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![]() Moderated by NohTV.com creator Ron Wm McElman. |
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this is how it works... Posted By: MACK! In Response To: living as a
comic artist (lordrust) : I'm weary about asking this question ...I don't want to : I was wonder publishing your own title... how do you get : just curious
Hello,
Thanks for you interest in my work.
For Marvel and DC they pay you per page because you are doing work FOR
them and they own it. That's a fair deal.
As for creator owned comics, I'm sure there are some variations, but
I'll give you what I know from my own first hand experience:
I own Kabuki completely, so no one pays me for it. I do NOT get any
page rate for it or any advance for it. The ONLY way that I make any
revenue from Kabuki books is based on royalties for each and every copy
sold.
That means that if no one buys your book, you don't get any money and
you still have to recoup your printing, shipping, and advertising
expenses. Once people buy enough copies of the book to cover these
PRE-PAID costs, then (and only then) do the royalties start to come in.
That also means that retailers actually have to ORDER the book AHEAD of
time BEFORE the book comes out in order for you to sell any books.
I don't start to receive any royalties until about 2-3 months after the
book is PUBLISHED. The stores and the book distribution company also
receive their cut from each and every book before the creator royalties
are tabulated.
So for this system to work, readers of the work have to make sure that
their retailers order the books from the PREVIEWS catalogue (the
distributor's catalogue) AHEAD of time. They usually have to order I think
2-3 months in advance. So readers requesting the title from their
retailers is IMPERATIVE. Other wise the book stores will not order enough,
and many stores wait for MANY additional requests to motivate them to
re-order a book that has sold out of the intial copies ordered for the
store.
But if you really believe in your work and you take the time and effort
to cultivate a readership, the rewards are limitless. There is no
substitute for doing exactly what you want to be doing and doing it in
your own way. That has to be the real reason that you are doing this. That
has to be the reward in and of itself, because it may take years to build
the audience for your work until your book generates enough to support a
family.
I was focused enough at an early age to start cultivating an audience
for my work while I still lived on the fringe of society and needed very
little income to survive in my own modest way. Through discipline and
perseverance, the work has found its own niche.
It is great to build your own place in the industry, and you can if you
are dedicated to that. But I always look at the my books like they are a
communication between me and my readers. And a communication needs both
sides. Without readers to actively buy my books, and enjoy them and get
something from them, my work would only be expression. I find
communication infinitely more interesting. ------ Messages In This Thread ------
David Mack's Message Board © 2002 David Mack and World Famous Comics. World Famous Comics Community © 2002 World Famous Comics and part of the World Famous Comics Network. All rights reserved. All other © and ™ belong to their respective owners. |
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