One nitpick: I self-publish
as a professional. Self-publishing doesn't automatically necessitate a lack of professionalism, but I'll get into that later.
Self-Publishing.
The Pros.
- You keep all the money. Every dime that comes in the door, after bills, is yours to keep.
- Full creative and editorial control. No worries about weaselly contracts, advances being called back, and a company losing interest in you when the editor who championed you retires or leaves the organization.
- Business savvy crash course. You'll learn how to write contracts, lay out a book in InDesign, request quotes from printers, promote yourself with press releases and media kits, sell, submit to distributors, and everything else that leads to business self-sufficiency.
- Street cred. It's the quickest way to be published, and an unpublished cartoonist might as well not exist, professionally speaking.
The Cons.
- Not being taken seriously. No matter how big a deal you become, no matter how much you make, no matter how many stores your work is in, there will always be a share of your potential audience convinced you're self-publishing because no "real publisher" would have you, and therefore refuse to give your work a chance, content to assume it's crap.
- Not as large a potential audience. 1500-1700 books a year is a good estimate of my sales. Pretty good for a self-published artist, but barely a drop in the bucket, in literary terms; a NYT bestseller sells in the tens of thousands. If raw numbers are what you want, self-publishing won't satisfy you. (Be warned, though,
raw numbers don't mean more money.)
Using a Publisher.
The Pros.
- Legitimacy. Those people who wrote you off for self-publishing will give you a chance, now. Also, friends and family will be a lot more likely to consider you a "real" cartoonist. if that matters to you, being represented by a publisher makes it more likely.
- Industry access. Some publishers, if not all, will provide their creators with table space at most relevant conventions. The larger ones even pay for some of their talent to fly out to the big cons, like SDCC, and foot the hotel bills. (But this is big name talent stuff only.) Being published by a reputable company will also get you face time with other creators, editors and publishers.
- Greater potential for "stardom." Most people in comics will not become superstars, and even comic industry mega-pros, like Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis, rank as C-list in the grand scheme of celebrity. But mobility into screenwriting, million-book sales, and general Hollywood-ness is a lot more likely with publisher representation. The comic book industry regularly loses talent to Hollywood, like Rob Schrab, Ben Edlund, Dan Clowes and Frank Miller. If you consider comics a stepping stone and not a place to settle down, find someone else to publish you.
The Cons.
- Serious pay discrepancy. I did a little math, once. If I had published my comic through a separate party instead of doing it myself, I would take a 62% pay cut.
There's a tipping point where you begin to make MORE with publishers than you would on your own, but frankly, most people doing independent, non-mainstream work are unlikely to ever reach it.
- Loss of control to varying degrees. Some companies just ask for publishing rights for the first edition of your comic. Some companies will
rape your face, given half the chance. Learn to read contracts.
- Business practice obliviousness. There are people who have been in comics for decades, and still wouldn't know what to do if Marvel or DC suddenly lost interest in them. They don't own their own work, and never have; they can't republish their stuff in retrospectives, because they haven't got the rights and wouldn't know how. If you ever feel like weeping openly, head to the SDCC Artists Alley, and look for the elderly men. There are usually one or two who spent their lives working for DC or Marvel, and now do $30.00 sketches of Wolverine or Green Lantern to help pay their nursing home bills. I don't ever want to be in that position.
In the end, it's up to you.
If you're one of those "I just want to DRAW, though!" types, want to be the next comic superstar, Don't care to work on original stuff, grew up dreaming of penciling Batman, need structure, etc., find a publisher. If you're a control freak with an original story to tell, not afraid of spreadsheets, wiling to work hard as hell for limited recognition, etc., do it on your own.
