I graduated from college with a studio art degree. At the time I was certain that graphic design was a debasement of my talents. But I knew how to draw and I knew my way around the major computer programs, and I eventually took a job in a small graphic design agency to pay the bills. I've learned a lot of valuable things in this industry, things that have made producing comics considerably easier. I know how to select paper, I know how to talk to printers, I know how to lay out a file in readers' spreads and in printers' spreads, I know the difference between CMYK process and Pantone inks.
I had already self-published a decent amount of the material in my Xeric submission as minicomics - scanning my pages, printing them myself, silkscreening covers, folding and stapling books in my living room. I was no stranger to self-publishing, so when I got the letter in the mail that my application for a Xeric Grant had been accepted, I was ready to go. I finished assembling the files, saved some low-res pdfs, and sent them out to a few different printers to get some quotes.
Not everyone who gets the Xeric has my background, or the access to computer programs and printing contacts that I do. With all the printers I know, I still ended up going with WestCan - a printer in Canada that has extensive experience printing comic books and graphic novels. Chances are you've read at least a few books that they printed. I knew two other Xeric winners that had printed their books with WestCan, too. Fortunately with them, you don't really need to know all the ins and outs of the printing process. They know comic books, and they love working with comics artists. My contact there was patient and helpful, and a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend them.
They sent me a proof, which I combed over obsessively, then approved; a few weeks later my books were finished and shipped out! And here's where the REAL work starts. You can't just sit back and wait for the world to discover your book. Writing, drawing, coloring, assembling a 200 page comic book, filling out the grant paperwork, approving proofs from the printer, all of this seems like a piece of cake to me compared to marketing and distribution.
One of the pitfalls of self-publishing is that you don't have the name-recognition or the PR capabilities of a larger publisher. Fortunately, the internet is the great equalizer! It's easier and cheaper than ever to build your own website, and it can even be done for completely free. You can reach an audience for your work more easily than ever, and they can find you. You can trade links with other comics artists' sites. You can promote your book with Facebook
or Twitter. You can send your book out to all the comics journals and blogs for review - even a lukewarm review is essentially free publicity. You can submit your book for industry awards, like the
Ignatz or the Eisner.
You can also take your book to your local comic book store and sell it to them for a wholesale price or on consignment, you can exhibit at the small press shows (APE, SPX, TCAF, MoCCA, and more) you can submit your book to Diamond or Last Gasp for wider distribution, you can run into Tony Shenton at a convention and have him handle your distribution for you.
Again, since I'd been self-publishing my own minis for years, I had my foot in the door in a lot of these places. As I'm writing this, it's been about a month since I got my books from the printer, and it's currently for sale in about a dozen comics shops in the country, and it's gotten a small handful of online reviews. I'll do my first small press convention with this book next month, and I'll get some good exposure from that. It's slow-going, and it's hard
work, but anything worth doing is worth a little effort. |