So you’ve done the hard part. You’ve come up with a superhero, or a detective, or a punk rocker, and you’ve written and drawn their adventures. Now is the time to relax, right? Wrong. You’ve still got one important task ahead of you: getting your book out in the world.
First, you will have to come up with a way of printing it. You can use commercial stores like Fed Ex Office or, if you’re lucky enough to have access to a college or university, you can use their printing departments. Before you get to this step, you’ll also have to figure out what to charge for the book. This depends on a variety of things, like how long it is, how many you have available, and how much the printing cost. One thing to keep in mind is that people usually like paying with single coins, so make it a round 25 cents rather than trying to go lower.
The next step is advertising and promotion. This is how you’ll convince buyers to pay for your comic instead of a book from a larger company. It’s important to make sure you’re reaching the right audience, so decide if you want to advertise in magazines with larger circulation, like Wizard and Previews, or a smaller, more independent newsletter. Of course, you can also always just tell your friends, and tell them to tell their friends, and tell them to tell…
In today’s modern world, the internet can be your best friend as well. If you use a print-on-demand company like Lightning Source, you can even get your books onto the Holy Grail of sites, Amazon. Even larger independent presses like iUniverse and Xlibris make use of this model. These are just a few of the things you’ll have to consider before you get your book in the hands of the fans.