch It Hot Seat, it's time to launch the next Hot Seat critique series. This one is called the "On The Spot" Hot Seat. I will visit participants' sites on a random day and talk about how their comic/site/social media is on that day. No archive-diving and no overview. The point is to try to reinforce the importance of making every update significant.

Sound like fun? You know the drill: To participate, give me this info in the Comments below:

• Name

• Comic Title

• URL

Mailbag: Prepping comics for Kindle Direct Publishing

Q: I know you are putting your work up on Amazon, and I was hope you'd do a post about your process and what tools you use etc. Specifically, I'm interested in:

• Creating Landscape pages (which seemed to be a problem for Amazon, or Graphicly)  - I notice you chose Portrait, even though landscape would have been better suited to your strips, why?

• Using HTML and hyperlinks (join my mailing list/visit my site/ buy the next book)

Filesize fees and how this effects an artist's cut (which seems uncool considering they're pushing an HD platform)... What file sizes are possible?

• If it's possible to hit old Kindles and Fires with one file? How?

• How did you achieve the background colour and heading you have on your comic? My comic (which you can download from Amazon) has white around it which looks terrible.

I've been hesitant to answer this because, truthfully, my process for this has been gradually developing since I started doing digital distribution in April 2012. And I've been tweaking my process ever since. But I'll be happy to share what I'm doing -- if you understand that parts of it may be a work-in-progress.

First , the good news: iPad is still dominant in the eBook market (in my experience), and nothing beats the ease and WYSIWYG appeal of a PDF. So there's that. I always make my digital comics and books available in PDF format first, and that covers a major share of my market.

But Amazon has made their Kindle readers into major players in the digital tablet market, and it's foolhardy to ignore that. So let's talk formatting for the Kindle Fire.

Holiday Card Workshop

Are you prepping a Holiday Card for to sell this year? If so, post it here and we'll workshop it.