Last Saturday I had a table at the inaugural Minneapolis Indie Xpo.

MIX is only the second convention I’ve ever sold my work at, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I wasn’t expecting much. My first convention (SpringCon 2010) was an interesting experience, but also quite humbling. Attendees showed little interest in my work, and my sales were in the low single digits.

Since I was lugging books to MIX in my backpack, I didn’t want to bring more than I needed. So I brought eight copies of Tonoharu: Part One and about a dozen copies of Young Men of a Certain Mind. That was 2-3 times as many as I sold at SpringCon, so I figured that’d be enough.

I’m delighted to say that sales were much better than at SpringCon; I sold out of Tonoharu a couple hours before MIX ended, and only had a couple copies of YMCM at the end of the night.

Granted, I was selling Tonoharu at a discount; 25% off the cover price. But I also think that the venue was a much better fit for my work. SpringCon is more about mainstream comics, and sort of has a flea market feel to it. Not the best place to try to sell artsy, hardcover graphic novels.

This is why I’ve decided my next convention appearance will be the Twin Cities Book Festival, instead of FallCon (they fall on the same day, so I can’t go to both). Guess we’ll see how it goes!

Oh, one more note: MIX was just awesome. If you didn’t go this year, I strongly recommend you check it out next year. I was damned impressed with the whole thing. Thanks to organizers Andy Krueger and Sarah Morean for putting together such a great show!

A couple weeks ago, I gave a presentation on self-publishing at the Loft Literary Center as a part of their “Graphic Novel & Comic Writing & Illustrating Conference”.

Daily Cross Hatch reporter/cartoonist Sarah Morean recorded the whole thing, and will be posting it in segments on the Daily Cross Hatch website. Parts two and three are up now, so take a look:

[ Self-Publishing a Graphic Novel (in Eight Hard Steps) Parts 2&3/8 ]

Previous installment: [ Self-Publishing a Graphic Novel (in Eight Hard Steps) Part 1/8 ]

Last Saturday I gave a presentation on self-publishing at the Loft Literary Center as a part of their “Graphic Novel & Comic Writing & Illustrating Conference”.

Daily Cross Hatch reporter/cartoonist Sarah Morean recorded the whole thing, and will be posting it in segments on the Daily Cross Hatch website. The first part is up now, so take a look:

[ Self-Publishing a Graphic Novel (in Eight Hard Steps) Part 1/8 ]

In the interest of good karma, I’ll plug something Sarah’s organizing: the Minneapolis Indie Xpo will occur on August 21st at the Soap Factory. I’ll have a table there, and it looks like it’ll be pretty cool, so check it out! Here’s their website: http://mplsindiexpo.com/ (Warning: The homepage has an autoplay YouTube video, so mute your speaker volume if you’re at work!)

Next week I’ll be posting the cover for Tonoharu: Part Two. Stay tuned!

Next month I’ll be giving a 90 minute presentation about self-publishing graphic novels as a part of a conference presented by the Loft Literary Center and Hennepin County Library.

Details:
What: Graphic Novel & Comic Writing & Illustrating Conference
Where: Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
When: Saturday, June 19th, 2010. Conference opens with a keynote speech at 10am, with my presentation beginning at 11:15am
Admission: The event is free but registration is limited, so interested parties should register online or by phone: 952-847-8800

Further details, including a downloadable brochure, can be found here.

*UPDATE* The event is now full. To all those who have signed up, see you there!

Overall, my self-publication of my first graphic novel Tonoharu: Part One went pretty well. But there is one area where I dropped the ball, and it’s an important one: marketing/promotion.

I left for Japan to study East Asian calligraphy the same month my book came out, and between that and a broken ankle that I was nursing back to health, I did next to nothing to market my book once it was released. Books live or die based on how well the authors promote them, so this failure on my part is no small matter. So now that I’m back in the U.S., I’m trying to get back into the marketing that I’ve neglected for the past two years.

It was in this spirit that I attended SpringCon 2010 last weekend. It was my first time at SpringCon, and the first comic convention I’ve ever attended as a “guest cartoonist”. Here are a few thoughts on the experience:

You Have to be In It to Win It
For my first couple hours at SpringCon, I sat hunched behind my little table, and doodled while I waited for someone to come along. When someone came over and looked at my stuff, I adhered to the “don’t speak unless spoken to” rule, and waited hopefully for them to ask me a question or make a comment. No one did, and I didn’t make any sales.

Then indy comics darling Tim Sievert (author of That Salty Air) came along and set up his table. I noticed his sales seemed to be better than they were in my neck of the woods (I guess it’s hard to have sales that are less than none, but you get the idea).

I asked him about his sales technique, and he told me he had learned through trial and error that it’s best to be proactive. He stood rather than sat, and didn’t doodle or read during lulls. He said if you’re just sitting there drawing, potential customers are hesitant to come over and “bother” you (even though you want nothing more than for them to do so). So Tim figured it was best to stand, and to make it clear that you’re ready and waiting to talk to anyone who stops by.

He also said that when someone starts looking at your stuff, you should say something–anything–to them. When Tim first started doing conventions, he originally felt (as did I earlier in the day) that trying to start up a conversation would seem pushy, or might chase people away. But experience had taught him that taking the initiative and starting conversations with people helped his sales, and made the time go by quicker to boot.

So I tried Tim’s techniques, and they did indeed improve my sales, if only marginally. But it could’ve been worse; there were a couple cartoonists across from me that sat hunched over and doodled the whole time, and I swear I didn’t see anyone stop by their tables the whole weekend…

Cheap is Good
The vibe of the convention was very much that of a garage sale. I don’t mean that in a disparaging way; garage sales are fun! But they’re not the best venue to sell fancy $20 hardcover books. Most of my sales came from my $4 comic book Young Men of a Certain Mind; over the whole weekend I only sold three copies of Tonoharu: Part One, and one of those was to a friend who would’ve bought it anyway.

Other cartoonists I talked to agreed that it’s important to have cheap options; people might plop down a couple bucks on a cartoonist they’ve never heard of before, but they’ll rarely risk much more than that. Cheaper comics can act as “gateway drugs”; if the people buy & like a cheap comic from you, they sometimes come back later and buy more expensive ones. I’m thinking I might create a $2 mini-comic to offer at the next convention I attend and see how it sells.

Humble Pie
Before going to SpringCon, I had somewhat unrealistic expectations. I wasn’t expecting people to be lining up to see me or anything, but I figured I’d get a few fans of Tonoharu: Part One stopping by and asking when Part Two will be out and stuff like that.

But really, there was almost none of that. A couple of my fellow guest cartoonists said they were looking forward to Part Two (thanks guys!) but no convention attendees gave any indication that they had ever heard of me before.

Granted, I think SpringCon probably brings in more of a superhero comics crowd, but either way, it was a good reality check. I put out one graphic novel two years ago, and haven’t done anything in the public realm since (other than this blog). It’s only natural that I would still be essentially unknown. So it was a good reminder about the importance of marketing and promotion. I plan on promoting my work more aggressively in the coming months.

Conclusion
Overall, the convention was exhausting, but fun. I met a lot of local cartoonists and reconnected with old friends, and made just enough off book sales to pay myself minimum wage for the fourteen hours I spent behind my table.

I’ll be making a couple more public appearances later this year, so check back for details!

This is the last 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 entry.

Part Ten: The Long Haul / Conclusion
The Long Haul (Speculative)
Throughout this series, I’ve reminded readers about my relative lack of experience, and asked them to take my advice with a grain of salt.

If previous entries in this series should be taken with a grain of salt, then this entry should be taken with a brick of it. Up until now I’ve at least offered advice about things I’ve had some experience with (limited though it may be). The subject of this last entry is making a living as a cartoonist over the long haul, and since my book was just published earlier this year, I can’t yet say if cartooning will be a sustainable reality for me. If things work out well, I may someday rewrite this final entry from experience, but for now, bear in mind that the following is mostly speculative.

Alternative Revenue Streams
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, cartooning is a poor career choice. Even making a living wage is the barest sense is often difficult; only a handful of “alternative” cartoonists are able to make a living exclusively through cartooning. For other cartoonists who aren’t as talented/prolific/lucky, money has to be sought from other sources to supplement the lousy pay of cartooning. Here are a few of my thoughts on places to start.

1) Self-Publish
My decision to self-publish was largely inspired by the bottom line. By assuming the burden of the publisher, I could keep the publisher’s share of the profits, thereby slightly improving my chances of making a living wage through my work. Self-publishing has also had the added benefit of providing me with a crash course on the ins-and-outs of the book industry, and since I hope to be involved in cartooning over the long haul, that’s been very valuable as well.

Self-publishing isn’t for everyone, but personally, I’m glad to have done it. Consult The Self-Publishing Manual and see other entries in this series to decide if self-publishing is right for you.

2) Scholarships/Grants
I’ve already written about the Xeric Grant, and recommend you secure one before you self-publish. But there’s no reason to stop at that.

The competition for art grants is fierce, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get one. Little by little, comics are becoming accepted as a legitimate art form, and once you’ve received a Xeric Grant and published your first book, you’ll have accomplished something to help set yourself apart from the crowd.

At the time of this writing, I’ve only applied for one other source of money in addition to the Xeric Grant; a two-year, post grad research scholarship sponsored by the Japanese Government called a Monbusho Scholarship. I’m happy to say I received it, and am currently studying Japanese Calligraphy at Shikoku University. (If by chance you happen to think that one of these scholarships might be up your alley, I wrote a four-part series of entries about the application process, the first part of which can be found here.)

3) Amazon Associates / Affiliate Programs
If you have a blog and you occasionally mention books or DVDs that you like, you should consider signing up with Amazon Associates. Basically you write about something you like, and include a special link to amazon.com. If the reader who clicks on your link buys anything from amazon.com in the next 24 hours, you get a commission on that sale. For more info about Amazon Associates, click here.

All of the amazon.com links on this website are set up in this way, so if any of you gentle readers click on one and then buy something, I get a bit of money. (Thanks!) I’m pretty small time, so I generally make about $30 or less a month, but it’s better than nothing.

Regarding privacy: I don’t receive any personal details about who buys what, just what gets bought. So feel free to buy obscenity after clicking on one of my links; I’ll never know it was you.

One more note: I’ve singled about Amazon Associates because it’s easy to use, and stocks most of what you might want to plug. But there are other affiliate programs out there too. If you frequently mention, say, imported video games from Japan on your blog, it might make sense to sign up with play-asia.com’s affiliate program, for example.

4) Selling Original Art / Merchandise
Graphic novelists end up with dozens (if not hundreds) of pieces original art. Once this art has been scanned for press, you don’t really need it anymore, unless you have a sentimental attachment to it.

I’ve been planning to offer original art for sale for a long time, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I think selling it through your website, via Paypal account, would probably be the easiest way, and maybe offering some for direct sale at comic book conventions that you attend.

As for merchandise, I’m still thinking about this one. I’m not really sure if Tonoharu has much potential in that direction (although I guess if you can make a Jimmy Corrigan doll, then anything’s game).

A fairly low risk way of testing the waters for merchandise would be to set up an account through cafepress.com. Again, I haven’t personally tried this yet…

5) Related Side Work
The ideal of course is to make a living by doing cartooning only, but if you have do side work, try to find something that in some way relates to / promotes your work.

As of yet, I haven’t had to go down this route yet so I can’t say much more about it, but the side work I’d most be interested in include illustration gigs, speaking engagements, and teaching gigs.

6) Be Persistent / Never Give Up
Okay, I’m moving into the realm of self-help cliche here, but oh well. Fortune favors the bold. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You gotta be in it to win it. Fake it until you make it. Etc. etc.

But seriously; the only guaranteed failure is if you don’t even try. Trying to make a living as a cartoonist is absurd, but if it’s really and truly your dream, you should go for it. Life’s too short to do otherwise. (Ugh, more cliches…)

Conclusion
Throughout these posts, I’ve tried to make it clear that I consider this series to be supplemental to the books I’ve recommend herein. I don’t have the energy (or the knowledge, for that matter) to write a truly comprehensive self-publishing guide, and with books like The Self-Publishing Manual on the market, there’s not really a need for me to do so anyway.

I’m mentioning this again because I want to make it clear that I’ve only provided the barest outline of you should do in regards to self-publishing a book. I hope this guide had been helpful to aspiring self-publishers, but please consult other sources as well. In the very, very least, read The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poytner. (I’ve plugged this book so much throughout this series that mentioning it again is probably more than a little redundant, but it really was that good. Don’t even think about self-publishing without it.)

Since I’ve spent countless hours writing this stupid account of my self-publishing effort, please forgive the following solicitation:

If you found this series useful, please consider supporting this foolhardy cartoonist by either buying my graphic novel Tonoharu: Part One:
[Buy from me direct]
[Amazon.com link]

Or by donating a little money to me through Paypal / credit card by clicking the button below:

(Donations not tax deductable, sorry.)

Thanks!

****
Well, that concludes the entries about self-publishing for now. Maybe someday when I have a little more experience, I’ll revisit/revise this series and fill in some of the numerous gaps… but for now I’m done.

I’m soooo burned out on these long blog entries, so the next several entries will be short and frivolous. Thanks for reading!

****
How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel
1/10 ? Introductions / Disclaimers
2/10 ? Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3/10 ? Research, Research, Research
4/10 ? Savings & Money Management
5/10 ? The Xeric Grant
6/10 ? Preparing for Press
7/10 ? Working with Book Printers
8/10 ? Distribution
9/10 ? Marketing
10/10 ? The Long Haul / Conclusion

Complete List of Recommended Self-Publishing Books / Resources

This is the ninth 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 entry.

Part Nine: Marketing
One final book recommendation
Once you’re starting to think seriously about book marketing, it’s time to get one more book:

1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer

This is the only standalone book on book marketing that I’ve read, so I can’t say how it compares to other books on the subject. But it works as a good companion to The Self-Publishing Manual, and contains just what it says: hundreds and hundreds of ideas for marketing your book. Additionally, there are little tidbits about the book industry scattered throughout, which make this book a fairly good resource for information on that front as well.

On the down side, it’s organized poorly, and the author shamelessly self-promotes himself to the point where it becomes grating. I mean, it’s a book on marketing, so I suppose some of that is to be expected, but Kremer takes it too far. Every other page he plugs some project he is involved with, some of which only had a tenuous link to book marketing. It got on my nerves after a while.

But ultimately the good outweighs the bad, and 1001 Ways to Market Your Book is worth checking out.

Once you’ve skimmed through 1001 Ways to Market Your Book and the marketing section of The Self-Publishing Manual, you’re probably ready to start up your marketing effort.

Online presence
There’s no good excuse to not have some sort of online presence as a part of your marketing. Compared to other marketing efforts, maintaining a website is cheap and easy, and once you get it up and running, it requires little work to maintain. I’ll admit that the setup is sort of a pain, but if worst comes to worst, you can always get a tech savvy friend to help you.

You should pay for a domain name and web hosting. The cost is negligible, and definitely makes you seem more legit than having a page on a website hosted by another party. As a self-publisher, you’re always going to be trying to appear as more than a hobbyist, and a web address of “YourName.com” sounds a lot more impressive than a web address of “freewebhost.com/users/yourname”, or whatever.

I used a company called Lonex for my domain name registration and web hosting. My site’s gone down a couple times (not anytime recently), but the Lonex tech support has always been really quick to respond to these issues, and the down times haven’t been too long. And they’re really reasonably priced. All in all, I’ve been quite pleased with them.

Lonex.com 

Your Website’s Content 
In the very least, your website should serve as a sort of digital brochure about you and your work. It should have a bio about you, information about your work, and contact information.

If you want to get a little more ambitious, you could also maintain a blog. Even if you only updated your blog three or four times a year, it’d probably be better than not having one at all, but the best blogs are updated regularly. I update mine once a week; that’s frequently enough so that fans of my work might remember to check back regularly, but infrequently enough so that updating it doesn’t take over my life (usually).

You can’t please everyone of course, but the content of your blog/website should be written so that it could hypothetically be interesting to someone who doesn’t know you personally. So blog entries that feature photos from “Thanksgiving 2008″ are would probably be a bad idea.

Try to write entries that might intrigue readers and media people to find out more about you and your work. When a reporter is deciding whether or not to cover you, he or she will probably visit your website long before they even think about contacting you personally. Articles about me often feature information that the reporter got from this website.

The content of my blog tends to focus on Japan and comics, since I’m promoting a comic that features Japan. Your blog should also focus on the subject matter of your work.

I use the free program Wordpress for my blog. More information about Wordpress can be found here.

Review Copies/Contacting Reporters/Etc.
Other key components of a marketing effort include sending out review copies, press releases, and contacting media people to tell them about your book. I’m no marketing expert, and for the most part, if I wrote much more on the subject I would just be parroting what you can find in The Self Publishing Manual and 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, so I’ll leave you in their capable hands for the rest of your marketing advice, save two more general pieces of advice:

1) For review copies, in addition to sending them to the places recommended in The Self-Publishing Manual and 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, you should also ask your sub-distributor for recommendations to places to send them (I wrote about sub-distribution in the previous entry). Your sub-distributor knows the comics industry better than you, and probably knows of places to send your book that might not occur to you.

2) My last piece of advice is the old saw “fake it until you make it”. For many people in the book industry and general public, self-publishing is synonymous with poor quality. Media outlets will be reluctant to cover you if they think you’re self-published. Try to appear bigger than you are; set up a company name, and create marketing materials that look professional. If your book is good enough and readily available to the buying public, most publications don’t really care if it’s self-published or not, but by appearing like you were published by a “real” publisher, it will be a lot easier to get your foot in the door.

That’s it for this week. Next Friday’s entry will bring this series to a close (finally).

***

How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel
1/10 – Introductions / Disclaimers
2/10 – Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3/10 – Research, Research, Research
4/10 – Savings & Money Management
5/10 – The Xeric Grant
6/10 – Preparing for Press
7/10 – Working with Book Printers
8/10 – Distribution
9/10 – Marketing
10/10 – The Long Haul / Conclusion

Complete List of Recommended Self-Publishing Books / Resources

This is the eighth 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 entry.

Part Eight: Distribution
If the intended scope of your self-publishing plan is particularly narrow, you could maybe get by without a distributor. You could keep it grassroots, sell your books on consignment at independent booksellers & comic shops in your area, sell them yourself at conventions and through your website, and maybe set up an account with amazon.com to get a few national/international orders.

But if your distribution plan is a little more ambitious than that, it’s best to work with a distributor. You can still do the grassroots stuff, while relying on your distributor to reach markets you otherwise wouldn’t be able to (like chain bookstores across the country, or whatever). Plus having a national distributor makes you seem more legit, making it easier to get media coverage and the like.

But there’s a big catch-22 for self-publishers looking for distribution. Distributors don’t want to talk to you unless you’re already an established publisher with a track record, and you can’t become established unless you have a distributor.

My solution to this problem was to contact established “alternative” comic publishers and ask them if they’d be willing to serve as sub-distributors for my book. They basically act as middlemen, taking on your book as if it was one of their own, and distributing it through the distribution networks they already have in place.

There’s really only one negative aspect of such an arrangement, but it’s an important one: money. You don’t get something for nothing, so it goes without saying that your sub-distributor will take a cut of every book they sell. By itself, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but your sub-distributor’s cut is on top of the already hefty percentage the distributor takes. When you factor in all the middlemen (the booksellers, the distributor, and the sub-distributor) the majority of the money the consumer pays for your book will go into someone else’s pocket. (Even though you’re the one that created the content and paid to its production costs!)

But hey, that’s the nature of the business. And in my personal experience, the positive aspects of working with an established publisher as a sub-distributor make the arrangement worthwhile.

For one, you’re able to get national distribution when you otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to, which will translate to hundreds (or thousands?) of sales you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten. Your sub-distributor will sell your books at conventions that they attend, and perhaps wrap it into some of their own advertising / marketing efforts.

Another advantage is that by working with an established comics publisher, you have access to people who understand the comics industry better than you ever could hope to. The publisher I worked with (Top Shelf Productions) provided me with information regarding who to send review copies, and was happy to field questions I had about the industry.

So all around, I think the sub-distribution arrangement is worth the cut the sub-distributor takes.

Seeking Sub-Distribution 
I contacted three publishers that have previously distributed Xeric Grant books; Fantagraphics Books, Drawn and Quarterly, and Top Shelf Productions. If I were to do it again, I probably would have also contacted Alternative Comics. (Links lead to their respective submissions guidelines page, or the closest thing they have to one).

I sent an inquiry e-mail to each of them, explaining that I had won a Xeric Grant (just to give myself the slightest air or legitimacy), and inquired if they’d consider sub-distributing my book. Drawn and Quarterly and Top Shelf Productions got back to me, saying they’d be willing to a look at it. (Never did hear back from Fantagraphics). I sent the books off to them, and got an “okay” from Top Shelf first.

My experience with Top Shelf has been very positive, so I would recommend them. But I’ve only heard good things about the other publishers as well, so you’d probably be in good shape with any of them.

Once you’ve got distribution squared away, it’s time to start up your marketing efforts in earnest, which will be the subject of next week’s entry.

***

How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel
1/10 – Introductions / Disclaimers
2/10 – Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3/10 – Research, Research, Research
4/10 – Savings & Money Management
5/10 – The Xeric Grant
6/10 – Preparing for Press
7/10 – Working with Book Printers
8/10 – Distribution
9/10 – Marketing
10/10 – The Long Haul / Conclusion

Complete List of Recommended Self-Publishing Books / Resources

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.

But if you’ve decided (against my advice) to publish a graphic novel without a Xeric Grant, then the prospect of paying all that money up front could be daunting. So you should know there is other option other than offset litho: that being print on demand, or POD. With POD, your per unit cost is more, and there are more restrictions on what you can do (hardcovers aren’t economically viable, for example), but you can print copies one at a time, so you don’t have to worry about footing the bill for printing up / storing 2000-3000 copies.

I have no experience whatsoever with POD, so I’m not going to deign to say anything else about it. If you think that POD the best route for you, consult the previously recommended Self Publisher’s Manual for more information. This entry assumes you, like me, will be printing up your book via offset litho.

Preparing a “Request for Quote”
Once you’ve done all your research (as discussed in the third and sixth entry in this series), it’s time to start contacting book printers and getting prices from them for your book. This inquiry takes the form of a semi-standard format called a “request for quote” or RFQ.

I had never written a RFQ before, so I relied heavily on the books and resources previously recommended, frankensteining their example RFQs into one that I would eventually send out via e-mail. I found the previously mentioned Buying Book Printing PDF document and Getting it Printed by Eric Kenly to be most useful for help in drafting my RFQ.

In addition to those two resources, I also drew some information on writing RFQs from this book:

Book Design and Production by Pete Masterson

Of all the books I recommend, this is the only book I don’t really think you’d need to own; I found it (slightly) useful for drafting an RFQ, and that’s about it. If you’ve got money to burn, go ahead and buy it; otherwise, get it from your library, or do without it.

For informational purposes, I’m including a link to my original RFQ that I submitted to book printers. There a major thing I should have done differently with it though (which I’ll get to in a second), so please don’t use it as a model for the “right” way to draft an RFQ.

[Sorry readers; I still need to track down the file with my RFQ. When I find it, I'll insert the link here (yeah, I'm unorganized)]

My biggest mistake with my RFQ was that I sought too much customization. I was too nitpicky about specifics, and tried to include too many bells and whistles, like fancy stamping and thick paper.

There are strict standards in the world of book printing; standard page sizes, standard paper types, standard inks, standard binding, etc., etc., etc. Anytime you stray away from these standards, your production costs go up. And if you have a small print run (which you probably will), they usually don’t just go up a little bit, they skyrocket.

When I was talking to my book printer, I wanted to use a paper that was just a little more opaque; a 70# paper instead of their 60# house stock. It turns out that that tiny, barely noticeable little change would have increased my entire printing bill by 20%!

Unless you have some customization that is absolutely necessary or that you think will really help to sell your book to potential customers, I would recommend keeping your first book as standard as possible. A standard sized softcover with a CMYK color cover, a page count that is a multiple of 32, and interior pages printed in b&w. This will save you a lot of headaches, and keep your per-book cost down to a more reasonable level. Once you’ve learned the ropes with your first book, you can experiment with more fancy stuff with your next one.

The previously recommended book Bookmaking talks a lot about various standards in the book printing industry. Check that out for more information.

Contacting / Working with Book Printers
Once you have your RFQ drafted, it’s time to start sending it out via e-mail. I just followed the advice from the Buying Book Printing PDF Report, and submitted my RFQ per its recommendations.

Quotes from printers will start to trickle back. The difference in price can be huge; the highest quote I received was about $7000 more than the lowest!

Based on the prices, you should be able to narrow your list of potential printers down, and should request paper and printing samples from them to get a better sense of what they can offer you. With that info in hand, make your choice.

Unfortunately, the printer that offers you the best price will probably be far from where you live, so you will conduct business via phone, e-mail and mail. It’s not ideal, thems the breaks.

In working with my printer, I basically used the “fake it until you make it” approach. Pretend that you have any business at all dealing with book printers. If you’ve done all of your research, you should be able to talk somewhat intelligently about book printing; there will be hiccups, but that’s okay. They want your money, and as long as you’re not a total lost cause, they’ll be happy to work with you.

When I say “fake it until you make it”, I should point out that if the book printer uses a term or whatever that you don’t understand, you should fess up and ask them to clarify. They’ll probably figure out pretty quick that it’s your first book anyway, and if you admit your ignorance you can learn a lot from them, which will make your next book go more smoothly.

That’ll wrap up this entry. Next week’s will be about Marketing.

***

How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel
1/10 – Introductions / Disclaimers
2/10 – Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3/10 – Research, Research, Research
4/10 – Savings & Money Management
5/10 – The Xeric Grant
6/10 – Preparing for Press
7/10 – Working with Book Printers
8/10 – Distribution
9/10 – Marketing
10/10 – The Long Haul / Conclusion

Complete List of Recommended Self-Publishing Books / Resources

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.

One note though: the cover of your book should look spectacular; don’t skimp here. If you’re unable to design a professional-looking cover on your own, hire a graphic designer to do it for you. I designed my own cover so I don’t have any advice about hiring outside help, but The Self-Publishing Manual has recommendations.

(Even More) Research
In the third entry in this series, I recommended books to read. Around the time you’re thinking about contacting book printers, you should revisit those books to refresh your memory.

And in addition to those, here are two additional resources I recommend reading:

The Self-Publishing Manual Special Report: Buying Book Printing (PDF File)
When I wrote about The Self-Publishing Manual previously, one of my rare complaints about the book is that it often sends you to the publisher’s website to download “online PDF reports” instead of just including that information in the book itself. While some of these online reports are free, others have a hefty fee attached to them.

The defining example is this PDF report. It’s $19.95 for a 28 page electronic file. The actual Self-Publishing Manual itself is 463 pages long, and costs the same (less actually, if you get it for less than cover price). Factor in the fact that the PDF report is distributed digitally and therefore has no real production costs, and there’s no getting around that it’s ridiculously overpriced.

All that said, if you’ve reached the point where you’re sure you’re going to self-publish, you should get it anyway. By following the advice in this PDF file, I paid thousands of dollars less than if I had tried to do it on my own, and was able to spend much less time doing research. Swallow your pride and pay the inflated price. [Link to report]

Getting it Printed, 4th Edition by Eric Kenly

Other than Bookmaking by Marshall Lee, this is the book I found most useful in terms of helping me to understand what to expect in terms of preparing for press and working with book printers.

Once you’ve done all that research, it’s time to start contacting book printers. That will be the subject of next week’s entry.

***

How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel
1/10 – Introductions / Disclaimers
2/10 – Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3/10 – Research, Research, Research
4/10 – Savings & Money Management
5/10 – The Xeric Grant
6/10 – Preparing for Press
7/10 – Working with Book Printers
8/10 – Distribution
9/10 – Marketing
10/10 – The Long Haul / Conclusion

Complete List of Recommended Self-Publishing Books / Resources

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. I probably already had you at “free money”, but to belabor the point, here are a couple other things that make applying for the Xeric Grant a good idea:

It’s prestigious. You’ll be able to say you’ve received a grant to publish your work, which will add an air of legitimacy to your self-publishing endeavor, making it easier to get press coverage, etc. People in the small press / alternative comics world know what the Xeric Grant is, and it’ll probably open a few doors for you there (not wide open, but a few doors that are open just a crack is better than nothing).

By applying for the Xeric Grant and receiving a “yay” or “nay” from them, you are in essence receiving free, unbiased feedback from an organization that intimately understands the world of comic book self-publishing. If the Xeric Foundation is unwilling to fund you, it might be a sign that your work isn’t quite ready for a serious self-publishing effort. After all, if you can’t secure the go-ahead from an organization that exists solely to give money away, what are the odds you’ll be able to convince for-profit organizations like distributors or booksellers to work with you?

So even if you can afford to go it alone, I would strongly recommend applying for financial assistance from the Xeric Foundation to anyone from self-publishing their first graphic novel.

Applying for the Xeric Grant
First and foremost, I should mention that I am not a spokesperson for the Xeric Foundation, so my thoughts on what they may or may not be looking for in an application are by-and-large speculative. Granted, that speculation was the basis for my approach to the application which ultimately netted me a $10,000 grant, but since the following isn’t coming from the horse’s mouth, you should take all of it with a grain of salt.

As I was filling out the application, I tried to put myself in the application reviewer’s shoes. Make it clear to them that you take the whole thing seriously. Fill out forms completely, follow all the instructions to the letter, and present everything in a neat, professional manner.

The mock-up of my graphic novel was the most important aspect of my application of course, but in addition to that I tried to convey that I was someone who had a firm plan in place for how I would use the grant money, and that I would require little or no handholding. I was as specific as possible about my projected expenses, and how I would print, promote, and distribute my book.

For this preparation, I found The Self-Publishing Manual (mentioned previously in this entry) to be indispensable. I used it as the basis for my self-publishing plan.

I think the weakest part of my application was that I was very unclear about how much my book would cost to print up. At that point I hadn’t yet contacted any book printers yet, so I provided a very wide “guesstimate” of what I expected the book to cost. Luckily I got the grant anyway, but I think it would be a good idea to get quotes for book printers ahead of time, and submit the winning quote as part of your application. Not only would this help you determine how much money to ask the Xeric Foundation for, but it would also demonstrate to them that you’re ready to hit the ground running. My thoughts on dealing with book printers will be the subject of the next week’s entry.

Links
The most current set of application guidelines for the Xeric Grant can be found here.

I had also intended to post my Xeric application as a part of this blog entry (for informational purposes), but for the life of me I can’t find the Word documents for that… Should I be able to track them down, I’ll update this entry later on and put a link to my application here.

Next week entry will be about dealing with book printers. Ta.

***

How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel
1/10 – Introductions / Disclaimers
2/10 – Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3/10 – Research, Research, Research
4/10 – Savings & Money Management
5/10 – The Xeric Grant
6/10 – Preparing for Press
7/10 – Working with Book Printers
8/10 – Distribution
9/10 – Marketing
10/10 – The Long Haul / Conclusion

Complete List of Recommended Self-Publishing Books / Resources

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.

Savings
I knew for several years in advance that I eventually wanted to make a serious go at cartooning. For about four years prior I worked a 9-to-5 job and lived like a miser, slowly saving up a little nest egg for when the day came that I would eventually quit the day job and devote myself completely to the creation and publication of my comics. That day came about two years ago.

I’m starting to see a little bit of money come in now (though still not enough to raise me above the poverty level), but for about a year and a half after I quit my job, I didn’t see a dime. During those eighteen months, I lived exclusively off my savings.

Now, I guess it’s not 100% necessary to quit your job and devote yourself completely to your self-publishing effort. But that would be the ideal. Self-publishing takes an incredible amount of time, and ideally should be treated as a fledgling small business. When I was going through the process, there never seemed to be enough hours in the day to do everything, even doing it full time. I can’t even imagine trying to juggle a day job and self-publishing, especially for your first book when you’re still learning the ropes.

So as I say: the ideal is to be able to devote yourself to it full-time, and to do that, you’ll need money to live off of.

How much should you have saved? Even assuming there are no extenuating circumstances in your life, I would say at least a year’s worth of living expenses. That would give you half a year to make a go of it, and still have some money to fall back on to look for a new job if things don’t pan out.

But really, I consider that the bare minimum; the more you have saved, the better. If you’re able to save up two or three years worth of living expenses before self-publishing, all the better. You should also budget a good internet connection into your living expenses, as you’ll be doing a lot of e-mailing and marketing on the internet once things get going. 

For the costs associated with printing and marketing your book, you’ll hopefully be able to secure a Xeric grant to cover most or all of those expenses. But to be on the safe side, you should probably have a few thousand extra dollars in case your book ends up costing more than you expect, and for expenses the Xeric Grant won’t cover. I’ll talk more about the Xeric Grant in next week’s entry.

While you’re saving up your money, it’s important to invest it wisely, to get the best return on your savings. Which leads us to…

Money Management
I’m not deluded enough to imagine I’m qualified to offer specific advice on this subject, so I’m going to pass the buck straightaway and recommend a book by someone who actually knows what they’re talking about:

Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson

I’ve always avoided the “for Dummies” books because I hated the implication for the title, but when it came to finances, I was willing to hang my head in shame and don the dunce cap. This is the only personal finance book I’ve ever read, so there may be better ones out there. But all-in-all, I felt it provided a good, fairly painless crash course in all the financial stuff I probably should have learned fifteen years ago, like what a “mutual fund” is, why a bank is a terrible place long-term savings, and where your money should be instead.

If you’re like me, researching about personal finance and then transferring money around is about as thrilling a prospect as getting a root canal. But you should do it anyway; it’s not as painful as you think it’s going to be, and it’s time very well spent.

The great thing is that once you’ve done all the initial research and made all the appropriate changes, it can be very hands off; it’s not like you have to check the stock market and make adjustments everyday or anything (in fact, you probably shouldn’t do that). And by making smart money choices sooner rather than later, you could easily end up with tens of thousands of dollars more in your pocket over the course of your lifetime. So pay yourself a couple thousand dollars an hour, and do a few hours of semi-tedious financial research/adjustments NOW (whether you intend to self-publish or not).

That’s it for now. I’ll conclude my discussion about money with the next entry, which will be devoted to the Xeric grant. Stay tuned!

***

How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel
1/10 – Introductions / Disclaimers
2/10 – Honing Your Craft / Creating Your Comic
3/10 – Research, Research, Research
4/10 – Savings & Money Management
5/10 – The Xeric Grant
6/10 – Preparing for Press
7/10 – Working with Book Printers
8/10 – Distribution
9/10 – Marketing
10/10 – The Long Haul / Conclusion

Complete List of Recommended Self-Publishing Books / Resources