As someone who has lived the pains of comic book publishing for the past 10+ years, I’m going to go over a list of the most important cold hard facts of the comic book industry.

Here are what I like to call…

The 7 Comic Book Publishing Realities

1. Most comic books suck, and yours probably does too
This may be a painful thing to hear and I hate to be the Simon Cowell of the industry, but the majority of comic books produced today are unprofessional and poorly done. With the advent of print-on-demand (POD) technology, there are now more bad comics available for purchase than at any time in the past. If I was forced to take a guess at the percentage of unsellable comic books on the market today I’d have to say 99.9% of independent comics aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

Far too many publishers rush to press with talent well beneath the pro level, and a lot of creators feel their work is a lot better than it really is. Since I’ve already made a Simon Cowell reference, it isn’t that great of a stretch to compare the comic book industry to American Idol. We’ve got a lot of talentless hopefuls but only 1 in 20,000 contestants is actually a winner.

What this means for most of you reading this book is: more than likely your work falls into the talentless hopeful portion of the industry. They may be a harsh realization for you and I’m sure most are either spitting venom at me or are in complete denial of the fact. Luckily, there is hope for you. Keep practicing. Keep putting out comics and get your work to the level of a professional. Sure your books may not be able to stack up to the latest comics from Marvel or DC but you will get better with practice. Read the rest of this entry »

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(originally published March 19, 2007)

I like to ramble on in this space from time to time about my experiences as an independent comic book publisher. Recently I wrote about some of the things I do to expand the sales and reach for the comics I publisher under the Nifty Comics banner. I also talked about how our initial orders (meaning upfront orders that come in either before printing or right as the comics are released in the first week afterwards) have started to hit the 8000 mark.

Now, I’m going to tell you why getting 8000 in sales can be a bad thing if you’re not ready for them, using Nifty Comics as a case study. Read the rest of this entry »

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(originally published on September 19, 2006)

Like most comic publishers I spend quite a bit of time thinking about the state of the industry and how to make it better – well, truthfully, how to make my little corner of it better. After spending a lot of time thinking it over and discussing what everyone perceives to be the main elements leading to the downfall of comics (the distributor monopoly, for example), I realized what the biggest problem and killer really is: the industry.

I believe most of the problems that we encounter “in the industry” come from the industry itself. First off, comic companies tend to publish only for those who are already in the industry. Comic publishers usually target their marketing towards those who are already here and creators tend to create product only for those who are already well-versed in industry. Very rarely does the thought of bringing new readers in really ever pop up, which is insane. That would be like Hollywood only creating films for those who work in film and television. As wacky as it sounds, this seems to be the mentality of the industry at large. Read the rest of this entry »

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