Comic book authors in the United States earn between $12,000 and $328,608 per year.
If you are an artist or writer passionate about creating comics, learning how to self-publish a webcomic is the first step.
Doing so allows you to monetize your rare skillset.
Gladly, many self-help guides available today can prepare your path to success.
One is the Kindle Direct Publishing Success Guide, which we will discuss more in detail later.
Keep reading to learn about the eight steps in self-publishing digital comics.
Why Self-publish Your Comic?
Before digging deeper into learning how to self-publish a webcomic, you might be interested to know why you should consider it in the first place.
Contrary to hiring comic book publishers, choosing to self-publish puts you in control of your creation.
For example, you can choose the genre you want to write in and the number of pages you want to do.
It also allows you to choose how you would like to promote your comic.
Of course, self-publishing doesn’t mean you have to do all the work by yourself.
To succeed, you may need the help of other professionals, such as editors, co-writers, graphic designers, and retailers.
Even so, you get to decide precisely how you want to publish your work.
More importantly, self-publishing your work keeps you from being subject to working on what is commercially viable.
Commercial viability is what keeps many artists from pursuing creative freedom.
As you would guess, most comic publishers aren’t more concerned about the content of your work but rather its commercial viability.
Through self-publishing, your cutting-edge work finds its way into the market.
How to Self-publish a Webcomic
Unlike a traditional comic book, creating digital copies of a comic involves less work.
Nonetheless, there are a lot of things to consider when deciding to self-publish your work.
Follow these steps to get started.
1. Plan Your Comic Book Structure.
Many comic book writers are excited to jump straight into drawing, thinking that the writing process will just happen naturally.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the best path.
A webcomic is a lot more diverse than traditional comic books.
It’s important first to determine the structure of your comic, such as its length and genre.
You must also decide whether or not your comic is episodic or serial.
As with any creative project, you must also decide on a theme.
Webcomics are available in a full spectrum of themes, from fantasy to sci-fi, romance, horror, and comedy.
2. Write the Script.
Now it’s time to write the manuscript, which contains the dialogue that propels your story.
Yet, before doing that, you should create an outline, also called a storyboard.
Storyboarding your webcomic helps you save time, money, and stress when you start creating your comic panels.
Think of it as your secret weapon that helps you get a crystal-clear storyline before you start sketching.
The process involves taking the kernel of an idea and reproducing it in an image form.
Begin by listing your ideas in bullet points, then revise them to create a logical story flow.
After that, you can identify the approximate number of panels for your story.
For example, if you’re working on a 22-page comic, you may need to create 132 panels per issue.
Once you’re done, you can start writing down the action and dialogue.
When writing the manuscript, remember that every detail matters.
That said, each panel should describe the composition, such as whether the drawing needs to be close-up or done at a wide shot.
Doing so helps you remember the scene you’ve pictured in your mind while writing the story.
3. Edit and Finalize Your Work.
At this point, it’s time to hand your work to a capable editor who will review the manuscript and provide feedback on all areas.
While you can do this yourself, you can have someone analyze the structure, plot flow, character development, dialogue, and so on.
Once the refinements have been made, the editor will do final proofreading to catch any typos, grammar errors, spelling errors, and the like.
4. Create Your Drawings.
Many comic book authors collaborate with graphic illustrators unless they happen to be artists themselves.
Storyboarding becomes more important if you’re working with a graphic artist since this person will work from the script you created.
Furthermore, your artist will also require the story panels and character profiles you provided.
5. Ink Your Drawing.
The artist may do the coloring work himself, or you may hire a colorist who will complete the artwork.
It’s a good thing that there are many digital tools available these days, allowing you to perform this task quickly and cost-effectively.
6. Insert the Lettering.
Unless you are good at it, finding a good letterer is important in your comic self-publishing project.
This person specializes in lettering and calligraphy and is responsible for drawing the comic book’s text.
They are also responsible for creating word balloons and captions, among other tasks.
As the author, you must be able to visualize the pages you’re expecting so you know exactly what you’re asking of the letterer.
You must also estimate how much text can fit into each panel and what the pages will look like once they have been lettered.
7. Publish Your Webcomic.
You have different options to showcase your work online.
There are many websites that comic artists use to publish their work for free, such as:
Webtoon Line
This website is a popular publishing platform for manga.
It lets you upload your work in episodes and use different tags or classifications for your content to help readers search your story easily.
Tapas
This site lets your audience read your work through the website or on their mobile app.
Currently, there are over 56,000 creators that use this site.
They have a free version that lets you publish your content and take advantage of the platform’s tools.
Nevertheless, Tapas also offers a premium option that helps you monetize your work.
Tumbler
Tumbler is a microblogging and social networking website that lets you publish short posts.
It has many tools that make your stories easily shareable on social networks.
Reddit is one of the best places to publish webcomics because it offers the highest potential for traffic.
Also, depending on how many votes your content receives, it climbs the board and becomes more visible to readers.
Kindle Direct Publishing
The Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) tool is a great platform for preparing your comic, manga, or graphic novel.
It supports formats like PPM, PDF, JPG, and TIFF.
Plus, it comes included with powerful marketing tools that help you reach new readers.
To get the most out of this platform, you will benefit from a KDP Success Guide.
It provides an in-depth review of holidays, events, and trending topics each month to help you develop content your readers will love.
In addition, you will get instructions on utilizing the best ideas and creating books that have a high potential of selling.
8. Promote Your Webcomic.
After publishing your webcomic, your next goal is to have it seen by as many people as possible.
Capturing the attention of webcomic enthusiasts can be done using different forms of advertising.
Choosing the best will depend on many variables, such as your target audience and niche.
Initially, you want to advertise your webcomics to friends and family and ask them to share your finished product on their social networking sites.
Don’t forget to include a link to your site or portfolio so interested readers can view more of your work.
If you don’t have a website yet, consider creating one.
You can hire a professional web designer or make one for yourself using platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, or Weebly.
Next, submit your work to directories that specialize in webcomics.
Your options include OnlineComics.net, ComicNation.com, and ComixPedia.org.
These websites have rules and guidelines for uploading, so read the fine print first.
Another way to promote your webcomic is through social media.
While you can use your personal account to do this, it’s nice to have an official page for your work.
An official page allows you to build a fan base and encourage readers to follow your work.
Last but not least, you can promote your book and increase your traffic by participating in some sort of link exchange.
Doing so takes more work, but it can be very beneficial.
You’re Ready to Publish!
Self-publishing a webcomic might sound easy, but it takes a lot of hard work, effort, and preparation to get your creation into the market.
Yet, hopefully, with this guide, the creative process will be much smoother.
Again, start by creating a storyboard for your comic before writing the script.
After that, you can create drawings, insert lettering, and finalize your work.
Throughout these steps, obtaining professional services from artists, illustrators, colorists, and letterers may be helpful.
Furthermore, there are different platforms comic creators can use to publish their work.
If using KDP, don’t forget to get the Kindle Direct Publishing Success Guide to access essential tips and hacks.
