Author Archives: Lars Martinson

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. Continue reading How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel (5/10)→

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. Continue reading How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel (4/10)→

This is the third 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 entry.

Part Three: Research, Research, Research
If you’ve been drawing comics for a while and are considering self-publishing in the not-so-distant future, it’s probably the right time to sit down and start doing some research. Reading this guide is perhaps a very small step in that direction, but by itself isn’t nearly enough. To really prepare yourself, you’ll need to crack open a few books. Continue reading How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel (3/10)→

This is the second 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 entry.

Continue reading How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel (2/10)→