Comic enquiries from writers and editors fail in three predictable ways. Writers ask for 'a comic artist' without separating pencils, inks, colours, and letters and the conversation collapses when they realise inks alone are typically 35-50% of a page rate. Editors quote page counts that don't include splash pages, double-page spreads, or covers and the proposal ends up 15-20% under what the actual book needs. Indie publishers ask about rights, royalties, and ownership and a generic chatbot has no idea where the boundary between work-for-hire and creator-owned actually sits.

SleekAI reads your page-rate framework, pipeline-split notes, sector portfolio (Big Two, indie graphic novel, web comics, advertising comics), and rights pages straight from wp_posts and ACF fields. When an indie publisher says 'we have a 120-page graphic novel and we need pencils through colour', the bot quotes from your real framework: pencils at 180-260 GBP per page, inks at 100-150 GBP per page, colours at 80-130 GBP per page, plus a 5% extra for splash pages and 8% for double-page spreads. Letters are sourced separately or quoted at 35-55 GBP per page.

By the time the call happens, the artist (or studio rep) knows it's an indie OGN, 120 pages plus 8 splash pages and 4 double-page spreads, pencils through colours, work-for-hire with backend royalty share, with a 14-month delivery timeline. The conversation opens with sample pages and contract preview, not 'how do you price?'. Display conditions hide the bot from in-progress NDA series. Multibot lets a Big Two qualifying flow run on /superhero with rights-and-deadlines language.

Comic illustration is one of the few creative fields where the same book earns wildly different fees depending on which pipeline steps you commission, and the gap between a flat 'page rate' and a properly-split quote is where most writers and editors lose track of their budget. A writer arriving at a scoping call thinking they've signed up for 22,000 GBP of art when the contract actually covers only pencils, with inks and colours adding another 25,000-37,000 GBP on top, is a conversation that ends in renegotiation or a stalled book. Pipeline-aware chat closes that gap.

The writer or editor arrives understanding that pencils-only is roughly 40-45% of a full-trio page cost, that splash pages add 5% per page and double-page spreads add 8% per spread, and that an indie OGN with royalty share is a different contract from a Big Two work-for-hire commission. Sector framing matters even more. Big Two superhero work has different cadence, editorial review cycles, and rights expectations than indie graphic novels or web comics; conflating them in the same qualifying flow loses serious commissions.

Display conditions keep press and prospecting writers in the right funnel. Multibot lets the studio run a Big Two qualifying flow on /superhero and an indie OGN flow on /graphic-novels, each calibrated to how the sector actually briefs. Conversation logs stay in WordPress with page URL and visitor source attached, so the studio sees which sample pages and portfolio sections pull serious commissions.

The artist's hour goes to books worth taking on, with realistic pipeline economics from page one of the conversation.