You may have heard the term comicsgate which is thought to come from gamergate. However, it have another meaning. Check out the video below.
The most important thing to remember is to never give up on your dreams. If you want to create comics than you should do that. Just know like anything, it take work to be successful. And don’t let a few people on social media determine what path you take. That is your choice alone.
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.
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.
You may wonder why the title of this blog is “Little Elf in Big Pond of Drama, The Comic Industry.” “Little elf in big pond of drama prefer to “little fish in big pond”. I am a comic book writer starting out and trying to get my name out by using what I was referral by other people. They say use social media to sale yourself and get your brand name out there. However, it has been almost impossible to grow my followers on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. I am getting a lot of growth on Instagram but little to no one on Instagram click the links on the post. So, I cannot get traffic to my website or other platform such as Etsy and YouTube. And YouTube is no better, I have been getting like 2 views per video on YouTube after I follow the instruction from education tutorial on SEO keywords, making better thumbnails for video etc. I ran a few tests myself and found out that YouTube is not recording the external views I get from linking the video on other site such as my website, Facebook, Twitter, email, WordPress, and more. For I have reach out to a few business relation and friends to asked them to review my video. They have told me yes, “I have watched your video and love it.” News is growing on the web that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are censoring people who disagree with them, small entrepreneur, or anything that maybe against the large tech company that support the three giants.
In reality, it is hard being a creator in today social media. You may ask why they would do something like this to me that is not very known, I don’t think they are target me directly. I think they are censor small entrepreneur, so we will not become competition later in the future.
I will start by explaining what my business is and what I have been working on. I will be publishing my first comic series call Angie’s Adventures in Oct 2019 under the first ever graphic novel and comics publisher call Zazu Zine + Comix Publishing. I also have a digital comics series on Webtoons call Nocturnal Orphan. I am working with Kim Eley of Kwe Publishing LLC to promote Zazu Zine + Comix. I created a video on YouTube talking about the vision for Zazu Zine + Comix. The vision that Eley have for ZAZU is to give new artist a chance to introduce new content to comic industry and to give new artist a chance to shine. You would think this is good news and no one would have a problem with it; however, when I post this information on Facebook or Twitter, I get crickets… The reason why I know something is not right with views on Facebook and Twitter is because I share the news about my business with my two blogs on WordPress NC Outdoor Adventures Mia and The Fun World of Dating yesterday. I receive several likes and new followers in the last 24 hours.
It got me thinking about how much news is out there that the comic industry is dying and how people should give up on making comics. It left me with the thought what if Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are supporting this news and want everyone to think comics is dead. If that is the case, it would explain when I made videos that comics is not dead and more people like the idea of having more diversity genres of comics than I am going against what the main media is saying. It makes me an outsider by default which is sad. For there are many people in the education field who like the idea of new comic writers. I have at least three people in the education field have asked for me to come talk with the students about making comics; one was a professional at VCU who would like for me to talk to the college art students about alternate educations, one was a recreation coordinator in my apartment community center in section 8 housing apartments who want me to talk to the children about a future in comics, and a librarian in urban setting who want to hired me as public speaker to talk with the children that visit the library about comics.
There are real people who want original content in the form of graphic novels and comics; however, there are people out there that just want only a hand full of people to make comics. They do not understand the disservices they are doing to the many people who want to encourage children from reading. Graphic novel is growing because school have open to the idea that it is better for children to read graphic novel than not read at all. People in the education field are trying their best to keep children in this model age interesting in reading and graphic novel and comics help in this area. However, the current comics industry is not meeting to the needs that education required. They are blocking self-publishing comics from getting into comics stores which in return the comics stores cannot stay in business that way. However, there are a few comics stores that have adopt more diversity of publishers, self-publishers, and brought in tabletop games. They have created an environmental of community welcome of families. These comics stores are not in the large cities, they are in the small cities across the country. That is why you never heard about them in the social media and that have been the key to their success for small entrepreneur.
I am adopting this concept into my business practice. I am focus on my location community here in Richmond, VA, USA. Therefore, I go to network meeting in my area for they cannot stop me from getting in contact with the other business entrepreneur in my area. I also travel to anime and comic con. I have staff at a couple of anime con and make a few connections with other writers who are more successful than me and publishers’ companies.
I also have not given up on social media, for I still have a voice; I will keep sharing my brand and promote Zazu Zine + Comix Publishing.
If you would like to learn more about my business Maria Hargis Art, visit my website at www.mariahargis.com. And if you would like to learn more about ZAZU, the website is www.zazuzine.com.
Oh, if you were wondering why a elf instead of a fish, it is because my main character in Angie’s Adventure is an elf. I have a soft spot for elves.
Little Elf in big Pond of Drama, The Comic Industry USA 