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When I committed to creating a comic, I knew that publishing with one of the big companies anytime soon was not a reality. I was introduced to web comics as a serious avenue at Comic Con New Orleans 2010. I’ve since created two web comics. Comics have been in my life as long as I can remember. For me, comics are about story, art, and innovation. I rarely bought for the sake of collecting. Coming to terms with that, I had no problem with the web comic medium.
Let’s face it, as creators, we still want to see our work in print. We want to hold it, feel it, smell it, and wave it in the air like a banner of victory. Once “Sweet Dreams are Made of Worms: Year of the Rabbit” was finished, I looked to get it printed. It’s been a journey. So far I learned two things: the quick and easy way and the Do It Yourself way. Before I continue, I want to stress these are my opinions based on my research and experience.
The quick and easy: Tap the army of middle men wanting the lion’s share of the action. They make it sound like they are doing us a favor by taking a loss to provide us with a specialized service. I’m not going to mention any names, but we know the companies I’m talking about. Their business is putting the product of our labor into their pocket. Sure, we get a market ready product. But if we’re lucky we make pennies on the dollar if it sales. Yeah, we can say “They do all the work.” We would be right in some cases. But, they didn’t spend a year or more hunched at a table in a mound of crumpled art work and writing. They didn’t spend time smashing their face into a drawing board or computer to create that comic. I know it sounds like I’ve villainized these companies, but if you are in a bind or don’t care if you make decent return, these middle men are a good option.
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The DIY way: Most of the time, especially in the beginning, we’re only looking to get 1-100 books printed. The reason we turn to print on demand is because we can’t afford using traditional printers. Let’s say you just need 25-50 books for your table at artist alley. You spend an average of two dollars a book with print on demand, a couple hundred bucks for a table, rent a room, put gas in the car, eat overpriced convention center food, and spend a little on stuff at the convention. Sometimes, you may have to pay taxes. Hopefully, you had a good time at the convention and made connections, but if you look at it from a profit standpoint, you’ll be very upset.
Traditional printers shy away from small runs because the cost in overhead and labor to run the machines for the two minutes it takes to print 25-50 books isn’t worth the trouble. Typically they don’t want to mess with anything under a thousand copies. I know, the thought of a thousand copies makes you cringe, but in the case of a standard 32 page black and white comic, you get a quality product for under a dollar a copy.
“How am I going to afford that many copies, where am I going to store them, how am I going to sell them?” Consider this, a standard comic long box holds around 350 comics. Some of us have 4-5 of these at home right now. Storage is really not that big a deal unless you are really cramped for space. How can you afford it? Save up cash, have a garage sale, sell artwork, take pre-orders, use crowd funding, If you want it… you’ll get it.
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Distribution takes some footwork. Talk to local shops, take a road trip to non-local shops, contact shop owners (especially franchise shops) out of town. I did it and not one shop turned me away. They are not going to want to pay more than half of the cover price, but remember, you paid less than a dollar a copy. The average black and white Indy comic sells for $3.99. There are other start up costs depending how you market you product. Big brick and mortar book stores will require UPC codes and ISBN numbers. There are also some nickel and dime fees, copyright cost, and such. Most of this is one time or annual fees. I think we’ll find that if we have a good product and we do the dirty work ourselves, the DIY method puts us in a better position than the quick and easy method.
“You talk a good game, Craig. Where’s the proof?” You got me! I don’t have a printed comic out yet. I got tired of spinning my wheels with print on demand and on-line merchandisers. I did the research, made the phone calls, and took the road trips. I wanted to make sure the store owners like my comic and that they would carry it first. It took time, and it paid off. I now have two franchises in Texas, several independent stores here in Louisiana, two in Mississippi, and franchises in New England and on the upper west coast willing to carry at least 5 copies of my comic. Now I just have to get them the product. Garage sale time!
Written by Jessie W Craig, founder of Charisma Kills Studios.
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