ZOMBIE FANS the next week or so is gonna be dedicated to the story and art so you should be having a ball. This post is gonna be for those crazy folks thinking about self publishing so please, bear with me. .
Just got home from work (10:36 yikes) and I didn't have much time to work on character designs for the last dino-survivor BUT I did get some price quotes back from some respectable printers that have a distribution chain set up with Diamond distributors, so now I have an idea of what my personal costs will be. As I stated early on the blog (which reminds me: if you're new to the blog best to start at day one and work your way up. It will also explain that the headers CC stands for blogs mainly put up for Comic Creators and ZF for Zombie Fans. . .which I guess is pointless since I just explained it) this is what I was looking for, production-wise:
" a quote for a 1,000, 3,000, and 5,000 unit run of standard size comic book, saddle stitched, 24 pages, B&W interior on (preferably) 50 press, with a color cover (preferably) 70 or 80 press"
Again if you don't get any of what I said, start at day one (or was it two...whatever).
So the quotes I'm getting back are around (give or take a couple hundred):
1,000 units (issues) ---$1,000
3,000 units --- $1,500
5,000 ---$2,000
The math astute of you will realize the larger the volume, the cheaper the price. Why is this? Since I worked with a professional printer I can let you in on a secret: A large part of your cost is the 'set up' for each job (one customers publication would equal one job). It takes time to get those giant presses set up, calibrated, inked up, etc. for a good run. Once it's set up all your really paying for is expendables (paper, ink) not TIME. For printers TIME = MONEY (Well really thats for anyone, but I digress).
Now I've seen quite a few cats and kittens use digital press companies to put out their books, the one I like the most is Ka-Blam (http://ka-blam.com) from what I've seen quality-wise. I've gotten pretty impressed by the dramatic rise in quality from some of these vendors, and to be assured the convenience of them can not be beat. BUT there's one problem:
Digital Printer (name left out on purpose. . .)price quotes comparable to the above printers:
1,000 units --- 2185.00
3000 units --- 6555.00
5000 units --- $10925.00
Digital printers are great if you are doing small runs. . .and in fact that's what they are intended for. . .they way the operate their set up time is less (although potentially so is their quality). If I ordered 100 comics from the same company I quoted above it's only $218 roughly. If I ordered that from the printers I've contacted I'd be looking probably around 500 to 600 dollars, if I'm lucky. So they are great for promotions, small scale distributions, selling at cons, etc. My focus is to hit the big leagues and get a deal through Diamond, and an ad in their Previews (which I'll have to pay for-more on that in a later post).
Now then we have to think about profits. Comics range from 4.50 to 2.99 on average. The problem is, at least in my opinion, that I'm not good enough to justify the steep 4.50 cover price, so I'm currently thinking 2.99 cover price. So some quick math and we see:
1,000 ---2,990
3,000 ---8970
5,000 ---14,950
If we reduce printing costs we're (at first looking at a profit of):
1,000 -1990
3,000 -7470
5000 -12950
Looks pretty snazy right? Wrong. Here's why: First off, Diamond takes a chunk of those profits. What, you think they distributed comics for free? Of course not. Their website has changed so I don't know how current this is, but their old website used to state , "If you publish comics Diamond generally receives a discount in the range of 60 to 70 off of the us retail (cover) price. Non-comics product discounts vary". Now lets take the 1,000 units as our example because if Diamond picks up this comic that's probably going to be their initial order, unless I can generate some AMAZING pre-press buzz (which I will, don't worry). So at (best case) a 60% discount, and priced at 2.99 I'm looking at selling 1000 units at (1990 X .60 =) 1194. And how much did we say it's going to cost me to get 1,000 issues printed? 1,000. So profit wise I'm looking at $194. Big bucks right? Oh and let's not forget that I'm gonna want to spring for a ad in Previews (the monthly magazine/catalog that comic shop owners purchase the comics out of the store from), and other marketing. That is not going to be covered by 194 dollars. No way, no how.
The Big Guys make money because they've established their companies, brand and characters ( I would argue that the characters actually are a brand themselves, but that would lead to a 25 page dissertation on branding, symbolism, and mythology and even I don't want that. . .okay I do, but I'm sure you don't). This means they have more of a share of the marketplace, get the public eye more, and naturally they sell more comics. I'd wager they even have their own printers, which of course lowers the cost even more. This is my first comic. I'm going to take a hit (at least I should, but I do have a cunning plan I will reveal soon. . .because as the blue unicorn said to Charlie. . ."you got to be sneaky Charlie. . .Sneeeakkkyyyyy") which I knew going in. I have to establish my brand, and that costs. But if I can survive the losses for the first year or so, I should have established my company as a fun, quality based, and most importantly UNIQUE, comic company.
Okay, that's all the 'info dump' I have for now. I'm exhausted, my co worker has to leave for a few days (loss in his family) so I'm doing both our jobs and best of all I have to work through the weekend. . .on my birthday. Yeesh. Kids never go into television.
Till later; Be brave. Be well. Be kind.
-Trevor
Even though I'm here mostly for the zombie dinosaurs, I've done my share of printing -- and it's always interesting to see how this breaks down, especially with the profit angle figured in. That is to say, the "no profit" (as opposed to "non profit" angle. Keep it up, Trevor -- we want to see those rapacious undead reptiles in print!
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