Do you know that rabbit hole called the internet? Well, Jon, everyone knows about that. You’re right, other me, how silly. Well, I decided to traverse it and for some reason, it leads to what it takes to self-publish a comic book.
I do know the reason, to be honest. He thought was sparked by an author I follow, Travis Heermann, who recently translated one of his stories into comic book form. Since I was still processing a lot of the lessons I’ve jammed into my brain, why not add to the pile? How different could it be? I purchased How to Self-Publish Comics by Josh Blaylock to see what it was about.
Jeez…
It’s a massively different process while still being sort of similar. The similarities lie in the online sales process and even the old brick and mortar book store. But comic book stores and comic book distribution? Totally different. I can’t even begin to describe how different it is. It boggles the mind, mine anyway.
What if I don’t ever plan on doing a comic book, you ask? This book covered a lot that I hadn’t thought about but completely makes sense. I am referring to contracts. Comics are created by a group of people and all that needs to be hashed out, agreed on and signed for the future. Nothing ends a friendship or ruins a reputation faster than money.
Why did I find this important? Funnily enough, I have been bouncing the idea of doing a poetry compilation with some friends and I would love that to remain amenable. To do that requires agreements on how to handle sales, marketing costs and what to do with any profits. I now have a much better idea of the myriad of questions that would need to be answered just to come up with a decent starting point for a contract. Of course, a lawyer is needed for this but if you have it locked down, even that step will cost everyone less.
If you do decide to self-publish a comic book, you’ve got your work cut out for you. Am I going to do it? Never say never.
Now back to thinking about that poetry book.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
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