Comic Review: Vampire Guardian Angels Resurrection: Afterlife Issue 4

Thank you to amazing writer John Rizo and to horrornews.net for the awesome comic book issue 4 review! Much appreciated! Read the review here! Comic Review: Vampire Guardian Angels Resurrection: Afterlife Issue 4

FAQ: How I feel about Self-Promotion

Copyright Lia Scott Price

I get questions from fans about how I self-promote and what it takes and do I get discouraged, or is it hard. My answer to that is that you have to develop a work ethic. It's a job. You set up a schedule, a plan of action, and you work on it. You have to run yourself like a business, as an entrepreneur. And I'm quite happy and enthusiastic to be self-promoting.

You can't expect to put something out and always rely on others to do your promotion. Sure, any help is great and I always appreciate those who take the time to spread the word about the comic books. My point is that, no one will know about it or even help you out if you don't put the word out and constantly promote your own work. You have to give people a reason to work with you and to spread the word for you. You have to actively take part in your own promotion of your work.

For instance, I hear people complain that they publish something, and then they sit back and wait, and then get upset if nobody buys their work or knows about it. The biggest complaint I hear is that promoting or marketing is not their thing, it's too hard, or that they are not good at it and that it takes away from their creativity and their time used to create. You have to make a case for yourself as to why people should notice your work. When your accomplishment and exposure start to pile up and get more out there, you get more noticed. Have the discipline, work ethic, and positive mindset to do so. Make it a goal. But most of all, do it because you love what you've created.

I think of it this way: It's all about trial and error. When I put something out there, I'm very eager to try out new slogans, images of the comic books, little write-ups about the characters on my blog, behind-the-scenes, photos etc. to see what fans react to. If a slogan doesn't really vibe with fans, then I try another one. And it gives me a chance to be more creative. It only adds more to my creativity because this "market research" helps me either improve the stories, think up more exciting, fun ways to promote the comic book. use the most interesting pics from the comic books, and find other venues or ways to promote. It does not take away from my time to be creative, it only enhances it. Don't be afraid to do it. It also gives me a chance to see what works and what  doesn't, and if something doesn't quite work, I switch gears and experiment some more until I see what "clicks".

It also gives me a chance to engage my audience and interact with them. I realize of course that the comic books are not going to promote themselves and that I don;t have to be a sales expert. I just have to really like what I do and be proud and passionate of my work, and be glad to promote it.

Whispers in the Dark Radio Show Interview

Whispers in the Dark Radio Show Interview on March 19, 2014. 

Whispers in the Dark Online Radio Show

Episode with Lia Scott Price and Andrew Setter
(Update: Chad Hammontree was unable to be on the show)

 

Metal Warzone in Comic Book Issue 5

My good friend and great supporter, photographer and videographer of metal bands, Adrian Mejia of Metal Warzone news and media web site, will appear as a Vampire character in my Vampire Guardian Angels^TM comic book Issue 5 "Rule of Blood". Please check out Adrian Mejia's Metal Warzone Web Site. \m/\m/

Original Comic Book 4 Drafts

Here are some behind-the-scenes images of my Artist Andrew Setter's original inked, uncolored drafts of the pages of Vampire Guardian Angels^TM Comic Book Issue 4, "Resurrection: Afterlife". The process consists of Andrew drawing and inking, and Chad Hammontree, my colorist/letterer, adding the final color and text to the pages.

To see samples of some of the final, fully colored images by Chad Hammontree,
click here for Comic Book 4

How do I come up with my Stories and Characters?

I get these questions a lot so I'll try to explain it as best I can in this post. :)

For the first three comic issues, it was easy since I was turning my already existing novel into comic book format. So it was just a matter of migrating the characters and select scenes and condensing the stories into 24 plus pages each.

It was a little bit more of a challenge with coming up with the sequels. Since I had decided that the sequels were no longer going to be in novel format, I needed to continue the stories on in comic book format, thinking up new plots, scenarios, developing and expanding characters, creating new characters, and find a new and unexpected direction the story should take. The more strange and bizarre, the better.

No set formula, just inspiration:
The best way I can sum it up is this: An idea just hits me, and I go with it. I rely a lot on feeling, atmosphere, even what I eat or drink or the music I happen to be listening to. It may come one year and last for weeks, it may just last one day. Each year that the comic book was written, I look back and I can tell what inspired me.

My first inspiration: In the novel, stories 1 and 2 were were inspired by my being a "recovering Catholic" and questioning some aspects of why we believe in saviors. After I had written those, I needed to come up with story 3, which was inspired by.....

Dreams:
....My next stories were from what comes up in my dreams. Yep, dreams. Story 3 was the result of a bizarre dream I had.

And comic issues 5 and 6 were the product of some very bizarre dreams involving ancient Vampires, Catholic reliquaries and the "incorruptible bodies" of Saints.  And then I started listening to more black metal music. And all these came together in a week of strange dreams. Well, you can see how my imagination started to run wild.

But not all Issues are inspired by Dreams. It's unpredictable.

Take for example, Issue 4, which was more of a character expansion, as in what had happened to a character's son or father and to develop them more. But there was still the challenge of what direction I wanted to take the character to. And it's still developing.

And more issues have yet to be written, so who knows what will inspire those?

So in short, there will be days when I don't "feel" anything, or find no inspiration, and then there are weeks when I get so inspired that I can write the entire story line in a week and keep going, thinking up new scenarios and plot lines, what's next  for my characters, and create new characters.

There is no magic formula. It's just inspiration that's needed. :)

Please read my writing and self-publishing disclaimer here

We are on our 4th Published Issue!

Check out all 4 issues of the Vampire Guardian Angels^TM comic book series!

More issues in the works!