Comments on: selling your small press comic

By: Hubert Windell

Hubert Windell — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:44:36 +0000

Our experiences so far…

Conventions and fairs are good but it can be a bit pricey attending them. The shops that are prepared to display small press and allow people flick through them might shift a few too. In Ireland the shops usually ask for a third of the cost. We are Irish based but have a few copies in Gosh and in Manhattan (fancy eh?).

It’s early days for us on the web ( http://www.windellcomics.com ) but without a lot of reviews elsewhere, which we haven’t got yet, people seem reluctant to part with their cash. The next phase for us is getting our comic reviewed by popular review sites. We put a lot of thought and work into our demented comic and feel it’s quality stuff so we’re confident enough to send it out there. It’s gone down really well at home.

We have this too…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ZxZvezA8Q

It got a bit of interest but that hasn’t transferred into sales yet.

Small Press comics are hard to sell. The way most printing costs work out you’re as well off getting larger runs of a good few hundred than just a small run of two or three hundred but that usually results in boxes of comics left lying in the spare room, …if you have a spare room.

By: All Good Ninjas Have A Backup Plan | Ninja Bunny

All Good Ninjas Have A Backup Plan | Ninja Bunny — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:51:29 +0000

[...] of you are budding comic book makers you might want to check out Tom Humberstone’s article on selling small press comics, well worth the read and full of helpful advice. CommentSubscribe Email or Share [...]

By: ventedspleen

ventedspleen — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:33:14 +0000

Thanks Richard. That’s very helpful indeed. Anyone at all interested in the UK’s small press scene should bookmark the FPI blog immediately!

Andrew: I completely understand the staff/time/space reasons for introducing the firm-sale 50/50 policy and don’t argue that it must make pragmatic sense. Like I said in the article, it just seems a shame.

The 50/50 split means that, on a purely personal level, I won’t make any money on any comics I sell in Gosh. Which isn’t the point of producing the comics of course, but it helps to make printing costs back in order to go to second print runs.

I like Gosh and continue to shop there. It’s a great shop. I’m just a little sad to see the choices available to small press creators shrink when it comes to using their LCS.

By: Andrew Salmond

Andrew Salmond — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:57:32 +0000

It’s a tough call for a store. Gosh have long supported small press and people there (myself included) really do want to encourage people to do their own thing. It’s always a real pleasure to discover new, exciting material. The change in policy for us was not ideal, but one we had to make simply because we were flooded with new minicomics and no longer had anyone on staff who could spare the time to administer the clunky old sale or return system. I admire Orbital’s continuation of their 100% SOR system, but we just couldn’t justify it.

The fact is, too, that while we were still taking in everything on SOR we just couldn’t display all the books we were taking in. Chances are that books we might now turn down on the firm sale policy wouldn’t have had any shelf time anyway. We’re a tiny store, after all! Actually, at the moment we’re not really taking anything at all just for that very reason. We need to cycle through stock we have bought in before we take more new stuff, though we are always happy to look at what people have done with a mind to taking some in the future.

Rest assured, we do still support the small press scene. We’re helping sponsor the upcoming LUC event and will continue to look at similar options in the future.

By: look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! | ventedspleen blog

look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! | ventedspleen blog — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:54:23 +0000

[...] my post about selling small press comics I threw in a little illustration of comic shop retailer. I drew this on a small square of stretched [...]

By: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » June 11, 2009: Shorter Journalista 22

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:23:50 +0000

[...] Tom Humberstone offers tips on how to sell your minicomic. [...]

By: richard

richard — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:06:32 +0000

very interesting and pertinent article Tom. There’s also the aspect of promotion of your small press book.
I write at the Forbidden Planet International Blog and we’re part of a small group of news blogs and websites that regularly like to promote the small press. There’s definitely the same mentality at Down The Tubes and Bugpowder. Send us your press releases, keep us up to date on releases and other news, we’ll put at least some of it up on these well read blogs.
Plus, and I’m speaking just for the FPI blog here, small press gets equal review time with major releases. And as a reviewer I like to help out where I can, so any small presser who sends stuff for review may be surprised to realise that I’ll get your stuff, review it and then send it back to you. The only cost is postage to us. We think it’s a great deal for some much needed exposure. You can get in touch via the FPI blog.

By: ventedspleen

ventedspleen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:55:31 +0000

thanks phil. likewise, this would have been useful for me back in the day so thought it could be helpful for others. make sure you take your stuff down to orbital asap – your stuff is great and they’d love it in there!

By: Philip Spence

Philip Spence — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:11:40 +0000

Great blog Tom, this is exactly the sort of info I was looking for when I first got in to small press, while it’s something I now know it’s good to know someone else is spreading the word….saying that, I’ve still yet to do step 3, something I keep putting off out of fear of rejection.