Financing a Graphic Novel

This is PART SIX of a series of posts about preparing for DELILAH DIRK BOOK FOUR, a new graphic novel.

In Parts One and Two, I investigated the methods with which I made the first three Delilah Dirk books. In Part Three, how I could afford all the time I needed for those projects. In Part Four, I outlined some creative goals for DD4, and in Part Five, why I needed to do something different and exactly what I might try. Here, now, is why the production realities surrounding DD4 will be different, by necessity.

Delilah Dirk Four introduces a new challenge. I will have less work time available to me, because I have a child now—a small one—and looking after him will be at least partially my responsibility. Obviously, other comics-makers seem to do their work perfectly well while raising children, so it is not only possible to do, but common. Still, it would be irresponsible for me to not anticipate how lifestyle differences will separate this new project from previous ones. I’ll look into childcare options, though—in short—I’m skeptical about the value proposition here. Will the time I regain be worth the expense? Will it even be affordable? Do I even want to offload his care? I like him, I’m looking forward to taking care of him as he grows.

Practically, it seems safe to estimate that I will have half the available working time during any given week. If I could work eight hour days before, maybe I’ll get four. If I used to be able to draw two clean line art pages in a day, will I be able to draw one now? If DD2 took eighteen months to make, should I plan to be working on DD4 for thirty-six?

Perhaps there will be ways to save time. Could I draw more elegantly? Cut out detail? The answer is complicated. Some of my favourite artwork does more with less: the drawing is unfussy, creating an impressive effect without the fiddly quality of heavily-detailed work. This work can be as time-consuming as detail-oriented work, though. It can require a lot of experimentation.

Instead, perhaps I can aim for a style of drawing that is not dissimilar from my previous work, but which is more suggestive and less explicit. Perhaps I can put detail where it counts, using it selectively, without getting sweaty. The rest of the rendering, mood, and tone I can leave to digital colouring. This will take experimentation and will require smart planning in the early part of the process.

Assuming this book does take thirty-six months to make, how can I afford that time? A publisher advance would come in handy, but even if it were extremely good, like $50k, that would still be $25k divided over at least two years, before tax, minus agent commissions. And I suspect no publisher is going to be enthusiastic about a thirty-six month deadline.

I suppose there’s no good reason to not apply for arts grants, though I’ve already won a provincial grant for DD4 and I’m hesitant to ask for more. On the other hand, I’ve often applied for grants with pitch material (a story outline, character sketches and key images), asking for funds to cover the entire production of the book. I suspect I might be in a stronger position to win a grant if I apply with work-in-progress material, and ask for funds specifically to, say, complete the colour artwork; funds specifically to “finish” the work. I’m also hesitant about this time-sink considering the grants’ unpredictability and the time frames involved (as discussed previously). I might be able to finish colouring the book in the time between when I apply for the grant and when I find out whether or not I’ve been successful.

Then, of course, as you might have been screaming aloud since the very first paragraph of this odyssey, there’s Patreon or similar patronage platforms. I have concerns about patronage. First, it seems like every independent comic person is asking for patronage. Has the market been saturated? Friends who run Patreons assure me this is not the case, but still it nags at my mind. Additionally, as I write this—near the end of 2020—it does not feel like a spectacular time to be asking people for money.

Realistically, patronage will not supply a substantial amount of funding, especially early-on. These campaigns take time to grow, building community and patron confidence. So I worry that running a patronage campaign will involve more work than it’s worth. Commonly, patrons receive special rewards in exchange for their patronage. What would my Patreon involve? What special new work would I need to produce for it, or at the very least, how much time would it take away from doing the work that my patrons would ostensibly be supporting?

I also have some principles about patronage that may or may not be realistic. Some Patreon artists offer their patrons exclusive access to the work they create. That makes sense, that’s a straightforward motivator. But if I were operating a patronage campaign for DD4, I would like the supported work to be free for all to read. This feels like a tougher ask, for obvious reasons. The upside, though, is that I would very much like this to work, as it embodies a faith in the willingness for people to support work they enjoy. It’s been successful for PBS broadcasting and KUSC radio and the Maximum Fun podcasting network, so it’s not unimaginable.

Most likely, sharing work with readers in a timely fashion would necessitate returning to the “webcomic” way of doing things, as opposed to printing up a book. This would mean that I might be able to have coloured pages posted as soon as 2021, whereas if I were to sequester myself away and work on the book in the fashion of DD2 and DD3, people would not see it until 2023 at the earliest. Posting webcomic updates would also be a genuine way to extend the window in which I get to promote the work. Every post of new pages is a natural opportunity to speak about the book. This at least partially solves the problem of publicity and promotion, allowing me to do so in a way that doesn’t feel like its own special soul-siphoning full-time task.

Of course, that also means that the entire work is out on the internet for people to read for free. Logically, it makes sense to fear that this would hurt sales of any subsequent published book of the same material. And yet, DD1 did just fine. It was available to read from start to finish online for free and still managed to become a NYT Bestseller. The fact that DD2 and DD3 were withheld from the internet did not make their sales explode. I see no reason why putting the work online would be anything but a positive move. Ideally, I hope the work would be good enough that even if one had read DD4 online, they might also want to keep it as a book.

If I follow this route, the next question is “where do I post them.” Patreon seems to include some of this functionality, but I’ll have evaluate its reading experience. I’m certainly not running another WordPress site—the last one was great once I got it running, except when it went bad, but that’s a story for another time. I am considering using WebToon, since the reading experience is relatively frictionless and they have their own service-wide audience community from which DD might benefit, with the major downside being that the pages would have to be reformatted for the service (each comic on WebToon is read as a continuous vertical scroll). I could also code and host my own custom presentation for the work, which would create an opportunity to tailor the reading experience, though it would be a lot of work, and I am skeptical that the average reader would appreciate the difference between that and, say, the experience WebToon offers.

I also keep thinking of environmental considerations. Every printed copy of a book is made out of dead trees, slathered in ink, and shipped all the way from China. It feels ecologically irresponsible to insist that this story about a girl going on an adventure must be reproduced in containers full of processed pulp paper products. Authors who raise this point seem to attract derision, but I can’t shake the idea. Someone surely will tell me that in the big picture, printing these books is no great environmental scourge—especially considering the total volume of books that are printed and distributed daily—and yet, I feel wary. Make no mistake: I would love to have a printed copy of DD4 in my hand. If and when the opportunity becomes available, I will not turn it down. In fact, the opposite is true: I would love to offer big, luxurious copies printed and bound for everyone who might want one. But I wince at the idea of a shipping container full of books printed on a speculative basis, and feel myself eager to supply a digital version of the comic to anyone who would be more than happy to read it that way.

So I’m thinking of setting aside the traditional way of making books. Instead of keeping my head down and delivering an unseen work to my publisher, I will make it out in the open, where anyone can read it. Instead of seeking an advance, I will seek reader patronage. This idea of returning to digital self-publishing raises another fear: if I go from publishing “real” books to making webcomics, does that make me a failure?