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« Previous Entries[Business Marketing] - Lessons We Can Learn From the Video Game Industry (Part 3)
Thursday, October 30th, 2008It was around three years since the Sony Playstation 2 had hit shelves, and while the price had just dropped under $200, I was having trouble selling the system to a customer due to a very unusual objection.
“Why should I buy the PS2?” he asked. “Isn’t the PS3 going to be out in a year [...]
[Business Marketing] — Lessons We Can Learn From the Video Game Industry (Part 2)
Thursday, October 30th, 2008The video game industry can be a fairly predictable place. For example, if a big title (often referred to as a “AAA” release) is announced for release later in the year, you can almost bet it will ship in October, November or December. If new hardware is launched, you can bet that at least 50% [...]
[Business Marketing] Lessons We Can Learn From the Video Game Industry (Part 1)
Sunday, October 26th, 2008Video games and I have a long history together — my first professional writing gig was as a video game reviewer, and I eventually became the editor of a semi-popular game review site (now defunct) called eXscape. Later on, I worked with the Future Games Network and PCGameworld.com. And then, a few years later, I [...]
[The Creative Process] - Yes, No and Wait: Three Answers You’re Bound to Hear (and How To Respond To Each of Them)
Friday, September 19th, 2008I grew up in a churchgoing household, and often had to suffer through Sunday School and Vacation Bible School sessions that were more than a little dumbed down. And when we’d talk about praying to the Big G, our teachers would always tell us that He wouldn’t respond in words, but rather with one of [...]
[Resource of the Day] - Comics About Presidential Candidates? It’s Happening!
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008Article: Presidental Candidates get the Comic Book Treatment
by: David Twiddy, Associated Press
Source: The Morning Call
IDW is one sharp publisher. They’ve carved a nice niche out in the comic book industry by producing primarily licensed books based on television shows, video games, and films. They picked up the Transformers license when Dreamwave dropped it a few [...]
[Resource of the Day] - Should Publishers “Go Green”? Or is it Just a Smokescreen?
Friday, August 1st, 2008Article: As Environmentalism Grows, Online Publishers Go Green
By: Bob Tedeschi
Source: The New York Times
“Going green” is one of the latest trends in the business world — in the face of a recession, focusing on reusing and recycling just sounds like the right thing to do to most people, and many businesses are taking advantage [...]
[Comic Book Publishing] - How Much Should You Spend to Produce a Comic Book?
Monday, July 28th, 2008It’s an oft-asked question in the comic book industry, but it’s an important one:
How much should a publisher spend on the production of a comic book?
Believe it or not, there’s no standard answer in the industry, and the fees that writers, artists, letterers and editors are paid varies widely between companies. Obviously, Marvel and DC [...]
[Marketing 101] - Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning
Monday, July 28th, 2008Every now and then, someone asks me: “How do I create a market for my product?
The answer is simple. “You don’t.”
Many people who get into product development want to develop products on their own terms. They don’t want to consider the needs of the end user; they want to develop the product first and then [...]
[Marketing 101] - 3 Tips For Selling Books In the Face of a Recession
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008Today, I read two articles that offered distinctly different messages about consumers.
The first was a report that the film The Dark Knight set a box office record during its opening weekend, both in terms of its midnight release revenues and its overall revenues for its first day. This is great news for the people involved [...]
[Comic Book Publishing] - 5 Ways Comic Books Can Cheat Death
Monday, July 21st, 2008In my previous article, “5 Reasons Comic Books Must Change or Die,” I offered several elements that are contributing to the death of the comic book industry. But today, I’m going to outline some ways that comics can change for the better… and cheat death to live on in the digital era.
But first, let’s take [...]