Publishing comics, pages/volume?

[Chita]

I have that usual dream to have a printed copy of my comic, I was planning to have it divided in 5/6 different volumes, around 120 pages each. Recently a friend told me that that number was pretty small and that I'd be better to have less books with more pages. So this made me question:

If you ever printed your comic, how many pages it would have?

Would you have all of it in one big book or in volumes?

And the big question, how many pages per volume?

[LortiaMJB]

120 pages is quite a lot! If you have already finished the story and look to publish it now, 120 pages is a really decent size for a graphic novel. Most I've seen go around 100-140 pages, but bigger and smaller are both still common. It really depends on your own taste.

As for your questions: If I were to put my fantasy graphic novel (which is still ongoing) into print, I think it'd be 180-250 pages long. That'd make one hell of a giant book!
Splitting it up will make people less hesitant to buy a first issue, and if done correctly will make them come back for more. Printing is expensive, especially if you want to do so in color (though you didn't define this), so for 120 pages your book would easily go up to $20 or more. The higher the price, the less someone random without any knowledge of you or your work will be interested in buying it.

I think going for several books with 80-120 pages would be a very good middleground, and create more income overall with less risk.

[Shanny8]

I've already been printing my books- 2 diff series. One is a print only series, that has 20-24 pages per issue...the other is the printed edition of my webcomic- average about 40-50 pages(2 chapters so far). I want to print larger GN type books, but like @LortiaMJB said, printing something larger is expensive; I would have to make a Kickstarter for something like that- plus I'd like to have an audience that would invest in it. My audience isnt large enough right now, so I'm going to push a little harder next year and see if it can grow some more.

[vfinnigan]

Standard comicbook issue length is around 24-32 pages. Mangas and graphic novels are usually longer.

[revisionstudios]

I print both 44 page issues and 180 page volumes to sell. Generally speaking, people only go for the collected/larger edition if it's available because they're buying one big thing to read in a night instead of lots of smaller things that add up. I retire the old issues every time I make a new volume for this reason, and I only print the issues at all because it takes us 6 mo-1 year to put one out.

If you make the content fast enough, I think it's better to go bigger. People are more likely to buy it, it saves you on printing costs (My issues cost $2.50 to make and my volumes cost $4.50, but I can sell the volumes for way more), and saves you from the headache of having to keep inventory of several different books.

You could easily pair two together for a 240 page book and sell them for more while keeping costs low. You could even just split it in half and make two omnibuses of 360 pages. Once I get closer to completing my series, I'll probably make omnibuses of 3 volumes each. :>

[ben]

My last book was a little over 120 pages and it feels good and looks like a good amount.

But I’ve also done like 60-something page books and they’re fine just price them accordingly. It’s good to have variety since not everyone will want to take a chance with a book that has more pages and a bigger price tag.

I’m actually in the middle of trying to decide whether I want to do 120-something page volumes or one giant monster of a book. And I think I’m gonna go with volumes. And then collect them all in later on in one big omnibus. It’s also more economical to do issues first since print runs will be cheaper, you won’t have to wait a million years to put out your big giant monster of a book, shipping rates are better. It all makes good sense. Plus, like what I said before, it’s easier to sell people on one small book than one giant book that costs a lot.

[aqua03]

Yeah, that is something I've been thinking about too. I was thinking 13-ish 20-ish pages in my hypothetical trade paperbacks, but I realize that that would be a lot. (Although one of my ideas for a graphic novel had 13 as an arch umber of sorts, so 13 chapters in one book would be thematically appropriate.)

But then again, I'm still trying to get out of the mindset that I'm working to make a TV show, and get into the mindset that I'm writing a comic.

[Chita]

@LortiaMJB @Shanny8 I see your point there, I know that going smaller is better for pricing and for getting people's attention. However this is just a first try with only one copy for me to have it, I also will use it as a way to know how it'd look. Thanks for the advice!!
@vfinnigan I'll keep that in mind!
@revisionstudios That's amazing!! I was having in mind doing something like that, may I ask, where do you print your volumes?
@benji That's a great plan! I'll try to make something similar in the future. Best of luck with your project!
@aqua03 I see, I hope everything goes great! Sometimes it's hard rock adjust to a certain media, but your doing great! Keep up with the good work!!

[aqua03]

Thanks! You keep up the good work as well! (I'll definitely try to be the first in line to buy your comics if they ever get released in trade format! )

[revisionstudios]

I get everything done at Ka-Blam at the manga size (5x7.5"), color cover with B&W interior. Prices will definitely go higher if you're printing in color.

http://ka-blam.com/main/

They're great because they have low minimum of quantity for good prices. I usually just order 1 of a new book to look at as a proof, make edits, then order the larger run. They're good for orders of up to 500. (After that point, you can find better and cheaper printers that do offset)

Here are a couple of pictures of the volume:

and an example of the issues:

They have really good customer service, but maybe not as good for you if you're outside the U.S.? My only real complaint is that sometimes the colors will change slightly between the proof and large run, they might use a different printer for it or something. And you can't really customize the kind of paper you get, as far as I know... but they're super easy and affordable to creators just starting out

[Shanny8]

I retire the old issues every time I make a new volume

This what I'm planning to do with my print only series...just trying to figure out how I want to piece the larger volume together; I still want it to be affordable enough for people to buy and not price myself out of selling it.

saves you from the headache of having to keep inventory of several different books

THIS. Not so much keeping inventory, but having to carry said inventory to EVERY show. With the print only series, I have FIVE issues...I may be finishing yet another one in 2019; lugging around 2 large heavy-ass crates with 7 diff books(2 of which are print editions of the webcomic)/prints/other when you have to do shows can be a pain at times.

[ben]

Get your inventory sent directly to the convention space!!! It’s worth it!!!

[Shanny8]

That would be a little too costly for local shows.

[revisionstudios]

Lol yup, especially if you have a lot of other merchandise and display things to carry around. But I've had to learn to just scale back what I bring, too, and not get overzealous with what I pack. I've gone to enough shows where I know on average what to bring depending on the size and demographic of the convention.

As for your pricing, my volumes go for $15. I feel like I could even ask for $20 if I really wanted to because people understand it's an indie property, but because of its size and being B&W I keep it a bit lower. Bigger, longer books with color could easily go for $25-40.

And if anyone here is unsure about going all in on volumes, you can keep around a small run of issue 1 for people who don't want to go all in right away.

Generally, you want to sell it for 3-4x production costs, at least, but go no lower than 2x. You want that buffer of profit so that if you ever sell wholesale (50% cover price), you still make a profit.