A CALGARY STUDIO: PART DEUX!

Garcia, to a certain degree I agree with you in the sense that we need to get something DONE. The problem with seeking out publishers with our work is that we go according to their timetable, their specs, their yay or nay. How is that different than what I'm proposing? We have time on our hands to help build those projects that don't meet the mark. Other companies have a limit to the books they put out because of finances. That wouldn't be a problem with a vanity press publishing structure. Finding two or three titles that we can hit the market with all at once, be they one-shots or mini-series (I'd stay away from anthologies as much as possible), will get more space on the rack than a lone title sitting silently between a ton of other books. We can also spend that time to formulate a proper plan of action with regards to promotion and distribution. The creators themselves will have a say in how these last two points will be accomplished and will be party to the process. It doesn't mean that we'll accept just any project, but we'll be able to work hard (not "hardly work" as with publishers who rush to get the book out without proper editorial time) to get the best quality product out there. Ongoing series, in my opinion for a beginning publisher, is the wrong move. Hit the public with a single issue or storyline, make them want more before you hit them with the next wave. Test the product before dedicating time, money, and effort to something that won't sell. I personally hate it when I'm getting into a book and/or character and the next thing you know the book is being cancelled for lack of sales. Doing it ourselves and basically helping people "self-publish" without the added headaches of business is the way I think we need to go.

Vanity press is a scheme under which creators pay a publishing company to publish their book. Creators cover publishing expenses--printing, promo, shipping, etc.--and generally toss in a fee on top of that (vanity press publishers make their money off their creators, not book sales.)

Vanity press publishing (as well as self-publishing) is seriously looked down upon in the prose publishing world--in comics, there's considerably less of a stigma.

The real difference between Steve's and Gerald's ideas is that Steve's would require creators to offer up money, as well as time and energy, to create a book, which would then be guaranteed to be published. Gerald, if I understand things correctly, wants to put together a project, then pitch it to various publishers to see if it can be published by an established company (along the lines of Image's FLIGHT, though I don't believe that was technically pitched so much as discovered and acquired.)

I don't think this necessarily needs to be seen as an either/or situation, incidentally. Whatever group signs up for the project could certainly produce the book and pitch it around, with an agreement that if it doesn't get picked up the group will pay to self-publish.

A

The BOOK I am proposing will be a TP,containing eight stories. The project will be completed, before presentation to publishers. If it doesn't get picked up, we have work for show and the option to shop it around.

I have confidence in the work being produced by most MIC members, but (in my personal position) most of us do not have the finances to risk on a venture like this:vanity press.
I am taking a course that offers little financial burden. All I ask for is your creative time in producing something that will stand out in the industry and put us on the map.This is not something I want to rush into, we do need a structure to accomodate all contributors.

If we want it bad enough, we can make this happen.

GarSeeYa!!!

I had previously posted comments in the first Calgary Studio thread that this "board of directors", which would consist of individuals with experience in the various areas of comic book publication, promotion, and distribution, would not be paid until a return is made on the titles under the company's banner. This means that we would not be paid a fee until the creators are actually making money on their books. This could take forever unless we all succeed in each title's quality, presentation, exposure, and sales. The faster the returns come in, the quicker the board itself can see a compensation for their work.

The fact is that like many of you, I'm not in this industry for the money. If that were the case I would have started charging a long time ago for my services and knowledge, but I haven't. Not because of self-doubt in my abilities or my uncertainty of how much to charge, but because I enjoy doing this so much and I want to be part of someone else's success. However, if I could fill every role in this endeavor, I would. But I can't. There are people like Kandrix with his business knowledge and experience on the convention circuit and Derek with his gorilla marketing techniques, creators and experienced businessmen in this field who, with me, can make something positive happen for someone who A) has the talent and determination and B) the drive to raise the money to make it happen. It isn't a matter of someone not having the money, but not knowing how to raise it. That's something we can work on with the creators as a board. On top of that, we don't need to have a product ready to publish because I put creative teams together. That's where the difference is with my idea versus the typical "vanity press" direction in prose publishing. They want the whole product on their laps before they say yay or nay. As part of the board, I step in before the others would even need to to screen submissions and put creative teams together, then bring the story pitch to the board once it's fleshed out for board approval, seeing as how they are the ones coming up with the ideas on how to approach printing, promotion, channels of distribution, etc. This then gets presented to the creators involved so they understand the directions that will most likely result in success. They can also add their concerns and ideas. This is all free of charge until a return is made on the sales. Not a loss or a break even, but a return. I know Kandrix and Laurie and their approach to Short Term Konsequences. They wanted to give local creators a chance to show their wares, to build up the community. They did it without need for recompense because that wasn't their goal. Their goal was to get people's work seen. That's what I'm trying to provide with this idea. I don't have the finances to start up a publishing company, but I do have years of knowledge and experience that I am more than willing to share.

That's where I'm coming from. It's just an idea at this stage, but I know it will work.

Ah yes...

We've had plans for STK #3 for a while, but we decided to push it WAY back because we felt we really had to concentrate on the Monk's Tale series, seeing how that's our 'claim to fame'. Like Devon mentioned, you really need somebody to push the project out, or it's really tough to get done. Trust me on this one! I enjoy the coordination of projects, and seeing them from concept to completion, but it requires a lot of time and effort, which is something that I'm pretty much out of for the moment.

Though I will say that midway through the summer is when I'll start planning out more specific parameters for the next project (s). There's a good chance that I'll change the format of STK, but still have it as more of a showcase of talents. 2004 was a pretty good year for us in terms of 'industry education', and what we wanted to happen for 2005 is kinda being pushed back into 2006, so hopefully everything falls into line.

Anyways, this is my quick break from issue #5...I'll post more stuff later, or my editor will kill me.

Kandrix

In the publishing industry, a creator allows certain rights to be given to a company in order for them to publish their work. For example, many publishers want what's called "First rights" to a piece of work. What this means is that they have the right to publish the work first before the creator can accept a bid from another company that may be interested. If the creator accepts that secondary bid, then the company given first rights has the right to file a lawsuit against the creator for breach of contract. Unfortunately, the first company doesn't have to rush their decision to publish because the creator has given them that right, so while you may get two or three other publishers interested in the work who want to publish it, the creator is out of luck until the first company makes their intensions clear (to publish or not to publish, the latter releasing the creator from the contract).

There are different rights that the creator can give to a publishing house. For example, First North American Rights means that a company is given the first rights to publish in North America only, leaving the creator to offer first rights to any company outside of North America as well. So if, as a creator, you want to submit your work to two companies, one in the states and the other in Europe, you can have both of them publish your work with greater exposure by specifying the continent of first rights.

Some publishers will only accept all rights to a work because they don't want to lose reprint rights. That's where you have to shop around if you intend on having your trade paperback, for instance, published by a company other than the one who first published your work.

On this note, you can offer a company Second Rights if you have previously published the work either yourself or through a small-press company. The problem that lies with this option is that the work has already been in the marketplace, even with limited exposure. That means the company is getting second dibs at the work. If the work was good enough the first time around but limited copies are floating around, that means the company can still sell the book and not be afraid of the book competing with itself. For example, Nick, you can give Dark Horse Second Rights to TAoDS and they can publish it without worrying that the market has seen it in mass exposure before. Sometimes limited print runs for a self- or small-press publisher has its advantages.

So if you did go the vanity press route, you'd need to decide if the print run was going to be worthwhile in the first place or if you'd just want to give the market a peek. If the latter is what you'd want to do, you would need to realize that another company may never pick it up. If that's the case, would you go for a second printing with the vanity press company two or three years after the first printing? Seems kind of redundant unless something new is added to make it different than the first time it was published. You decide.

Hopefully that gives you an idea of where your rights and a publishers rights stand.

Hi everybody. I'm a longtime lurker, whose postings are rare and mysterious. I'll do the proper introduction in the introduction heading. Anyway, on to STUDIO DEUX...

It seems as though this debate is a good thing, and this forum is a good public place to have it; I wonder if it's too early to start assiging positions? Editor-In-Chief, Marketing Director, Head Bean Counter, CEO and Lord of Time and Space, that sort of thing. Who can be involved, and who decides that?

It might make clearer the debates between self-published, to shopping around for a publisher, not to mention help solidify not only who's doing what in terms of jobs, but also start figuring out what's going to be between the covers of this mag. Will it have a theme, beyond best-of-the-best? And will VA, Konsiquential, and Radioactive City play a part? There are already some people putting books out; do we incorporate them into an eneroumous Maple Comics Ink umbrella? (For lack of a better term...)

I don't really know about the answers I can give to all of these, but it might be good to lay out this kind of groundwork.

Consider the enthusiasm dashed long before, by gallons of bitter coffee, lending their caffeine viewpoint to this latte-fair world...

Anyway...

I suppose what I meant incorporates what you're saying, Derek. My only point there was that it might be a good idea for the legions working on their pages to figure out if their working on the five-pager Maple Ink Comics Omnibus, or chapter XXXXVVII of their masterwork.

Maybe this has already been decided and I missed it, but who is doing pages, and who's not? And who decides? The only reason I started listing job titles is because once somebody has a title and a task, they can start doing. Otherwise, it's akin to the hundreds of theatre companies I know of, all of them waiting for the right moment to show off their brilliance, meanwhile, they're still not doing shows. I don't mean to say that nothing's happening; the amount of independent studios and projects going speak to the opposite, but I am thinking the formation of some kind of deciding body might be a good place to start.

Deciding vanity press versus publisher shopping would probably be more prudent once pages are coming in, or at least a schedule of pages is lined up, or something...

This has developed into an interesting discussion.

My point of view is this: Everyone WANTS to be published. That's a given. The problem is that not everyone is ready for this to happen, either because of lack of dedication, undeveloped creative talent, or lack of willingness to learn the proper tools that will make their work stand out and sell. I've seen and I've worked with people who have "something" to start from. The problem is that they rush to be seen, and that first impression that they are so desperate to make falls short. It's like going to a job interview with your potential boss being the readership. Something needs to stand out physically, in the pages and on the cover, for the reader to buy your story. They don't care about your dedication or your dreams. They care about reading a good story (written and drawn) that will stand out in their minds enough to want more. Quality and Production. Anthologies may have one or two stories that "work", but being in the same package as stories that "don't" will make the reader think twice about buying the book again, maybe even about buying it the first time.

The fact is that we live in a society where the consumer is now allowed to sample the goods before purchase. Bookstore chains now have comfortable seating where you can read a magazine or book at your leisure without obligation to purchase. The days of "You're not allowed reading unless you intend to buy" are long gone. Where does that leave the publisher? With a bunch of books having been read on the stand without purchase. Does that make them money? NO! On top of that, did you know that Chapters/Indigo and some other bookstores have a return policy? If the book is still in resellable condition within a given time frame, they will take the book back. I just did it myself with a full refund. What happens if that book you bought and returned doesn't sell again? Now I doubt that this "return policy" will ever become a trend in the comic specialty market, but these conditions determine a reader making their purchase and force the stores themselves to select books that they believe will sell. They are, after all, trying to make money off of their investments.

What it boils down to is this: No matter how good you feel the book is, it needs to make money for you or for the person putting the money into publishing it. It isn't a matter of just getting seen, but making sure that you leave a memorable impression. That's what I'm talking about.

I don't say this to give the impression that books can't sell or even be a hit "by chance". Some of the most outstanding titles were long shots that hit the right nerve in the readership. But something needs to be there for that to happen. Can strong promotions make a mediocre or poor quality book sell? Yes, for a very short time. Kandrix will hate me for this example, but look at Youngblood #1. Everything was wrong with it, but it sold. There were a lot of people who dropped it quickly and then there are others who toughed it out hoping it would get better. I wasn't one of those people. But the fact is that it wasn't published with a strict quality assurance standard either. It was a book that Rob Liefeld wanted to do, and he did it on his own.

My intention through my business (CREATIVE SYNERGY Consulting & Services) and through this proposed venture (vanity press publishing) is to ensure the success of a story/book through the education of creators with respect to the market and their understanding of it. Some people don't want that kind of help because they want complete control over their work and how it's presented to the masses. That's fine. I actually encountered a gentleman who was basically self-publishing his stories. When I made suggestions on his story structure and dialogue, he thanked me graciously and said "If I listened to everyone's suggestions, the story wouldn't be mine". It's sad to say, but this can happen if total control of the story is given to others and where self-doubt takes over.

However, anyone here can ask Kandrix and Laurie if I ever sought control of their story, or for that matter, ask many of the people who currently post here. The idea isn't to make the story my vision over theirs, but to point out things that will expand their vision of their own work. That's what an editor should do.

I care about this industry. I care about the people whose imaginations come to life on the printed page. And I care about the success of these creators and their work.

I do believe in the "Put your money where your mouth is" principle because there's no more proof of your belief in your work than by making it work yourself, but I intend to provide creators with the resources to make their work the best it can possibly be, either through education or direction. That's what I see as a vanity press structure: Helping the creators to help themselves.