In October, 2019, I attended a Comic Artist Workshop meetup featuring Gamal Hennessy.
From his Creative Contract Consulting website: "I am an experienced entertainment transactions attorney with an expertise in comic book publishing and comic IP licensing. During my career, I’ve represented major corporate clients including AfterShock, Amazon, Mad Cave Studios, and Marvel, as well as independent entertainment professionals and independent publishers."
Hennessy is currently working on a book titled "The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing" and this meetup touched on many of the topics he will detail in his book.
Here's the first part of what I learned from his talk:
- The system for publishing comic books is pre-production, production and post-production. These steps are not necessarily linear, they often overlap.
- Independent comic book publishing is not the same as freelance or creator-owned
- Ask yourself, "Why do you want to publish comics?"
- Ask, "What's the best media for my story?"
- Comics are more viral than other forms of media; can branch out into other media
- Answering these will help overcome challenges
- Ask, "What is my ultimate success and where do I want to go with it?"
- "Do I have time?" It's a lifestyle choice.
- "What is my comic about?
- Comics ideas fall under these 3 areas: original, licensed (legal right given to the creator) and public domain
- Who owns the idea?
- collaborators
- employers
- third parties
- Make sure any idea (intellectual property) you have is wholly yours
- Only make the idea that you love, you will be spending a lot of time on it. Need a connection for the process.
- "How will I be able to pay for publishing?"
- Investment comes before revenue
- Investment is a risk
- Comics are a luxury investment
- Don't use money that don't have
- Costs:
- initial costs
- operating
- creative
- marketing
- printing
- distribution
- advertising
- Investors only care about the value of the comic
- Crowdfunding not part of the indie process at this stage since only have a copyright but no product
- "How will I protect my idea and investment? What professionals are needed?
- Accountant to protect investment
- Editor to protect idea
- Lawyer to protect you
- Need to form a legal entity?
- liability protection
- tax advantages
- "Who is going to publish the comic?"
- In addition to creative roles, the following need to be addressed—
- distribution
- legal
- accounting
- advertising
- marketing
- printing
- publishing
- sales
- Always make a contract with everyone who works on the project
- collaboration agreement (collaborators own in part the product) or work for hire
- "Who is going to read my comic?"
- 5-20% of time and effort should be spent connecting with target market.
- Must market!
- Understand who is and isn't target market
- not for everyone, all comic readers or all superhero comic book readers
- Define ideal reader
- use demographics and psychographics
- determine the genre
- Determine generation appealing to
- iGen: born 1996-mid 2000's
- Millenials: 1981-1996
- GenX: 1965-1980
- Boomers: 1946-1964
- Silent: 1928-1945
- Determine the competition
- ideal reader comparison
- SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
- How to expand target market?
- Barriers to entry
- other media competition
- relative price
- isolated distribution
- perception stigmas
- established patterns
- the story has to be strong enough to surmount these challenges
- How to build a relationship with my target market?
- give them what they want
- use hooks to create true fans
- the connection between the story and what people want
- Off-line marketing is brand marketing
- comic shops
- conventions
- potential market locations
- word of mouth
- go where the market is
The rest of Hennessy's talk will be in a second post.
Thanks for reading!