The most important thing to know as a comics self-publisher is this: it is going to take you a really, really, really long time to make a livable income from comics. Be honest with yourself and prepare accordingly. Contracted industry pros have a hard enough time making enough money from comics. You, as a self-publisher coming out of nowhere, have virtually no chance of doing it any time soon.

Know that comics is a depressed market. This may change, but it's a reality now. In hard times, people don't take big risks. This means that distributors and retailers alike will be wary to take you on as a seller. Know that out of the thousands of comic stores in the US, only about three hundred of them -- at best -- will sell your book, just because you're not Marvel or DC. With little available money in comics, retailers and distributors gravitate to the proven extremes: butt-kickin' action stories and weepy, cute indy books. Know this, and know that if you aren't making books like that, yours is a hard genre to sell, and you will have to create an audience for your work all by yourself.

Know that Diamond is the only real option as a direct market distributor in the US. Diamond, like it or not, IS the direct market. Know that as money evaporates in comics, their requirements tighten up. In other words, the less money you're likely to make, the more you're responsible for. Find out what it means to have to meet their "benchmark," and, depending on who ends up your brand manager at Diamond, find out just how much you mean to them as a seller.

Again, comics is a moneyless, apathetic business right now. Its flagship publication example of serial stories generates less and less interest every year and comic stores are disappearing. All the press comics gets from Hollywood projects is bogus: we're hurting. In the mid-80s if a book sold less than 500,000 at Marvel it was on the chopping block. In 2005, Jim Freaking Lee can't sell more than 250,000 copies of a comic, and no one outsells that guy.

If all of this doom and discouragement does nothing to dishearten you -- you make the cut. You'll work hard. And you'll have to.

These are my suggestions:

Network like a madperson. Use conventions and the internet to make connections with pros and comics press who like your work and are willing to help you in some way. Cons are crucial because you can network and make money simultaneously. If you're making books, time the release of your work with a major comics show (SPX, APE, etc.) so pros, retailers and fans will all be around to take advantage of.

Generate press. Before every publication, flood news sites and magazines with press releases about your work. Do it again when the work is released. You'll be ignored. Don't stop. If your book is being carried in Previews, get a list of indy-friendly comics retailers and call all of them to let them know about your book. Most of them will surprise you in their willingness to entertain your introduction.

Throw away your book to comics reviews sites, comics magazines and comics retailers. If you can, always give previews to comics sellers before the work is released. They're a million times more likely to carry and work to sell a book they've read. Sure, sell your comics, too, but people who can generate press for you need to have your book to do it. Never forget that your work is only useful in anyone else's hands but yours. Join the CBIA and use it as a publishing resource; offer review copies through it and stay up-to-date on things.

Realize that in self-publishing, the work is never finished. You can never go home from it, so you can never avoid its tasks and its implications.
Maintain a sense of humor. Even after you run yourself ragged just getting the book out, some people will dog you. It's meaningless. If doing the work and putting it out gratifies you, just keep going. Success is an unfathomable matter of being in the right place at the right time, and you can't be there if you've quit. If you stay on your feet and love what you do, you can only go up.