Posted by Wesley Craig Green / Head Cheese at Independent Propaganda
Ah, distribution. The Achilles heel of most- if not all- self-publishers and small independent publishers. Securing distribution of your work is a necessity if you have any hope of recouping any money spent on printing, marketing, and shipping your work. But with distributors taking a fifty to sixty percent discount, what is left is very little for the person or team who created the work.
So how can this paradigm be shifted in favor of the self-publisher or small independent publisher? One obvious avenue would be utilizing the Internet. Some have said web comics will eventually replace the independent comics market. I came across this article sometime back that backs up these claims. With its lower cost (no printing or shipping costs unless you consider bandwidth as a ’shipping’ method) coupled with a much wider audience and no middle man (the comic shop), this would seem to be a no-brainer. But there is one very big obstacle which will- for the time being, I think- hold web comics back and that is it’s not an actual comic. What I mean by that is you can not ‘hold’ a web comic, and for some people this is a big problem. But this problem may not be one for the younger generation who are now in their teens/early 20s. And this is the target market for web comics.
In addition to web comics, there is also downloadable comics. About a year ago, I began selling mine and Jason Whitley’s horror graphic novel BEFORE DAWN online as a PDF file. The hard copy sold for $5.95 US; the online version sold for $2.95 US. While it did generate some money, it was mainly done as an experiement to see if there was a market interested in paying for downloadable comics. Although I didn’t have any numbers for comparision, I felt it was a successful experiement which I think could work as paying for downloadable comics gains more acceptance. But then again, it faces the same wall web comics finds itself staring at: you can’t touch it. Granted, you could print out a downloadable comic. But by the time you do, you could’ve just spent the money you spent on the ink used to print the comic on the actual comic itself.
So what are your thoughts on these ideas? Do you know of some other distribution avenues which have worked for you?
Technorati Tags: comic distribution, self-publishing comics, independent publisher, web comics, BEFORE DAWN, Jason Whitley, downloadable comics
2 comments so far
Wesley,
You raise some interesting points. Last year I, along with a few others, self-published the comic WARRIOR TWENTY-SEVEN. The high from holding your very own comic was better than any drug. It would have been cheaper for me to produce it as a downloadable book, but I would have missed out on the best creative experience I’ve ever had.
That being said, not nearly as many people got their hands on the book as I would have liked. Aside from those sold at Wizard World Chicago, only a small percentage of those printed were read.
It’s a double edge sword, and I’m unsure of which solution is best. I think you did the smart thing by offering both solutions to your audience.
April 27th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Thanks for the compliment, King Mob. The way I’ll be approaching my future comic-related projects is to first do them as a web comic THEN publish it. In today’s market, you have to have awareness of your product. You can’t just self-publish something and expect the audience to be there. You have to build that audience first. So why not do that by offering your book online for free first, hopefully build the audience there, then offer them and the market a hard copy version with some added features? It just makes sense to me.
Wesley
April 29th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
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