Too bad I didn’t have the chance to put this in the three question limit, but still managed to confirm something in the after-session private.
Last weekend, a new local (online) comic publisher called Makko is helding an event in Central Park mall, Jakarta. In a tie in with Toyota (inevitable, reason later) that also have the usual crowd gathering circus of cosplay parade.
No offence to the cosplayer, but I think that’s as much as you all are seen by sponsor, free attraction to pull the eyeballs to their products.
Portion of the comic lineup already printed in small numbers to be sold in this event.
As a new player, they (Makko) had a big dream to build the Indonesian comic industry that’s currently dominated with big players that are not able to support local comic, and disappointed by the revenue made by local comics.
The main difference, other than their main media of distribution by the web, is their eagerness to do huge spending to support the artists with intense promotional campaigns. The strategy is promote often, keeping peoples Seeing the executive staffs yesterday, I believe internet-style grass-root campaign by approaching the target market’s online opinion leaders is one of the most important spearhead) and also producing merchandise and market it.
The artists will also be paid per page they made instead of strictly royalty based like the current print publishers. So yes, the “You buy food with money, not Facebook Likes” problem for the artists is also addressed.
