Broken Frontier

Being in the small press can be lonely.  Really.  Marvel and DC have a combined output that represents a good chunk of what’s read.  So, they have a loyalty both from retailers and from readers that no individual can match.  Yet, most of the small press folk keep their companies to themselves, and go at it alone, trying to eek out a market share and build a fanbase.  At the end of the day, though, it’s nearly impossible.  My company is essentially three people, each of us giving our time (and money) for no real income.  It’s a labor of love in many respects, but, at the end of the day, it’s about getting people to read our books.

But, as a publisher and as a creator, you don’t have to go at it alone.  From established professionals to other small press creators, we have an industry filled with people who are happy to help, people who’ve done it before, and people who are interested in the life of the industry.  The number one fault I’ve seen when it comes to production, marketing, and promotion of independent comics are people working in a vacuum.   There are a lot of worries about legal repercussions when you show an unfinished work to a creator.  When you’re actually friends with that creator, those concerns disappear.  Giving up names of contacts both in the media and at vendors is scary when the person you’re giving them to is an unknown quantity, but to anyone who’s an actual friend, someone you’ve built a relationship with, then it’s a no-brainer.   

The bottom line is that you have to make a point to meet people and befriend them.  Despite how sinister that sounds, it’s really not.  Think of comics like going to a new high school.  On your first day, it’s scary as hell, you’re an unknown commodity and everyone around you is strange and unknown.  Then, you start talking to people who wear the same type of clothes you do, or seem to listen to the same kind of music or watch the same kind of movies.  You figure out overtime who the right people for you to know are, and you gravitate towards them.  The industry equivalent is to find people making similar books to what you aspire to.  Find comic creators whose products you respect, and who are doing the type of things you are (or wish you were) doing. Find publishers doing the same thing, in terms of publishing scope and ambition. 

There are very few jobs to be had in the business.  Those jobs that do exist go to people who the person doing the hiring knows and trusts.  This is the only way to do it.

So, aside from making friends, what other ways are there to give your books some clout?

Strength in Numbers. Find the publishers doing things that you respect and believe in.  Find out what it is they publish, and then you can take pitches and concepts that are up their alley right to them.  If you already know the editors (thanks to making friends), you’re going to have a much easier time getting in the door.  Find ways to cross-promote your own products with those companies, be it through ad-trading, or even just talking their books up in interviews and the like.  It’s not ‘giving free promotion,’ it’s showing that you care about quality products. 

The whole point of a company like Image, or Speakeasy, is that any individual creator on their own is not enough of a force to fight in this industry.  But, you band together with other like-minded creators, more or less share the cost of doing business, and suddenly, you go from a postage stamp in Previews to a full page of coverage.  That’s the trick. That’s how you make yourself known to the world, as an individual, while capitalizing on the quality people you’ve surrounded yourself with. 

At the end of the day, you can’t make it on you own.  You need other people to like and respect you and what you do, or else you just can’t get the strength built up to really make a go of it in this industry.  Make friends, don’t be shy, take every opportunity in front of you to meet other comic pros in person.  Don’t sit at your table at a con, with your head down with your nose in a book.  Get up, shake hands, meet people both pros and otherwise, because you never know when that hand you shake will be your big break.