FAQ
all who choose to participate in this "industry" survey will be asked
to answer these same questions as best they can, relative to the time
period in which they operated as a comic book publisher/self publisher,
and whatever they may have learnt from that experience (or continuing
experience).
this survey has a number of purposes. First and foremost, it should act as
a guide for future publishers: what are the pitfalls and how can they be
avoided, or their negative effects minimised. Secondly, the survey will
act as a window revealing a market that has not fully been exploited.
This survey is to be answered/filled out by publishers/Self-publishers,
not someone (like myself) who has only ever been published by someone els.
If this survey/interview is to really meen anything to the Australian
comic book community as a whole, the questions will have to dig deep. But
feel free to NOT answer any questions that you might consider too
personal. But also, keep in mind that these answers will benefit many
other future self publishers, and ultimately even yourself.
There are no right answers, this is an exercise in information gathering
for the purpose of teaching/learning, and not meant as some kind of a
measuring rod for "success", so accuracy is more important than
"presentation".
Self-publishing in this instance refers to any self funded sequential art
endeavor with a print run and successful sale of at least 20 copy's of the
same issue (so that includes all of you mini comic publishers out there as
well).
The questions will have overlapping subject matter so just answer
whichever question seems logical to you, and refer to the number of the
question that you feel you may already have given the answer to by
writing, for example: "Question No.15: see answer No.10" and so on.
"Don't know" or "can't remember" are acceptable answers (hey, this ain't
school, ya know?).
But if you can't give accurate information regarding quantity's you can
estimate or use percent amounts if you think that they are reasonably
accurate.
there are a lot of questions so I would suggest that you give short
answers initially and then go back in later and flesh them out if you want
to, otherwise you may find yourself spending a lot of time answering only
a few questions and lose interest in the rest.
Long or short, it doesn't matter, only that each question has an answer (
or a refferance to an answer: "see Question/answer No.10").
If you have additional information that you think could benefit other
publishers, but there isn't a question that covers that aspect of
publishing, just ad it at the end of the interview/survey. And state that
this is exstra information.
You could also include a paragraph about the exsperiance of doing this
interview/survey (its up to you).
A list will be posted on my website (www.
oocities.com/tuffhelmet/list.html) that will have the names and websites
of those who have been contacted, with their names listed in orange. those
who have agreed to participate will be listed as yellow. and finaly, those
who have completed the interview/survey, and have their responces posted
will be listed as green. This list should grow over time.
If you have not been contacted but would like to participate, just copy
the questions from the list page and send me an email with some info about
your publishing history, website and the name you would like to be listed
as, and i will add you to the list as "yellow".
a compiled statistical report (of some kind) will also be published at a
later date (Thats where the real work starts, all fun and games until
then...).
Remember, there are no obligations here, so don't feel pressured. And take
as long as you would like. This is your chance to tell your publishing
story in a way that will have a greater meaning and become a valuable
resource for so many in the future.
if you know someone who has published a comic, tell them about the list. I
don't know how many publishers have operated in the last 30 years but I
would like to involve as many as possible
so, Ever wanted to do an interview for "The comics Journal" or "Comic Book
writer/Artist"?...
Well, here's the warm up...go crazy...
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THE QUESTIONS:
1. How old where you when you published for
the first time (include the year)?
2. Still at school, working or
not?
3. Did you publish your own work, or someone else's (or
both)?
4. And what was the reasoning behind this choice?
5. Who or what was your inspiration for self publishing?
6. Where did the finances come from?
7. Had you considered
joining forces with someone els for the financings?
8. Had you
tried to get a grant of some kind?
9. Should there be a grant?
10. How should it operate (criteria)?
11. Clear vision of
what you wanted to achieve creatively and/or financially?
12.
Considered having advertising or completely self funded?
13. Had
you identified your target audience?
14. Had you ever seriously
considered colour, and reasons for or against?
15. What where your
ideas for distribution?
16. How wide would you like to go with the
distribution?
17. Who did you ultimately distribute with and why?
18. Sell to America or just Australia?
19. Thoughts on
distributing/targeting Europe/Asia?
20. how many issues did/have
you published so far?
21. What did your first self publishing
effort cost (gross)?
22. What was the print run?
23. how
many did you sell (and did this number go up, or down)?
24. at
what outlets and what were the stock levels/orders for?
25. did
you get reorders (reasons for the decline)?
26. Have you ever made
a clear profit from a single issue?
27. Have you had fan mail and
how many letters/emails per issue?
28. number of male/female
readers (%)(and why do you think that is)?
29. Publishing been
mostly positive or negative (Would you recommend the experience)?
30. have you considered the internet as a publishing and/or
distribution point?
31. What would be your Australian Publishers
pipe dream?
32. What do you think will happen in Australia (next 5
to 10 years)?
33. How far back can you name your predecessors
(know your history)?
34. Oldest Australian comic book (year) that
you have read/owned and do you still have it?
35. Please list all
the Australian comic book "company's" that you have in your collection?
36. Do you meet with other self publishers (regularly or
otherwise)?
37. for how long have you been meeting?
38. Do
you attend conventions (and why)?
39. if you sell your efforts at
conventions, how many copy's do you sell (high/low numbers)?
40.
has that number gone up or down over the years?
41. Name your
favorate australian comic books (and why)?
42. Who Would you like
to see return to active dutiey (and why)?
43. Have you been out of
the game, and considered returning to it yourself?
44. would you,
or have you worked for someone els (been published)?
45. do you
buy main stream comics (why/why not)?
46. better or worse than 5 -
10 years ago (and why)?
47. whats good and/or bad about modern
printing?
48. Do you have an opinion about the theory of "supply
and demand" (does it work)?
49. How many people in Australia read
comic books (mainstream and "alternative" combined)?
50.
Advertising an actual comic book in Australia has remaned for the most
part an untested practice. Why do you think that is?
51. would the
advertising of your comic book in other mediums be helpful to the sale of
your comic (why/why not)?
52. Do you know of any Australian comic
books that have contained advertising?
53. what Does the core
idea/reasons/motivations/purposes of publishing a comic in Australia have
to do with the success/failure of the venture (or is finance the bottom
line)?
54. Why are most Australian comics designed as Alternative
rather than mainstream properties?
55. What types have you
considerd publishing ( superhero, crime, sci-fi, fantasy, humour,
anthromorphs, autobiographical.....)?
56. If you could make a
living of publishing superhero comic books in Australia, would you be
comfortable doing that. (Why/why not)?
57. Is there an untapped
audience in Australia for alternative or mainstream comic books?
58. If there is, what do you think it would take to start and then
sustain that audience?
59. Are graphic novels the inevitable
future?
60. Could you describe your comic book buying habits, and
why you make the choices you do?
61. At the end of the day, isn't
it all about the quality of the comic book that determines the financial
success of the publishing venture?
62. Does Australia's
geographical position and, Asian population, predispose it to a potentialy
good position for publishing manga style comics/graphic novels?
63. If Australia's population is about 20.000.000 people, and 1 %
of that is 200.000. Is it not possible to find a readership of 1 tenth of
a percent: 20.000 readers?
64. And if that potential audience
could be reached, what would you offer it?
65. The newsagent's in
Australia became a no go zone for most/all self publishers after Gorden
and Gotch refused to distribute Australian comics (or so the story goes).
Why do you think that happened and can it be changed?
66. Falling
short of suggesting an actual union with membership cards and yearly
membership fees, is it possible that a united comic book community (as in,
a singular purpose) could develop into an actual comic book producing
industry (as defined by the fact that people are working full time and
getting paid for it)?
67. Are there any unhealthy cultural habits
within the Australian comic book community that could be holding us back
from achieving financial success?
68. I recently came upon the
idea that people will tend to believe about you/treat you according to
what you believe about yourself (an outer projection of your inner
self/feelings). If this is true, then wouldn't an amatur
publisher/writer/artist project himself as an amatur if that's how he saw
himself, and would therefor be treated as such?
69. Is it true
that printing a comic book in colour becomes prohibitively expensive ?
70. If unabel to spend money to make your comic competitive, is
there anything els you can do to succed?
thank you for takeing the time to answer all of these questions.
Some of them may have been a bit hard to answer. I playd devils
advocet more than once, but all of them can provide very important
information to those who will be publishing in the next few years.
And hopefully you will have contrubuted to their confidence and
knowledge of how to be a successful comic book publisher in Australia.
My next assignment will be to contact comic book retailers around
the country and convince them to take part in their own tailor made
interview/survey, after all, they are the ones who make the real money and
are closer to the "industry" in some ways than even the publishers, middle
men get to hear the comments coming from both sides of the house...the
publishers and the readers.
And After that...who knows...
thanks again,
and cheers.
Mike N.
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