SP!: THE PREVIOUS EDITION WAS PUBLISHED TA: There are a few distinct audiences.
IN 2007. WHY PUBLISH A NEW EDITION NOW?
HOW MUCH HAS THE INDUSTRY CHANGED IN • People looking for an understanding of how
THE LAST SEVEN YEARS?
the comics market works
TA: I actually started on the update in 2010. I was
spending about half my time teaching eBusiness
at Columbia College Chicago and I’d planned
to work on it in between consulting projects.
Unfortunately, the Part-Time Faculty Union and
the Columbia administration got into a huge
fight over the next contract for the part-timers.
I ended up being in a group of one hundred
adjunct faculty who were eliminated after the
Winter semester. As that storm was brewing, and
I had seen it coming, I ended up having to put a
hold on the update. Since then, I’ve always had a
project pop up before I’ve been able to complete
an update. I was getting close at the end of 2012,
but I ended up contracting with a startup that
took up most of my waking hours. (The stories
you hear about Bay area startup hours are true.)
Part of the reason I did a Kickstarter was to carve
out some time and make myself commit to finishing the update.
•
SP!: WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THIS
BOOK?
TA: This will be available through normal bookstore channels via Ingram/Lightning Source.
Usually Amazon is my primary sales channel,
but you’ll be able to order it at a brick and
mortar store when it’s ready. I’ll be putting the
eBook in the usual places.
Cartoonists looking for a survey of digital SP!: ANY OTHER CURRENT PROJECTS? WHAT’S
monetization tools and how the ecosys- ON THE HORIZON?
tem fits together
TA: I literally put everything on hold when I
• An underserved academic market—the setup the Kickstarter. I have some phone calls I
last edition was taught at SCAD and I had a need to return soon.
long Skype last week with a grad student in
Scotland working on her Publishing thesis SP!: IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU’D LIKE TO
ADD THAT WE HAVEN’T TOUCHED ON YET?
• There’s also some crossover with the tech
community, particularly the content and TA: There are a couple of things I’ve always
transmedia verticals.
found interesting. The way digital has evolved
has mirrored the divide between comic strips
SP!: WHAT ARE THE MAIN POINTS THAT YOU and comic books. The comic strips jumped
COVER?
online first as webcomics and carved out a few
more variations on the classic newspaper strip
TA: Breaking down the history, business models format, but with a few notable exceptions, the
and cash flow of print comics, ebooks/digital comic-book-style material translated over to
downloads, and webcomics. Contrasting how putting a page up at a time—not so different
the businesses compare to each other, in terms from a Sunday comic strip. The comic books
of activity necessary to fit a professional budget. took a longer to come online and that was a
The two biggest changes from 2007 are digital And then stepping back and taking a look at combination of all the channel conflict and
downloads/ebooks and crowdfunding.
crowdfunding, which isn’t really part of the day- the ebook formats not being particularly wellto-day functionality of print and digital, but is suited to graphics early on. The two of them
In 2007, micropayments hadn’t really come of increasingly used as an endgame once things are fairly distinct entities with mostly different
age and credit card minimums were still a thing. are up and running.
business models.
We didn’t really have anything in the ebook category like Comixology, so a whole side of the SP!: HOW DID YOU LAND MARK WAID FOR The other thing that interesting is that almost
business didn’t exist.
YOUR INTRODUCTION?
everyone comes back to print when it’s time
to monetize. Whether it’s a comic book, a
The other thing that didn’t exist is crowdfund- TA: I’ve been playing trivia against Mark at the comic strip, a webcomic, or a digital-first comic
ing. Crowdfunding isn’t really something you various comic conventions in Chicago since the ebook, everyone can sell a collected edition
start out with as a business model. It doesn’t mid-90s, so I just asked him. He’s in an unusual in print.
work so well if you don’t already have some position where he’s written print comics for a
kind of following, but it’s a possible end-game. very long time, but has also launched his own SP!: FINALLY, HOW CAN OUR READERS KEEP
On the Kickstarter side, you’ve got Order of the webcomics site. He was interested in the book UP WITH YOU AND YOUR WORK?
Stick with over a million dollars for its campaign. and said yes.
There’s a newer site called Patreon that essenTA: I’m at Publishersweekly.com and comictially does crowdfunding as reoccurring monthly SP!:YOU’VE SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED sbeat.com on a regular basis. My Twitter is @
payments. The webcomics poster child over PUBLICATION OF THE NEW EDITION VIA Real_Todd_Allen
there is SMBC, which is getting well over $8,000 KICKSTARTER. CONGRATS ON THAT! HOW
each month from pledges. If you can develop ABOUT FOLK WHO DIDN’T PLEDGE TO THE SP!: THANKS SO MUCH!
the audience, crowdfunding can help you pay CAMPAIGN? HOW WOULD THEY OBTAIN A
for your time.
COPY OF THE BOOK?
28
SELF PUBLISHER MAGAZINE 2014