I’m in the process of writing a book about the business and legal aspects of making independent comics (See Your Career in Comics). As the book develops, I plan to share parts of it here for your reaction and feedback.
About a month ago, I began the process by asking why you want to make comics in the first place (See What Are You Trying to Do?). Now I’d like to look at who you need to have on your team to have a successful publishing program.
One Book, Two Teams
Independent comic creators often put a lot of time and effort into building the team for their books. They reach out to friends in their circles who make comics. They visit artist’s alley in conventions, pour over Deviant Art pages, explore the overseas options, and ask for referrals on social media. Sometimes, it takes years for them to find the right artists for their project.
But too many creators start their book with only half a team.
If comics are a form of commercial art, then the development of the art requires both business and creative support. Focusing on only one side limits the potential of the project.
The Creative Team
This side of the equation is basic to the creation of any comic. As with plays, films, and television shows, one or more individuals come together to turn a vision into a reality. Some roles overlap, but the common structure of a comic book creative team includes:
The writer who creates the overall plot of the book and the script in both the caption boxes and the character dialogue.
The artist creates the fundamental images on each page. They may also create the basic character designs, settings, logos and the cover for the overall book
The inker enhances the images created by the artist, altering the tone and weight of the story by emphasizing some visual aspects over others.
The letterer inserts all the words in the book including dialogue, captions and “sound effects” in a way that guides the reader’s eye in a natural progression from one image to another.
The flatter prepares the inked images for the colorist to enhance the color rendering process.
The colorist adds moods, energy, and texture to the images to give them more impact to the eye
The editor oversees the entire process to ensure that the best possible finished product is created on time and under budget.
The Business Team
The creative side of comics is intense and time-consuming, but it is only part of the process. Professional comic creators publish books with one of the goals being the creation of profit. Without someone (and more often several people) running the business side of things, even the best comics will not sell. The elements of the business team vary from book to book, but every book needs to answer these questions as part of the process:
Accounting: Who is collecting the money? Who is paying the bills?
Advertising: Who is in charge of informing the public about the book?
Distribution: Who is handling the relationships with Diamond and the direct market shops for the print book? Who is in charge of managing the online distribution on the website, Comixology, and the emerging distribution channels?
Legal: Who is protecting the intellectual property of the book? Who is handling the internal and external contract negotiations?
Management: Who is in charge of the overall creative and financial success of the book?
Marketing: Who is in charge of creating the website, maintaining the social media presence, running the crowdfunding campaign, and handling the interactions with the comic book press,
Printing: Who is in charge of managing the printing process? (If the book is being printed)
Sales: Who is in charge of using the book to generate money?
Juggling Jobs
Every independent comic does not have fifteen people working on it. Some established publishing companies don’t have fifteen people working on the books. Creating independent comics is a startup experience. It means members of the creative team often take roles in the business team. It can mean members of the business team can fulfill multiple roles within that team. It also means that some jobs will not be done, or they won’t be done with the same time and attention as if someone only worked on that piece of the project. Some creators decide to give up some of their rights and sign up with creator-driven publishers like Image or AfterShock to take advantage of their pre-existing business teams.
As a comic creator, you have the power to decide which aspects of the process will and won’t get done. This power works better when you make conscious decisions at the outset of the project. It does you no good to spend two years making a book to sell and then realizing no one is prepared to sell it or collect the money.
The Cost of Teamwork
No matter how you decide to divide the tasks of publishing your comic, everyone who works on the book is going to have to be compensated at some point. Very few people are willing to work for free, even on something they love, so part of independent publishing is finding a way to pay everyone involved.
There are several different compensation methods available depending on the level of participation of each person, your resources, and the short and long-term interests of everyone involved. Increased involvement often includes increased compensation. Different compensation can be mixed and matched to give each person both a short and long-term stake in the project. Just don’t give away more than you have.
Compensation methods include:
Upfront payment
Revenue sharing based on units sold, ad revenue generated, sponsorships, etc.
Ownership interests in the underlying property
Credit on the underlying work
Better Odds
When creating a comic, the chances of success are greater if all jobs are assigned, everyone agrees on the terms, and the schedules for production, marketing, sales, and payment are established before making the book. All this preparation does not guarantee a hit book. The Big Two have dozens of people involved in each book and some of them still fail. But publishing comics involves a lot of individual tasks to make the machine run. If some tasks don’t get done on the business or creative side, then the machine breaks down fast.
Next month I’ll talk about creating a term sheet for the members of your team and the relationship between the term sheet and the contract.
Have fun with your comic...
Gamal
PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.