hello... it's been a while. I'm working on a new comic that doesn't suck (lol) and isn't an endless miasma of plot. It's going to be based on a short story I've written. I did page one last night, and it came out quite well and some people have told me I should send the finished product to comic publishers, rather than guerrilla publishing, aka selling comixpress comics to friends or nearby comic stores.
But I was thinking I'd put the comic up here on DD, just because. But do you think that an indie comic company would, perhaps, choose not to publish me on the basis that the work has already been published online?
(In other words, should I post my new comic?)

Kristen

I'd love to see your new comic :) But I don't know anything about what publishers would accept and what not. I do know that The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo was published by Image Comics even though the full comic was published here on DD (and is still on here).

So far it seems most independent companies are cool about that, although I guess the fact of publishing your comic for free on the net would result in a cut from your royalties, or perhaps you would be allowed to post it for free only after a certain time has passed since publication. Basically, it depends on the kind of deal you sign. If you are seriously planning to publish, though, I would suggest making the pitch first. If you don't get a deal with a company, or if they have no problem with that, then you could post it here. Only don't limit your options beforehand by pitching a comic that's already out there for free. Companies usually like to have some kind of exclusivity.

Yeah you should def. send that pitch, you may even be turned flat down so you wont have to worry about it. Webcomics are cool in the sense that people with even sup-par art/writing can reach an audience, and possibly to a larger scale than many published comics. With ads and merch you can make a fair income even if they turn yah down.

Lots and lots of publishers are starting to see that webcomics are big, and people will still buy them even if they can get them for free. So more and more publishers are accepting things that have been on the web first. Heck, Platinum told me to put Lesbian Pirates on the web.

Kristen! Good to see you around again!
Yeah, as people say; most publishers don't seem to have a problem with it.

nice to be back, ozone!

yeah, I'm not going out of my way to write a pitch. Why worry/bother/etc? I just want to do what I want, not have to worry about that kind of stuff. I'd rather have it FINISHED and decide whether or not the comic in totality is worth anything, before sending out anything to publishers.
Meh! Internet fame is what really counts.

I hear the economy is really making publishers more restrictive these days.

I think... you should be your own publisher.

Top Shelf and Dark Horse are the top publishers of webcomic related material but unless you have over 50k readers and a huge archive they won't even look at you and you're better off pitching something original. I know DC and Marvel won't take submissions that were previously posted on the web due to copyright reasons.

I wouldn't want a company to own my comics. I want full ownership of them. You make more money that way.

Posting your comic on the web can, in some circumstances, actually help your chances of finding a future publisher.

If you can show that you have a significant web-readership, some publishers will see that as evidence of the comic's appeal and the likelihood of it achieving respectable sales volumes.

Of course, that does assume you can actually build a sizeable online readership ... no easy task in itself!

I'll grassroots it, DAJB! lol.
If you want to help, read my comic! lol jk.



not really...