Tag: publishing

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Taking Care of Business – When An Author Isn’t Writing

Taking Care of Business – What Do You Do When You’re Not Writing?

 

So, you finish your first draft of your second novel and you take a brief break before editing. How do you take care of the business of being an author? Here are 13 tips on Taking care of business.

What is there to the business of writing and selling your books? Don’t you just post your book to Amazon, Ingram, Barnes & Noble, and watch the money roll in?

Taking Care of business
Taking Care of business

Let’s assume the best and the money is rolling in: your books are selling like $1.00 iPhones. Where’s the money going? How much is going in? What are you paying in royalties to these web site sellers?

In other words, before you sell a book online, you need a bank account to hold the incoming money. And it’d be nice to track how many you sell, how much money you get, and how much you pay to your seller(s).

Suppose you say, “I hate computers! I’ll print my books and sell them from door to door!” Great! How many will you print? Who will print them? How will they be shipped? What is the total cost per book for each one shipped? How many do you have to sell to break even? To earn $10,000? $100,000? How long will it take to reach that many? What number of books do you order each time?  Do you have enough money? And finally, do you have enough storage space?

So Andy, What Are the Answers to “Taking Care of Business”???

Every author has to answer these questions. Here are my answers. Ask me, I’ll give you a free copy of my spreadsheet that I use, complete with formulae.

Taking Care of business
Andy Zach Taking Care of business

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Underway! Zombie Turkeys Graphic Novel Application!

You Spoke!  Zombie Turkeys Graphic Novel Application Has Begun!

And the poll results are in: 100% of you want a Zombie Turkeys Graphic Novel! So I’ve begun the Zombie Turkeys graphic novel Application process.

Zombie Turkey Graphic Novel
Trial image 1 of Zombie Turkeys Graphic Novel

Application to where? To the Image comics website here.

Now Andy, Exactly What Does “Application” Mean?

What? You’ve never made a graphic novel before?  Neither have I. Here’s the application:

PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS:

  1. A brief, typed cover letter that summarizes your project and your previous work, if relevant. Include contact information (name, e-mail address, address, phone and fax numbers) clearly printed on the top of the page. Submissions are responded to via e-mail only.
  2. A typed, one page, synopsis of the overall story arc (not just of the first issue). Please keep this as succinct as possible and do include major plot points and spoilers. Tell us what sets your story apart from other comics and be clear as to who the target audience is (“Everyone” is not realistic—there is no single book on the market today that everybody buys). You can tell us whether you see it as a full color or a black-and-white book, a miniseries or an ongoing series, a prestige book or an original graphic novel. There are times, however, when we may suggest what format we think will be most successful for your story in the current market.
  3. Photocopies of fully inked and lettered sequential story art pages (any size, but no character sketches or bios). DO NOT SEND ORIGINAL ART as your work will not be returned. Please include a minimum of five pages that are fully inked and lettered. We may make suggestions based off these, but we are primarily concerned with your understanding of the medium and how to tell a sequential story. Color is OPTIONAL. If you have a colorist and plan on this being a colored book, it would be advisable, we may suggest a different colorist if we decide to acquire the project.

    We interrupt this application to show you . . .

    One page of our graphic novel submission:

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