Getting Rich in the eBook Gold Rush: A How-To Kit for Comic Artists
Copyright © 2012 by Adrean Clark
Published by Adrean Clark at Smashwords.
ISBN-10: 0-9827475-9-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-9827475-9-9
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Adobe product screenshot reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Microsoft Word product screenshots used with permission from Microsoft.
Smashwords logo and website design copyright Smashwords, Inc.
Acknowledgements
This ebook couldn’t be possible without the help of my in-house editor husband, John Lee Clark. His great patience and that of my awesome boys helped make this happen. A big heaping of gratitude goes to Daniel Olson, who lit this book’s spark while we shared a booth at the Minneapolis Indie Expo. I also appreciate Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon of Big Time Attic and the Nordeast Comics Summit for their fantastic support and inspiration.
Most of all, thank you for reading and supporting my work. I hope this guide opens up a world of possibilities for you!
Table of Contents
Putting Your Supplies Together
- Digital Image Editing Software
The Gold Rush
For many years ebooks were the unwanted stepsister of traditional print books. Computer screens are ill-designed for comfortable fireside reading, and people were quick to dismiss the nascent ebook industry.
When Steve Jobs took the stage to announce the iPad in 2010, he introduced a fantastic product that finally made it easy for the average consumer to read ebooks. This opened up a new, wild fronter, much like the American West more than a hundred years ago.
Today different standards and platforms jostle for dominance, while news of independent authors striking gold abound. The iPad and Amazon Kindle makes it easy to read text, but what about comics?
I bought my iPad back in May 2010, so I’ve had the opportunity to see the industry grow. As a comic artist, I eagerly looked forward to sharing my work. Many independent comics apps appeared, but the action took place in the App Store, far from the iBookstore and the Kindle store. I wanted my own creations to be right in the middle of the digital retail floor.
It wasn’t until Smashwords, an ebook distributor, came up that I found the perfect platform to share my comics. Smashwords connects the dots between the online retailers and allows independent creators to take their work to the consumer. But I found that I was among only a small number of artists who took advantage of this great platform. Why is that the case?
When I exhibited at the Minneapolis Indie Expo, I found that most comic artists were afraid to take the plunge. Where to start and what to do—these questions were overwhelming. Most artists take refuge in letting vanity publishers "take care" of everything . . . and take most of the money, too. There were too many trails to follow and not enough guides.
So I created this ebook, to take the fear and mystery out of the process. You can roll up your sleeves and plunge right in. Use what you can and then strike gold!
Happy trails!
Putting Your Supplies Together
The most important resource you have is between your ears. The method I share in this book is only a starting point from where you can accomplish your goal, so invest in your creative mind to go far.
That said, what you need are the following:
- A great comic story
- Digital image editing software
- Microsoft Word
- Smashwords
These four items are the bare minimum that you need to start creating. Most can be obtained with elbow grease and a little investment. Personally, I worked mostly in Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word. In the next few chapters we’ll cover each item in depth.
The Mining Kit
The heart of a comic is the story. For the best results, take a page right out of Pixar Animation Studios’ playbook and make sure the core story is fantastic. A good story packaged right sells anything. That said, it’s much easier when you’ve designed the story to fit ebooks from the start.
eBooks are ultimately about the user being able to customize their experience, so there are three things to keep in mind. One, think in the 8-inch by 11-inch size ratio. Two, remember the generous margin around the active artwork space. Three, any text not in image form are customizable by the user, so formatting is at a minimum.
For these reasons, art that requires full-page bleeds are not possible. (See Hanging Out Your Shingle for options that are closer to traditional print comics.) It’s necessary to walk a fine line between what the art requires and what the reader requires.
One last tip about this portion of the process: Make sure you have a good keyword in your title. eBookstores are saturated with titles, so make sure your book is easily distinguishable from the rest. For example, my comic book 8 Ways to Be Deaf relied on the keyword “deaf” to find the right audience. I knew that people curious about deaf people would come across this book and be the most likely to buy it.
Once you’ve got the story down, it’s time to move on to the next stage.
Digital Image Editing Software
Use what tools appeal to you the most for creating the comic. Afterwards, transfer it to your computer using a scanner and any image editing software. (I use Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq for my artwork.)
Each comic page must be no more than 600 pixels in width and 800 pixels in height, and needs to be be at 72 dpi. Be sure to have it set at RGB color, not CMYK.
The rule of thumb is one page, one image. Save the final pages in .gif, or .jpg format.
Keep in mind that the default background color for most e-readers is white. Don’t animate or add bells and whistles. Think simple, static comic images.
Make sure you have a cover image in addition to all of your inside pages. If you plan to write several paragraphs of text, do not make them into an image. We will take care of that in Microsoft Word.
This is the key part of creating your ebook. The free Smashwords Style Guide has in-depth information on the text portion of your ebook but I will cover the basics here.
In writing the following directions, I assume that you have a basic knowledge of Microsoft Word. If you feel stuck, please refer to the aforementioned Smashwords Style Guide and any Word how-to guides on the Internet. (You can use other software programs if they export to Word format, however, be prepared for the possibility that the file may not fully translate. You might end up doing some serious clean-up in Word if it doesn’t work.)
Open Microsoft Word. In a new document, make sure your text is set to Normal mode. Choose a common readable font such as Times, and set it to 11 point size.
In the Paragraph options window choose 6pt in the Paragraph Spacing – After section.
Be sure hidden characters are shown so that you can review any extra spaces or return lines that may pop up.
Place your cover image on the very first page. To place, go to Insert Picture from File.
It should fill the active art space. After you place the image, press return and then insert a page break.
Your page should then look like this:
Immediately write your copyright page text afterwards. You may refer to the beginning of this book as an example to follow. Press return and insert a page break to start a new page. Place your inside pages in order following the same procedure you did for your cover page, making sure a carriage return and an inserted page break follow each image.