Angie’s Adventures

How to Choose between Self Publishing or Publisher Company?

So recent I have choice to pull out of Zazu Zine + Comix Publisher in Oct 2019. This was not an easy decision to come up with, however, it did not sound good for my business. From the beginning, I kept hearing that we will not talk about sponsorship, distribution, and marketing until after we get comic done. As we where getting closer to the deadline for the submitting comic, we start to discuss sponsorship, distribution, and marketing a little.

The conclusion with sponsorship was that it was going to pay for start up cost of publishing and first round of prints of comic. I asked will we have continuously revenue coming in to pay for re-stock and marketing because if we divide up the revenue from sales to all artists, and publisher individual, than where will the money come for paying for re-stock and marketing? However, will you start up a company on the first project without investing money from product to keep it up? The answer I got was we will deal with it when we get there. That answer sound too much like “Lets wing it.” The publisher say that she will pull money from her other business to pay for marketing and more re-stock.

So I made the decision to pull out because I don’t think this will be any different than publishing myself. Yes, I would not pay for the cost of publisher if I do that, however, I would we be doing more work to promote this publisher and not get much out of it. I believe a company need to invest in it self from the very beginning or it will not be able stand on it own very long. I also believe that many investor would not support a company that is not willing to create it own revenue coming in to keep it running.

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I have deciding to look into self publisher or another publisher company. I am working on writing out the first five chapter of Angie’s Adventures. My plan is to still plan for the release in Oct for Chapter 1. I will be looking at digital comics as well. I am hoping that I could get three Chapter done by Jan 2020. For I have plans to go to Mars Con Jan 2020 in Williamsburg, VA.

I would like to hear your thoughts on self publisher vs publisher company. I know there is more work and investing more money when it come to self publisher. However, I feel it is do able and I have the skills to market myself. Also, I would like to hear your thoughts on how long is a series you enjoy reading. I am looking into making Angie’s Adventure into a long series or break it up in parts. I am also thinking about making one shot comics for individual characters such as Fredrick and Alphonse background and Two-bit background. Fredrick and Alphonse story will be very different from Two-bit story. One will be very serious and the other will be more humor. One story will be around tragic and revenge while the other story will be around heart break and money.

The good news out of all of this, I will be bringing more content to the viewer than what I had plan previous. Which Chapter 1, I will be able to add more papers to it than what I original plan under ZAZU.

Not Easy being Create…

This week is one of those week when things such does not go as plan. I had some personal life stuff happen this week that have made it hard to stay focus on create new content. Mostly it is people that got in the way. This had happen to me a few time that I know it is the price for trying something new. Any time when you are trying to start your own business or working on a new project at work, there will be a few that just does not want to see you be successful at it.

When this happen, I allow myself to be flexible and broken my own rules. Just like I say that I would have new design for my sale by Monday, I just decide to delay it a little bit. It is not like I am a large company or have a large follower base right now so I could get away with that kind of stuff. Plus I did not give myself time off in between working on my part time job and working on my business which I am bad at.

However, I did get an awesome artwork of Angie, my main character from my comic series Angie’s Adventures, done. It is a picture of her if she were in school. I believe this picture will give you a little look into what kind of personally she will have.

If you would like to support me, you can like or subscribe to my blog for more post such as this one. And if you would like support my art, you can visit my website: http://www.mariahargis.com for T-shirts, mugs, and prints of art for sale.

Oct 2019, I will be release my first publish comic series call Angie’s Adventures. The main character is Angie, a elf. The story is about how Angie goes on a journey. The world I am create is where most of the population is human. Human have say no to magic and yes to technology. The human are living in a modern day era. However, there are magic in this world with magical creatures such as elves, dwarfs, warforged, neko races, orcs, changelings, and more. The world I am created is very much related to pathfinder RPG and Dungeons and Dragons.

In Oct 2019, I will be released the first chapter of Angie’s Adventures. The story have six main characters:

Angie, an elf, Sorcerer Draconic, chaotic neutral

Angie ancestor had a relationship with a green dragon to save the village from destruction. That is all what I will say about the main character because the first chapter will explains the details and background of Angie character.

Two-Bit, a gnome, Bard, lawful neutral

Two-Bit is about two feet tall and most of the time is mistaking for a 5 year old human child. He is very mysterious and his motive is very unclear.

Alphonse, a dwarf, Tactician, lawful neutral

Alphonse is usually clam and collective, however, when someone does wrong to his brother Fredrick. He blow his top easily. Note: some D&D reference say that dwarf cannot became tactician because tactician is for more intelligent race such as elves and humans. I found this to be a little racist and will used this in my story.

Fredrick, a warforged, Paladin, lawful good

Fredrick is a warforged who development AI intelligent in the last 1000 year war that was between the dwarf/warforged vs orges/aasimar. Aasimar are a race of beast cross with celestrials (They usually look like angel or tengu). After the war was over warforged live side by side with dwarfs as family members. Fredrick and Alphonse are not related by blood but their bond is stronger than blood relations. Fredrick is very timid tho he is a seven foot robot.

This is Yuri when he was five years old. This is one of the scenes from Nocturnal Orphan.

Yuri, a neko (cat people), Monk, chaotic neutral

Yuri was rise in a buddhist temple and learn the way on hand to hand combat. Due to his nature he never stay on the side good and help out his childhood friend Lynn by hiding her out from the people who want her dead.

This is Lynn when she growth to become an assassin.

Lynn, a changeling, Assassin, chaotic neutral

Lynn is nocturnal due to her being half hag and sea serpent. Lynn was drop off as a baby to orphanage and due to her being nocturnal and it was unknown to what she was growing up. The people rising her would give up on her and she would bounce from one foster home to the next until her mentor recruiting her to become an assassin.

I created Nocturnal Orphan to introduce my audiences to the world I am creating.

Lynn story of how she is rise is told in Nocturnal Orphan which you can found on Webtoons. I had to take a break for a month due to finance troubles. However, I will be continuing the story in the next two weeks from now.

It is a story that will cover how being different in a world when you are a minority. It is very much an adventures, fantasy, action, comedy, and maybe romantics story.

I would love to heard what you think of my world that I am creating. Also, this will be a large project and would love to found people who would like to join me in making great content comics.

Feel free to learn more at www.mariahargis.com. I do love comments so leave some for me to read and get back with you.