@eagle1 re: starting points for campaigns - our Indiegogo campaign started only after everything was done; we were using it to pay for the printing-costs only, and I think it helped having a finished product to show people, especially since potential backers couldn't otherwise have known that we'd be able to finish it.
@CyndiFoster I haven't merchanised much, honestly. I've done some bookmarks which I handed out for free at my latest con, and I've done fanzines - i.e: self-published editions of my comics - also for sale at cons. The fanzines I've always tried to price with enough of a margin to make a profit.
For example, two of the comics I had for sale at my latest con - one was a 16-page, full colour preview of Grassblades, and the other was an older comic of mine, a 200-page collected edition-volume of Fathoms of the Sky, with a colour cover and black and white interiors. I printed both of them at the same printer, both of them at a 50-copy print run, so comparing them is easier.
The Grassblades preview cost me 21 SEK per copy to print, and I sold it at 40 SEK. Considering its slimness, I couldn't in good conscience charge more for it, but at the same time, I wanted to cover printing costs, the cost of the tabling at the con, and make enough that I didn't have to sell every single copy of it to cover all of my costs.
Fathoms of the Sky cost me 47 SEK per copy to print, and I sold it 100 SEK. It's a pretty hefty volume, and even though it's got black and white interiors instead of colour, people are still getting a lot for their money. As it's an old print-run, at this point I've already covered the printing costs, and am selling off whatever copies I have left - which means that aside from the table costs, they're 100% profit at this point.
Selling fanzines/self-published stuff is, for me, no way to make a living, but I have thus far been able to cover my costs and make enough profit to cover the next print-run, which is really all I can hope for at this point - I've got some way to go yet.
Now, I was ill with a pretty bad fever while tabling at my latest con, so I wasn't as energetic as I could have been, and thus failed to advertise my Patreon properly - anyone have any tips on that? I put the Patreon-address on the back of the bookmarks I handed out, but I don't know how effective that was. I'm considering having a poster or something at my table at the next con with some sort of "I've got a Patreon, ask me how!"-thing on it.
So, to end with:
What do you think is the best way to promote a Patreon-campaign?
I just got myself a Society6-page - anyone wanna give me some beginner's tips?