I’m putting my How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel series on hold for one week, since the following announcement is time-sensitive.

I just wanted to remind Twin Cities residents that the opening party for the Minnesota Museum of American Art’s fall exhibit Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota is tonight at 8pm! Admission is $10, or $5 for students and MMAA members.

I unfortunately will not be in attendance, since I’m currently on the opposite side of the globe. But I assume that most of the other contributing cartoonists will be there, so anyone interested in the Minnesota comics scene should definitely check it out!

*UPDATE* It’s over now, of course. The MMAA website has some pictures of the event here.

The exhibit actually opened last Sunday, and my parents snapped a few pics of my contribution to it: (more…)

This is the forth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this page.

Part Four: Money Matters
Since I’m so disclaimer-happy, I want to reiterate: cartooning (especially “alternative” cartooning) is a horrible career choice; it is a field where “breaking even” is often considered to be synonymous with “smashing success”. You should only consider cartooning as a career if you are either independently wealthy, or if you feel like you can do nothing else with your life.

I myself am firmly and exclusively in the second camp, and if you are too, then it’s all the more important to put yourself in a good financial place before you self-publish, and to make good choices with what little money happens your way once you start selling books. (more…)

This is the fifth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this page.

Part Five: The Xeric Grant
Introduction/Benefits
If you’re thinking about self-publishing a comic book/graphic novel, you may already familiar with the Xeric Foundation, a non-profit organization that distributes grants to comic book self-publishers. If you’re not, please see this blog entry I wrote a while back, or better yet, visit the Xeric Foundation’s official website.

The Xeric Grant is great for a number of reasons. The most obvious being, it’s free money. You have to use Xeric funds for expenses directly related to the publication, marketing, and distribution of your comic (so you can’t use it to pay your rent or gambling debts), but other that that, it’s pretty much no strings attached. You never have to repay it, and you keep the copyright to your work. (more…)

This is the sixth in a ten entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this informal “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this page.

Part Six: Preparing for Press
Hiring Help, or Not
As you begin preparations for press, you have to decide if you’re going to go it alone, or if you’re going to hire outside help in the form of graphic designers or pre-press specialists.

Personally, I went it alone. There were some hiccups along the way, but all-in-all I’m glad to have gone through it, and learned a lot of valuable lessons that I can use to improve the appearance of future books while keeping costs in check.

What’s right for you will depend on your background and circumstances. Generally speaking, I would say if you think you’ll only be doing one book, it’d probably be best to hire people to do all the prepress work for you. If you think/hope to be creating comics for the long haul, it would probably pay to bite the bullet and learn how to do it yourself.

(more…)

This is the seventh in a nine entry series of blog posts about my experiences self-publishing my first graphic novel, Tonoharu: Part One. I’m writing this informal “how-to” guide in the hopes that my limited experience might be of some value to aspiring comic book self-publishers.

This guide is offered with no guarantees. I’ve done my best to provide accurate information, but I assume no responsibility for any negative consequences that result from following my advice. For other important disclaimers, please see the first entry in the series. Links to other installments in the series can be found on the bottom of this entry.

Part Seven: Working with Book Printers
Before I get into this entry, I’d like to reiterate and expand on disclaimer #1 from the first entry of this series. I wrote that those planning a project that differs greatly from Tonoharu in terms of presentation might want to take my advice with a grain of salt.

Tonoharu: Part One is a 128 page hardcover book with two-color interior pages and a four-color dust jacket with metallic ink accents. Because of that fancy nonsense, the only economical way to publish it was to print up a couple thousand copies at once, via offset lithography.

I had a Xeric Grant (hopefully you will too by the time you start taking serious steps to self-publishing), so printing up all those copies in one shot wasn’t a financial risk for me. In fact, if I didn’t use the Xeric money within one year I would have lost it, so there would really be no reason not to print up a bunch at once. (more…)