Welcome to Pageturners, a book I’m writing in which I share what I’ve learnt – and am still learning – about comic writing, film writing, novel writing and how new writers can sell their stories. I’ll publish a chapter or a section per week, available for free here on Iconoblast. And I welcome your feedback or questions, so do leave a comment below!
Missed the Pageturners intro? Read it here.
SPACEWARP ANTHOLOGY
Here I’ll focus just on the economic and practical realities of the newsstand anthology of Spacewarp, because it provides information on whether it could be replicated by others seeking to reach a mainstream audience. So a nostalgia, fan or adult anthology is not considered here. I’ll focus on the concept and production of Spacewarp later in Pageturners as a detailed case study.
But the short answer is yes, it does work – but it’s not a walk in the park. In fact, I don’t know of any area of publishing that is.
We had the combined sales of print on demand, digital and newsstand, which made a important difference to our total sales. I’m still surprised nobody else considers these two figures together when they’re producing independent books.
Our sales ratio was far higher than our obvious science fiction rival on the newsstand.
On the negative side, we hit three problems. Firstly, Covid. Secondly, problems with the distributor which we believe can be overcome next time. And thirdly, family problems for one of the external links in our chain.
Covid was a unique problem and – with so many mainstream and comic shops shut for long periods – it did work to our disadvantage. The other two issues are normal – they’re going to happen whatever you’re doing in business. Despite the three challenges, I’ll do it all again because I’ve proved the lost mainstream newsstand audience is still out there waiting to be rediscovered and reignited and it is possible to breakout from an increasingly narrowing fan market. That’s what mattered to me.
So currently we’re following up with Spacewarp 2 – a 48-page Hellbreaker Special illustrated by Ian Ashcroft. In colour. The early pages look great!
We’ll adapt our publishing strategy to whatever’s happening when Ian completes. It may involve a Kickstarter as well. It’s too early to evaluate and describe the best way forward.
But what all three anthology examples (see my previous posts on Football and Girls Comic anthologies) and print on demand illustrate is that there are solutions if a prospective creator can ignore the negativity so commonplace in our industry, and remember that the Golden Age is now.
Because these opportunities were not available in the past eras where everything was locked down in an oppressive industry that favoured publishers and agents, but rarely creators.
SUBSTACK
I just want to touch briefly on Substack, this platform I’m on, because it’s already very popular with text writers and American comic writers. As far as we know, we’re the only British comic creators that are using Substack.
The site’s format is very accessible, there’s unpaid and paid subscriber sections and, thus far, its be working well for us.
Here’s what Substack have to say:
‘There are few industries where we feel the Substack model could be more game-changing than in comics, where the gap in power and earning potential between publishers and for-hire creators is enormous, and where the creator of a story can spawn a nine-figure franchise and yet take home little more than a standard paycheck. On Substack, comics creators are their own publishers, and they are guaranteed full ownership of their intellectual property, content, and mailing lists, like any other publisher on the platform.’
What these new systems do indicate is – there is always a solution. There is always a way through. You just have to look hard enough for it and persevere.
And part of that perseverance is to sometimes step back and look at possibilities after a break. The answers aren’t always immediately obvious. A case in point: I have a novel I took a two year break from, unable to see a way to make it work, and have only just returned to it with renewed vigour.