Let's talk monetary gains

[Shanny8]

Comics IS the end all, be all for me...and yeah, I want to make money doing my comics. With that being said, I'm not oblivious enough to try & do this full time- I have bills to pay, a roof to keep over my head, and other expenses- so I will work a FT job and do comics as an extra/supplementary income.

Right now my main comics income is from sales at conventions- after that comes Patreon money, and then Tapas ink.

[joannekwan]

Ultimately I want to get my stories out there. Growing an audience is my priority. The money is second, but of course getting it is always very nice.

If money was my number one priority, I would most likely have done a coding boot camp by now.

If you want to make money fast while investing bearable hours, don't go into comics.

[darkone4587]

Honestly I've barely made anything from my works. I've been trying to turn some form of a profit due to life reasons, but the first step is trying to get people to actually read my stuff to get people to support me.

[snowy]

If my comic ever makes any money at all, it's going 100% to the artist.

[potatogirl]

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[SeraphicMayin]

My hope had long since moved into plans and now reality.

I currently work full time as an independent contractor for Tapas. (An assistant to four premium comics).

Did I hope to make money? Of course. A couple years ago I decided I would have a career in visual storytelling, and I was ready to do whatever it took to get there. I deeply love creating stories and drawing, I also love knowing I don't have to worry about car payments.

How much did I hope to make? Enough to cover my expenses.

I can now commit 100% of my efforts to comics. It's still hard and if anything more busy than ever.

(Lines for a weekly action comic,
Lines and Flats for two comics that need to produce biweekly, and
renders for another comic that needs to produce biweekly;
not to mention i still have commissions,
do flats for another independent comic,
AND I launched my latest personal comic too with a Patreon for early updates.)

It's taken me nearly a decade to hone my skills and grab any and all opportunities to get here though. So it's definitely possible. But it requires a high and unshakeable level of dedication that is willing to embrace uncertainty.

Until the moment I was told my Incubator pitch was chosen, I had been dead certain I wasn't it and already began to make plans on the next comic I wanted to make.

To begin with, I relied on commissions and I studied anything related to storytelling and drawing. Also at the same time, I just started making stories and drawing them into comics.

It took two complete One-shots, one failed long form comic, and two other indefinite hiatus long form Comics before I took a chance to enter Tapas' Incubator. That is when all the years of focused study and practice paid off.

[CodeMonkeyArts]

I would LOVE to make this a viable Side Hustle, but I don't expect anything really. It's more like "Aww that would be neat" than a need or full on desire.

[chickknightgreenleaf]

minimum wage that all I one. I just want to be able to feed myself doing what I love

[Lummy]

This is coming from someone who just started working on their comic (haven't started publishing because I need to make a buffer) and I am high school student so my opinion may not be the same as other people who do it for their job and etc.

First of all, I create my comic because I love drawing and making stories (my dream is to become an animator because of how animations can show us stories through drawing). With all of my exams, trying to keep good grades, outside school activities, and volunteering I barely have any time for myself and I found myself not drawing for a long period of time which made me really upset with myself :\ So, I decided to challenge myself and create a comic (something I have been wanting to do for a lot of time). Also, I really hope that when I actually publish my webcomic there would be people who will enjoy it!
But, at the same time I don't really expect much because I know that my comic won't be perfect and the way I see my comic may not be the same as other people who see it from their side XD

So with all those things said:
For me personally, enjoying the process and people enjoying it with me is more important, and I haven't considered the monetary gain (I didn't even know till two weeks ago that comic creators can get paid on platforms like tapas and webtoon)
But again, it may be because I am a student who isn't an adult yet and don't have bills to pay, or because I feel like people loving my webcomic and earning money from it feels like a million light years ahead XD

BTW if you can actually earn money from your comic I totally think you should go for it, who doesn't love money? (especially earned from doing something you love?)

[AmazementComics]

Fair enough. You know a lot of TV shows started off as comics, like The Boondocks. My goal is to be an animator like a lot of people on the site. I am however, wise enough to know that just doing comics alone isn't going to rake up a lot of money (and the tiny amounts of revenue don't count). That's why I haven't attempted to earn cash with ink. I will still get money by doing something that I have interest in in the long run with animation, but I'd prefer to just grow a following who likes my stories that's all. Just so it's out there, like some people on Youtube create videos as a hobby.

[Lummy]

Yes, I agree.
And also because as you said, if you know that comics won't make you a lot of money, you should focus on enjoying the process (the enjoyment and the learning one) since I think it is as important as money for artists! (improving and evolving ourselves) (=

[jcmraz]

I'm going to do it whether or not I make any money from it. I would like to make some money from it though. Just some side part time money would be nice. If I can hit that I plan to upload more often because I can justify it better as an actual job and set aside work hours for it instead of just whenever I want/am free to

[Kiskia]

Would I be ecstatic to make enough to live off of? Yes. Do I think that's going to happen? No. I would really like to make some money extra. Just to help out. A lil extra cushion padding. My current job situation means there are months where I don't get paid, which isn't great for the purposes of having food and medicine. So, being able to make a little extra from comics to cover that time would be helpful.

[mcarrowolga]

Well, prices grow but salaries don't. I get paid the same amount as 6 years ago, so my financial situation gets worse every year. Money I earn from Patreon and ads on my site help a lot.

[JRHoch]

Nope. Not thinking about the money. I'm paid well as a book consultant.

[writercynknapp]

I have NO actual experience in making money.

I hear Paetron is the most direct way, but it appears artists must make 'adult fan art' or some other form of commission work.

AD revenue sharing appears to happen, but I think there is less income (or your series needs to be really popular). Artists doing that seem to create multiple series to chase more readers.

If you are doing well enough to get AD revenue, then merchandising might be possible.

Kickstarter is a possibility, but you would need to bring your own fan base to buy in.

[OttoGruenwald]

I get 11 dollars on patreon. What I do is a labor of love. I'm under no illusion of it ever actually earning real money.

[SleepingPoppy]

I'm a big fan of hobbies as side hustles. I didn't go into it with any really expectation, just liked that ad rev and such was a possibility. I think I average $50 between ink and ad rev on Tapas, and over $30 a month on patreon. Long term I'd love to get patreon to $100. I mostly want to make enough to cover technology expenses if something breaks, and potentially upgrade. Paying any bills, or saving for fun stuff would be lovely, but again, no expectation.

The fact that anyone pays money to look at stuff I make still blows my mind, honestly. XD

I hear Paetron is the most direct way, but it appears artists must make 'adult fan art' or some other form of commission work.

Early access is super effective for comic creators on patreon.

[GabiWolf]

For me comics is the end all be all. I work at a library and see the hunger people have for graphic novels and comics. The comic publishing business is confusing and hard to break into, but my webcomic is a way for me to start learning about the process. I don't make a steady income from my comic, yet, but then I just started and I am still stumbling and tripping over my feet so I don't expect anyone to support me, since I'm still learning.

I hope that one day I will be published, and make money off my comics. One day I will start a patron and hope people enjoy my content enough to support it. For now I'm still gathering information and just having fun connecting to other creators. However in the back of my mind I still have my ambition to completely support myself off my art and comics, and every decision I make is a step towards making that ambition a realty.

[Rhonder]

I'm in the "looking to make it a side hustle" crew. Like I'm absolutely aiming to make some money off of my comic and other artistic endeavors- and in fact have already started to to some degree. But I don't currently have the want or plans to make this into my primary source of income.

Like at the moment, I've been earning a small small amount of revenue via tapas ink & I'm only a few subs away from unlocking ad revenue which is rad (as miniscule an amount as that may be, $$-wise). Then I've also started using my social media presence that I began building for my comic to net a few commissions here and there, and even found my way into a paid comic anthology last year. My total art earnings over coming up on 2 years now have been basically 3/4 of 1 month's pay at my regular job lol. Which is obviously not great in the grand scheme of things, but I still think is pretty neat considering I'm pretty much a newbie.

The next step that I'm hoping to achieve in the near-ish future is trying out tabling at local conventions. I'm at the point now where I have the content to lay out a couple of books for sale, and could produce a few other pieces of merchandise like buttons and prints, and have a go at it. I could see myself realistically being "ready" to try tabling by like early 2021, so we'll see~