Broken Frontier

Part I
Part II
Part III

Part IV

19. Calculating Your Profit

Now it's time to get busy. If you are self publishing, you already have your distributors lined up. Your book has long since been solicited and you know when you want it to hit stands. You've been advertising and creating awareness of your book. You've received your preorders and know the number of copies to print. You have scheduled your printing with the printer and they are ready to prepare it, proof it with you, print it, and get it to the distributors by their receiving deadline.

So you send off your book, it's printed, it's shipped, it arrives in stores and hooray! So when do you get paid?

Well, most publishers pay you 60 days after the book hits stands. That's a long time from when you started creating the comic until pay day. But that's just how it works. Some distributors will pay you early (30 days after the book hits stands) if you pay an early incentive. An early incentive is where you offer up an extra slice of your profits (usually around 2% more of cover price) to the distributor to pay you early. But let's say you are a patient person, and you can wait 60 days.

20. Profit from Self-Publishing

Now let's find out your riches! As we discussed earlier, you are making $1.18 a book, (if the cover price is $2.95). Your production costs were a measly 40 cents a copy! We'll even be more generous in your equation and say you've sold an amazing 5000 copies as a self-publisher! So what did you make? Let's see: $1.18 a copy minus $0.40 printing a copy gives you a 0.78 profit per copy. 0.78 cents X 5000 copies sold gives you $3900.00! Wow!

...or is that really a wow? Time to talk art production and face the bitter reality of the comic industry.

Let's say you went all out and have a writer, a penciller, an inker, a colorist and a letterer on your book... all of the major steps in production. Most books are 22 pages of art and 1 cover. For this scenario, I'm going to say your cover and page rates are the same and that the writer is getting paid for a cover idea (that very seldom happens, I'm just doing it so my percentages are even per page)

We need to spread your profits over these people (which I'm just going to assume one of them is you). Here's my percentage breakdown for these creators. In NO way are my breakdowns a representation of what those creators should receive!!! You will have to determine that on your own! I'm just making stuff up here to what I think is kind of fair given the amount of work that typically goes into a comic.

Writer = 18% = $702.00 = $31.00 per page/cover

Penciller = 32% = $1248.00 = $54.00 per page/cover

Inker = 24% = $936.00 = $41.00 per page/cover

Colorist = 20% = $780.00 = $34.00 per page/cover

Letterer = 6% = $234.00 = $10.00 per page/cover

Hmmmm...That's not a lot of money, is it? What's worse is that you still have to pay taxes on that money leaving you with even less! What's scarier is that I did the equation IN YOUR FAVOR! Yikes!!!!

Imagine how little profit you will have after the real cost of printing, shipping, and advertising (if you do it)! That's why so many self-published books often lose money, and lots of it. But that's just how it is in the world of comics. It's hard work with long hours for little pay. If you want to dabble in self-publishing, I highly recommend doing for the love on the side in addition to your regular day job. The experience is rewarding. But if you are self-publishing to make money? Forget it.

21. Profit Through Another Publisher

Okay, so let's say you broke in at Image (for example). Nuts to all that self-publishing stuff and losing money... who wants that? You'll just let Image handle all of that technical stuff and you'll collect your check after creating the content, right?

Wrong. Image still has to pay the same costs you would have had to pay as a self-publisher.
Some times they get a little extra discount, but not too often.

So apply all of the same fees I had above. But let's say this time you hit it BIG thanks to being with Image and you presell 10,000 copies at Image! Hot damn, that's twice as many copies! 5000 more copies of income! This time you walk away with a much larger $7800.00 profit to split among your team! Wow!

...but wait! You forgot the extra expense from the Image fee! Image's flat fee is $2500.00. That's to handle putting together your book for you and sending it to the printer, the cost of their space in Diamond Previews, and all the press and stuff they do for you to help promote your book (they run a business too, ya know?). So now you are down to $5300.00 Sure, its $1400.00 more than you had before. But once again, I gave you really high debut at Image with low production costs! The reality is that you'll make far less money. Sorry folks, that's just how it is. And what's worse? If your book costs more to make at Image than the profit, you will owe Image money!

22. Final Notes

Now you see how hard it really is out there. Creating comics is NOT an easy job. And for those in the business, it doesn't pay a ton of money unless you are working for one of the major publishers and have the experience and fan base to earn a better page rate.

Take it from a guy who knows. I had the #1 selling book for November 2002 (Masters of the Universe #1) in the entire industry. I've had the chance to publish a list of cool titles that were appreciated by fans and professionals alike. Yet I'm up to my eyeballs in debt and sleep in a sleeping bag in my studio because I can't afford a place to live. I wish I was kidding. Despite what looked like success to many fans out there, I live a pretty humble lower-class lifestyle because of all the things I outlined above. No one ever told me a lot of what I just told you about comics, and I wish they had. Arm yourself with knowledge, because comics is a tough biz!

Like I said before, comic sales are at a historical low. That means they have never sold worse since comics first hit the stands in the 1930s. It's hard for any publisher, even DC and Marvel, to survive. If they relied purely on comic sales and not profits from licensing popular characters, the big two would be out of business.

If you have more questions, feel I didn't go into enough detail in various areas or want me to elaborate on things I touched base on, just let me know. Send me an e-mail through the MVCreations  website or let the fine people at Broken Frontier know. When I have time, I'll be happy to address those questions.

If you still want to publish after reading all of the above, then I wish you luck! You have to be smart about what you do if you want to work in comics, especially if you want to publish. And above all else, you have to love comics to make them. I love comics, and that's why I put up with the hardships of the biz.

Despite everything I've experienced, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else!

- Val Staples