Awkward Debuts: On 'Beautiful' in The Tomb of Baalberith Volume 2

It's really weird for me to do one of these as I'm not really one for self-promotion. Almost everything I do in the journalism space is about someone else's thing, or some company's newest thing, and rarely - if ever - do I feel free to talk about myself openly. Then again, I've never really had a thing I had to promote. Almost every project or accomplishment I've ever worked on was part of a team or a collaboration with that in mind. The Tomb of Baalberith anthology is very much this sort as well, it’s just, still strange to me to see words I wrote turned into imagery. The campaign was created by my good friend and comics veteran Mark McKenna, along with a cohort of writers and friends such as Jad Kaado and Mark's own son Kyle. 

What's cool about this project is we take on a sort of horror comics of the 50s approach. It's Tales from Crypt-styled horror - though never too much or too little in terms of excess. The story that I'd written is called ‘Beautiful’ with thoughtfully stunning artwork from fellow newcomer Jameson Matunas. To be quite honest,  a good reason why I've been missing posts and such lately is our collaboration, as we've been working on this and talking about collaborating on a bunch of projects together in the future. Safe to say, Jameson is my new artistic partner and together, we plan on unveiling stuff that isn't just about his sexy scratchy art style, or my verbose and often turning the trope on its head style of writing - but rather, we strive to make stories that make a difference to today's world. Which is sort of my goal as a writer and ours as creatives.

We want to make art that doesn't just entertain but actually says something. Tells hard-to-listen to truths about the world and brings it to the forefront of the conversation. 

Why? 

Is because although escapism is nice. Entertainment feels overripe with it right now. The world needs to talk about its issues. So I've made a vow to always write about the truths that never get addressed in conversation and in media. Basically showcase, why the world is so full of gray right now - in an era where everyone has become black and white. Us versus Them.

I want to say in my art that life is complicated.

I want us to do something about it, which is why I write the way I do.

To try and change the world. 

For 'Beautiful', the best way I can describe our short is I wanted to make something with a female demon/monster since the original Baalberith was missing a bit of that. Yet, immediately when I had to think about female demons - I couldn't think of many. Sirens. Maybe. A Gorgon. Possibly. Maybe. Definitely? Something with eyes looking into the heart of your soul. As Souls was a big thing in the original comic.

It was then I thought. Ya know. It would be really cool if I could tell a story about my cataract surgery back in 2013. Basically, what it's like being awake while a doctor slices away at your eyeballs. Because I've done that. I've lived that. Most people would be horrified by the kind of melting orange colors you see that is your puss seeping out of your eye lenses. So I originally went with a Gorgon, and to do so, I thought, well, the original story in Perseus looked into Medusa's gaze... This ugly creature who couldn't see herself. 

Which to be honest... then brought me to the idea of tackling a topic on Beauty. Or BEAUTIFUL which is what I called the story so as to not be confused with the BEAUTY comics by Image creator Jeremy Haun (also a great comic btw).

I thought about it for a while. What if I did a story about modern beauty fanatics? How social media is destroying women's personal body images of themselves - particularly on Instagram. Influencers and girls who are obsessed with selling their looks. I also had a beauty influencer friend from high school that I reconnected with in 2022 named, Jessica DeFino. Who'd kinda gotten famous on Substack talking about Beauty Culture and her days working for the Kardashians...  

Anyway, I knew where this story was going but I really wanted to make sure it didn't come across as misogynistic. I needed to stress what I was doing was empowering and not victimizing this person. So I wanted to make a statement about the culture rather than the subject and talk about the toxic nature of chasing fame and having this become everything you wanted... the real-world problems of when you have a be-all-end-all mentality to anything in life.

I realized soon after that The Gorgon wasn't gonna cut it. The pages I'd written for that, contrasted very hard with the plotting of what I wanted to say in this story (it's kinda hard to make a compelling snake woman story where she's hiding from the world and essentially can't look at anyone, else they turn to stone).

But I had this character that I already made for this named, Brandi. A play on the word 'Brand' and also a bit of a valley girl namesake by ending it with an i. I knew the only way this would work was if she obsessed over her pictures and beautiful images - and then throw in a conflict where we take that away.

To build the horror elements, David Cronenberg's body horror movies came to mind almost immediately. But if not a Gorgon then what else could the monster be?

And it became obvious. A Succubus. 

Though again, I didn't want this to be outright naughty for the sake of selling copies. A lot of people do that in the industry and I don't want to be like other people necessarily - so I needed the story to stand out. The idea was something sexy in terms of imagery but with no nudity. In fact, what if... and bear with me.... what if we did a succubus story without any actual sex involved? Would that even be possible and how could it tie to the mythos established within Volume 1 of this story?

The result is what I ended up writing. However, I can't help but feel uneasy about the launching of this. As I am slowly realizing this is the beginning of a very long journey I've been prepping for a long time. 

I can't deny that I'm a bit fazed. A bit flabbergasted. A bit all over the place regarding the launch. 

Anyway, please do support my first breakthrough into comics. Click the Kickstarter. Pledge a few dollars. Buy a copy, a bottle opener, and a T-shirt. And more importantly: watch our video.

Because I scripted that too.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/markinker/the-tomb-of-baalberith-v2

Can Crowdfunding Help Me Publish My Book?

Earlier this year, I had an opportunity to meet the fabulous Lydia Sherrer at a local author event in Indiana. My table was across the way from hers, so I had lots of opportunities to watch her interact with others. I quickly learned she was someone I wanted to get to know, and as a result I also wanted to read her books -- I mean, I was certain her books would be packed with the same amount of personality that she contained in real life (and after completing book 1 in the series I can tell you that I was correct... Lily and Sabastian have quickly become one of my favorite literary duos.)

I'm super excited Lydia agreed to write up a guest post about her experience using Kickstarter to publish the first two books of her series.

Thanks, Lydia!

Can Crowdfunding Help Me Publish My Book?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: only if you do it right.

Hi, my name is Lydia Sherrer, self-published author of modern fantasy series "Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus - the Lily Singer Adventures." Books 1 and 2 are published (books 3 and 4 are on their way), funded via Kickstarter (91 backers pledged $4,832). Both books received five star review awards from Readers' Favorite and have a 4.9 out of 5 star rating on Amazon .  I tell you this to give you an idea of where I'm coming from when I say that crowdfunding is absolutely a valid tool in your dream to publish your own book, but it is not an endeavor to be taken on lightly, without detailed planning, or without a commitment to work your butt off.

To successfully crowdfund a book project you need three things: a solid product, a solid platform, and a solid plan.

Product

First of all, you need a solid product: crowdfunding isn't charity, or some magical money pot in the sky that you can pray to and all your dreams will come true. It is a community of individuals who use their own hard-earned money to back creative projects that they believe are worthy.

Therefore it is your job to make sure that the product you are putting out there is the absolute best it could possibly be. You can't just publish for you, to scratch some itch or add a shiny badge of accomplishment to your collection. It has to be bigger than that. It needs to be something that helps people, brings them enjoyment or benefit, changes them.

Has your manuscript been read by multiple beta readers, some of whom are NOT your friends, but experts in your field with a critical eye? Do you already have the editor, formatter, and publishing route lined up? Do you have any cover art yet? Have you written a back cover blurb that captures your reader's attention?

Your crowdfunding project should be the last piece of the puzzle, not the first. People back projects that seem well-thought out, well-planned, and already have as much of the work done as possible. All they need to do is add funding, so that the idling plane can take off the runway.

Platform

Projects need backers, and for backers you need a platform. Your friends and family are not enough by themselves. If, prior to this, you've not done any kind of advertising, blogging, social media, newsletter list, etc, if you're not part of any groups, organizations, or what-have-you that creates a community of supporters around you, your crowd-funding project is doomed. Crowdfunding isn't there to bring you supporters, it is there to give your supporters a means by which to fund you.

Now, that doesn't mean you can't accomplish this without thousands of loyal fans. But it does mean you need to have a presence on social media, possibly have your own website, and have been active in the places your ideal supporter will be hanging out. In addition to my friends and family, I tapped my 1000+ Facebook friends, my 500 or so Twitter followers, the few hundred people I had on my mailing list, and the people I knew from writing groups, work, church, clubs, etc.

If you hope to publish your own book, you should start building a platform NOW, because your platform is what will get your crowdfunding off the ground and attract others to your cause.

Plan

Lastly, you need a solid plan: if you don't have a plan for packaging and delivering your solid project to your solid platform in a way that will win over backers, your project will fail. So your first job is to go on Google and do a search for how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign (I personally recommend Kickstarter over Gofundme or Indiegogo, but do your own research). Yes, I'm serious. Go do a Google search and start clicking on articles. There are a ton of people out there who've written in-depth analysis of what works and what doesn't, so you have to educate yourself on such things as: which platform to pick, what to include in the description, what rewards/levels to provide, how to make a winning intro video, logistics of fullfilment, and more.

Go find other successful book Kickstarter campaigns and look at what they did (you can check out my Kickstarter from last year to get an idea of what a successful Kickstarter looks like). Also see if you can find unsuccessful campaigns and notice what they have in common (ex: lack of a good intro video, short/unprofessional description, little or no artwork, typos, badly planned rewards, etc.)

All this reading takes time, but it is absolutely essential to succeed. I've seen way too many half-assed kickstarters fail for people who had a good product, just no idea how to package it. Make sure to get feedback on your campaign page before it goes live. Those first viewers will help you catch typos and point out confusing or unpersuasive bits that will take your campaign from average to winning.

Conclusion

Yes, you should consider crowdfunding for your self-publishing project. However, you need to decide if you have the time and resources to accomplish it. I spent months getting ready and during the campaign I spent every single day marketing it, posting about it, calling people, writing emails, and more. If social media is not your thing, if you don't like putting yourself out there or asking people for help, if you're not willing to put in the work to create a solid plan, crowdfunding may not be for you.

The only reason my project was funded was the amazing generosity and help I got from my wonderful friends and fans. In the end, it is THEY who will get your plane in the air. Crowdfunding is just that, crowd funding. But they can't help you if you haven't already helped yourself.

Good luck my friends. If you have any questions or want to chat more about my Kickstarter experience, hit me up on Facebook or check out my website for my contact details.