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Beginnings

 
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AaronLee
Egg


Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 25

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:23 am    Post subject: Beginnings Reply with quote

Im hoping this issue hasn't been very heavily covered. Anyway, this question's been on my mind and, hopefully, on the minds of other listeners. How did you all get started? It's a pretty big question but hopefully it's got some colorful answers.

I suppose one could break it down into a number of pieces aswell; What was square one? How did you secure webspace and get the site designed? Finally, what's your best publicity victory (in leu of simply asking how do you get hits Razz)?

I honestly have personal concerns in this, aswell. I've wanted a home in teh intertubes for this aloof, tech-romp, space opera I've been hammering away on. Thus far, I'm clueless even where to start. Hold on, my headphones came unplugged. So sorry Wink. I think the thing's made for a web serialisation as episodic stories are hard to move in the market it seems.

edit: forgot to mention the password for that link that is totally not where I wrote the word "plug." It's 'vista.' You see why I need a legit home for this thing? Doling out an anti-bot password for a forum's no fun.
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Entity325
Hatching


Joined: 07 May 2008
Posts: 57

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1&1 and Fatcow both have some fairly cheap hosting services. My family website(and thus my comic) is currently hosted on Fatcow, but the account's owned by my dad.


As far as how I personally got started... I've always done doodles. Some ten or twelve years ago, I got an idea which, through massive idea drift, has evolved into what is currently my zombie webcomic.

That's "zombie" as in "It's not technically alive," as opposed to "It has zombies in it." I'm having some discussions with a Dr. Viktor Frankenstien about borrowing some of his lab technology to try and revive it. He's looking over the final draft of the contract right now.

Anyway. For a text format, you could actually start with a blog and post your chapters there. It's free, it gets publicity, and if you set the blog to public, you won't have to hand out login passwords.

If you want to do something a bit more graphical, I'd say find a webcomic hosting service. Livejournal webcomics are several orders of lame rolled into one.

In any case, I've found one of the best ways to get started on anything is to dive in and test the depth of the water with both feet. Anything less, and you'll end up like me.

Fortunately, I might be able to smooth negotiations for Dr. Frankenstien's machinery for you. Wink
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Selezen
Egg


Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 26
Location: Derby, UK

PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My starting out story is pretty good, I think. It all started with meningitis!

At the tail end of 2005 I contracted viral meningitis and ended up in the hiospital for a night. Afterwards, being signed off work for six weeks, I got very very bored. I couldn't do any of the usual things I do when I'm ill because they usually involved the computer and using that thing gave me a headache (because of the meningitis).

So I decided to try and learn to draw a comic. My wife bought me a book called "How To Draw Anything" and I made a start. It wasn't an auspicious start...although I can get the basics quite quickly I take a little bit of time trying to get the details just right and it never quite works. My comic style was too "realistic", as the early strips show...

Anyway, I started getting better and able to use the computer again, so I drew up a few things and scanned them in, and thus was born the Battle Barge webcomic!

Hosting was easy - I had my own webspace and had done for a few years - being a prefessional web developer also helped. I tried to find a decent comic hosting application and came up with iStrip, which was basic but worked.

Note of warning - if you don't know any web programming languages (HTML, ASP, PHP etc) then don't try and host it yourself. Use something like ComicGenesis or Comic Ostrich! They provide all the useful code and stuff and all you have to do is come up with a design for your site and the comic!

If you know some kind of web programming language, then go for your own hosting and get one of the apps. If you like PHP then go for Comicpress, iStrip, btPHP or something like that. If you are an ASP programmer, then there's nothing out there other than the one that I wrote to manage BB, and you're welcome to a copy if you want one (just PM me!).

Publicizing your comic is the next big step. Post about it to as many comic forums as you can. Keenspot/ComicGenesis forum is a good one, as are TalkAboutComics, Comicspace and other comic listing sites. On any other forum you are on, make sure you include a link to your comic in your signature and/or profile.

A few guys who make comics have put together a book called How To Make Webcomics, and it's apparently the business for those who want to start one up. Kris Straub is one of the authors, and you all know who he is... Wink If that book hasn't already been touted about here, then it's about time it was...

Hope that helps!
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AaronLee
Egg


Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 25

PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hahah! It lives! Just click the link in my signature.

Anyway, thanks for the words of wisdom, guys. The biggest barrier for me was actual website building, as I've come to realize. I only know some sparse HTML so going from the ground up would have been tough. Blogger's got it's own infamous qualities but I've worked the site layout so much you can hardly tell it was originally a template.

I also learned some nifty code (the "full post" links in the main page) that made setting up the site for my fiction fairly easy. I'll likely put up some more structure as the catalog of chapters grows, plus some extra appendix, background, tech and commentary pages as the need or whim arises.

So, you've just witnessed a christening of a new web serial, I suppose. I'd love to get my first hits from you guys. I'll likely slap this signature up on the writing forum I first beta'd the story on and anywhere else I have a footprint. I'll also put up chapter 2 some time soon.

So thanks to Selezeen for the involved and fun story and Entity for scaring me into getting the ball rolling. Also the blogger thing was something I already knew but never realized, so thanks for pointing that out (completely serious.)

Also, class advice, Sel. I appreciate the detail and the helping hand extended with coding. I'll try and apply the lessons for syndicating, though I've done most of the skeletal stuff before for other projects.
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Entity325
Hatching


Joined: 07 May 2008
Posts: 57

PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glad to help. Very Happy

Great shades of Tales of MU! Hope yours turns out better, though.(If that author writes what she sees, she must have gone to college in the nymphomania capital of the world! bleh.)

Hopefully, you'll eventually outgrow Blogspot and move to your own server, but given you're writing fiction, not drawing comics, it's all good for now.
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