Turning down publicity / Separating work

KathleenJ · Post by **KathleenJ** » Sat May 21, 2005 12:35 pm

Have you ever turned down some possible publicity when, for whatever reason, it just didn't fit right?

I just finished doing some freelance illustrations for an actual book-to-be-published. It's a cute how-to book teaching young girls how to knit. It was a lot of fun, and I was very grateful for the job - I'd worked a little with the author before, and actually met her on another project when she was looking for an illustrator in the online comic community.

Anyway, the book is likely going to have a little bio of a sentence or two about me along with the author bio, and apparently they want to mention that I do comics. Which is fine, but I told the editor that I'd rather not have any mention of my comic's title. The book is basically for pre-teens, and my current comic series is not suitable for that age demographic at all. It's pretty dark and demented. I think it's best for all parties concerned to keep it separate.

Has anybody else had an experience like that, where you declined an opportunity for some press for your comic because it wasn't right, or went out of your way to keep one body of your work separate from another?

I usually just keep quiet about my comic in professional settings...but in this case, the people working on the book already knew about it because it was related to how I met the author.

edited because I am having a bad spell day I guess

Stinkywigfiddle · Post by **Stinkywigfiddle** » Sat May 21, 2005 1:03 pm

I've illustrated couple of local small-press children

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sat May 21, 2005 1:33 pm

I generally stay away from things like dropdowns and such for the opposite reason. I can't be certain about the content that is available through those sources.

It's not that my work won't be suitable for any particular demographic, it's more that most of the time their work isn't suitable for mine.

I did joing the Netherworld dropdown for those with ghosts and so forth, but that's only because the owner said I could be in it but not have to put it up on the site myself. He was very understanding.

That doesn't happen all the time though, and rightly so.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sat May 21, 2005 1:48 pm

I keep a slightly low profile with mcDuffies right now. I got one banner on TAC which, when you know that number of banners decides how much a comic add is gonna be in rotation, is really not much. Actually, I put that one only to see that banner on page, otherwise I could remove it right now and I wouldn't be very sorry. It's just not the right time to start reading mcDuffies, not until I get to dedicate more time to it.

Nightgaunt · Post by **Nightgaunt** » Sat May 21, 2005 2:19 pm

Someone once asked if they could put my comic in their student newletter/newspaper thing at a jesuit college. I said no, trying to explain that we have waaaay different target audiences.

...plus I wasn't terribly confident about my comic at the time...

Ida · Post by **Ida** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:04 pm

It's not really publicity, but I avoided uploading anything related to my comic on my deviantArt account because I plan to show that to a friend who I haven't told about the comic - and I'm not quite sure she won't find it utterly ridiculous, so I'm going to keep my mouth shut for the time being.

That goes for most of the people I know in Real Life, actually.

Mimo · Post by **Mimo** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:42 pm

I have a similar problem; I have to be super careful with warnings, because my comic looks like it is aimed at a very young audience but is in fact NC17.

Ida · Post by **Ida** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:55 pm

mimo wrote:I have a similar problem; I have to be super careful with warnings, because my comic looks like it is aimed at a very young audience but is in fact NC17.

By the way, I really liked your comic. Sure, it creeped me out the first time, but it's actually very funny, if slightly disturbing. Plus your art is simply beautiful.

Yeah, I love simple/cute/stilished things.

Mimo · Post by **Mimo** » Sat May 21, 2005 4:06 pm

Now you can see how horrible it would be if some little tot stumbled across my work!

I

Ida · Post by **Ida** » Sat May 21, 2005 4:09 pm

[quote="mimo"]Now you can see how horrible it would be if some little tot stumbled across my work!

I

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sat May 21, 2005 4:24 pm

mimo wrote:I have a similar problem; I have to be super careful with warnings, because my comic looks like it is aimed at a very young audience but is in fact NC17.

Yup. My point previously. I don't really want any 'tot' who may be reading mine to stumble across something like yours direct from my site

Mimo · Post by **Mimo** » Sat May 21, 2005 4:33 pm

lol It's like your problem in reverse!