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crowdfundingI’m Tab Kimpton. I write a webcomic called Khaos Komix, a GLBT Queer teen comic. It’s been online 5 years now (which is a scary thought and makes me feel old), has 40,000 hits a day and has been picked up by the publisher Rosalarian.
But even now when I say that I’m a webcomic author, I see that little sneer in people. I’m sure comic artists get this all the time anyway, but my sneer is slightly more pronounced. I think it’s because I’m not only drawing silly comics, I’m doing them on the internet, which we all know isn’t real anyway.
I think it’s quite funny. All of the supposed “downsides” to webcomics are actually what make them amazing.
They’re free! You don’t earn any money from that!
Most comics make most of their money from merchandise. For example I also write a little steampunk comic book. I can sell a 28 page comic book for £3, or a poster for £5. Posters sell more, take me less time to make and take me far less work. T-shirts are even more profitable.
By making your comic free, you’re opening it up to far more fans. More fans means more fans with money, means more merchandise, means more money.
This year alone I earned enough money from my web comic for it to be a full time job. All that money was in donations, merchandise and print copies of the books that fans decided to buy anyway, even when they could still read it free online.
Anyone can make one! Being a webcomic artist is easy, it doesn’t mean you’re actually good!
Well, you do have a point there. That’s why when I talk about my comic, I mention how many hits I get a day (to give you an idea, a quick google tells me I get the same as 1000awesomethings). With anyone having the ability to make a webcomic, it can sometimes be hard to weed through the copy pasta, lazily drawn, filler filled comics packing out the internet.
But think about it. Anyone can write a webcomic. Webcomics get such a vast range of authors, and in consequence subjects, that I would consider them to be one of the most diverse, interesting and creative forms of media that exists today.
To use myself as an example, (because I am a fantastic example of this) if I hadn’t written a webcomic, I would have never been published. I write about gay things, and while the world is changing, people aren’t exactly banging at my door begging to publish my stories where the girls kiss each other. This is also because while I like drawing comics, I’m not a great artist. I wouldn’t have met the standard to be published as a comic writer, especially with my earlier work. Maybe in a few years time I could have presented work to a publisher and been picked up, but without drawing my comic I wouldn’t have gotten the drive to get better at art to get myself to a professional level. Webcomics are a transitional stage for many artists, which give them the experience in comic writing to go into other work.
By putting my comic online I have tested the market. I have proven that there are many lonely queer people out there, looking for comics that make them feel less like freaks. The same applies to any type of author out there who doesn’t want to write about characters who are straight, white, cis gendered males who’s just discovered they have super powers (though things are getting better). With no standards of publishing, webcomics make their own standards, and through that they bring amazing work that would have otherwise been ignored into the light.
But I don’t like reading things on a computer! Can’t it just be in book form?
I prefer to read things online. It could be that I was brought up on computers, so I am a child of technology, but I honestly prefer reading on my phone or desktop. I’ve read more on the computer than I have printed books (to give an idea, in my college days when I first discovered fan fiction I read for at least 4 hours a day, every day. In print books I read about 100 pages an hour, so that’s almost 300,000 pages, or 835 average length novels in the space of 2 years). There are many people out there also like me.
However not everyone is like me. Personally, I consider things and people on the internet to be as valid as things I encounter in real life. Other people are still getting used to the idea. Many people have never even used the internet, so to them my work doesn’t even exist. We’re currently moving from the physical to digital age, so it’s going to take some getting used to. Digital music is now sold online in massive quantities and the music industry is way ahead when it come to online sales, but it’s only a short amount of time until everything else catches up.
But just because something is online doesn’t mean it can’t be printed, and showing something online first tests the waters to see if people will buy it. Many webcomics get self published, which is actually a fantastic way to be published.
To put things in perspective, if you get picked up by a publisher who sells your books in stores, after the cost of printing and retail mark-up you’re only going to get around £1 per book. Normally less. Self publishing, while you’re paying the initial printing costs and have a much smaller market, you get a lot more per book.
So you’ve convinced me, how do I get into these webcomic things?
Well, as an artist your best thing is just to get working on it. The worst thing you can do in life is say you’re going to do something and never get around to it. Even if it’s rubbish, just make some work, and chuck it up onto one of the free webcomic hosts like Drunk Duck or Comic Genesis
If you’re a reader, then just go to a site like Top Webcomics, and work your way down the list until you find things you like. Then go to the links page of comics you like to see if there’s anything similar that tickles your fancy. Now enjoy the wonderful world of webcomicdom.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 07:58 pm (UTC)I've been reading Khaos since I discovered it ... maybe three years ago, and I advertise Addergoole on the site when I can afford it (Project Wonderful, a discussion for another day).
Okay, not much of a patron, as I've never bought any merch, but certainly an avid reader. And I love webcomics for the fact I can read them anywhere, at any time. And I don't have to wait for a new book, just a new update.
I'm also rather personally fond of Khaos for the slight dovetailing (okay, it's tangential, but it works) in subject manner between it and Addergoole :-)
Psst, Tab - can you throw in a link to Khaos?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 08:37 pm (UTC)www.khaoskomix.com
Project wonderful is interesting, I never seem to make any money from it. Do you think switching to one ad instead of 4 small squares would make it better?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 09:08 pm (UTC)I tend to use PW mostly just to pay for my ads on other sites.
Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-23 08:46 pm (UTC)I love the fact that webcomics are widening representation and diversity. If you want to see girls kissing girls, or boys kissing boys, there are webcomics for that. There are webcomics with brown people and poor people and all sorts of other groups that usually get ignored in the mainstream. So whatever your interests are, you can probably find a webcomic about that, and throw money at the artist as a way of saying, "Thank you for depicting (favorite character type)" or whatever. I like this about crowdfunding in general, but webcomics are special because they give visual representation. That helps people feel not so darned invisible all the time.
>>Maybe in a few years time I could have presented work to a publisher and been picked up, but without drawing my comic I wouldn’t have gotten the drive to get better at art to get myself to a professional level. Webcomics are a transitional stage for many artists, which give them the experience in comic writing to go into other work.<<
I think this is great too. The interesting thing is ... story and character outweigh art. One webcomic I see echoed a lot is done all in stick figures:
http://xkcd.com/162/
You don't need an expensive art class to learn how to draw. You just need some materials and an audience who will tell you what sucks and what works. You can learn by doing. Hack it out, put it up, and pay attention to the feedback. If people say you suck at drawing feet, then draw more feet. Draw feet until you get good at them. By then people will be commenting on different flaws and you can switch to something new. Whatever skill level you start with, if you draw 3 comic strips a week for a year, you will be better at it then.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-07-24 09:09 am (UTC)http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1
to
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1970
O_O
Date: 2011-07-24 08:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 09:48 pm (UTC)Other reasons this argument is invalid:
The supposition that "anyone can" does not translate to "everyone does", or even that anyone "does". It takes time and effort to create anything, and the willingness to expend that time and effort immediately reduces the size of the "anyone" pool significantly. Having the audacity to share the created work filters things down even further; I can't begin to count the number of folks I know whose art (be that graphic, literary, performance, whatever) never gets seen except by a chosen, trusted few. The diligence to stick with a project long enough to truly establish whether or not it may be a success -- we're getting into fairly refined territory here.
Also, this ignores the fact that webcomics need to be written as well as drawn. Someone working with stick-figures who tells a fascinating story may well attract more readers than the most gorgeously illustrated strip which tells utterly lackluster tales. And the same filters apply to the writing as apply to the art, regarding the difference between "can" and "does".
Yes...
Date: 2011-07-23 09:54 pm (UTC)If you're going to create a webcomic, webserial, monthly feature, or any other crowdfunding activity that's more than a one-shot event ... you need to think about the time it'll take to build an audience. Elsewhere there's a discussion about layered goals; it helps a lot to have at least one goal that is non-monetary. Many successful projects have a goal like "make me do more writing/art" or "practice X skill regularly." So if you can do that one thing, especially for a period of time, you'll accomplish something even if your crowdfunding only pulls in a few dollars.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2011-07-24 09:05 am (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2011-07-24 08:45 pm (UTC)Thanks for sharing. That early income is still nothing to sneeze at, though admittedly not much for the massive amount of work that a webcomic can be.
>>It's only this year I would say I get what you'd call a decent wage from it. These things take time, you have to build up with no intent to make money, or people pick up what you're after.<<
Sooth.
With my Poetry Fishbowl, I didn't even put up a donation button the first couple of months. I wanted to use that time to teach people how the concept worked. Free prompts in exchange for one free poem. Then I added the button so people could support the project in general or buy extra poems to have posted. Other features have been added gradually.
One advantage to the slow build is that you get to make most of your early mistakes before there are too many people watching! By the time you've got a big audience, you pretty much know what you're doing.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 03:06 am (UTC)(Nothing useful to say, but I LOVE your comic. I ate it up when I discovered it through the Rose & Bay Awards and now wait impatiently for every update!)