Electronic comic publishing

[Emperor]

This is all kicking off discussion and better methods have been proposed:

www.djcoffman.com/2011/01/14/a-much-better-way-to-sell-your-digital-comics/

[Emperor]

Graphic.ly have announced new features like moving to HTML5 and allowing you comics to be embeddable in other pages (something I've thought would be a good move for a while). The announcement also says:

Initially, we have set it up where any creator can submit their work to submissions@graphicly.com and within 24-48 hours, their book will appear within the network — and more importantly, the community will help curate the content

...

By the way, when a book is submitted to Graphicly, if its approved, we will work with the creators to help them to submit their work to places outside the Graphicly Network, be it the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble NOOK, or even other digital comic online stores.

http://couch.graphic.ly/post/6352908529/the-new-graphicly-a-whole-bunch-of-awesomeness

Which suggests it should be pretty easy get your comics on there.

If anyone gives this a shot do let us know how it went.

[Emperor]

More at CBR:

From today forward, Graphicly has opened its site to be "pitched to" by any number of publishers or solo creators hoping to allow their comics to connect with readers on their own terms. "Every publisher and creator will have complete control over their own project," Baldwin explained. "For example, if a creator decides that they don't want their content shared – Marvel does this through a fractured strategy where they work with different partners on different platforms – they'll be able to restrict what platforms it's going to be on. But our process is a two-tiered process where we first check ourselves that the submission is not heavy porn or copyrighted material. The second process is where the community itself curates the content to let the best stuff bubble up. It'll be going through a review process once it's on the site. People can see books and review them, and once they achieve a certain level, they'll enter into our promotional engine. Up until then, it'll be the creator's job to promote their own content."

www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=32713

[Emperor]

John Freeman has brought together a range of resources (distilling down parts of this thread and throwing in other things) to create this:

http://downthetubes.ning.com/notes/Creating_Digital_Comics%3A_Distributors

There is also a digital comics blog in the DTT network that'd be well worth following:

http://downthetubesmobilecomics.blogspot.com

[Emperor]

Graphicly are changing their business model from a one-stop shop for comics, to helping comics and related publications (like pictures books) get onto a range of platforms:

Since incubating at TechStars in 2009, Graphicly has shifted strategy. Co-founder and CEO Micah Baldwin says the company was first conceived as an “iTunes for comics” — the place where existing comics publishers could sell the digital versions of their titles. However, Baldin says he found that the marketplace strategy was too limiting. (It probably didn’t help that competitor ComiXology scored early deals with the two biggest publishers, DC and Marvel.)

Instead, Graphicly is offering creators the tools they need to publish their work on a broad swath of platforms, including the iBookstore, the Kindle store, the Android Market, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. Graphicly also offers analytics to authors and publishers, so they can see exactly what content is engaging their readers. And the company is also placing a greater emphasis on helping authors self-publish, rather than just making deals for traditionally published properties.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/01/graphicly-opens-publishing-platform-to-everyone-looks-beyond-comics/

To start go here:
http://graphicly.com/launch

[Emperor]

Graphic'ly's numbers are worth keeping in mind:

Graphic.ly’s Micah Baldwin tells me that the average reading session is 8 pages, but there are lots of reading sessions.  Now, the caveat should be made that Graphic.ly isn’t the Wednesday stop for new DC and Marvel releases (though it is for Image) and may have a bit more traffic from the elusive casual reader.  I expect the reading session for a freshly downloaded new Batman from a more Direct Market-oriented fan might be a little higher.  (And I probably should ask him what the numbers look like on a new Image title downloaded on Wednesday next time I see him.)  Still, this would fit the general pattern of reading on the bus/train while commuting, during a lunch break or before going to sleep.

Baldwin points out that if this is how people are reading the content in digital format, maybe the 20-22 page comic isn’t the way to go online.  The science of branding is all about repetition.  If you want to get people into the _habit_ of buying your comic, Baldwin reckons it will take 6-8 touches to make someone a fan, so it might make more sense to release 8 pages 3x a month (almost weekly) or maybe 5 pages each week.

Coincidentally (or not), 5 pages per week is the format of 2000 AD and the Freak Angels webcomic that was pretty successful for Warren Ellis.

www.comicsbeat.com/2012/02/24/how-many-pages-of-a-digital-comic-get-read-in-one-sitting/

Which fits nicely with Warren Ellis' previous thoughts on the topic:

original digital material should not and probably CANNOT be bound to the old model. Forget monthly release patterns. Original Digital Comics — Digital Original? — I need an acronym like my OGN, Original Graphic Novel — could drive people to these services fortnightly or even weekly. And they don’t have to be 22 pages or 20 pages or whatever the current print standard shakes out at. And the price, so far as I know, only has to end with a 9. I’m okay with, say, 10 or 11 pages a fortnight at USD 0.99. Or maybe even 8 pages a week at USD 0.79.

From which point, one might follow the FREAKANGELS model — serialise on digital, collect in print.

(Also, of course, subscription models will soon apply in digital — commit to a number of episodes, get a couple of points knocked off the price, get the comic automagically sideloaded to your bookshelf/app on release day.)

www.warrenellis.com/?p=12979

5 pages might be a little too low - one of the complaints about 2000AD is that 5-6 pages doesn't give the reader enough of a chunk of story. It seems just fine for us but going for, say, a minimum of 8 might be more widely accessible.

11 pages for $0.99 seems to be hitting a sweet spot on pricing, you could then collect 2 instalments as a comic book, then collecting say a dozen into a trade.

Of course, this is good news for the Brits as we're used to anthologies and so writing a compressed satisfying story is right up our collective alleys.

[Link Prime]

[quote author=Emperor link=topic=30442.

5 pages might be a little too low - one of the complaints about 2000AD is that 5-6 pages doesn't give the reader enough of a chunk of story. It seems just fine for us but going for, say, a minimum of 8 might be more widely accessible.

11 pages for $0.99 seems to be hitting a sweet spot on pricing, you could then collect 2 instalments as a comic book, then collecting say a dozen into a trade.

[/quote]


IDW are doing that right now with their Transformers: Autocracy series, published every week (fortnight maybe?), 12 pages for $0.99 (€0.79). I'm a huge fan of digital, and will always download some new stuff on Wednesday after work- this price / format would very much appeal to me.
Just a shame I haven't really read any Transformers since the late 80's!
What about a digital only '2000AD Extra' every week? One extra strip for a few cents? Surely the loyal fan base would get it, it might even bring in a few new readers (assuming Clickwheel isn't used), and would be cheap as chips to produce. A definite goer in my opinion.

[Emperor]

IDW are doing that right now with their Transformers: Autocracy series, published every week (fortnight maybe?), 12 pages for $0.99 (€0.79).

Ah ha, thanks for that information, it does seem to suggest this might be an emerging format for the future. Keep an eye out for more people following this model.

What about a digital only '2000AD Extra' every week? One extra strip for a few cents? Surely the loyal fan base would get it, it might even bring in a few new readers (assuming Clickwheel isn't used), and would be cheap as chips to produce. A definite goer in my opinion.

The idea of a webcomic has been suggested by some folks on the board (my thoughts on that here), this approach might be a way to monetise that. It needn't be either/or - FreakAngels was heavily downloaded despite being free to read online, I wonder if, with the next webcomics, Avatar are going to do a quick bundle of pages and offer them cheaply online electronically. I'm sure there'd be enough people who'd pony up a few cents rather than seek out the torrents, plus it might reach a different audience (folks might stumble across it following Ellis' other works on the iStore, comiXology, etc.).

Of course, using this model you could also see how something like a fortnightly collection of 10 Dredd pages might be an option. However, there are dangers of splitting open an anthology like that - as you might loose readers who are only interested in one or two stories but economics might suggest the prog has already lost those readers to trades (as it doesn't make much sense for someone to buy the prog for a couple of stories) and it might be able to win them back to serialisation, which could even get them double-dipping like a lot of us who get the prog and the trades. Plus it could always hook in new readers too. A tricky one to judge there.

[Link Prime]

A serendipitous announcement today regarding IDW publishing new Dredd material.
They are of course available via Comixology, Comics +, and have their own dedicated App too- would be real nice if they produced some digital exclusive Dredd (if it proved popular enough)...

[Emperor]

Mark Waid has given his thoughts on digital comics:

A future for comics, according to Waid, means creating comics specifically for a digital audience, instead of adapting print comics for the Web. For example, comics are created in a vertical format for print, however digital readers tend to read on horizontal devices, Waid said, holding up an iPad. Furthermore, they should cost 99 cents instead of the $2.99 or $3.99 major comics publishing companies currently charge, he said

...

“We said, ‘Let’s look at the old Sunday pages,’ not in any way in terms of tone or in terms of language, but really in a sense of how much of a chunk of story feels like a good, satisfying chunk of story,’” Waid said. “And what we found so far is about eight to 10 screens feels about right.”

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/03/16/wondercon-2012-mark-waid-buys-into-digital-sells-off-his-comics/

[Emperor]

Bleeding Cool asks if some digital comics might count as animations for the purposes of the recent tax break:

www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/22/could-digital-comics-benefit-from-uk-tax-breaks/

I'm not so sure but gamebooks/visual novels might count as video games for the same tax breaks.

[Link Prime]

Just read about DC's plans for a 99 cent Digital exclusive Batman comic- it's out of continuity and has some top notch creators lined up (Trevor Hairsine doing Batman? Sold!).
I also downloaded Marvel's A Vs X 'Infinite' last week, great stuff for a similarly great price.
The future is here ladies & gentlemen...