How NOT to Start...

... your career as a comic book writer. Part 1 of 2

In our household, we jokingly say that I go through seven-year cycles of intensely focused interest. I’m old enough that these cycles have included everything from marine biology to motorsports reporting. Given that I can trace the start of my comic writer journey back to NaNoWriMo in 2016, I am overdue for a change in direction. This time, I don’t want to, but sadly, I may have to.

After eight years, my comics career is not a comics career. At best, it’s a pro-am hobby. I am thrilled that I’ve checked “Publish a comic book” off my bucket list, and I am grateful to everyone who helped make that happen. Yes, I have inventory sitting behind me. Yes, I run an online store with merch. And, yes, I have sold my comic to people all around the world. (Thank you, Kickstarter!) However, I do not have a job that can feed my family. Even in an emerging career, I would generate at least as much money as I spend, and that hasn’t been the case. In truth, my comic efforts resemble owning a boat—I throw money at it and enjoy the ride, but it costs an arm and a leg. With my wife officially retiring in April, and the dramatic reduction in family funds that will entail, the ride may be over.

This reality is hard to take, especially knowing what I know now. It was avoidable.

In this series of posts, I want to pass on:

• what I should have done differently,

• what I got right, and

• my plans for what might, just might, keep me in the industry moving forward.

What I thought versus what I should have done.

❌ You love writing. Play to your strengths and focus on being a better writer.

✅ Learn to draw.

I love the written word. I taught “Authorship” in middle school, where the 11 & 12 year olds in my class wrote their first novel. I express my frustrations and joys through the keyboard. I checked “Write a novel” off my bucket list when I turned 40. I proselytize Scrivener. Writing matters to me.

So, it pains me to admit that if I were starting over again, I would put an emphasis on learning how to draw. The industry just does not and can not support that many comic writers. Have a look at the October sales table below.

Source: Prana Direct Marketing Solutions newsletter. pranadm.com

Let’s do some conservative back-of-the-napkin calculations. Let’s assume there were only three SKU variants per title, each with an average of 22 pages. That gives us 12,958 pages per month. If we presume writers were paid $125 per page for this work I can hear all you writers out there gaffawing, these publishers would be paying $15.5M a month for writing. If we then presume that these writers earn at least a lower middle-class income ($51,558 in the US), that amount of money is only enough to pay 300 writers annually. By comparison, there are almost twice as many players in the NBA. Making the climb harder is the fact that over 50,000 English majors graduate in the US each year. Financially secure, publisher-paid comic writers are unicorns.

Thankfully, we live in an era where we can use crowdfunding to launch our comics. But I wish I’d known before entering the comicsphere that it is the cultural norm for writers to pay artists in advance of sales. In fact, I have yet to meet an artist who has paid a writer to help create their crowdfunded comic. As a writer, you are very, very fortunate indeed if you can find an artist who will run with your script on spec. It happens, but for writers without a winning reputation, it is rare… often the byproduct of an existing pre-comics friendship.

If I had spent the last eight years learning how to draw, there would be no reason to stop making comics, especially in an era where it is possible to publish digitally. Time, not money, would be the limiting factor on how many comics I published. I would not be tied to others’ schedules and would be able to sell prints and commissions at cons. Virtually every successful, independent comic creator that I know, and admittedly there are some exceptions, is able to draw their own comic even if they are at the stage in their career where they no longer do so. Rather than augmenting skills I already had as a writer, I wish I had learned how to draw (at least initially).

Even if, by some fluke, you do end up getting paid as a writer, being able to hand off concept sketches, and draw thumbnails would be an asset. And even if artists are clamouring to pay you to write scripts to go with their artwork, I would argue that having an appreciation for the difficulty of their work would make you a better comic collaborator.

If this long-game approach sounds like heresy to you, the only other path that might get you firmly into comics is to become a successful writer in another format. If you never want to draw, being a NY Times best-selling novelist might be an easier path to breaking in.

❌ Write your opus.

✅ Start small and ramp up.

As mentioned earlier, The Lump Sum Saga started as a graphic novel script that I started writing during NaNoWriMo. Somewhere on my hard drive is a 75% complete graphic novel script for Lump Man. Wanting to unleash your epic space opera or multi-issue fantasy adventure from the get-go is common for new comic writers.

I wish I had known from the start that this is the comic book equivalent of trying to run before you can walk. On many levels, this approach is problematic.

The most obvious problem is that it’s expensive. As mentioned above, as an unknown, you have virtually zero chance of finding an artist who will be willing to spend two years of their life working on your story on spec, so you will have to pay. A lot.

Assuming a 194-page graphic novel drawn at a rate of $150 a page for art, you’ll start over $29,000 in the hole, and you don’t even have a complete comic. You will hire a letterer, a colourist, a book designer, and variant cover artists - and you’ll need to print and ship your epic tome. Unless you have at least half of that money in your bank account, you’ll have to finance the project - even though you will not receive anything you can sell for at least a year, probably two. If we assume you plan to launch your independent graphic novel on Kickstarter, you need to know that very few comics from new creators reach low five figures.

But let’s assume that you actually have been learning how to draw, so money isn’t a barrier. As someone in the rapid growth stage of their drawing skills, how you draw (and write) this year will be very different than how you draw two years from now. For all intents and purposes, you may end up with very different styles in the exact same book based on your improving talent.

I realize it is a tad soul-crushing to consider abandoning your opus until a later date, and I confess to intensely resisting the idea initially. However, know that there is a better option that can be almost as satisfying.

I am pretty sure it was Andy Schmidt, former Marvel editor and CEO of Comics Experience, who introduced me to a rule of thumb that I wish I had learned and implemented from day one. It goes something like this: As you progress in your comic career, write and produce comics that are no more than double in length to the comics you have already created.

Refining this a tad, I wish I had followed this progression: 1-page comic → 2-page comic → 5-page comic → 8-page comic → 22-page issue → series → trade/graphic novel. The short comics would be for practice and/or submission to anthologies.

As someone who has been at this for a while, I’ve actually watched the comic creators I’ve come up with get better and better over time. This applies both to writers and artists. Starting small allows your talent to improve at each step but also distances you from your early work.

It also greatly enhances the likelihood of finding someone in your cohort willing to take a chance on drawing your script on spec. In addition, it will put your work in front of the public far earlier than if you wait until your tome is complete.

❌ Start by creating a rich world for your reader’s imagination.

✅ Start by creating a pitch document for your series that focuses on character; produce “issue three” first.

If you’re a sucker for world-building like me, it can be really tempting to provide all of the backstory needed for your series from the very get-go. Heck, with The Lump Sum Saga I started with a prologue. That was a mistake.

I now find myself faced with obstacles that will make it difficult to continue the series before the story has even really begun. It pains me to admit that starting with “issue three” - wherever the action starts - would’ve made sure that the core of The Lump Sum Saga story was already in the hands of fans.

In retrospect, I believe that learning to create a quality comic series pitch document is at least as important as learning how to write a conventional script. Writing a well-thought-out series pitch will force you to think about your character’s arc and help you identify the issue that actually gets things going.

As a side benefit, you will learn how to create a document that will help potential spec collaborators decide if they want to invest their time in your project. And, one day, way off in the future, you may be asked to pitch to DC or Marvel. If you get to that point, you’ll want to have had experience creating pitch documents, preferably successful ones. Pssst… DC, I have one ready. Pick me! Pick Me!

❌ Protect your intellectual property ASAP!

✅ Worry about your IP when it is actually important.

THE FOLLOWING IS MY OWN OPINION AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE. PLEASE CONSULT A KNOWLEDGEABLE COMIC INDUSTRY ATTORNEY TO ADDRESS YOUR OWN CIRCUMSTANCES.

One of the anxieties that plagues new comic creators is the fear that someone is going to steal their ideas. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that jumping through hoops to protect your IP too early can be an expensive waste of money and time.

Before I met Gamal Hennessy - an attorney who offers reasonably priced services to the comics community - I employed a Toronto-based IP lawyer to acquire the trademark for Lump Man™. The process was long and arduous, reportedly because of Covid and changes to the way the US trademark office website was doing things, but it literally took months - maybe years? It’s all a blur. The delay was annoying, but the money I kept having to fork over was exasperating.

In retrospect, that money and time would’ve done far more for my career if it had been used to actually produce the series. It is my impression that there really isn’t much use in acquiring a trademark until you have a product to sell.

Is there a chance that someone might steal your idea? The risk is non-zero, but think about yourself. As a creator, are you likely to steal someone else’s idea? Heck, most of us are so full of our own ideas that we don’t have time to tackle them all. And being pragmatic for a moment, just because you have a trademark doesn’t mean you could litigate any infringement. Litigation is not free.

I wish I hadn’t wasted time and money acquiring trademark protection for a comic before it was even written.

❌ It takes money to make money. Use credit wisely.

✅ Don’t use credit at all. Invest your time.

It takes money to make money, right? To a point, this is very true, especially for more predictable investments. But trust me - don’t for a minute believe that going into debt to produce your independent comic is a good idea. The risk-reward ratio is just too high, and frankly, this is where my prior business experience and financial risk tolerance got me into trouble.

My last two scripts have been in the 40-page range. Without disclosing precisely what I paid to have these produced, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate that my three Kickstarters, which have brought in around $8000 gross in total, could in any way cover the costs of paying for artists, printing the comics, and shipping them around the world.

I mostly used credit card debt to finance my comic. Don’t be like Greg. Don’t use plastic unless you know you can pay off the debt within the grace period from a source of funds other than the sale of your comics. If you do, you’ll end up paying a lot of interest that would have been better spent paying an artist or printing more copies of your comic. From day one, vow never to produce your comics using debt financing. Period.

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So I screwed up. There is a very real chance that my comic career is over before it has even really begun. But unlike in the past, when I lost interest and simply moved on to another deep interest, I still find writing comics compelling. I still have stories to tell. So I’m going to do my best to find a way to stay in the industry. I’ll present my strategy for that in a future post. But first, in part 2, I’ll go over some more common mistakes new comic creators make. Fortunately, this list consists of things I mostly did right.

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How NOT to Start your Career as a Comic Book Writer. Part 2