|
The Secret to Self Publishing
Comic Book
Features
Post Your Comments
Graphic novel writer David Doub was kind enough
to share some of his secrets to self publishing with us in the below
article.
He's manage to have his Vampire graphic
novel, Dusk
published at Amazon so you know he knows what he's
talking about.
The Secret to Self Publishing
When I was with my last publisher, Ambrosia Publishing, I found out
the secret on how any one can self publish their own comic book.
Sadly Ambrosia had to go on hiatus and release everyone from their
contracts before my book could come out, but I took what I learned
from them to do it myself.
Now when I do say Self Publishing, this is getting the final book
out. If you don’t have a writer or an artist or finished pages, this
article won’t help much. Also this is for comics over 50 pages. This
is for finished graphic novels (or trade paperbacks) to get printed.
The secret is Print on Demand. Now before you groan about how you
already knew that, there are some important details that have to be
covered. Not any Print on Demand service will do. You need to use a
POD service that is already tied into a distributor. That’s the
biggest mistake a lot of creators make by using a POD service that
just offers your book via their website.
There are POD companies that are connected to traditional book
distributors so not only can your book be ordered by someone if they
have an account with the book distributor (even some comic shops
have such accounts) but it’s also setup with online retailers. Even
better there is a setup referred to as a virtual inventory. You see
when a book store goes to look up a book to order, a POD book will
typically show 0 copies available because well there are no copies
made until an order comes in. With most bookstore’s ordering systems
that means they see the book as unavailable and it can’t be ordered.
With a virtual inventory with your distributor, the system will show
100 copies in stock even when there isn’t because the POD can print
out 100 copies and ship it quick enough to where it seems like the
books were there all along just waiting to be ordered.
Now having you graphic novel available to be ordered online and at
stores is not the same as having them on sitting out on store
bookshelves. The big issue is that for online sales, the discount is
much smaller to the middleman and the books are not returnable. If
you want say Barnes and Noble to carry your book physically in their
stores, you have to offer a bigger discount and allow the books to
be returnable (and you have to pay a fee for each returned book).
This becomes even more problematic in a POD situation because it’s
not like you are housing your books anywhere and are setup to take
back books. Another issue is that your discount is set per ISBN code
and not client so if you offer a bookstore a deeper discount and
allow the books to be returned, you’re allowing places like Amazon a
deeper discount and to return books even when they don’t require
that.
Then there becomes the whole mess of getting your graphic novel into
comic book stores. Diamond has recently upped the number of
pre-orders so it makes it hard for an unknown book by an unknown
creator to get enough orders to actually be listed. There are other
distributors, like Haven, but they’re not used by as many stores.
You could even self distribute to comic book stores, but that
becomes a whole new work load that I wouldn’t suggest to everyone.
Currently I’m just selling via consignment through some local shops
because it’s easier on my meager accounting skills at this stage.
By now you might have figured out that even though there’s a secret
trick to getting your book published, there’s still a lot more work
to do to get the book to actually sell.
And by the way, if you want to know what POD service I use, you’ll
have to buy a copy of my book
before I tell you.
David Doub
http://www.comicspace.com/david_doub/
Dusk Graphic Novel
Product Description
As a battered wife, Eve's only concern was to keep her marriage
together. But when she is kidnapped into the sordid supernatural
world of vampires and foul magic, Eve finds she doesn't want to
leave. Her mysterious benefactor, the Vampire Lord Ash, wish her to
have a normal life but Eve chooses to stay in the service of Ash.
Dusk is the stories about Eve and her challenges living in the
darkness. Dusk is a supernatural action/drama story done in a
dynamic blending of the sequential art styles of American Comics and
Japanese Manga. Several artists help tell these stark noir tales of
Vampires and Unrequited Love.
100 Pages
10$ Retail
B&W Interior Art
|
