In October, 2019, I attended a Comic Artist Workshop meetup featuring Gamal Hennessy.
This is the first part of what I learned from his talk. Below is the second part:
- "How will readers get the comic"?
- choose idea
- set goals
- own the idea
- get money
- build team
- find market
- determine distribution
- "How will you produce the comic"?
- What form will it take?
- web. 1 panel-20 pages
- single issue. 20-24 pages
- trade paperback. Collection of 4-8 comics
- graphic novel. 96-192 pages
- anthology
- When will you publish?
- Define production schedule
- Never deliver a book late.
- Ensure there are redundancies for team communication
- "How will you inform the market about the comic"?
- communicating only with your audience
- for advertising—
- cover art
- pedigree (of the creator[s])
- hook
- description
- purchasing information
- find the biggest voices for target market (influencers) to use for advertising
- press releases to comic book press and comics adjacent press
- can use social media paid advertising once exhausted free social media
- get the word out in the right channels at the right time
- "How will you sell the comic?"
- revenue with selling books
- monetization
- sponsors
- affiliates
- now is the time to crowdfund
- will use sales funnel
- social media → web → mailing list → free content → digital issues → digital graphic novel → print graphic novel → merchandise
- "How will you divide the revenue?"
- outstanding liabilities
- division of profits
- recoupment
- royalties
- taxes
- "What happens after you publish the book?"
- merger
- sale
- IPO
- continue indie publishing
- freelance
- creator-owned
- media outside comics
- will need to determine what happens to the comic and company after you're gone
Thanks for reading!