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A little direction or advice...

Posted by Brian D on August 20, 2010 at 5:33pm in BUSINESS & LOGISTICS

Hello everyone. I'm currently knee deep in a 2+year project creating a graphic novel adapted from the harmony of the Gospels. The end result is a 220 page comic version of the life of Christ that I want to use as a ministering tool to youth who might not be so quick to pick up their bible, but may be interested in this instead. I'm pretty confident in the creative aspect of this but have little idea as to how to get this published or financed. I'm including the youtube link here for anyone interested in viewing it (hope that's okay). Your feedback/advice, etc will be greatly appreciated.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyB2ZtZ8zCw

 

 

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  • Brian D August 25, 2010 at 12:30pm
    At present I have a publisher who has contacted me and seems to be interested, so pray that God guides this as He sees fit. I'm aiming for the 10-30 year olds, which seems to make up a large demographic of the comic industry. I hope that it finds it's way into the hands of all ages( Currently, I've been able to track the viewership of the trailer and it seems that the largest audience is 17-40 so I'm at least in the ballpark.

    Dominique Fam said:
    Hi Brian, that looks great. What age group are you targeting? I guess you can self publish or get a publisher, or even get a publishing agent. It will cost more to self publish but you get to keep the profits, if you go with a publisher you'll negotiate for a cut of the sale proceeds.
  • Dominique Fam August 25, 2010 at 8:51am
    Hi Brian, that looks great. What age group are you targeting? I guess you can self publish or get a publisher, or even get a publishing agent. It will cost more to self publish but you get to keep the profits, if you go with a publisher you'll negotiate for a cut of the sale proceeds.
  • Bob Luedke August 25, 2010 at 8:23am
    well, prices at the New York Con are a bit high (comparitively speaking). A booth in the small press area (which is where I'm at) I believe was about $800 and their artist alley is about $400. But Wizard Conventions (like Chicago's last week and the Boston, Atlanta and Austin ones I'm doing this fall) are a bit cheaper (if I remember right, artist alley space...which is where I go there...is $200 or $250).

    Now when you add, travel, lodging and food, it can be hard to turn a profit at these events...but of course not impossible. My goal is always to try to at least cover my expensives. If I do so, I consider it a successful event. And for me...and I'd guess for you too...a secondary goal is always, whom I'm reaching, who I've impacted with my work over the weekend...did I meet whom God led me here to meet?

    bob-

    Brian D said:
    As I read this, it opens some new ideas in terms of promotion. I'm curious what a booth costs and if you have much success at attending?

    Bob Luedke said:
    My pleasure Brian!

    If you're planning on visiting the NYCC in Oct (seeing how you're in DE) make sure to come find me (I'll be at booth 953) and we can talk at length. And I also "might" be at the Boston CC the week after...but I'm still working on that.

    bob-
  • Brian D August 25, 2010 at 8:07am
    As I read this, it opens some new ideas in terms of promotion. I'm curious what a booth costs and if you have much success at attending?

    Bob Luedke said:
    My pleasure Brian!

    If you're planning on visiting the NYCC in Oct (seeing how you're in DE) make sure to come find me (I'll be at booth 953) and we can talk at length. And I also "might" be at the Boston CC the week after...but I'm still working on that.

    bob-
  • Brian D August 25, 2010 at 8:06am
    Hey, sounds like a road trip!

    Bob Luedke said:
    My pleasure Brian!

    If you're planning on visiting the NYCC in Oct (seeing how you're in DE) make sure to come find me (I'll be at booth 953) and we can talk at length. And I also "might" be at the Boston CC the week after...but I'm still working on that.

    bob-
  • Bob Luedke August 25, 2010 at 7:41am
    My pleasure Brian!

    If you're planning on visiting the NYCC in Oct (seeing how you're in DE) make sure to come find me (I'll be at booth 953) and we can talk at length. And I also "might" be at the Boston CC the week after...but I'm still working on that.

    bob-
  • Brian D August 25, 2010 at 7:33am
    Wow! Amazing sound advice. I truly appreciate you taking the time to share this with me! What a great blessing!

    Bob Luedke said:
    I think you'll find this is an issue that many Indy Christian creators face and I'll share of couple of my thoughts on this. First of all, without reading the copy, the artwork on your project is definately of pro. quality, so you shouldn't have an issue on getting Christian publishers looking at it...but the problem is finding publishers looking for new material that aren't already doing a gospel based book. Kingstone Media (I believe is the correct name) out of Florida is being very aggressive with their publishing schedule, so you might want to forward them a galley edition when you have one ready.

    As far as self publishing goes, here's a couple thoughts.

    RE: Financing....if you don't know any "angel" investors who'd like to help you out, check out creating a listing on Kickstarter, which is a way to develop some cashflow to create your book.

    RE: Publishing....if you can't immediately generate the capital you need to get a hard copy edition published you might want to consider either working with a Print On Demand Publisher (POD), who will make the books available for anyone who wants to order them and prints them only when the orders are placed...thus saving you a bunch of capital. An example of this is Amazon's Creatspace program...but there are many other options for this type of thing. Secondly, I always advise new creators/self publishers that are cash-strapped to consider releasing the book sequencially on your website or blog, as a webcomic. If you have 220 pages, you could (for example) release 2 new pages a week (for free viewing) over 110 weeks. You just got to go out and market it as much as you can to drive potential surfers/viewers. The goal is to have them sign up for a free account, which grants them access to the uploads or viewer...and eventually build this number of regular weekly visitors up and use this to sell advertising on your site. And then of course you also have built up an audience when you are ready to create or sell the publishing rights to the graphic novel (Because you can market the fact to a potential pubisher that you have 100, 1000, 10000, 100000 weekly subscribers to your web version). Scott Salva did this to perfection with his creation, Dreamland Chronicles.

    Hope some of that is helpful to you. Feel free to message me with any followup questions.

    R.J. Luedke
    www.headpress.info
  • Bob Luedke August 25, 2010 at 7:15am
    I think you'll find this is an issue that many Indy Christian creators face and I'll share of couple of my thoughts on this. First of all, without reading the copy, the artwork on your project is definately of pro. quality, so you shouldn't have an issue on getting Christian publishers looking at it...but the problem is finding publishers looking for new material that aren't already doing a gospel based book. Kingstone Media (I believe is the correct name) out of Florida is being very aggressive with their publishing schedule, so you might want to forward them a galley edition when you have one ready.

    As far as self publishing goes, here's a couple thoughts.

    RE: Financing....if you don't know any "angel" investors who'd like to help you out, check out creating a listing on Kickstarter, which is a way to develop some cashflow to create your book.

    RE: Publishing....if you can't immediately generate the capital you need to get a hard copy edition published you might want to consider either working with a Print On Demand Publisher (POD), who will make the books available for anyone who wants to order them and prints them only when the orders are placed...thus saving you a bunch of capital. An example of this is Amazon's Creatspace program...but there are many other options for this type of thing. Secondly, I always advise new creators/self publishers that are cash-strapped to consider releasing the book sequencially on your website or blog, as a webcomic. If you have 220 pages, you could (for example) release 2 new pages a week (for free viewing) over 110 weeks. You just got to go out and market it as much as you can to drive potential surfers/viewers. The goal is to have them sign up for a free account, which grants them access to the uploads or viewer...and eventually build this number of regular weekly visitors up and use this to sell advertising on your site. And then of course you also have built up an audience when you are ready to create or sell the publishing rights to the graphic novel (Because you can market the fact to a potential pubisher that you have 100, 1000, 10000, 100000 weekly subscribers to your web version). Scott Salva did this to perfection with his creation, Dreamland Chronicles.

    Hope some of that is helpful to you. Feel free to message me with any followup questions.

    R.J. Luedke
    www.headpress.info
  • Brian D August 22, 2010 at 9:53am
    Thanks a lot! I'll be sure to keep you posted...

    kyle said:
    from what I just saw in that video, it definitally has the style needed for children, jesus looked awesome, the story intro is great, Id be more than willing to by and donate this book to every library in my area to spread it! when its out, be sure to tell us! I'll be looking forward to it! :D
  • kyle August 22, 2010 at 9:39am
    from what I just saw in that video, it definitally has the style needed for children, jesus looked awesome, the story intro is great, Id be more than willing to by and donate this book to every library in my area to spread it! when its out, be sure to tell us! I'll be looking forward to it! :D
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