Sweet, sweet Ninja Turtle Money: Coming my way soon??

As mentioned in last Friday’s entry, whether or not I self-publish depends heavily on the outcome of my bid for a Monbusho Scholarship to study in Japan. The problem is that I won’t find out about that for another five months or so. This uncertainty about even what country I’ll be living in come April makes it difficult for me to take any concrete steps towards self-publishing (or anything else).

But actually, in addition to the Monbusho Scholarship, there is one other factor that asserts major influence over this decision. And thankfully, this other factor should be resolved one way or the other in just a couple short weeks. That is my application for a comic book self-publisher’s grant from the Xeric Foundation.
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I would prefer to self-publish my comic book Tonoharu, for reasons described previously. In fact, if I knew I was going to be in the United States for the next, oh, twelve months or so, I think I’d just bite the bullet and do it.

The thing is, if my bid for a Monbusho Scholarship is successful, I’ll be out of the country beginning in April of next year. Even if I put it on the fast track, I probably couldn’t have my comic printed up & ready to go until this November. This would only give me four or five months to sell them before I left. That’s just not enough time to do all the tasks associated with starting a new publishing business, like soliciting distributors, sending out review copies, and doing all the marketing (all while preparing to go to Japan, no less). Granted, thanks to the Internet I could do some of that stuff while abroad, but not all of it, and not while studying full time.

So in a nutshell, if I get the Monbusho Scholarship, I should probably give up on the idea of self-publishing (for now) and just solicit a regular publisher. If I don’t get the scholarship, self-publishing would be the way to go after all. So until I get a final answer regarding the Monbusho Scholarship, I can’t really make an informed decision one way or the other.

And therein lies the rub. Continue reading →