RUNNERS Story Wall and Call for Reviews
Just a quick update. As I mentioned, I’m currently working on breaking the story for the remainder of my RUNNERS series. It’s currently looking like 8 graphic novels. Ack! It’ll be a lot of work, but I am super-excited about how much story is coming. Here’s a photo of the story wall thus far, with post-its color-coded by character and/or event:
There’s a lot more to be fleshed out, but the bones are looking good!
In the meantime, I would still very much love to start building some awareness and support for the series. Along those lines, if anyone is willing to add a review to Amazon, Good Reads, or any other review site, I would GREATLY appreciate it. I think the more positive reviews/ratings I can get, the better traction I can get in pushing the series. Here are some links:
Vol 1 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Runners-Vol-1-Bad-Goods/dp/0976851709
Vol 2 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Runners-2-Big-Snow-Job/dp/0976851717
Vol 1 on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2089405.Runners_Vol_1
Vol 2 on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19571289-runners-vol-2
Again, any help would be greatly appreciated. And please feel free to keep directing people to this site, where they can read the series for free online or order books and PDF digital copies from my store. Thanks everyone!!
The biggest problem with promoting the series is, to be honest, your unreliability. It feels like it’s been a decade since I first tuned in and you still only have 2 OGN’s out. And you’re still self-publishing when you should be going through Image at the very least to reach more customers and not have to pay for printing costs. They take a flat fee off the top and you retain all your rights. They can get you more exposure as well. By not producing regular content, your early fans will abandon you which completely negates any point of building interest. Even the McRib is yearly. That said, I wish you luck. I just think you need a dose of truth. Creator’s are not always the best marketers.
Hey Zed, I actually agree with you whole-heartedly! The erratic schedule is a huge detriment and the main reason why I want to figure out the entire remaining story up front, so I can jump from one story to the next, without long delays. It’s also been a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario, where the series has never been financial solvent, forcing me to take freelance work, but then the freelance work keeps me from putting Runners out at a rate that would potentially make it work financially. Argh! That’s why I plan to really focus on Runners as a full-time thing to try to finally get some momentum going, which is the only way it’s ever going to go anywhere. For the record, I am absolutely reaching out to publishers in order to broaden the audience. I actually tried to get Runners lined up with publishers when I first started out, but no one wanted a sci-fi series. I’m hoping some of that opinion has changed in the interim! Actually, my call for reviews was so that I could potentially point publishers to those reviews and show them that the series, while sporadic to date, has been well received by those who have read it. I do appreciate your comments though, Zed, and believe me, whatever frustration you have felt with the lackluster pace of the series, I have felt a thousand-fold over the years! 🙂
Glad you took my comment as constructive criticism. Maybe you could pitch it to Amazon et al as an animated series? I recall a student made animation from some time back. That would help you out financially.
https://bwspotlight.com/?s=Sean+Wang+Runners
Reviews I’ve already made on the first two storyline, the webcomic, and a fan-made short movie.
Awesome!
I do agree, I wish that you’ve written more over the years. But I’m very excited to see that you’re serious about finishing the story and interconnecting the plots! I’m still waiting for the payoff on all of those Sky clones in stasis.
I’m? an internet nobody, so I can’t really do anything to help promote Runner’s, but I can promise that I’ll be following the future stories closely. Really looking forward to it!
I also wish I had written more over the years! 🙂 It’s definitely been tough, trying to balance income (freelance work) and passion project (Runners). Freelance work definitely won that battle the last few years. But in the process, I think I’ve been able to squirrel away enough of a financial buffer to allow me to focus much more time and energy on Runners. Fingers crossed that this time, I can cut through the clutter and build an audience that makes the project self-sustaining. And I of course recognize that a more prolific output is step 1! Well, step 2, after settling on the remainder of the story.
Believe me, I still very much praise and glow about the series to everyone around me: “Here’s the animated short film I worked on! Here’s these fanarts I made for the comic it’s based on! You think this looks good? WELLL, YOU CAN GO READ THE COMIC, IT’S AWESOMEEEE~”
I am quite happily a walking advertisement for Runners to anyone who’ll listen, haha 8’D
Have you ever thought of making some merchandise, like shirts and such to help drum up a little more publicity (And make people into ACTUAL walking advertisements XP)?
I know you have the poster, but that’s something that’d usually hung up indoors, while shirts are shown out in public, and can quite easily end up catching a passerby’s curiosity.
And, if you started off doing it though a site like RedBubble until things picked up more, you wouldn’t have to worry about things like producing and shipping the product yourself, just making the designs and letting the site take care of the rest.
(Plus, I’d literately be over the moon to have Ril on one of my T-shirts, haha~)
Anyways, just an idea that crossed my mind~
I’m very much and excited and looking forward for the future of Runners! Keep up the awesome work, Sean! ^_^
Sorry for the delay in response Kit. But as always, thanks so much for your continued exuberance about the series!! I tend to hold back on the merchandise at this point because I feel like the series isn’t at a point where a lot of people would want merch. I think I’m still in the phase of trying to broaden the audience. Once I feel like I have a decent sized audience to support the cost of me producing merch, I’ll definitely look into it. But you do bring up a good point about walking advertisements and using sites like RedBubble. So there’s a good chance I WILL look into it sooner rather than later. At the very least, maybe I can have a Runners shirt myself for when I do shows!