About patren and companies that publish comics and at the same time help out in the work

[R.n.P]

Okay it has been going through my head for a while now to get a patreon ID for my comic but to say the truth I'm a little bit worried about the implications like if there are special services I provide for my patrons and if extra advertisement is needed a lot for it to work out n all that and also about if I can live up to my patrons expectations since I mainly wanna use patron as a way to get funding for getting a colorist or/and an editor but if I need something more you can also let me know if you check out the comic link here comiclink and if I do get some employees through the support whether or not my comic will be able to look improved in their eyes and worth continuing their support till I can find a more convenient source of funding like maybe from publishing it in hardcopy if possible or maybe becoming featured, so pls anything you know concerning patreon pls just let me know so that whenever I do join I will do so prepared.
And now secondly it is about the comic publishing companies out there that as they publish the comics they also provide some services like help the creators find editors, colorists n other forms of help, if you know any that accept pdf form submissions pls tell me so maybe one day or the other I can try them out and see if luck is on my side.

[69Michi]

Hello, firstly when you post a wall of text, please use punctuations! It was sort of hard to follow your post and understand what you were saying because of the lack of punctuation.

Secondly, I can't help you with publishing companies since I have no intent to dwell into that part of comic world. For Patreon, it's a sort of donating site where your followers can support you and your creation financially. You don't need to advertise your patreon any more than you do for your own comic. Just make sure to include Patreon's link where it's easy to see on your comic page, and also introduce your Patreon to your followers when you do have one so they won't miss it.

Most of the time if a person really like a certain comic, they will support you on Patreon probably a dollar or two. To be more successful on Patreon, you have to offer some exclusive content or reward for you patrons. Give people a reason, beside getting to read your comic for free online, why they should become your patrons and give you their money monthly. "With this amount of money I will be able to pay a colorist to help me out" is a good enough milestone. But before that you have to think about what sort of reward you can offer your Patron. Early access to one or two chapters ahead of the schedule? Free monthly sketch? It's up to you. You should look at other creator's Patreon to get a good idea of what works and what don't. Also please do not offer a reward that you cannot keep up and deliver. Like offering 10 free sketches for $1 Patron while you have no free time to fit in all of that work.

With all that said, I'm super new to Patreon myself, so I apologize for not being able to go more in depth haha

[shaneoid77]

I've just joined Patreon and I think it's a bit harsh that you have to offer more in terms of rewards. Like you're not already working hard at a comic and also life and stuff. I may look in to that aspect if things pick up but I think we need to educate the readers of webcomics that we are doing at least 3 times the job of a mainstream comicbook creator (4 if you do the colouring) and you're giving them what? $2.5 a comic? Not that I want reverence for my work, but a little understanding of the process would be nice.

[joca]

I know nothing about publishing but I know a bit about patreon!

Patreon takes a lot of work and mainly a lot of patience. It usually takes a while (and a loooot of advertising) for people to think about becoming a patron for you, unless you already have a huge following and bam, you start to use patreon, and everyone knows what to expect already.

People will essentially support you if:
1. they are a fan of your work
2. the rewards are inticing. (eg: early comic updates, exclusive sketches, etc etc) Though I have seen some Patreon accts where there are no reward tiers and the patron can choose how much to pledge on their own.
You also should know what type of rewards that you are able to actually do with your own schedule, don't give out rewards for little to no money for yourself!

It's a good idea to do a lot of research by checking out a lot of different webcomic artists, many are already on patreon !

Here's my patreon if you want a starting point: patreon.com/jocabako

Hope that helps a bit!

[Michelle]

It never hurts to set up a Patreon, since it's free. However, unless you have a large established following, you're not likely to gain any patrons. Even with a following, only a fraction of them are going to chip in, so it's a slow-going process for many. Even well-established and highly-skilled artists need to put forth the effort to constantly promote their Patreon, so it's not one of those "If you build it they will come" sorta things.

As for rewards, I agree with @shaneoid77 that you shouldn't have to bleed yourself dry to justify pledging to your patreon. You're already providing them something for free! Offering WIPs, early updates, or some exclusive art is nice, but no one should feel the need to bend over backwards to justify people supporting their hard work.

And like I mentioned previously, it's SLOW going, and you need to build a good reputation. A lot of my patrons pledged to me after following my artwork for a while, and found they enjoyed my work consistently enough that they wanted to pitch in.

Regarding publishing, I think you're putting the cart before the horse. Do a search for existing publishers and see what they publish, and the quality of those published comics. Right now you're still very much in the learning stages.
If having a publisher is a goal for you, then you need to honestly compare your work to the comics under established publishers and develop your skills to be on par or better than those comics.
Remember, publishers are taking a risk when they take on new properties. They need to know that your comic is going to be profitable for them.

[Wolven_Sister]

I can't help you with Patreon but I can give you some advice about publishing, since I have some experience in it.

First, if you're looking for a publishing company to help you get a colorist or a letterer or assemble a whole creative team, GOOD LUCK! Very FEW publishing companies will help you search for a creative team (and those are mainly the big ones like Marvel, DC, Image, maybe Top Cow?) but for the most part they expect you to recruit a team and submit something together. Definitely do your research and read their "About", "Contact", and "Submission Guidelines" pages for details since each publisher is different.

I suggest looking in Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, Elance, deviantART, and such to advertise you're looking to start up a creative team. I've worked with many comic book writers, and they're always putting themselves out there to find artists, letterers, editors and the like. Publishers and independent publishers don't really do that.

Secondly, you could always do a Kickstarter. I see plenty of comic book creators starting up a Kickstarter (once they have recruited their team) and some of the donations goes towards paying the artist/editor/letterer, etc...Also it helps build your audience! If you have an interesting enough story, ambitious characters, and maybe a cemented plan with the comic series, you'll get some people who'll join you. Try to think of different kinds of compensation like either paying them, Kickstarter, or even sharing in royalties. Most creative teams will assume they're getting a portion of royalties, but I've been paid before upfront without being part of the royalties and it doesn't bother me. Just depends on who you're working with.

Third, some publishing do accept PDF submissions. Again, do your research and read their "Submissions Guidelines" page. Here's a list of all publishing companies (from all spectrums, even the indie ones). Feel free to take a look and save it for future reference: THE DEFINITIVE LIST OF COMIC PUBLISHER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask me! ;')

[R.n.P]

Thanks a lot for your advice, it has definitely opened up my mind on what I should do when I do join patreon