Has anyone sold their hard copy comics on Amazon or anywhere else?

[AdrenalineShots]

Would be really interested in knowing your experiences, good and bad? E.G. How many to pre-print, or is print on demand better? What has the better profit margin etc.

[directorador]

I have used create space for my comic series Buffalo Soldier. While it's on Amazon, I really don't have a fanbase for it, and well no one buys them

[joannekwan]

I used CreateSpace for my completed series Erie Waters. I've sold a few copies through there, but mostly I order my own copies (I love the reduced rate) and sell those myself at cons.

[GoldenPlume]

How many to pre-print, or is print on demand better? What has the better profit margin etc.

Print-on-demand (POD) is pretty much close to impossible to make any money on. One POD copy for a fully B&W interior 200 page novel can cost between $7 and $15 depending on who you are using. If Amazon sells that copy for you, they're going to take a 15% cut plus charge you an additional $2.41/unit for fulfillment (picking and packing, shipping and handling, CS, and returns).

If your novel sells for $15 in order to be in line with the market, and it cost $15 to POD... no.

This is why so many 1st timers have their novels at $20 or $25 sometimes even $30/copy. Guess what. They do not sell. Not only is a normal reader not willing to pay that amount, that high of a price says that the whole concept is likely an unedited train wreck since the author didn't even bother to learn the basics of the publishing industry.

If you novel sells for $15 and you have $7 in printing it then your net is: $3.34/unit. If you sell 10,000 units that will be $33,400 to pay all of your production and marketing expenses.

If you offset press and perfect bind 1,500 copies of your novel you will pay between $2.50 and $4.50 depending on who you use.

If you novel sells for $13 in order to be more competitive than the rest of the market, then your net is: $6.14/unit. If you sell 12,000 units (because your product is less expensive so there will be more sales), you have $73,680 to pay all of your production and marketing expenses.

POD = vanity and no profits or a loss on each copy sold. Plus POD books use lower quality paper, covers, and binding materials and offer fewer printing options (we only recommend using POD for printing proofs and ARCs). POD perfect bound books often fall apart after several years and their paper will yellow. Very few bookstores will carry POD books. POD is best for people who want to print under 250 copies to show off to their friends and family.

POD books often carry the ISBN of the printer. When you go to list your book on Amazon the publisher of record will be CreateSpace, IngramSpark, etc. which is a giant huge WARNING MOST LIKELY UNEDITED/UNPROFESSIONAL label to readers. Good luck getting any sales from people just browsing and **** no for bookstores carrying it or reviews for that matter.

Offset print = commercial printing for those who want to be a commercial operation. Offset print requires your own ISBN. Your own ISBN = your own small press = more likely a professional operation and a professional product = more sales.

Could spend all day on this...

[sarrowsmith10]

Offset print = commercial printing for those who want to be a commercial operation. Offset print requires your own ISBN. Your own ISBN = your own small press = more likely a professional operation and a professional product = more sales.

Everything GoldenPlume said is absolutely right. Note that if you are doing comic issues and not graphic novels, your series will have a ISSN, not an ISBN. (ISSN are free, ISBN cost lots of money)

I personally run a preorder, kickstarter or crowdsource to get the up front money to pre-print books. I have also taken out a small loan before to pre-print books. I recommend kickstarter the most. Ordering in bulk (200+ copies) saves you a lot of money in the long run. I've had good success doing it that way and selling my books at conventions, facebook storefront and etsy.

I use Readycomics.com as my printer and they are very reasonable.

[Shanny8]

I've sold a few of my comics through my Ka-Blam/Indy Planet account. The rest I mainly sell at cons.

[Zyephen]

I sell hard copies of my Chaotic Nation comic over on store envy and in person at conventions. I sell them ever so often. Not terrible sales, but I also have a lot of fanart at my con booths, so the comic gets overlooked a lot. I think if I removed the fanart that I have my comic would get a lot more exposure.

[NanettesClouds]

I made big zines (they were made out of 11x17 sized paper instead of the traditional 8.5x11) of my Minicomic, I sold a good chunk of them to facebook friends, got to reconnect with a few people I hadn't seen in awhile. Theres a copy of it in the library/community center that I work at, and I think that's a big reason why it still gets some traction on Tapastic (there were links at the back of the book).

I sold each copy for $3, and that came with a poster as well. In hindsight I probably should have sold them for $5, because seriously, if you're gonna spend $3 you probably won't mind paying $5 for it instead, but also if I had printing costs to cover it would have been less risky. (I was printing at the community center I work at and my supervisors let me print for free)

I absolutely hated making the PDF for it though. I thought it would take a week or two and it ended up taking me MONTHS, I kept running into a bunch of issues every time I did a test print.

So yeah, it was a pretty good experience, I have copies left over which I'll probably take to a convention whenever it is I do one of those.

I dunno if this was helpful?

[directorador]

I have used kablam for POD physical copies. it is way cheaper than selling on amazon, it uses an indie pub site for distribution, and a dozen copies is under 50$ for you. You can also advertise for the publisher to reduce the print cost of your comics. but they don't go to amazon.