Self-Publishing - Launching Pre-Orders!!

 On Thursday May 18th I set comics live for pre-orders! I made a few graphics to promote this specifically for Instagram Stories, Instagram Grid and Twitter! Below are screen caps of the posts:

I have previous experience in selling things online, and that really helped me feel confident in setting this all going. I set myself a target I hoped to reach, similar to what I would have done on a crowd funding campaign, something that would allow me to cover the costs of my initial print run of 50 of each comic, and I achieved this within the first few days of the pre-orders being live! I can now go ahead and finish the comics knowing that I can easily pay for the initial print run, which cover all pre-orders, as well as leaving spares for my upcoming comic markets and some stock for comic stores!

Self-Publishing - Dissemination - Stockiest Research

I contacted OK Comics and Travelling Man, two local comic shops to discuss their approach to stocking small press/self-published work. Below are the responses:

Travelling Man

"Most of the time it is Sale or Return but sometimes Wholesale, depending on how many we order to be honest, it really varies. We mostly wait for people to get in touch with us but again, sometimes we seek out and contact creators. Quantity wise, usually 2 or 4 copies per shop, but it really can vary! I've attached our guidelines too!" 

Mama, who runs the small press for Travelling Man, also added their guidelines for me which detailed the ins and outs of getting paid and it was really useful.

OK Comics

"We used to purchase small press on sale or return but this was hard to manage, buying at a discounted rate (usually between 40/50%, we usually discuss this with the creator and find a price that works for us both) and letting them tick over works better for us. We also find that this gets us more excited to stock and sell the comic!

We tend to order a small amount to start with and gage customer response before ordering more,

Hope this helps!

All the best,

Danielle"

Leeds Zine Library - Dissemination

After visiting Leeds Library a month or so ago,  I contacted the Art Librarian, Emma Hayton, to discuss the potential of revamping their Zine Library. The Library currently is tucked away in a corridor, and visually isn't the most appealing; although the library itself has some really great pieces in it. It felt like with a few changes and some time dedicated to it it could be something really special. 

Today I had an initial meeting with Emma, pitched my ideas and it wet really well. They already have plans to move the collection to a more accessible space within the Art Library, and we discussed some furniture options from other zine libraries that I have come across during my MA research. 

We also discussed having an official re-launch party, and building a donation drive into that where creators can donate copies of their work to replenish the shelves. 

The outcome was that I will become an official volunteer at the library, and work on the zine library long term. We have more meetings booked in, and in the mean time I'm going to work on some rebranding.

A Walk to a Waterfall - Cover Redesign

I've stepped away from A Walk to a Waterfall for a while whilst I focus on A Crying Shame. It's been interesting to come back to it now with the additional knowledge I have built whilst working on my second project. It's made me realise there are a lot of things I really like about this first project, I still really like the script and the general aesthetic I have set for the book (the colours, and textures etc); I realise that the cover didn't quite fit with that style, so I've done back, using the same basis but taken out the figure and scaled back the colours to greys and pinks. I really love how it looks, and think it reflects the stories overall feeling much better.

Here is the older version for reference:

 

Emma Carlisle - Professional Casestudy

Emma Carlisle is an illustrator and children's picture book maker, Emma has also lectured illustration.n. Her practise has evolved over the years, and it has been really interesting to see her authentically follow her own interests and see her style progress and change. She has children's books that are published, she also publishers her own sketchbook work and run an art based Patreon. This biggest part of Emma's career that I am drawn to is the Patreon she runs; it's a community of artists of varying levels, and Emma prints her own teaching experience into this community with regular digital workshops, drawing sessions and lessons. She shares really interesting ways to approach a sketchbook and how to improve your work in a way that works for the individual.

Accessed May 4

 

Self Publishing Dissemination - Reviews- Broken Frontier

Broken Frontier is a magazine-style website which focuses on comics, particularly small press and self-published work. They do a lot of comics reviews, promotion and news features on that subject. I plan to send my comics here for review to help with promotion when they are ready. Before that, I wanted to look into their process for requesting reviews, and found that they have a really in depth page that answers the question 'How do I get coverage for my self-published comic?'

Below is some key points which I found useful:

"For review requests, digital or hard copies. If you want to send hard copies to a particular staff member, please contact us for details. Due to the international whereabouts of our staff, we don’t list a public mailing address. Since we receive multiple review requests daily, we cannot cover all requests. We do, however, share requests that fit within our coverage area across the team and cover as much material as possible."

How to pitch that e-mail request:

So to sum up. This is what we always suggest when e-mailing Broken Frontier for small press coverage.
(i) A couple of short sentences about the comic’s style, themes, subject matter and why it may be of interest to the reviewer given previous coverage.
(ii) A couple of sample pages.
(iii) A link to your site/store.

Always offer a choice of physical or digital copy for review if possible"

Comic Promo Pages