Publisher vs Creator Owned Publishers

So now you know what some of your rights as comic creators are. You know that you have something to offer. Now you are looking to get a publisher to take your comic and sell it under their brand name. Just one thing, do you know what the different types of publishers are? If not, let me help you out.

Yea, I’m calling them POP’s from now on.

The best way that I can describe POP’s are this way. They are like Marvel Comics.

The most distinctive characteristic of these publishers is that they own the comics they sell. Not the creator, or creative team that made it. It’s because of this reason that the company itself has a vested interest in the comic’s, let’s call it, health. They want to make sure that it runs as long as it can, making them as much money as they can.

The comics that these publishers own become the face of the company. Their own respective, ever evolving brands. So they want to make sure that they are well designed and developed.

Being this way, they are usually willing to invest a significant amount of money on them.

Most oft than not POP’s offer page rates to a creative team to write and illustrate their comics. These page rates differ in range based on the comic itself. A comic’s popularity, past success, and future sales projections can have an effect on the page rates offered by the publisher.

Pay range can go from $100.00 – $400.00, or more, per page. 

Come on you saw that one coming, admit it.

A good place to start is by stating the obvious. COP’s don’t own the comics they sell under their name. An example of one is Prismatic Press (See the Rahsaan Romain’s info below for more).

Profits from sales, after printing and advertising costs, are split between the creator or creative team and the publisher. This split is based on a pre-arranged percentile.

Some cases, COP’s only charge a one time fee for their services instead of the profit split. This one-time fee is unsurprisingly pretty steep for a comic with a limited fan base and a small budget.

There are rare cases where these types of publishers offer page rates or an advance to a creator and their team. These cases would normally come at the price of a larger cut of the profits going to the publisher.

Well, this one is an easy one. Money.

Publishers are still businesses and businesses exist to make a profit. These companies usually only take on new comics that show potential. Whether it’s their visual appeal, compelling plot or even pre-existing sales. Publishers want to be very careful in bringing new material under their own roof.

As mentioned before, when publishers take on new comics they become part of their brand. Both POP’s & COP’s wold make sure to only take new comics if they effectively projected their brand image.

Why would they only take on comics that match their brand you ask? Because they already know it sells! 

Publishers, being businesses, sell to a particular niche. A market that has defining characteristics (age range, gender, geography, behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs). They make it their business to advertise and sell to these niches. Trying to sell two very different types of products will not yield the same result with the same type of person.

So publishers make sure that they know how to sell something before accepting it as part of their brand.

Publishers are a business, they exist to sell.

If you are looking to not go the independent publisher’s route then I recommend you figure out what kind of reader would love your comic. Then find a publishing company that knows and loves to sell to that type of reader. Then sell them on the idea of publishing your work!

I would then suggest that you stay tuned for my next article. Where I  will discuss how these different types of publishers deal with comic creators and their rights.