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EMERALD
CITY COMICON: Comic Book Self-Publishing Panel BY CHRIS
BURNHAM Last Saturday, Batton Lash, Phil Foglio,
Michel Gagne, Tom Doherty, and James Taylor were
panelists discussing the subject of "self-publishing" at the
third annual Emerald City ComiCon.
Saturday’s panels at the 3rd annual Emerald
City ComiCon started off with a large crowd attending the
Comic Book Self-Publishing Panel. The panelists related
their personal experiences with self-publishing, which
included anecdotes from their direct market experiences,
relationships with Diamond Comic Distributors, and the book
market. Michel Gagne talked
about a really large order from a large book retailer just for
Christmas sales, but then last week, the returns came back.
“For the next three to four weeks, our company is not making
money because we have to repay fees and reimburse people.” The
fees he referred to result from the tiered structure inherent
in that market, “There are a lot of people keeping their
cuts.” He prefers the direct comics market because of the no
return policy.
Batton
Lash talked about how to get your book noticed and
promote yourself, “The Internet is an incredible tool. There’s
no way we can compete with Marvel and DC on a
marketing level, however, I think we all have our own fanbase
and readers that will go to a Web site and check it out and
get the word out. I think the future is bright for independent
comics — it’s just going to be tough. When I first start
self-publishing in 1994, I was told this is the worst time to
self-publish. Dave Sim told me
when he self-published in 1977, he was told, ‘This is the
worst time to self-publish, why would you want to do this?’
So, there’s never a good time. You have to market yourself,
that’s part of being in business. It’s like opening a coffee
shop across the street from Starbuck’s. You know what you’re
up against.” Gagne agreed about the Internet and said he’s
noticed the traffic on his site has grown exponentially, “When
I first started my site, I got maybe 35 hits a day. Now, we’re
average 40 -100,000 hits.”
All of the creators agreed
that their deal with Diamond is good. Phil Foglio provided some examples, “We
had signed up with (other distributors), and the biggest
problem we had is we were very much aware of our place in
their ecosystem. They’ll order your books and then they’ll pay
you in 120 days ... maybe. Whereas, Diamond is a
beautiful 900 pound gorilla on your behalf, and whether they
stiff Diamond or not, it doesn’t make any difference,
because Diamond pays you within 30
days.”
Someone in the audience asked for advice on how
to prepare his first comic. Lash suggested investing money in
attending conventions, as opposed to advertising in
Previews. “Use that money to travel. There’s nothing
like pressing the flesh and meeting the fans and retailers
face-to-face.” Foglio talked about the realities that every
new self-published creator faces, “The biggest problem is you
have a lot of up front costs getting your book out and showing
you can produce more than one.” He strongly suggested not even
publishing until completing two or three full issues to show
to Diamond, since this will go a great distance to
proving to them you have what it takes to make
it.
Learn more about the panelists by visiting each's
official website:
Chris Burnham has been reading and collecting comics for
over 30 years, and considers the Lee/Kirby/Ditko/Romita Sr.
era at Marvel as the greatest generation of comics creation
ever. His first published work was as co-author of the Wrox
Press book "Professional Outlook 2000 Programming" back in
early 2000. Currently, he works for a software company doing
various and sundry things.
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