Thank you for putting together such a helpful website. I have loved comics and manga for ages, and enjoy writing short stories and drawing so I though I'd merge this altogether and make a comic book series! This will really be for my own personal enjoyment and I'm not really sure if I'll ever publish it although that would be cool. I love stories with strong characters, plots and themes. Could you give me some suggestions, or a list of links for advice on these things? Thank you once more!
Sorry for the delay in answering imogenconstance I’ve been out of town for a few weeks.
If you like writing and drawing, then comics are the perfect media for you!
I don’t feel that I’m qualified to offer you any advice on writing stories, plots, and themes, but I do have one piece of advice that has served me well so far: Tell the story that you would want to read. If you stay true to that, I think you’ll be okay. (you should still look up writing advice from great writers though, it’ll help.)
While we’re on the subject of making comics, I strongly encourage everyone to make comics for any reason (especially for your own personal enjoyment,) However comics take a lot of time and effort to make, so once you make them I think you should share it with the world! Publish it!
It’s easier than ever to publish your comic and I’ll give you some resources:
For my money they’re the best for printing short books. Individual comics that are 40 pages or less. Their sister company IndyPlanet.com gives you the best deal on selling your book online. (better than amazon, and other similar companies.) Best of all they’re print on demand, so you can print one book or 1000 at a time. It’s really affordable, I can’t recommend them enough.
They also offer a digital download option for your book, if you don’t want to deal with all that messy paper. Again, I love this company, can’t recommend them enough.
This is an amazon company. So the advantage to them is when you’re printing graphic novels, or trade paperbacks, they’ll give you the best price on printing. They’ll also automatically put it up onto Amazon.com for you with no extra charge. That makes you’re book very accessible world wide.
The disadvantage is that Create Space isn’t really designed to accommodate comic books or any books that have a lot of pictures. So they don’t have a standard “comic book” size. You’ll have to reformat your books to fit their specs. Usually this isn’t a big deal, but for some reason amazon seems more difficult than it should. The other disadvantage is that they take a huge percentage of the sales on Amazon. I guess it’s the cost of having one of the world’s biggest book distributor sell your book, it just kinda stinks.
ComiXology is the #1 digital distributor of comic books. On their website and app you can buy nearly any comic book that’s out there: Marvel, DC, IDW, Image, and even a ton of manga. They’ll distribute your book too!
The only catch though, is unlike Ka-blam and Createspace, they won’t accept anything you send them. There is a review and acceptance process. They’re not incredibly strict, but your book does have to be of a certain quality. No typos, no spelling errors. The artwork has to be of a certain standard too.
But once you’re accepted, your comic will be released on a Wednesday along side Batman, and Spiderman. I think that’s pretty cool.
I really like this company because their love for comics really shows. I hope that attitude continues now that Amazon has bought them. So far I haven’t seen a significant change, and I hope it stays that way.
The disadvantage to ComiXology is they take 50% of the sales, which is kind of a lot. Apple doesn’t even take that much for their iTunes sales. But considering that ComiXology converts your comic into their patented guided view free of charge, I’m okay with that split.
Make your story a webcomic! You don’t have to print your book, or get it on comiXology to share your story. Start a blog on wordpress or tumblr and post your pages there. I’m sure people will happily read it!
So I hope that answers your question a little bit, and helps you get your story read! If you or anyone else has a question about making comics, art, or anything else please feel free to ask! I answer all my questions!
and most importantly, Make Comics! Not Excuses!!
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