Some of you all know I have made my own comic book and site.
gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/...
I had a health scare recently. The plan for the site was to put the first 34 issues on it, and once I was finished with all 90 issues to take them all to an e-publisher and team up with a decent artist to redo them all so they look slightly more professional and slightly less like utter hogshit (pardon my Gragnock).
Change of plans. I am posting ALL of the issues on my site. And each new one as it comes out. I suppose I should discuss a bit in detail why I doing this.
First, here is the description of Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse taken from one of the main pages of the blog:
What is Gilda And Meek about?
It's about several things at once. It's a story of a Lucky Universe in a Multiverse teeming with Unlucky Ones and how our hero navigates that to her own advantage. It's a funny animal book that bit by bit reveals a huge fantasy and science fiction underpinning, much like Bone. It starts off as an erstwhile comedy until you realize it's actually been a drama the entire time. It's a story that after you read all 90 issues, you'll want to reread them again, as the best reading of The Un-Iverse isn't the first, it's the second. It's a bunch of random and seemingly unrelated characters and stories building and crossing over until they collide in an epic 19-part finale. It's about the antagonistic and loving relationship between the hero Gilda and the kid who looks up to her, Bernadette, and how their feelings for each other prove there is no wrong way to love a person. It's a political satire parodying the ridiculousness of the age we live in made more ridiculous by the fact that real life is crazier than my story's outlandish examples. It's about the fact that evil is uncool and mundane, and it's neat to have heroes to like and root for, and where the heroes are more interesting than the villains. It's about a strong female hero whose gender is irrelevant to the story at hand and is merely a strong hero who happens to be a female. It's about all of these things and none of them at the same time. Mostly, it's a way for me to work through my psychological crap. Which is what I think most writing boils down to for people.
Caught up? Okay. The plan was for 34 issues of varying quality to whet people’s appetites to see more. The health scare was something I felt was mortal. I am no longer willing to wait five years to finish the saga to put it online. I still plan to be around then (who doesn’t plan for that?) but in case I am not, Gilda And Meek readers and fans are going to get every issue as it is put to paper.
That was the new plan. The next step was contacting Google Ad-Sense to run ads on my site (potentially not too obtrusive). I am currently disabled, and living off disability. I am technically poor but am extremely low-maintenance and want for little. I also have zero debt attached to my name. Whether The Un-Iverse is a success or not, I live comfortably on my small budget. If the saga takes off, I won’t mind getting off disability and living on it. But if it doesn’t, I’ll be okay financially.
But Google came back and said, “No dice.” There was a problem with the site, and Google’s willingness to allow ads to run there. Anybody who has checked out my site recently could have hit me over the head with a wet noodle and told me the problem.
It hadn’t been updated since 2020. As far as Google knew, it was a dead site. It doesn’t matter how often I pimp it elsewhere, or how often I edit and update the posts there, it looks to the layman as if I’ve abandoned it. So I put the following plea on the site today:
gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/…
The Double Edged Sword of Google Ad-Sense
Here is the current deal with my site. This post is more for the Google Ad-Sense people than anyone else.
For reasons I'm going to decline going into, I have changed my mind and am going to publish the rest of The Un-Iverse on this site. So far I have #52 issues completed and am currently working on finishing #53. Good deal, right? After each issue I complete, I will post it there. Neat!
So I figured I'd start having ads on the site. I didn't expect a TON of revenue but I expected some. I figured as the saga got further into completion (and awesomer and awesomer) more and more people would show up. I also planned to pimp the hell out of the site on the sites I frequent.
But Ad-Sense said "No deal," and said I had to fix the site. You know the problem, right? There hasn't been a new post since 2020! Yes, I am constantly editing the site (and post new sketches in the Sketches section whenever I make them using the edit function), but there are no real new posts. Despite the fact that I plan a bunch of new posts, this currently looks like a dead site and not attractive enough for Google to bite.
What I'm gonna do next is post three more issues today to give the Ad-Sense folks a bit of a taste of what's coming and post a new issue every week after that. Sort of like The Order Of The Stick. The problem will be when I run out of issues and will have to publish them one at a time. It sometimes takes a month (or more) to complete 'em, depending on their length. I promise the Ad-Sense people to pimp the site and still post updates and even new sketches in the meantime. I also can state with certainty that the issues WILL be coming MUCH faster than they have in the past.
I want to share Gilda And Meek with the world. I believe in this franchise and think people will wind up loving it. If Ad-Sense gives the greenlight I will post the issues one at a time, and then as they come. If they still say "Nope" I'm posting everything I've got at once and THEN as they come. If they pass, I truly believe it is Ad-Sense's loss. I posted the first 34 issues to give people a taste of how awesome the saga could be. Once I post the saga actually becoming awesome I think I'm gonna get a lot more traffic.
I'm posting all three parts of Gilda And Meek "Timeline Trilogy" today. It's an awesome story with a great ending (although as always, you need to read the first 34 issues first). C'mon, Google. Say yes. It will be worth it. I swear.
So there are three new issues as of today. If Google still won’t play, you get the rest all at once. If they do, you get them once a week until we’re caught up, and then as they come.
Besides financial considerations, some of the reasons I was leery about posting the rest of the saga is that I wanted to make sure everything was copyrighted and that I exclusively owned everything. I looked closer at the Blogger.com terms and it turns out I own everything posted there, so that was no longer an issue.
Also as the saga went on I realized something both good and a bit unpleasant at the same time. I was used to the fact that The Un-Iverse was a one-man operation. I was hesitant to turn the artwork over to someone better or more professional because I’ve become possessive of the entire franchise. Whether people click on the blog or not, whatever the future holds, there will be no other adaptations because I believe I am the only person who can write these characters (specifically Gilda and Bernadette) properly. It’s a personal passion project and I realized even if the saga is worse for me being unwilling to share it, that fact itself doesn’t make me willing to share it. Warts and all. In case I don’t live to finish it, people will have gotten everything I’ve drawn so far.
I hope people check out the site and rec this specific diary for maximum exposure to show Google I can draw a fair amount of eyeballs if I put my mind to it. Also to reiterate, this is a NOVEL and can ONLY be properly read in order. It doesn’t matter that there are different and interesting looking titles on the main page, if you don’t read it in order you won’t either understand or appreciate it. Thank you to Art Kos for showcasing my work previously, and Daily Kos for being so supportive. Please rec this up. I’ll be your best friend.
I have some sleepless nights ahead of me, I think. What do you think, Gilda?
Sums it up.