The Best Way to Make Money in Comics? Give Them Away for Exposure!

With all the talk about how to break into comics lately, I’ve seen a lot of the same solid advice: Make comics.

It really is that simple.

There are a number of complaints about that advice, though, one of which is, “But how will anyone ever see it?”

People don’t want to listen to the next piece of advice, but I’ll dispense it anyway: It will take a combination of time, luck (partially of your own making), networking, and continuous improvement to your craft to gain that kind of exposure.

In fact, I’d argue the only way to be successful is through exposure. So let’s talk about that loaded and explosive word: exposure.  

Free Exposure

Amazon announced free comics through its Prime platform a few weeks ago.  It’s also free if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.

To get an idea of the enormity of this opportunity: Amazon Prime has 100 million subscribers, globally. Last year, when the number was assumed to be only around 80 million subscribers, Forbes estimated that 64% of American households have Prime.

Not that a large percentage of Prime members are suddenly going to become comic book readers, but there is a new audience there for comic creators to think about.  Even a minuscule percentage of that user base dwarfs the Direct Market.

That sparked this thought:

The best way to make money in comics is to give them away. There is no money in printing comics.

Yes, there’s the occasional exception like Robert Kirkman, but he lost a hell of a lot of money on the way towards getting there, with no guarantees.

Do You Have What It Takes?

Are you prepared to do the same?

Great. Congratulations on your “grit.”

You’re still going to fail.  Most people do.

Perseverance, dedication, and focus isn’t enough to win.  This isn’t kindergarten anymore.

Boxes of unsalable comics do not make for satisfying participation trophies. They’re just a fire hazard in your garage or a new monthly bill on a storage unit.

You are far better off, economically, getting a day job and climbing the corporate ladder than you are trying to “break in” to the comics market.

Seriously, Don’t Be a Comic Book Artist. Just Don’t.

Complain all you want about your soul being sucked out, but when you put food on the table and a roof over your head, you’ll enjoy comics more.  Follow this pursuit as a hobby or a side project and you can skip the rest of this article.

For those of you with careers in mind, I say this:

There’s no money in publishing print comics to be sold in the Direct Market.  To print your comic is to put yourself in an immediate hole of thousands of dollars, with Not Great odds that you’ll climb out of it.

And if you are successful with that first issue, you’ve already peaked.  Sales drop 99% of the time from issue #1 to cancellation.

Let’s face it, even if you have a decent-selling comic book, you’re still not going to make great money.  The profit margins are ridiculously thin, and the vast majority of the cover price will go to the combination of distributors and retailers.  (If you are the writer and can’t draw the book yourself, by the way, then you’re definitely not going to make any money on this.)

This holds true for both stapled short comics and longer trade paperback style books.

How To Make Money In Comics (Modern Edition)

The road to success in comics today, barring you being the next Kirkman or Brian K. Vaughan, is in pursuing opportunities on top of publishing. (Let’s not forget: Vaughan went to Hollywood at the height of his early success.)

It’s all about adding revenue streams. It’s about licensing.

You have a far better chance of making money with your comics by giving them away to make the licensing part more attractive to outside people.  The business of comics is creating the best chance of selling or licensing your IP to other people with lots of money (by comparison) who know how to make the big bucks and will cut you in.

The best way to make money in comics today is to have a good lawyer to negotiate you a favorable deal for rights with royalties or some other beneficial structure where the other party takes on all the risk and you cash the checks.

Publish the cheapest way possible.  Your comic is just your calling card. It’s your advertisement of your services or your IP.  

Sell it digitally on Comixology or, better yet, make it free. Don’t do anything to barricade your comic away from possible eyes.

Just Look Around

This is not a new idea.  I’m not saying anything that every business person in comics doesn’t already know.

Every major publishing effort of the last 20 years has centered on one key component: Hollywood money.

CrossGen folded because it couldn’t get to Hollywood fast enough.  Marvel was purchased to give Disney IP to exploit in movies, animation, theme parks, etc.  Valiant exists to make movies with Vin Diesel.  Dark Horse is owned by a Chinese “investment firm” that just wants the IP to seed movies and tv shows.  I love Image Comics, but they’re mostly a property farm — it’s just that the money goes directly to the creators rather than the publisher. But they can only publish so many books a month…

Smaller imprints of major publishers pop up for one reason: an attempt to rehabilitate an IP to make it more attractive to animation or movies or video games.  It’s about exercising the trademark to keep it active and licensable.

Licensing. That is what it’s all about. That is where the money is.  It’s definitely not coming from comic fans, who are notoriously cheap and exist in a market designed to keep all the money away from the creator.

Even “comic book conventions” have now fallen prey to Hollywood’s charms, because there’s no growth in comics readership.  The bigger the convention is, the more likely that it’s sold out to Hollywood and a never-ending parade of TV and movie “stars” who can charge extra for the VIP experience of taking one in a series of awkward pictures with a near-celebrity.

“Comic book websites” only operate at scale if they also cover video games, television, movies, Disney, football, random Netflix shows one of their writers likes, wrestling, and maybe pogs.  If there was a bigger audience of comics readers, maybe they wouldn’t need to chase the hits so desperately.

How Disney Sees Marvel Comics

Let’s look at the biggest and best “recent” example of this.

Warner Bros. and Disney do not keep publishing comics through DC and Marvel because they’re big line items in their quarterly reports.  They’re such small numbers that they don’t even bother reporting them.  They’re shoved under the rug in a separate line item that hides them amongst other publishing ventures.

Let’s look at Disney’s 2017 Annual Report.

Marvel Comics — the company in New York City that creates those magazines and books primarily for the Direct Market — has its revenue reported under the general banner of “Consumer Products & Interactive Media.” Here’s the definition of that group:

The Consumer Products & Interactive Media segment licenses the Company’s trade names, characters and visual and literary properties to various manufacturers, game developers, publishers and retailers throughout the world. We also develop and publish games, primarily for mobile platforms, and books, magazines and comic books. The segment also distributes branded merchandise directly through retail, online and wholesale businesses. In addition, the segment’s operations include website management and design, primarily for other Company businesses, and the development and distribution of online video content.

Further down, the “Publishing” portion of that definition is defined:

The Company creates, distributes, licenses and publishes a variety of products in multiple countries and languages based on the Company’s branded franchises. The products include children’s books, comic books, graphic novel collections, learning products and storytelling apps. Disney English develops and delivers an English language learning curriculum for Chinese children using Disney content in 27 learning centers in six cities across China.

I’d almost bet that the Chinese English learning centers make more money than Marvel’s publishing arm.

Marvel.com is name checked only in so far as it’s a retail segment that sells stuff. (That stuff is 90% not comics, by the way. It’s a licensed Monopoly game, rain boots for kids, socks, t-shirts, jewelry and action figures all from the movies)

The only time “Marvel” appears in a Disney quarterly report now is when there’s a movie release.

To Disney, Marvel is a licensing play, not a publishing one.

There’s so very little money in comics that it doesn’t even merit a line item.

By the way, Warner Bros similarly hides DC Comics. In their 2015 Annual Report (the most recent I could find), there’s one reference to “comic book”:

Last month, we debuted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a prime example of a strategy that has made intellectual property from DC Entertainment a cornerstone of our efforts across film, TV, digital, videogames, consumer products (and yes, comic books).

It’s a parenthetical that basically sounds like, “Wait, they still make comics?” from the owner of a comic publishing company.  They only remember when the publishing art chooses to expose Batman’s nether regions on panel.

In fact, Warner Bros. just shoved DC under a new division randomly titled “Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experience”.

That just screams “comic book,” doesn’t it?

It’s not about comic books. It’s about IP.

Even worse for you: It’s about brands. Those are even harder to create.

Why do you think you’re going to do any better than Disney or Warner Bros.?

Start thinking like a business, and not like a throwback. Play the game.

What You Need Is Exposure

Isn’t it ironic?  After all those people warning you away from working for exposure (because the grocery store doesn’t accept “exposure” for that loaf of bread), it’s actually your best bet to reach the promise land of money.

Exposure gives you the chance to get a paying gig making comics based on someone else’s property.  (How many of those “How to break into comics” threads on Twitter began and end with “Make comics so people find you?”)

Exposure gives you the chance to get your property licensed to another industry that actually has money (movies, video games, etc.).

Exposure builds you an audience which gives you a higher profile which makes you more valuable in the open market in all sorts of ways. Publishers love to know your “social media reach” these days. When you do their job of marketing their book, they want to know you have a large Twitter following or engaged newsletter.  It saves their often understaffed marketing departments time and money.

Along those same lines, don’t fool yourself into thinking they’re going to promote you.  Notice in the previous paragraph how I mention that publishers are looking for you to do their job for them.

Without people seeing your work, you won’t get any of that.  And if you hide your work behind a paywall, you’re closing yourself off to 95% of potential readers, most of whom won’t ever pay a dime for anything on-line.  They won’t give to a tip jar, a Patreon page, a digital comics distributor — anything.

It’s a race to the bottom, ironically, as the race in print comic prices is racing to the top.

Your best bet at a successful comics career is to give it away to as many people as possible.  Put your comics everywhere you can.  Don’t let any speed bumps stand between your potential readers and your book.  Give away PDFs, post pages to a website and to social media, put it in whatever stores you can for free.

You need eyeballs more than anything.

Or watch what lots of webcomic cartoonists are doing — at least, the ones who spread their comics far and wide to make their money on merchandising or licensing or Patreon.  (They can’t even make it on ads anymore.)  They’re not making it on the initial run of the comics. 

Post-Exposure

If you get your stuff out there to the right frequency in the right places at the right time, you stand a chance of attracting the right people.

Make a name for yourself. Make sure everyone knows it because your comic is everywhere, it’s always there, it’s easy to get to, and you don’t need to pay out a penny to see it again, or for the first time.

No subscriptions, no Kickstarters, nothing.  Don’t let that stuff get in your way.

Just give it away. Think long term.

When you do get those hits of attention and exposure, capitalize on it.  That’s your job and not anyone else’s.

The Only Person Who Can Pop a Comic Book Artist

Then, once you’ve hit that critical mass, you can make your money on your superfans via Patreon or Kickstarter.

Parlay that attention, those numbers, that audience to license your IP out to the people who would want it.

Know your market.  What’s your property’s angle?  Target those people, not the comics folks. There’s never enough comics readers.  Expand your base.  You never have enough people.

To Answer Your Outrage…

Yes, I’m suggesting something that goes against everything everyone has been talking about for years on-line.

Or am I?

I would suggest that I’m not.  I am not suggesting that you let anyone take advantage of you, nor that you underestimate your own worth.

Exposure is a currency. Spend it wisely.

Every situation needs to be handled according to its own set of circumstances.

If you own a property and you want to have the most success with it, give it away everywhere and anywhere for free.  The odds of making money on it as a print comic book — or even a digital comic you charge for — are so far against you that you might as well save that time and energy and go straight for the audience grab.

If someone offers you the chance to work on their property, take stock of the situation.  What is your work good for?  Are they preparing to shop around that property and just want someone to do the dirty design work for them?  Or do they have a property that’s well established and will help to expose you to a new audience?

It’s not “working for free” if you are getting something out of it.

Eventually, as your profile increases and people are more anxious for your work, you can “monetize your content with your audience,” as the biz folks like to put it.  But do be aware: That won’t be with a monthly 22 page comic. You’re only going to make money on a larger book with better margins and guaranteed sales — think Kickstarter here.

But if you’re not going to share your ideas with the world until the world pays for it, you’ll be forever trapped in your own mind.  Nobody wants to risk their money or their time or energy on your idea.

Your best best to make any kind of money is a long term play that begins with exposure — of both yourself and your work.  (There’s a whole other article about “personal branding” that’s out of the scope of this article.)

You know how YouTubers tally up big subscription numbers?  Collaborations.  They make videos together to draft off each others’ audiences.  They’re not talking about splitting the Google Ad profits there.  They’re exposing themselves to new audiences.  Once they grow a large enough audience, they might then be palatable to a larger company looking to pay influencers.  That’s where the money kicks in.  But there’s a lot of work to go before you get to that point.

The same goes with your comic.

Exposure, exposure, exposure.

Welcome to 2018 and 2019.

On the bright side, it’s far cheaper than a printing and distribution bill, and takes up much less space than a pallet of books in your living room.

How to Break Into Comics, Part 2

If you don’t want to make comics before you break into comics, the best way to break into comics is to write something else — movies, novels, radio plays, video game scripts, etc. — until someone opens a door for you into comics based on that work.

Guess what?  Very similar rules apply.  You’ll need exposure there to get well known enough to be seen in comics.

Just because you’ve uploaded your Great American Novel to Amazon’s Kindle store, that doesn’t mean anyone will notice.

To Sum It All Up

You’re screwed.

And if you’re the type of person to give up on a dream because I told you that, then you were doomed from the start.

But if you’re sticking with it and want to get somewhere, you need to figure out a way to get your work seen.  You need to be patient and realize there are no overnight successes.   And you need to keep working AND keep getting better.

It also helps to start with a ton of money or marry someone with a full time job with benefits.  The latter seems to be the way most people go.

The money is not in comics anymore. They’re a loss leader. They’re “research and development.”  The end goal is to license your properties.  Start there and work your way backwards to figure out a career path. 

Don’t write off “working for exposure” because of conventional internet wisdom.  But, also, be sure you’re working for the right kind of exposure. 

Exposure is currency.  Trade value for value. Don’t let them take advantage of you.

And don’t quit your day job.