online ashcan or submit to indy companies?

[malcolm]

whih do you guys thnk is the best option for me to do with my comic ideas?
i mean-i wanna still retain all charcater rights an would love a larger than local audience but am concerned that the excessive violence-cussing-double entundras etc. would keep me from hittin most indy companies these days let alone most comicshop shelves with the dreaded mylarbag of death covering the front of it.

im not concerned abou makin a tod mcfarlane profi-in fact if i ever become a sellout like todd mfarlane, i'd probably hang myself-im more concerned about getting my shit into the hands of people who will enjoy the stories than i am about how many hot daylaborers i can hire to lick whipping cream off my toes.........anyway, wat do you think i the best route to go?

[Mindgames]

Personally I'd suggest getting stuff online but in a professional-looking way (i.e. a site of your own not just a DeviantArt account), then throw lots of hours of marketing at it (which doesn't mean paying lots of cash, but spending the time to get people to visit). If you can develop a reputation for your brand it'll be hundreds of times easier to get it taken by a publisher, but you also have to be realistic and see there are thousands of people doing the same thing, so the ones that make it stand out from the crowd somehow. I certainly don't think the few that make it are always "the best", they're just as likely to the the ones in the right place at the right time, or who know the right guy at the right convention.

If you're looking to get something in your hands and the artwork's in a final state then you could also look into print-on-demand. It's way too expensive to use for general sales but it'd let you put a pile of them on a counter in your store.

[malcolm]

i was thinkin internet personally but then comes thequestion of sould i do a whole issue free or a five page sample and set up an order system to where people can order from the site?and then should i set it up for subscriptions cus theyre only gonna be mini-series serials right now.

[Mindgames]

It'll depend on how effective the free material is at getting people to sign up - which is of course the billion-dollar question for everyone selling website access. The only thing I'd be certain of is that if you intend to sell access you make it clear from the start - people get annoyed by a site that pushes a free issue in the first month, tells everyone to come back for #2 and then presents them with an unexpected CCBill login. You may not know how much or how it'll work but being up-front about what you're doing will get your early customers on-side, and they're the ones that'll do the most to spread the word to others.

[malcolm]

foo for thought.