Publishing a graphic novel. . . . . .

[EMP Knightmare]

Basically if one would like to publish a graphic novel how would one go about doing so?

 

[FAST6191]

I am not entirely sure this it the venue for it, myself I do things for printers and such like so I am coming from that background.

Graphic novel is a euphemism of sorts which makes things slightly tricky.

Generally though you have two options
1) Go for a regular publisher.
2) Publish it yourself.

Both have upsides and downsides. There are ways to blur the lines.

Regular publisher- you can send things in, try to get a pitch together for them, get an agent to help you out here or you could hope you are otherwise discovered. There are big publishing houses, there are small ones and there are all sorts of other things in the specialist world which "graphic novel" frequently finds itself in, they do have perks like having an editor though (and you do want an editor of some skill to help) or an advance if you are especially lucky.

For my money that reads not much chance of stuff happening, good luck if you do not have a previous body of work, can do but it might be expensive down the line and definitely good luck there.

As a subtle variation on the theme you might have a local magazine, newspaper or some such you could speak to. Money will likely not be good (if you get more than a token sum at all) but it is an option and they can handle a lot more than you might able to pull off by yourself.

Publish it yourself. Small run and even individual printing is a possibility these days- here you get to build websites to demo things/sell it, get it ready to print (conventional text/image editors tend not to be quite at the level you can fire it across to a printer if you do not want to be paying them to put it together), go to cons/shows/whatever and generally do the whole self promotion bit. It is a lot of work though not impossible and though I do not suggest being overly frugal it does not cost much to do well (especially if you already have the gear necessary to have something made). The general idea was "I do [this website]/[this series]/write for [this site] and I just made this graphic novel" though others are doing well enough with "giving it all away and hoping someone does visit your online shop to buy merch or a hardcopy" (or possibly clicks on any adverts my site might have).
As you will effectively be setting up a business for this you might want to read up on that, if it is a solo project that is great but if you have others doing lines/ink/story/layout you will have to figure out IP rights, the business type (LLC and whatever else- I am not familiar with practices in your neck of the woods) and any income/profit splits/voting ability.

Ways to blur the lines- there are all sorts of incubator type sites and distribution channels which will take a cut but can probably effect better visibility than you might be able to do by yourself. You are probably familiar with the likes of cafepress which you send pictures and they send whatever with it on to everybody else- others exist for books, audiobooks, general artwork and more.

 

[EMP Knightmare]

Thank you FAST6191 for your reply and information.

 

[Veho]

You are probably familiar with the likes of cafepress which you send pictures and they send whatever with it on to everybody else- others exist for books, audiobooks, general artwork and more.

Cafepress does books too. Zazzle and Lulu are others I know of, and there are plenty more. They would be perfect for smaller runs, and you can have, say, fifty to a hundred copies made for promotional purposes (hang around conventions, send to prominent critics/authors, etc.), and sell the rest via the Cafepress (or some other service) online store. For larger runs I would suggest some other printing service since with bulk discount for larger orders, the setup and flat fees of offset printing or order printing will get lost in the volume. Maybe Lulu/Cafepress offer bulk discounts for large orders, I don't know.

 

[Gahars]

Just to add on to FAST's great post, avoid vanity publishers like the plague. They're companies that take advantage of would-be authors. (TVtropes actually has a good page on the subject here)

I'm not sure how many exist for graphic novels, but just be wary.

 

[EMP Knightmare]

Thank you Veho and Gahars for your reply.