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Nov 2020

I'm sure this question gets asked a lot but how do you known when your story is good enough to self-publish? I mean it's one thing to post a story for free and completely another thing to charge money for it. So I'm looking for any kind of advice from anybody here who might have an opinion on the matter.

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    Nov '20
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    Nov '20
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Personally, I have been on and off of this site for at least four years now, scapping old comics and rebooting every time I came back until I was absolutely sure that I could create stories with both art and storytelling that was up to my standards and remained consistent throughout. It was like every time I drew I was learning something new and my constant progress kinda sidetracked me a bit, if you can believe it. As much as I love to look back at old work, none of it was worthy of putting on paper, in my opinion.

I am planning on self publishing and I have set goals for myself and a timeline to achieve it. I've done months of research first and I strongly advice to do the same

When you can finish an story and look back at the first pages without cringe xD

For me, every page i've posted of my series is okay for print. The thing is i have a reference sample and as long as i maintain the quality, it's good enough for 5"x7.5" manga size prints or smaller. (sure my art can get better, when it's not commercial standard quality, i'm okay with that) :wink:

As initial 'end goal', I only want to get my comic printed for myself and maybe some buyers, as It is something i'm happy and proud of: my printed works on my shelf. I love physical copies.

But for real publishing (to have ISBN, distribute into stores and such)... no it isn't my original intention.

Eh, if I have a complete story that I can be proud of, I will definitely want it in a physical form of some sort.
As for self-publishing to a bigger market, it's a similar feeling I suppose: having something complete that you think people beyond the free websites one posts on might appreciate.

So basically the first question is: Are you happy with your story? If not, feel free to alter it until becomes something you are proud of, or at the very least enjoy looking at.
Then you ask yourself, do you want to share this with a wider audience?
As sort of a combination of the two points above: if you really want to make a story that's totally marketable, perhaps consulting with an editor with industry experience may help. They can possibly help guide you to make edits to your work so that it meets audience expectations for the story's genre.

I don't think there's ever a question if one wants to make money from something, unless it's for charity. I think everyone would like to make a bit of money from their passion.

For my own work, I'm in the process of self-publishing right now. I wanted to self-publish because it's the first full novel I ever wrote and I'm super proud of all the work I put into it, like on top of writing it I did countless rounds of edits, including a full read-through of a print proof. I really do want to share it with the world and since there is a limited audience for webnovels, expanding its reach via self-publishing is an avenue for that.

I feel like I have just now for the very first time reached a point in a webcomic where I'm considering self-publishing. I have over half the entire story completed, and I am very confident in my abilities and motivation to complete the entire story. My comic has a decent following here on Tapas (with just over 1,000 followers) and I have a fairly decent social media following. So I feel like it might genuinely be successful if I self-publish Hollow sometime in the near future. I believe that, if I held a Kickstarter, I would likely gain just enough money to fund the printing process, which is the goal really. And I have enough peers in my clubs and classes who have gone through the Kickstarting process themselves, or just want to see me succeed, that I would have enough help through the process that I wouldn't make any egregious mistakes.

So, I guess all those things together have helped me know that I'm ready to seriously look into self-publishing. I've been researching printers and pricing and looking into how other comics have successfully Kickstarted their projects, so... We'll see what happens!

I self-published little things here and there before I had any really significant following or even.... pride in my work... because I never really came to it from the webcomic side to begin with! It was mostly an excuse to go to conventions and trade stuff with new friends and meet people but very quickly one of the things I self published made its way to a friend of a friend of a friend and that’s how I eventually got on board with a proper publisher and now I can go to more cons and make more friends. :tapa_pop:

I would personally credit self publishing with kickstarting the entire career I have now but that’s just how it came to happen for me and isn’t necessarily a sure-thing (like any advice involving any type of creative pursuit). And obviously cons really aren’t an option right now anyway!

That said, I think it’s a lot harder to know when to start self-publishing for a lot of webcomics people who do long, sprawling comics that (often times) don’t ever end up even being finished. Once people invest in your work, its understood that you have to see it through eventually and you also have to be okay with it existing in the form that it is printed in for as long as a book can exist sitting on a stranger’s shelf.

You can do self-publishing (though "printing" is more accurate a term) whenever you want with digital printing. It's low cost and easy and they can even do a single volume if you just want it for yourself.

I just did a printing for volume one of my comic. Most important thing is making sure your pages are the required specs. I realized mine was off slightly so I had to go back and fix every single page. All 160 pages.

So yeah... just pick what your final size will be, work at twice that size, make sure bleeds, safe area and color is correct. Then find your printer and go to town.

Maybe also find a graphic designer to help give feedback too.

I've been remaking Nachos Con Carne for over a year now, and one of the reasons I decided to do it was in case I ever wanted to sell physical copies of it. As it was before, I was embarrassed to look at the artwork and some of the dialogue I'd written, plus I needed to break up the longer chapters and iron out some plot details to improve the flow of the story.

I'd say when you're satisfied with the final product, that's the ideal time to self-publish. It doesn't do any good to sell something you're not completely proud of.

Ive self published some children's books written by my daughter.
Some buy some do not. I learned that doing huge quantities does not pay off and still haven't made money back for original print costs.
Do I regret it? Nope.
It was a valuable experience for my Daughter (going to printing company,seeing samples etc)
Plus she has something she made herself.
Ive used Blurb. Bob Books for my own photography books.
Im all for physical media.

This time around with my own personal project (Wellside Wishes) my intention was to go for print from the get go. My panels are not designed for webtoons. Many online eps will suffer due to this.

Plan is this.
Get to over 200 strips.
Do fundraiser for making books.
If interest is low and do not make the target I will just print whatever I can cover. Or failing that make myself a nice physical book.
I'm doing this for my creative mental health anyway!
Im not going to print mass copies out of my own pocket.