Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Graphic Novel Market ing Plan
20 February 2016
A vibrant adventure through a beautiful dreamed day in New York City.
lots more cool stuff!
MAXandCHARLIE.com
Our sincere thanks in advance for taking a
look through our little adventure.
MAX & CHARLIE is a graphic novel adventure through the cHaOs of New York City.
We follow our reluctant young hero (Charlie!) as he chases his silly beagle pup (Max!)
through a beautiful dreamed day in the city. But there’s something a little strange
about this place... and we hope you read the book to discover what’s what!
↑ A sample rendering of our dustjacket.
Note that the final hardback copies will
have holographic foil logos, a velvet matte
finish, and spot glossy-coated characters.
We’re making the nicest book we can!
MAX & CHARLIE is a simple, sweet adventure and the overall property will strive for
the broadest possible appeal. Its underlying examination of the chaos and patterns
in life might fly over some younger heads, but its thematic hooks and visual style will
nonetheless appeal to a wide demographic: like any successful children’s property, it
aims to speak to the kid in all of us.
↑ A sample rendering of our paperback
(not final!) Note that the final paperback
copies will have a velvet matte finish and
spot glossy-coated characters.
The Books
A vibrant graphic novel for Space Cadets of all ages. 136 pages, glossy #80 stock.
11x8.5” landscape hardcover — with dustjacket; the case and jacket are both foil stamped. ISBN 978-0-9969298-0-6 MSRP $34.95
10x7” landscape paperback — with spot UV on velvet matte softcover. Available at launch! ISBN 978-0-9969298-1-3 MSRP $19.95
Plus a cutting-edge interactive ebook — with full soundtrack and multiple translations.(Free coupon promotion available for indie sellers! Please inquire!)
↑ Rendering of our opening spread!
Our Branding
Simple, clean, cute. Always playful. Always colorful. Sometimes dark.
Positioning
We’re striving to be known for selling the highest-quality books for kids of all ages, and our
marketing will always reflect a vibrant, feel-good, G-rated adventure through a dreamy version
of New York City. The surreal story and art could also potentially appeal to an “alternative”
crowd — kids and adults alike!
Wholesale, indie perks
The book and accompanying merchandise will be available wholesale at a 55% discount.
It’s available to order now via Ingram and Baker & Taylor, but we’ll provide awesome bonus
marketing promotions/materials for every direct wholesale made via MAXandCHARLIE.com
International
We’ll be working with international partners to create a global distribution network soon after
our initial US launch. on April 21, 2016. Translations have already been done!
Renderings of our book. These sample pages are from the beginning of our adventure, starting here in a surreal version of Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn.
Down the rabbit hole.. . The adventure continues.. .
Charlie must continually trudge through adversity as he chases his best friend. Characters of all shapes and sizes prod him along his ever-winding path through the city.
Our adventure takes readers on a full tour of a surreal New York City. There’s something a little strange about this place.. .
Things get a bit more surreal as the climax fades us into in a dream within a dream. But whose dream is this. . .?
↑ Our interactive ebook will available
internationally for iOS, Android, Kindle,
Xbox, Playstation, and for virtual
reality devices; it will be packed with
unique animations, sound effects, instant
localization, and other special features.
We’ve also created a unique and cutting-edge interactive ebook that we’ll publish
to every possible digital platform in as many languages as possible — English, French,
Spanish, Italian, German, Mandarin, and Japanese have been confirmed so far (all
of which have very active digital markets).
We will use these translations for international print runs in Q4 of 2016.
Merchandise
There is untold licensing potential with adorable characters like ours — these
additional merchandising opportunities have been seamlessly added to the story
and have been designed from their earliest stages to create instant appeal. These
products will add significant revenue to our overall international business.
Among many other ancillary products we’re developing, our high-profit coloring
books will be filled with our inked characters and the 900+ individual panels we
have from the graphic novel.
“Scholastic, Pantheon, and Andrews McMeel all sold way more books than
Marvel [. . .] Kids’ comics are the biggest growth area for the medium right now,
and this strong new generation of comics readers is a wave [that] the medium
should be able to surf successfully for years to come.”
source: http://comicsbeat.com/bookscan-kids-comics-and-the-walking-dead-ruled-bookstore-sales-in-2012/
The Market
It’s clear that the marketplace wants to buy graphic novels, especially those in the children’s
segment: via Publisher’s Weekly (Oct 9, 2015), “Kids graphic novel sales are on the rise — up 35%
year-to-date—behind licensed titles . . . Female comics readership also continues to grow.” *
Also note that the top-sellers in these categories continue to have strong year-over-year sales —
many of the year’s top titles are in their second or third year on sale.
via http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/68308-graphic-novel-sales-hit-460-million-in-2014.html
← A breakdown of 2012’s New York Times
bestselling graphic novels, broken down by
category. This trend has continued since
then, and MAX & CHARLIE definitely hits a
sweet spot in this chart!.
Reader Demographics
The audience segments below have shown the strongest initial reaction to the
graphic novel, and will be our primary targets for marketing:
Young boys, aged 7 to 14 — Our vibrant and kinetic journey through one of the most famous cities in the world
was created expressly to appeal to a wide swath of kids. The lessons within the story are universal and timely;
the visuals are unique, cutting-edge, and playful.
High-achieving young boys, aged 7 to 14 — While the story is simple enough for everyone to understand,
the chaos-theory-based themes within our story will no doubt appeal to some the of the smarties.
Savvy parents looking for high-quality, non-violent media — The story’s underlying message is nothing but
positive, there is no violence, and its fundamental high quality will speak to a bygone era.
Young girls, aged 7 to 14 — Young girls will identify with our lovely visuals, the playful adventure, and sense
of discovery that our storyline provides. We’re also betting the girls will swoon over Charlie’s early star turn.
Dog lovers, specifically Beagle owners — Who doesn’t love an adorable pup?! There will be early outreach
to the dog-owning community through organizations like the ASPCA and American Kennel Club.
International fans of New York City and Americana — Very few cities have the instant international pique
that New York City provides, and each of our properties will show the city off at its absolute loveliest. We’re
aiming to create the quintessential New York City story.
Outreach Campaign
MAX & CHARLIE has been a labor of love for our very small team, and we’ve spent
years making it the best book we possibly could. We’ve created what we’d like to think
is a breath of fresh air, and we will support every effort to get it into people’s hands.
MAX & CHARLIE’s nimble digital-first marketing strategy enables us to continually target
and retarget our outreach. We’ll treat each consumer interaction as an opportunity to
create business elsewhere in our property’s ecosystem (coloring books, merch etc).
↓ A successful modern brand must thrive
within a hyperfractured marketplace
and meet consumers on their terms.
Our overall brand’s story can be as
important to consumers as the content
we sell! Infographic reprinted from
theconversationprism.com
In this way, we will not be guessing our potential audience — we will
be constantly building upon it. We will refine and pivot our outreach
and marketing campaigns based upon what actually works.
We will be investing in:
- US book tour Spring/Summer 2016- UK/EU book tour Fall 2016- magazine, blog tour Spring 2016- one-sheets, standups, givaway promo materials, merch - strong web presense; cutting edge digital property- Google Adwords ads; geo-located if you send store’s info!- select web ad placements (nytimes.com, comicsbeat.com, etc)- targeted Facebook, Twitter ads- trade/co-op/independent industry ads
- trade/co-op/independent industry mail/email lists
To help create awareness, our collection
of online properties will serve as
MAX & CHARLIE’s audience-building
hub while creating a network of children
around the world that will follow,
participate, and learn from the project’s
development, production, and chaos-
theory-based themes.
Due to the creator’s past digital experience
and successes, this online component will
not be the typical book’s afterthought,
but will stand as the cornerstone of our
broader educational aspirations, while
simultaneously providing true marketing
and distribution potential.
→ We’ve gained ~6,000 Facebook likes and ~6,000
Twitter followers during the book’s preproduction. We’ll
continue to invest in growing our online audience.
MAX & CHARLIE was created independently by a two-person writer-illustrator
team over the course of five years. It will be the first release for the new indie publishing
division of EXIT STRATEGY, the writer’s award-winning production company based
out of Brooklyn, NY.
We believe in quality. Our approach will always be modern and cutting-edge — in
our creative aesthetic, our products, and our underlying businesses. We believe
in the burgeoning opportunity for high-quality independent content creation and
distribution, and we’re firmly committed to pushing the frontiers of modern storytelling
and its potential business. We’re committed to always providing you fresh stories and
new coolness.
EXIT STRATEGY will publish 4-6 new titles each year, focusing on high-quality graphic
novels and popular art books. We’re also deep into the interactive and software
development, film production, and photo industries. Learn more at exitstrategy.tv
EXIT STRATEGY
↑ Although we’re a newcomer to the publishing
scene, we’ve won Webby and Emmy awards for past
digital work and will use our deep digital branding
expertise on all MAX & CHARLIE outreach efforts.
The Feature Film
We aren’t actively publicizing this yet, but it’s worth noting that MAX & CHARLIE was
originally conceived of as a feature film, and our team is already working on the film’s
preproduction. The movie will be a slightly different take on the same vibrant adventure
through a beautiful day in New York City, and will be shot in stereoscopic 3D to bolster
the surreal backbone of the underlying storyline. The visuals will be highly stylized and
use the latest in available digital trickery, but this film will be live-action (not animated!)
Zack has won Webby and Emmy Awards for his digital work and was featured as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s
25 New Faces of Independent Film. This is Zack’s first book. Zack speaks regularly on international panels
discussing the state of indie film and cross-platform storytelling (“transmedia”), and he will serve as the primary
public figure for MAX & CHARLIE’s US/UK/EU book tours, outreach, and interviews. Zack is based out of
Brooklyn, NY. See more of his work and learn more about his past and future projects at zdLLdz.com
Zack Lieberman — Writer, Producer, and Publisher
Louis is a multi-disciplinary artist who communicates with a unique warmth and an original twist, and he
strives to create playful animations and characters that epitomise these qualities. This is Louis’ first book.
He has worked for Disney, Cartoon Network, Sky, and The National Portrait Gallery, amongst others.
Louis is based out of Bristol, UK. See more of Louis’ work at louisneubert.co.uk
Louis Neubert — Pencil, Ink, and Colour Illustration
There’s much, much more we could tell you. . .
But we’ll save it for future conversations!
In the meantime, please accept our
sincere thanks for your time and consideration.
We hope this finds you well.
For more information:
+1-646-596-6626
Lots more cool stuff at
MAXandCHARLIE.com
all content herein copyright 2016
MAX & CHARLIE PUBLISHING LLC
all rights reserved
. . . please keep this document between us! :)
