How To Get Shelf Space For Your Book

When I was a kid, I didn't really dream of becoming a graphic novelist. When I was in middle school, I sent fan art to Marvel, then strangely received a rejection letter in response. I was baffled--did they send rejection letters even to fans? Anyway, that was a long, long time ago during the era of rotary dial phones.

But now that my fate has taken an unexpected turn, I've devoted a good portion of my time to actually studying further how to create a story that's worth shelf space. In the past, I was working on simple instinct and logic, but the game has changed. I've invested in creative writing books from the bookstores and Amazon, and doing Web research just to crack the mystery open.

Why? Because for the medium to gain more ground, creators ought to do work a little harder to ensure that their works deserve the ground gained.

An interesting entry on Comics Worth Reading paints a picture that should serve as a wake-up call to a lot of independent creators. In the entry, Brian Hibbs of San Francisco shop Comix Experience defines one of two "dead weight" books, or those that waste precious shelf space.

"The first is independent books with no public awareness, no audience, no standout concept, no well-known creator. In short, books with no marketing and thus no sales, thrown out there on the “build it and they will come” theory."

There are comics shop owners who will, out of the goodness of their hearts, allow lesser known books on their shelves. But creators should realize that these owners are sacrificing a lot when they bring in an indie book. Shelf space is a retail establishment's source of income, and shops only have a limited amount of space. The prerogative of any shop owner is to move stock out of their shelves to earn money. The faster stocks move from the shelves to the hands of a customer, the more they earn.

So a creator should do their darndest to make sure their books fly. It's the most they can do to repay the graciousness of shop owners. (Come to think of it, comic shop owners should be more vigilant in screening indie books.)

What's the lesson here? When you have that big idea for your graphic novel, you should--MUST--think ahead about marketing. Writers send proposals to agents and publishing houses. Screenwriters send loglines and sequence treatments to producers. In these cases, writers and screenwriters would already know who the specific audience for their material would be, and how their stories would catch the audience's interest. They do this because they know there is only a limited number of books and films that can be produced within a calendar year, and competition is fierce.

As for comics and graphic novels, companies and creators are fighting over shelf space, and there's not a lot of that. Think about it, if you put together a solid program for marketing and present it to a comic shop owner, you'll have greater chances of earning the owner's favor. You may not sell a lot on the onset, but you're impressing upon a shop owner that you're looking after his welfare, too.

For more information about packaging your graphic novel for a specific market, you can look through my previous posts under product development.

Self-Publish Your Graphic Novel and add Merchandise!

Print On Demand (POD) publishing is a business model that allows authors to publish their own book without going through the headaches inherent in the traditional publishing model. Though there are many versions of POD publishing, my personal favorite allows an author to get a book out with minimal investment. While there are a lot of websites that do POD publishing, I'll focus on one site that holds a lot of potential for comics creators--Cafepress.

When you register with Cafepress, your account is a virtual store where you can sell all sorts of stuff like t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, wall clocks, even pillows and teddy bears. You choose which items you want to include in your store. All these items start of as blank slates--they have no designs. As a store owner, you upload JPEG or PNG graphics to your account and slap them on your chosen products. When you're satisfied with how your product looks, you can bring them online for public viewing.

The prices of these items are the sum of two things: a base price and your markup. The base price goes to Cafepress, and the markup (which is your choice) goes to you. For instance, a custom mousepad is $10.99. You can sell it at $12.99, with the added $2.00 as your profit.

The print on demand system comes in when someone orders your product. If a customer orders one mousepad, Cafepress produces one mousepad. The customer pays for the shipping.

What I like about Cafepress is that they also do books--comics included. You would have to know how to create PDF files, since that's the format that the site accepts for books. Cafepress provides options for standard book sizes and binding, with the traditional comic book size included. The price for your comic book is dependent on the number of pages and the binding (the size of the book is irrelevant). As of now, however, they only print in grayscale with color covers.

The price of a standard 28-page comic book (which includes 4 pages for the cover) with staple binding is $5.26. This does not include your markup. Pretty steep, I know, which is why I strongly recommend Cafepress for graphic novels that have a lot of pages. If you create a perfect-bound 108-page book (covers included), the cost would be $10.24. That's not as bad. You can add $2.00 for you markup, and the retail price would still be competitive.

Again, you don't have to crowd your room with stocks. When a customer orders one copy, Cafepress prints one copy and ships it. You can even order your own copies and ship them to a different address. (Great for reviews!)

But the bonus of having your book on Cafepress is the merchandise, opening up some interesting promotional opportunities. Apart from having your book up, you can customize a journal, some refrigerator magnets, pin buttons, even a trucker cap with your logo or artwork. If you're stumped about a gift idea for a friend or relative's birthday, send them one of your products.

The key, however, in making your efforts work is to get people to visit your Cafepress store. If you have a blog or a website, post preview pages then add a link to your store. Add links as well to your email signature, your web forum profile, or your business card.

There are other POD sites like Lulu, Authorhouse, and iUniverse, but not all of them do comics. But as far as I've checked, I haven't located anything like Cafepress that has merchandise that can support your publishing efforts in one website. Plus, you retain all rights to your work.

As a disclaimer, I'm not being paid to do this. I just think it's a great opportunity for aspiring graphic novelists to explore. Of course, you ought to read through the website's terms so you'll know what you're getting into. While there are a few horror stories when it comes to POD, I'd like to think that if your cover your bases well enough, the rough spots shouldn't be too big a hurdle.

For more information on the pros and cons of POD, check out this article.

An Offbeat Way to Promote

For the past year, I've been hanging out almost every night in a small restaurant at the heart of a commercial district. There, I'd do some writing, doodling, and reading, just to get my senses settled after a hard day of work. It's come to the point that the waiters know the "usual," and I know them by name.

Do you have a favorite hang-out? A restaurant? A café? A place where a lot of people visit to hang out and talk? Have you reached a point where you've developed a semi-personal bond with this establishment? A place that's NOT a comics shop?

Why not ask for help via a quid pro quo?

When you're almost done with your graphic novel, try to set up an informal meeting with the manager or owner. The proposition is simple--you will create a short comics story that's set in that very hang-out. You will create a flyer that will be distributed to customers, and the flyer will direct them to a website featuring your short comics story. And, in that website, you provide a preview to the graphic novel you're actually finishing.

OR, if it's not too inconvenient for you--can you adjust a portion of your graphic novel that will feature the establishment as the location of one of your key scenes. Movies have been doing this for years, so it's not an impossibility for graphic novels.

If the shop manager is generous enough, he might even be willing to foot the bill in printing the short comics story to be given out for free in the shop. You can even ask if it's okay to sell your graphic novel there. When this happens, you've opened up a retailing possibility that's beyond the normal reach of the direct market.

Should success come to you with this little endeavor, you can try your luck with other establishments and see if they bite. Do you hang out in a bowling alley? Why not do a short comics story about bowling? Or a story about raising kids, to be placed in a day care center or a kiddie gym? You can even include a couple of "instructional" articles in your comics stories so there's information along with entertainment.

Go offbeat. The direct market is too limiting for the aspiring graphic novelist.