The Industry: Digital VS Print. The Big Showdown of Dollars
A very interesting article has cropped up over at Publisher's Weekly. You can see Here a breakdown of the profit margins for digital comics. While it doesn't look too good for the more established houses, it's great news for individual creators.
It also reminded me of a blogger that was commenting on the state of the literary publishing game. He was talking about how most publishing houses treat books like a flash in the pan, marketing everything for the release date and perhaps a month afterward until the book seems to be cut off into oblivion. His answer to that was that individual creators were gaining much more revenue and rights with digital publishing where they may not receive that coveted advance from the publishers but are making as much if not more over time by allowing their work to gain popularity slowly.
This follows the model that webcomics have been following for years and is a good reminder to even the big houses. While nothing is ever guaranteed, if you're able to build a following over the years you will have much more success with anything else you put out including more books and merchandise and the like. It's not enough to be an artist or an author these days. You need to be a brand. Just look at the fanatical following that romance writers have. They're able to use newsletters, contests, blogs and virtual appearances to garner top selling books on the NY Times best seller list. If you check out the top 10 for Mass Market Paperbacks you will always see a romance novel on there.
Hopefully we in the comics industry can learn to cherish our artists and writers in the same way and build better brands that last over time.
It also reminded me of a blogger that was commenting on the state of the literary publishing game. He was talking about how most publishing houses treat books like a flash in the pan, marketing everything for the release date and perhaps a month afterward until the book seems to be cut off into oblivion. His answer to that was that individual creators were gaining much more revenue and rights with digital publishing where they may not receive that coveted advance from the publishers but are making as much if not more over time by allowing their work to gain popularity slowly.
This follows the model that webcomics have been following for years and is a good reminder to even the big houses. While nothing is ever guaranteed, if you're able to build a following over the years you will have much more success with anything else you put out including more books and merchandise and the like. It's not enough to be an artist or an author these days. You need to be a brand. Just look at the fanatical following that romance writers have. They're able to use newsletters, contests, blogs and virtual appearances to garner top selling books on the NY Times best seller list. If you check out the top 10 for Mass Market Paperbacks you will always see a romance novel on there.
Hopefully we in the comics industry can learn to cherish our artists and writers in the same way and build better brands that last over time.
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