Marketing Journal #1 - The numbers game

So I've been trying the syndication game. Why? Because I need to eat. Don't get me wrong here -- the Nowhere Wolf is not my only project, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The Nowhere Wolf has been sitting in various sketchbooks since 1998. There's even a sketchbook of final art -- panels that have been drawn up over the years. It's garnered as much interest as my entire illustration portfolio and drawn many more laughs.

So why not see if it's actually marketable? It's like finding that old painting in your attic and taking it to the "Antiques Roadshow". What's it gonna be worth?

So I start reading up ... just type "cartoon syndication" into Google ... and blammo! Here's the first piece of advice I read:

TIP NO.1

Unless you're already syndicated, so this tip goes, PROVE YOU CAN DO IT!

Ok, so I hastily set up a blog, decide on a publishing schedule and stick to it. Right. That's that. I can prove that between 5pm-7pm every day there's a new cartoon online.

But this is where I get greedy. It's not enough for me to just prove the point of regular publishing -- I actually want people to read it and give me feedback.

So here we go ... the blog promotion thang! My dear God. I've submitted to directories, listings, forums ... I've spent more time promoting it than doing it. But I think that's a short term thing. I'd like to keep promoting it, but I'll limit myself to an hour a day to find new ways to do so.

The blog's getting traffic. I have some regular readers and I'm proving I can be consistent with the cartoon.

That's TIP #1 covered. YAY!

Now to the numbers game. The big syndication companies (Kings, Tribune, United, Universal and Creators) get somewhere between 15,000-25,000 submissions per year between them (I could be optimistic and think that maybe they all get the same submissions which would mean that only 3,000-5,000 new cartoons surface each year, but let's not be optimistic). They each take on 2-3 newcomers each year.

Do the math -- That makes your statistical chances of getting published somewhere between 0.1% and 0.04% (0.3% if you're optimistic).

They're long odds. So what about direct marketing? What would happen if you emailed every newspaper editor in the US and asked them if they wanted your cartoon?

Well, that's what I've just started to do. Take a look at http://www.usnpl.com/. It's a fairly comprehensive list of American newspapers.

So far I've got half way through California. I've emailed every newspaper editor I can find in Alabama and Arizona (I skipped Alaska, maybe I shouldn't have -- It just seems like it's a long way away).

The result? Out of 160ish emails I've received about 10 views of the website, three rejection emails and that's that.

It's easy to think that the work is just no good -- and maybe that's the case. I wish I new. Without knowing all you can do is plug on. I have a suspicion it's my cover letter. Each time I've altered it, it's gotten a better response.

There's about 2,000 more newspapers to go. That should mean about 125 more page views and 37 and a half rejection letters.

I've yet to contact the syndication companies. I'll let you know when I do.