As a reader: I absolutely love having all these digital comics available to me at my fingertips. Plus - they look great on my screen turned portrait-wise specifically to read comics.
As a creator: the 17¢ commissions I get from GlobalComix make it impossible for it to be sustainable. Kickstarter and crowdfunding are the way, but even those are bolstered by physical backers.
And I’m in agreement with you, as it marks an important step for creators to make money on digital over physical comics. Unfortunately, it all comes down to marketing them and figuring out how to funnel current/new readers into that particular area to better increase the numbers of digital sales. The same goes for Kickstarter and the funneling of consumers who look for physical goods, there’s no perfect solution to increasing sales, but there is a way that’ll work for you in the long run. My advice is to seek out those who are currently doing decent/great numbers in both avenues and take cues from them to bolster funds from both digital and physical sales.
I think it's less a problem of strategy and more of platform. I haven't found anyone doing well with certain (previously mentioned) platforms.
Digital sales on KS do pretty well, honestly. The ROI is arguably higher than physical books since I don't have to ship anything either.
Digital sales on subscription services though - I don't know how that's sustainable for individual or micro-pubs. You're splitting $8/month between every comic that reader has read that month. (And that's assuming they didn't get a sub on sale.) Even if they read only indie comics, instead of those by Boom, Image, Dynamite, etc., we're left fighting for scraps.
That KDP-style model is fine when I have a 300-page book (and x amount more in a series behind it), but on a 24-page comic? That's not enough to fund a coffee, let alone a artist, colourist, letterer, editor...
It's not dissimilar to what you see with artists on Spotify. Can't all be Taylor Swift.
Definitely see your point. Something would have to get better with this at some point though, as it can’t remain the same forever. Maybe the true move is to do small bursts of digital campaigns on KS or elsewhere to move the needle even a little bit, and keep that cycle going to fund your next project or whatever it is as opposed to a Global Comix or a Patreon. Some form of platform has to be viable for us that are trying to make careers out of this work.
I'm conflicted with the digital aspect of things.
As a reader: I absolutely love having all these digital comics available to me at my fingertips. Plus - they look great on my screen turned portrait-wise specifically to read comics.
As a creator: the 17¢ commissions I get from GlobalComix make it impossible for it to be sustainable. Kickstarter and crowdfunding are the way, but even those are bolstered by physical backers.
Interesting and scary times ahead.
And I’m in agreement with you, as it marks an important step for creators to make money on digital over physical comics. Unfortunately, it all comes down to marketing them and figuring out how to funnel current/new readers into that particular area to better increase the numbers of digital sales. The same goes for Kickstarter and the funneling of consumers who look for physical goods, there’s no perfect solution to increasing sales, but there is a way that’ll work for you in the long run. My advice is to seek out those who are currently doing decent/great numbers in both avenues and take cues from them to bolster funds from both digital and physical sales.
I think it's less a problem of strategy and more of platform. I haven't found anyone doing well with certain (previously mentioned) platforms.
Digital sales on KS do pretty well, honestly. The ROI is arguably higher than physical books since I don't have to ship anything either.
Digital sales on subscription services though - I don't know how that's sustainable for individual or micro-pubs. You're splitting $8/month between every comic that reader has read that month. (And that's assuming they didn't get a sub on sale.) Even if they read only indie comics, instead of those by Boom, Image, Dynamite, etc., we're left fighting for scraps.
That KDP-style model is fine when I have a 300-page book (and x amount more in a series behind it), but on a 24-page comic? That's not enough to fund a coffee, let alone a artist, colourist, letterer, editor...
It's not dissimilar to what you see with artists on Spotify. Can't all be Taylor Swift.
Definitely see your point. Something would have to get better with this at some point though, as it can’t remain the same forever. Maybe the true move is to do small bursts of digital campaigns on KS or elsewhere to move the needle even a little bit, and keep that cycle going to fund your next project or whatever it is as opposed to a Global Comix or a Patreon. Some form of platform has to be viable for us that are trying to make careers out of this work.