Why Should You Buy a Book About the Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing?

As we get closer to the release of The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing* (See What Information Is in The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing?), I’m working on the copy that will appear in the online store and on the back cover of the book. Here’s the current version.

What do you think? Would you consider buying a book like this? Drop a comment and let me know.

The business of comics is chaotic and complex. Becoming an independent comic book publisher isn’t like becoming a doctor or a lawyer. There is no license you can obtain or standard path for you to follow. But there are decisions you need to make and steps you can take if you want to turn your creative ideas into published comics.

The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing will help you understand those decisions. It will walk you through each of the steps, guiding you from your first idea to your finished product. Comic book attorney and business consultant Gamal Hennessy taps into more than twenty years of experience in the industry to help you achieve your goals in comics including:

●      Developing intellectual property that you own and control

●      Creating a business plan tailored for your specific publishing goals

●      Finding and hiring a professional team to create your business and your book

●      Building a long-term relationship with your readers

●      Understanding the distribution process

●      Creating comics you can be proud of on time and under budget

●      Using your comic to generate multiple streams of revenue

The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing is one-part instruction manual, one-part reference guide and one-part inspirational program. It explains the business and legal concepts in the comics industry to maximize your creativity. It removes much of the doubt and frustration from the business and makes the experience of publishing comics more enjoyable. If you want to become a comic book publisher and possibly create the next generation of modern mythology, you need to understand the business of independent comic book publishing.

About the Author

Gamal Hennessy is an entertainment transactions attorney and business consultant with an expertise in comic book publishing and intellectual property licensing. He began his career as the general counsel for the anime company Central Park Media before moving to Marvel Comics to run their international licensing program. After Marvel, he set up a boutique firm called Creative Contract Consulting to serve independent comic creators and publishing clients for more than a decade. He currently serves as the Vice President of Content and general counsel for the digital comics distribution platform GlobalComix.com

Have fun with your comic

Gamal

* The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing is scheduled for release in early October of 2020.

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

Should You Download a Random Contract for Your Comic?

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing. It attempts to address the issue of creating contracts for your business without being self-serving. While this can’t be taken as legal advice, as contract attorney and a comic book lawyer, I need to offer three particular warnings against taking the law into your own hands when it comes to your contracts.

• First, unless you’re a lawyer with experience in contracts, you probably don’t know the laws governing legal agreements. While contracts are often supposed to make a deal clear, the underlying legal principles can be confusing.  Without training and experience in contract law, your attempts to write your own contract can hurt you more than it can help.

• Second, you might not understand the meaning or the implications of the words in the contract. The language used in contracts is often circular, opaque and dense with words that no one uses anywhere else but in contracts. To complicate the issue, what normal words mean in a specific contract and what you think they mean are often two different things.  Without someone there to explain things to you, it is easy to sign something that will hurt you down the line.

This is not an attack on your intelligence. This is a question of training and experience. I’m a writer as well as an attorney, but I don't edit my books or design the covers. I hire professionals to do that. When I get on an airplane, I don't fly my own plane. I pay the airline to supply professionals. I could learn editing, cover design and piloting, but it saves time and money to bring in a professional.

If you don’t hire a lawyer and write the contract yourself, you might save a few hundred dollars up front, but if you miss something and you lose the rights to your property, you could be looking at a multi-million dollar loss down the road.

If you hire a lawyer before a deal is signed, it will cost you some of your investment. If you hire one after something goes wrong and you need to go to court, that price can rise exponentially. Court cases can take years and those billable hours pile up fast. For the long term success of your publishing, it is better to hire a professional early and avoid issues before they happen.

Finally, if you try to create your own contract, you might not know what kind of contract you need. Different contracts exist for different deals and scenarios of comic book publishing. If you use the wrong contract for your deals, you can place yourself in a poor position. For example:

• If you’re working with other creators on a book, you’ll need an artist collaboration agreement for each creator who will own a piece of the underlying intellectual property.

• If you’re hiring other freelance artists to work on your project, or if you’re working without credit on someone else’s material, you need a work-for-hire agreement.

• If you hire an accountant, lawyer, or editor, you’ll need a professional services contract with each one of them.

• If you use someone else’s intellectual property you’ll need a license agreement.

Comic creators can find almost anything for free on the internet, including contracts. But if you use the wrong contracts for your comic, the small amount you save now could cost you a lot more down the road.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

What is the Competition for Your Independent Comic?

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing. It’s the fourth installment of my seven part series on independent comic book marketing. My plan is to start from the basic idea of marketing and explore the goals and challenges of marketing in the competitive environment of comics. This week, we look beyond your book to see who you are up against.  

Your idea is unique and original, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are probably similar elements in other stories that appeal to your ideal reader no matter what your story is about. Understanding what’s already out there can provide valuable information in both creating relationships with your readers and producing a better book.

Competition is the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business interests of a third party. For an independent comic book publisher, competition is defined as all media that can appeal to the ideal reader profile. Because readers do not have unlimited time or money, they have to make choices about what narratives they consume. For our purposes, we are going to consider competition beyond just comics, since your ideal reader can choose from books, comics, movies, television, the theater and video games to get the stories that interest them. Expanding your concept of competition offers more information about the world your ideal reader lives in.

How Do You Find Your Competition? 

Because your story isn’t targeting everyone (See Who Isn’t in Your Target Market?), you’re not in direct competition with every comic book and movie ever created. The good news is you only have to compete with the media designed to appeal to your ideal readers.

If you created a high concept, then there is a good chance the existing media you used could be part of your competition. If you created an ideal reader profile (See Who Is Your Ideal Reader?), then you already have a handle on the other media influences that helped shape your idea. There is a good chance that some of those stories will be your future competitors too. For a more comprehensive look at potential competition, there are several painless research options available both inside and outside of comics.

For the sake of this exercise, we’ll need some keywords. Let’s imagine that you have a story called Blood Bond about an organized crime family who happen to be a group of vampires. The key genres are vampire horror and organized crime. For our search, we’ll keep it simple and just use “vampire crime” and look at the following search options.

• Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce retailers on the planet. In addition to owning Comixology and hundreds of other companies, it is also the most used search engine for product search, even bigger than Google. A search for “vampire crime” here reveals not only graphic novels, but long running book series from both J.R. Rain and Laurell K. Hamilton, games like Vampire Bloodlines, and Vampyr, as well as several TV series including NOS4R2, True Blood, and Vampire Prosecutor

• Comichron is a resource for comic book research.  It tracks monthly and annual sales for both comic books and graphic novels since 1991. It also has a Google custom search engine. If you type in “vampire crime”, you’ll get dozens of hits. The titles that will stand out as the most relevant will probably be American Vampire, Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Bite Club, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• Comixology is a digital comic book distributor owned by Amazon. It sells individual comics, graphic novels and subscription services. It also has a genre page as part of its browsing features. If you use the “Browse” drop down menu, you’ll see a selection for “genre”. Both crime and vampires have their own selections. Searching through them will reveal new possible competitors including Angel, Blade, Spike, and Vamps.

• The Comics Database is a user generated database attempting to catalog every comic, graphic novel, manga, creator, and character ever created. It also has a search function. A search for “vampire crime” reveals not only specific titles that might be in competition with your book, including Fray and The Vault of Horror, it also lists specific characters who match those keywords including Bloodscream and Nico Minoru. This can be helpful to ensure that your characters and concepts don’t inadvertently infringe on pre-existing copyrights.

• Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that was launched in 2001. It maintains a category of comics by genre, which includes one hundred and eighty four crime titles and sixty vampire titles. Not only can these pages be useful to find new competitors, they can provide details descriptions of characters and plotlines for competitors you’ve already found.

How Do You Compare to Your Competition?

All competition is not created equal. While your story idea might share genre characteristics with the competitors you found, there will be points of difference you can use to appeal to your ideal reader. A comparative analysis of both the ideal reader profile and SWOT will reveal the whitespace your book can fill for the target market.

To conduct an ideal reader profile comparison, look at the demographic, psychographic, genre and generational aspects of each competitor in relation to your story. Consider the following questions:

• What demographic aspects of your story are similar to each competitor?

• Which ones are different?

• What psychographic values does your book share with the competitor?

• In what ways do they deviate?

• How much sub-genre overlap exists?

• How many unique sub-genres does your book have?

• What generation does the competitor speak to?

• What message does it support?

• What generation does your book speak to?

• How is the message different?

If the profile of your competitors and your book are identical, it might be time to consider altering aspects of your story to give it a fresh perspective. I’m not advocating changing essential elements of a story just for the sake of change, especially if you love the story. I’m pointing out that it will be hard to compete with an established competitor if you are both fighting for the same readers with a similar story, but they’re already in the market.

SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is a framework for evaluating the competitive position of a company, product or service. While SWOT can be used for various aspects of your business, in this context you want to compare your book to the competition in terms of appeal to your ideal reader. Your SWOT analysis can help you adjust your marketing based on your conclusions.

Taking Blood Bond as an example, a possible strength could be that my story has more generational relevance than the competitors, or maybe my specific genre mix is under represented in the market. Possible weaknesses could be similar plot points, characters or settings that prevent my story from standing out, or a lack of unique world building. My opportunities could come from the fact that the last new competitor was published several years ago, creating whitespace that needs to be filled. My weaknesses could come from the announcement of a new book in the same space.

Understanding your competition gives you the context to connect with your target market. You can use what’s already in the market to help you connect with the right people and you can differentiate yourself from the competition before your book is created because you know what they offer. You can also wrap your head around just how big the target market is and what steps you can take to make it bigger.

We’ll look at increasing your target market next week.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

A Simple Guide to Getting Paid in Comic Book Collaboration Contracts

By Gamal Hennessy

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called Independent Comic Book Publishing. It’s designed to walk you through the basics how to pay the people who collaborate on your comic. While this can’t be used as legal advice, I hope you’ll find it helpful.

After ownership of the intellectual property, getting paid (or consideration as it’s referred to by contract attorneys) might be the most negotiated aspect of collaboration agreements. You need to pay each collaborator the right way, depending on the deal you’ve created with them. We’ve touched on both basic contract language (See A Simple Guide to Understanding Creative Contracts) and collaboration agreements (See A Simple Guide to Artist Collaboration Agreements). Now we need to take a closer look at the consideration in collaboration agreements.

Can Exposure Be a Form of Consideration?

Like many small business owners, independent comic book publishers try to keep costs low. One method that persists in this and many creative industries is offering “exposure” to creative talent instead of actual consideration.

While there will always be eager novice artists and writers willing to accept this professional abuse, but before we explore legitimate forms of consideration, I’m going to try and explain why you shouldn’t make “exposure” a part of your pitch to talent at any time.

“Exposure” is based upon a hypothetical, best case scenario. The publisher has an idea that is a “guaranteed” success. Anyone associated with this amazing book will become famous, because the book will be famous. Then, other publishers and creators will then seek out talent from this book to use in their own projects, and will pay substantial amounts for the privilege. In essence, talent gives up money now for a chance to “get their name out there” and achieve fame and fortune later.

This scenario falls apart upon casual inspection.

First, there are no guaranteed successful ideas in comics or any other form of entertainment. Second, there is no tangible assurance that the work done for exposure will ever lead to later paid work, even if the book is a hit. Third, in the 21st century, every artist, writer and creative profession market themselves using social media. Finally, the talent has financial obligations they are trying to fulfill with their creative work. There is no reason or incentive for comic book creators to spend their limited time and resources on the illusion of exposure.

Keep in mind, there is a related form of consideration called credit, which does have secondary value to comic book creators. Industry leaders like Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Frank Miller, and Mark Millar all leveraged their work for the Big Two into fame and success in their own projects. But the credit came in addition to the page rates and other forms of consideration, not as payment on its own.

Paying talent can be one of the biggest drains on your financial investment, but your professional reputation and the success of your book will suffer if you attempt to get people to work for free. Exposure by itself is not consideration. You need to offer something more.

What Forms of Consideration Are Used in Collaboration Agreements?

Because creators who sign a collaboration agreement own a portion of the underlying property, there are four major types of consideration they can get, based on the deal negotiated between the parties. 

1. Intellectual Property Ownership: Collaborators share in the copyrights and/or trademarks associated with the project. This could mean that they get a portion of the revenue generated by uses of the IP not directly related to the publishing, such as the film, TV and merchandise. This also means they can have authority over how the IP is developed and how it can and can’t be used.

   Please note that there is a mathematical limit to IP ownership. You can’t offer more than 100% of the property, so pay attention and don’t try and give away 130% of your book to various members of the team.

2. Credit: As I mentioned earlier, collaborators can get their name on the book and associated properties, as is customary in the industry (i.e. on the cover, in associated advertising and social media.) which can bolster their professional reputation over time.

3. Revenue sharing:  Collaborators can share in the success of the book by dividing profits between them. For example, if the writer and the artist collaborate on a book that generates $5,000 in sales, and they agreed to split the money evenly, each of them can walk away with $2,500, depending on how revenue is defined.  Again, you can’t offer more than 100% of the revenue, so be sure to check your math.

4. Upfront payment: Collaborators can negotiate terms where they get a portion of the investment prior to the collection of revenue in exchange for less initial money when the book starts generating sales. For example, if a writer took $2,000 as his overall page rate in our example above, he wouldn’t be able to collect any royalties until the book recovered his page rate from sales.

5. Copies of the final product: If you are going to distribute your project in digital or print format, one form of consideration is a specific number of free copies of the book. You can also consider giving talent the opportunity to buy additional copies at a discount so they can either give them away as promotional items or sell them on their own. If you decide to use this form of consideration, just be sure to factor this into your print runs. If you have a large team or you offer a large number of copies to each person, you could be cutting too deep into your revenue.

How Is Revenue Defined?

Collaborators who decide to share revenue need to be very specific about the definition of revenue if they want to avoid financial disputes (See Your Slice of the Pie). In general, revenue is defined as the income generated from the sale of goods or services. For your project, revenue can come from advertising, books sales or licensing of the IP. But all revenue is not created equal. Gross revenue is all of the money collected from the exploitation of the IP. Net revenue is gross revenue minus expenses related to the goods and services being provided.

Let’s go back to our earlier example to understand the difference between gross and net. If the collaborators made $5,000 in sales from their book and the revenue split is defined as 50% of the gross revenue, then each collaborator is entitled to $2,500. But, if the book cost them $4,000 to produce, print, and ship, then the net revenue is $1,000 ($5,000 - $4,000) and they each are entitled to $500. If the book cost $10,000 to produce, then there is a loss of $5,000 that the collaborators could deduct from their personal income depending on how the underlying business is set up. The majority of collaboration agreements use the net revenue definition, especially when the initial investment doesn’t cover production and distribution, but talk to your accountant to determine how the losses from a business apply to you.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

If you enjoyed this post, consider joining Comics Connection. Comics Connection gives creators a community to elevate their comic book careers. We offer access to business and creative resources you can’t find anywhere else. For a limited time, the first month of membership is free.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

A Simple Guide to Creative Contract Negotiation

By Gamal Hennessy

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called Independent Comic Book Publishing. It’s designed to walk you through the basics of contract negotiation. The post is geared towards comic book creators, but the information is also applicable to independent entertainers and small business owners of all types.  While this can’t be used as legal advice, I hope you’ll find it helpful.

Getting a contract signed for your independent comic book can be a complex process. First, you need to understand what a contract is and what elements go into an agreement (See A Simple Guide to Understanding Creative Contracts). Then, you have to figure out if the particular deal you’re working on requires an artist collaboration agreement (See A Simple Guide to Artist Collaboration Agreements), or a work for hire agreement (See A Simple Guide to Work for Hire Agreements). Finally, you have to agree on the terms of the specific agreement with each creator.

Achieving this consensus isn’t always easy. Both sides could have competing interests, agendas and levels of leverage. This post offers some guidance on how to negotiate a contract that everyone is happy with, instead of one that someone (or no one) is excited about signing.

How Do You Reach an Agreement Everyone Is Happy With?

Creating a mutually beneficial contract requires balancing relationships and interests. Because you’re going to be working with the other person for weeks or months, you don’t want that interaction tainted by negative feelings related to the contract. At the same time, you might not be able to give the other side everything they want for the sake of the working relationship.

What you can offer any potential business or creative talent will be based on:

1.    Your goals

2.    Your budget

3.    Your timetable

4.    Your level of interest in the skills and abilities of the individual.

The offer your potential talent wants to accept is based on:

1.    Their professional goals

2.    Their financial needs

3.    Their available time

4.    Their level of interest in your project and you as a publisher.

Because your interests are different and in some cases in direct opposition to each other, there is a tendency for each side to try and negotiate a compromise between the two positions. This is known as positional bargaining. The problem with positional bargaining is that neither side really gets what they want. Depending on the negotiating power of one side over the other, someone might feel they are signing a contract out of duress or with a certain amount of resentment. This isn’t the best way to start a creative relationship.

Fortunately, there is an alternative to positional bargaining. Roger Fisher, William Ury and other members of the Harvard Negotiation Project developed an alternative negotiation theory known as interest based negotiation in their bestselling books Getting Past No and Getting to Yes. While it is not a perfect solution to the negotiation process, it does strive to create solutions both sides want, instead of forced concessions.

How Does Interest Negotiation Work?

Ironically, understanding when it is time to walk away can help bring parties together. One of the primary concepts of interest negotiation is the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Settlement (BATNA), or what I like to refer to as options. A BATNA is “the most advantageous course of action someone can take if the contract negotiations fail”. For example, if a publisher wanted to hire you as an artist for their comic and your demands were more than they were willing to agree to, their option would be to hire someone else.

Most options are not that straight forward. In many instances, options have to be developed. Some negotiators begin by compiling a list of alternatives to the current proposal. At this stage, no alternative is rejected. This is a creative exercise to explore all possibilities to figure out what you actually want to accomplish with this deal. The most promising opportunities are then singled out and improved upon if possible until the best option to a contract is found. In our example, the publisher might have a list of other artists, or they could learn to do the work themselves, or they could create a novel instead of a comic, or they could try to sell the idea to another publisher. In the best case scenario, you have several different alternatives to achieve your interests.

The next step in the process involves trying to understand the other side’s options in specific detail so you can identify their interests. As an artist, you might want a combination of money, ownership, creative freedom, credit or other factors that are important to you.

When the time comes for all sides to negotiate the terms of a contract, the underlying interests of both sides are used to reach a consensus. Each side understands the interests of the other side and expresses their interests with the goal of seeking a flexible solution. If the goal of the publisher is to keep costs down and the goal of the artist is money, then a possible solution is for the artist to handle the art, inks, lettering and colors at a reduced page rate than the publisher would have to pay for four different people.  

What Are Interest Negotiation Techniques?

While every negotiation scenario is different, there are some basic principles that apply from the perspective of writing the contract.

1.    Look for a favorable agreement on all sides, not just an acceptable one.

2.    Create language in the contract on an ongoing basis to record areas of agreement

3.    Move towards commitments gradually on both sides

4.    Offer tentative commitments until you see the total package

5.    Be rigid in your pursuit of your interests, but flexible in terms of solutions

6.    Do not allow a “bottom line” to blind you from creative solutions.

7.    Consider being generous near the end but stick to your interests

How Does Leverage Impact Interest Negotiation?

Different sides have different levels of power and control in contract negotiations. Leverage is defined as the power one side has over the other side in the pursuit of their interests. Depending on the disparity between the parties, the leverage one side has over the other can undermine the interest negotiation process. For example, if the publisher in our example was Marvel or DC and you were an aspiring artist looking for their first major gig, their options would outweigh your options so much that you might sign whatever deal they put in front of you (See my post on Negotiating Power in Creative Contracts).

The concept of leverage might not strike you as fair, but as attorney and author David Tollen states in his book The Tech Contracts Handbook, “If you focus on what is fair, you might walk away from deals that make economic sense.  But that is a poor choice if you can’t get better terms from anyone else, and if accepting the terms would be more profitable than dropping the project.” It makes more sense to focus on the best option available, rather than fairness.

Keep in mind that leverage can be abused to the detriment of the more powerful side. The comic book industry is small. Reputations, good and bad, travel quickly. Power and influence are relative. Positions shift all the time. Keep the following ideas in mind, especially if you have the leverage:

1.    Don’t damage the relationship

2.    Don’t damage your reputation

3.    Don’t overstate your value.

4.    Don’t agree to things that won’t work for either side.

Drafting, negotiating, and signing the contracts for your creative project might take some time and cost you some money, but if you sign the right contracts up front, you'll save money in the long-term and put both you and your book in a better position to succeed.

If you have had contract negotiation issues in the past, feel free to share them in the comments below and tell us how you dealt with the problem.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

If you enjoyed this post, consider joining Comics Connection. Comics Connection gives creators a community to elevate their comic book careers. We offer access to business and creative resources you can’t find anywhere else. For a limited time, the first month of membership is free.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

Fighting the Demons of Independent Comics Publishing

Publishing your own comics, like any type of independent creative endeavor, can be an exciting journey of achievement. It can also be a descent into poor health, isolation, and financial stress. Creators who can balance the love for their book with their long term well being have a better chance of enjoying the experience. 

Jessica Bruder wrote a thoughtful piece in Inc. Magazine called "The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship." While publishing an independent comic isn't the same as launching a Fortune 500 company, there are simple lessons in this post creators can learn like:

• Make time for friends and family

• Ask for help if depression or hopelessness sets in

• Take care of your body (sleep, exercise, etc.)

• Don't bankrupt yourself to make your book

• Don't define yourself only by your book

Publishing independent comics can feel like being a superhero with a secret identity. Both your passion project and your alter ego need to be protected. Neglecting either one can create an imbalance that destroys both.

 PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

The Five Major (and one minor) Business Trend in Comics

By Gamal Hennessy

Last year saw significant changes in the comics market. While the general public focused on transmedia events like Batman v. Superman, Civil War and X-men Apocalypse, the underlying business has shifted financially and creatively.Milton Griepp of ICV2 listed these five events as the most important for comics in the last year:

1. North American Sales Surpassed One Billion Dollars

2. DC Takes the Top Market Share with the Launch of Rebirth

3. Hastings Declares Bankruptcy

4. March Wins a National Book Award

5. Lion Forge Pushes Its Way Into the Middle Tier

In addition to all these moves, I’ve noticed a growing trend in my small corner of the comics industry. More and more artists are taking the proactive step to lock in collaboration agreements for their independent comics. As more creative teams are turning to crowdfunding and publishing books on their own, they are also making sure to define all the rights and responsibilities in writing before the book is released (See: All for One and One for All: Collaboration Agreements in Comics). This is the best way to go, since an undefined deal is a recipe for disaster and it’s much harder to hammer out a deal after a book is released and tensions are high.

What comic industry trends have you seen in 2016? What are you expecting in 2017? Share your thoughts in the comments and let us know before you go back to your masterpiece.

Have fun.

Gamal

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

How Much Do You Get Paid Per Page?

By Gamal Hennessy, Esq.

When you first start out in comics, there’s a lot of details about the business you need to understand. Everything from how to find work, to what to look for in a contract, to making sure you get paid are all things you have to take care of in addition to making great art. Not only do you have to digest a lot of information, but aspects of the comics industry change from publisher to publisher and from month to month. One of the most important and the most fluid aspects of freelance comics work is how much each publisher pays per page. I’d like to make the process of determining your page rate a little easier by talking about what a page rate is, what the common rates are and how you can keep track of changing rates in the future.

What is a Page Rate?

Different professions get paid according to different measurements. Lawyers get paid by the hour. Sales people get paid based on commissions. Freelance comic book artists (and some creator driven artists) get paid a page rate. The basic idea is for every page you’re hired to work on, you get a set fee. So if you get $100 per page and the book is 32 pages, then you get $3,200.

A page rate is a base number. It doesn’t take into account incentives like royalty pools, recoupment, back end participation or anything else that could muddy the waters. It’s a straight forward transaction; one page for one price. As long as you know what the price is, everything else is based on that.

What Were the Current Page Rates for 2016?

The confusing question is ‘what is the right page rate for you?’ Your page rate can and will vary based on your experience, skill level, established fan base, prior projects and the publisher you’re working with. While several factors are subjective and based on you as an individual, there are some baselines you should keep in mind. Thomas Crowell, author of the excellent book Pocket Lawyer for Comics Creators recently offered this snapshot of the industry at the 2016 New York Comic Con:

• Writers:                              $25-$220 per page
• Cover Artist:                      $200-$750 per cover
• Pencils:                             $100-$250 per page
• Inks:                                  $75-$200 per page
• Coloring:                            $35-$150 per page
• Flatting:                             $8-$20 per page
• Lettering:                           $10-$50 per page

This list is not a guarantee. You might be offered less than the numbers above. You can always ask for more. This should just serve as a guideline to what you can expect when you deal with a publisher. Other factors will play a role, but this gives you somewhere to start from.

How Can I Keep Track of Page Rates?

As a freelance artist, you’ll get a sense of where the market is in terms of page rates as you spend time in the industry working on different projects. Publishers can alter their rates at will, so it pays to keep in touch with other artists in the field, pay attention to message boards and discussions and talk to your editors and publishers on a regular basis to find out their individual positions. There are also ongoing resources you can use and participate in to make page rates more transparent. The list above was derived from a site called Fair Page Rates that isn't perfect by any means, but it attempts to track rates for various US publishers in a system that is inherently subjective.

Once you understand what a page rate is, how you can figure out your page rate and who pays what, you have a lot of information to help you chart your freelance comics career. If you know how many pages you can do a month, you can calculate your maximum potential income. If you know how much you need per year to work on comics full time, you can figure out what page rate you need and how many books you need to work on to make freelancing a viable job. Then you can spend some time actually practicing your craft and making great comics.

Have fun.

Gamal

Related Articles:

Your Career in Comics: Freelance Artist

Your Career in Comics: Creator Driven Artist

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Your Career in Comics: Transmedia Development

by Gamal Hennessy

A few weeks ago, I introduced a new book I'm working on called Your Career in Comics (YCC) that will attempt to take a comprehensive look at the business and legal aspects of being in the comics industry. (See Your Career in Comics: An Introduction). So far, I’ve introduced the Creator Owned (See The Creator Owned Path), Work for Hire (See The Work for Hire Path) and Creator Driven aspects of the industry (See The Creator Driven Path). This week I'd like to look at the fourth and final role in modern comics: The Transmedia Producer

• Description: A transmedia artist owns a property and licenses a portions of that property across various media for production, marketing and sales to the public. A comic or graphic novel is a story. The story contain characters and ideas. Your stories can find a home in many different media, depending on its structure. Your ideas can escape the confines of the story and migrate to merchandise or other promotional material.

• Benefits: The two main benefits of being a transmedia artist are revenue and mainstream distribution. In many ways, the transmedia creator is seen as the greatest commercial success of a comic artist. A commercially successful comic might generate tens of thousands of dollars. A successful comics based movie might generate tens of millions of dollars. The merchandise program associated with a television, cable or film also has the potential to generate millions. Opportunities for interactive and new media spinoffs are increasing. Competition with other forms of entertainment has reduced the number of people reading comics, but the popularity of comics characters has never been higher. The transmedia creator takes advantage of this shift by moving his work to where it will be enjoyed by the most people.

• Challenges: The two main challenges of being an independent are loss of creative control and lack of knowledge. Transmedia deals can be seen as similar to Creator Driven deals based on the what each side brings to the table. You have the intellectual property, your potential partners have the production and distribution systems to make the most of it. But there are major differences in both the nature of the industries you might be entering and the scale of the enterprise. Making a movie is exponentially more expensive than making a comic and requires dozens more people in every aspect of the project. The same goes for any large scale merchandise or media endeavor. As the cost and complexity of transmedia endeavors increase, the less the comics creator usually understands about what’s going on. Many comics creators don’t know everything that goes into making a single episode of TV or what it takes to ship thousands of toys from China. When the increased scope combines with that natural lack of knowledge it often leads to a loss of creative and financial control.

• Legal Considerations:  Transmedia deals cannot move forward unless everyone who owns a legal stake in the property has agreed to let the project move forward. Dozens of comics are trapped in development hell for years because of disputes and lawsuits over the ownership of a particular character. If your goal is transmedia, then you have to maintain a meticulous chain of title (documents showing who owns what aspect of the character) from day one. A small sample of the required documents include:

1. Work for Hire Agreements for everyone who worked on the development of the property who isn’t part of the deal

2. Collaboration Agreements for every creator who worked on the development of the property who is a part of the deal.

3. Copyright and Trademark registrations for all major elements of the work

4. License Agreements for each type of deal you are entering into

5. Insurance Agreements to protect against potential issues (including IP infringement, defamation, etc.)

6. Participation Agreements with any third party who might have an interest in the property

7. Corporate documents for your business entity

8. Tax documents for your business entity

The amount and cost of covering your bases from a legal standpoint are highest in the transmedia aspect of comics, but the potential rewards and losses are far higher than any legal costs you might pay upfront to avoid lawsuits in the future.

I hope you have enjoyed this introduction into the different comic industry roles. While this doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of the complex business of comics, I hope it forms a basis for you to think about where you are and where you’d like to go as a professional.

In the coming weeks and months, I plan to use my blog to update everyone on the progress of my book. I’m going to share the interviews, research and development of the manuscript so you can learn as I learn. If you’d like to follow along, please sign up for the Professional Comic Creator Newsletter.

Until next time, keep making comics and have fun.

Gamal

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Your Career in Comics: The Creator Driven Path

By Gamal Hennessy 

A few weeks ago, I introduced a new book I'm working on called Your Career in Comics (YCC) that will attempt to take a comprehensive look at the business and legal aspects of being in the comics industry. (See Your Career in Comics: An Introduction). So far, I’ve introduced the Creator Owned (See The Creator Owned Path) and Work for Hire (See The Work for Hire Path) aspects of the industry. This week I'd like to look at the third of the four major paths in modern comics: The Creator Driven Path.

• Description: A creator driven work allows the artist to own a property and license a portion of the publishing rights to a publisher who will then produce, market and sell the book to the public. A creator driven (CD) deal can benefit both you and your publishing partner. There are several variations to the CD model, but most of them combine aspects of the independent publishing and work for hire models. The combination of traits varies wildly from publisher to publisher, depending on the relationship they have with their creators. Most CO deals come from small to midsized publishers, but there have been examples of CD publishing at all levels of comics over the years.

• Benefits: The main benefits of doing creator driven deals are an ownership stake, the payment of many up front costs by a third party and wider distribution. In a perfect world, a CD deal is a joint venture. You provide the creative ideas and artistic skill in your original story. They provide the business support and economies of scale to to turn your vision into a product. In return, both parties share in the revenue generated by the collaboration.

• Challenges: The two main challenges of CD deals are loss of ownership control and loss of revenue. Many CO deals are collaborations in name only. In the most extreme cases, creators transfer all control and ownership to a publisher for little or no payment of any kind. Even in the more moderate CD arrangement, it can be difficult to figure out when and if your book will ever make a profit.

• Legal Considerations: CD deals require multiple contracts to protect every party involved, including

• Collaboration (if you’re sharing the rights) and/or work for hire agreements for everyone working on the book

• Copyright (and possibly trademark) registrations for the book

• A Creator Driven Publishing Agreement between the creator and the publisher

• Tax documentation to cover any profits or losses from the book 

Next time, I'll talk a little bit about the final and in some cases the highest role for comics creators, the transmedia artist.

Have fun.

Gamal

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

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PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.