I wanted to give a recap about the webcomic reviews review trial run, as well as plans about the future of them; but I also wanted to clarify rules about emailing us. Mostly for organizational purposes, but also to keep spam down, and avoid passive aggressiveness.

The Trial Run
I may do one or two more from the initial trial run, then I will do a few “Comic of the Week” posts through December. I was hoping to do Comic of the Week and the reviews at the same time, and I still might.

I will announce a new opening for submissions in December, with instructions. (keep reading)

Comic of the Week
The Comic of the Week picks are supposed to be unsolicited quick picks with non-reviews attached to them. Either from me or the crew picking them from our own crossings, or from emails sent to the Webcomic Beacon. (keep reading)

Emailing The Webcomic Beacon
Yes, I do get a lot of emails to interview or review comics/creators, as well as press releases. These go un-replied for many reasons, but sometimes I do bookmark some.

As always, people may email the WEBCOMIC Beacon email address with press releases and other sorts of “hustles” to see if we may be interested in your work. You may also tweet at us. I fully understand the desire to get recognition, and get the word out. You may especially ask us about retweeting relative events, projects, and fundraisers. Just be sure to email/tweet the correct program’s contact info. (webcomic stuff goes to webcomicbeacon, webfiction to webfictionworld, general creative stuff or site questions to webcastbeacon, etc)

But there are a few rules I would like people to respect:

PLEASE DO NOT SPAM our twitter or email for your comic updates.

• Do not add us to your single comic mailing list…. However, publishers, comic groups, and organizations may add us to newsletters. Just not simply for only comic updates.

PLEASE, do not simply ask to be REVIEWED or picked for a C.O.W. pick

• … unless there is a request for submissions. Comic of the Week picks are not for submission. You may still send us a press release or a one-time email pitching you and your comic. We may not get back to you, but a detailed pitch or “hustle” would help better than a couple of sentences.

PLEASE, do not simply ask to be INTERVIEWED, or speak on a subject

• … without making a really good case. You really should be learning to sell yourself. If you think you would be interesting to have on the show, tell us why. If you have great ideas for a topic, tell us about it. If you would really love to talk about a comic/creatives news article or event that recently happened, please tell us about it and what you think (this would be your best bet to get on the show).  Anyone we have on the show can certainly plug their work too (in case you were wondering).

Please do not ask about reviews without our posting a request for submissions. Please follow The Webcomic Beacon on twitter at @WebcomicBeacon. There you will find if I am asking about review submissions, or if people should “bump” their old emails to us if we never got back to you on something, etc. Again, this is all mostly for organizational reasons, as well as a quality control.

Response to the reviews so far
I was hoping for more of a response to the reviews, but I’ve not recieved too much feedback yet. Mostly from the creators themselves, which is absolutely fine. I am hoping to keep the reviews as an all-around review of the entire webcomic experience, which includes the website. It is possible I may turn them into podcasts, in addition to the written review. We’ll see.

The Future of The Webcomic Beacon and reviews
It is possible that I will turn the reviews and C.O.W.S into the new Webcomic Beacon, which is why I was wanting to wait after the initial trial run, and after the Semi-Finale of The Webcomic Beacon, before I further considered it.

I would also try to get more people than myself on the show to give reviews or COW picks. I may also consider looking into making videos of the reviews, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Still, keep checking the main website, the facebook page, our tumblr, google plus page, or our twitter for announcements and updates!