Jessica McLeod (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tiny_monster) wrote,@ 2008-03-28 10:37:00 |
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mo' money, fewer problems
I have been thinking lately about comics and publishing and the internet and money. These thoughts have been in part prompted by some very interesting articles and discussions going on, and I wanted to link these (which many writers, artists, comics people or crafters on my friends list may find useful) and try to marshal my thoughts a little (of little use to anyone but myself).
So there was an interesting panel discussion of webcomics involving some of my favourite people, and this was written up and discussed at length on Fleen. (Make sure you read the comments.) A lot of this discussion involved money and whether you can live off webcomics. A few weeks ago I had read an interesting and provocative article by author John Scalzi, Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money. This contains much excellent advice and while it squashed my daydreams of quitting to a certain extent, it made me feel a lot better about having a day job. But traditional publishing is not necessarily the only (or even the most desirable) route for many of us. Kevin Kelly's article on 1,000 True Fans made me feel really optimistic about the possibility of living off my creative work-- I strongly suggest that anyone who dreams of this read the article (you might want to quickly read the Wikipedia entry on the long tail first). Then yesterday I stumbled on an old (2005) article in Publishers' Weekly on the transition of webcomics to print and the web as an alternative income stream (although they kind of skimmed over this-- publishers don't like to think about such nasty things).
Okay, that is the end of the useful part of this entry! Here are my thoughts.
I don't make comics because I want to make money. Making things-- comics, drawings, stories, stuffed toys, cakes-- makes me happy and gives my life meaning. Without this, I feel like less of a person.
But I really, really like making things, and I have a day job which is not about making things. My job is about typing, and filing things, and organising things, and I kind of hate it. I get an office to myself and a pretty good wage and I know I'm very lucky to have it, and I'm certainly not thinking about quitting anytime soon. But I'd rather be making things, and I can't help feeling that this time that I spend in an office is a waste. I try to remember that this is what I do to fund my life, this is what pays for my house and my car and eating Korean food and buying books and all that stuff. But I don't want to do this for the rest of my life, and my ultimate goal is to live off the things I make. I really thought I could compromise and teach classes about people who made stories but I can't. This is what I feel passionate about. This is what I want to do. It's just hard when you get home after seven and a half hours at a desk to sit back down in front of a different one, and start working again. And it's frustratingly slow when you can only stand to do about an hour a night and a day on weekends. I want to be spending five or six days a week on this!
The article on 1,000 true fans really gives me hope. I think I have a few of these already (although many of them are my friends and may just be buying everything I do because they love me). Maybe if I spent more time producing products (t-shirts, prints, postcards) this number would grow. (I know I need to do this, but I find it hard to sit down and design products. I just want to make the stories.)
And then there's publishing. This seemed like a magic bullet to me a few years ago, but in reality most published writers and comic creators have day jobs. A lot of them are in the creative field (illustration, design) but oh man I would rather file meaningless documents all day than have some client send back my work saying things like "Can you make it a little edgier?" and "It's great, but it needs to be more energetic."
I'm not really coming to any conclusion here, I just felt like writing about my feelings and seeing what people thought.
I have been thinking lately about comics and publishing and the internet and money. These thoughts have been in part prompted by some very interesting articles and discussions going on, and I wanted to link these (which many writers, artists, comics people or crafters on my friends list may find useful) and try to marshal my thoughts a little (of little use to anyone but myself).
So there was an interesting panel discussion of webcomics involving some of my favourite people, and this was written up and discussed at length on Fleen. (Make sure you read the comments.) A lot of this discussion involved money and whether you can live off webcomics. A few weeks ago I had read an interesting and provocative article by author John Scalzi, Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money. This contains much excellent advice and while it squashed my daydreams of quitting to a certain extent, it made me feel a lot better about having a day job. But traditional publishing is not necessarily the only (or even the most desirable) route for many of us. Kevin Kelly's article on 1,000 True Fans made me feel really optimistic about the possibility of living off my creative work-- I strongly suggest that anyone who dreams of this read the article (you might want to quickly read the Wikipedia entry on the long tail first). Then yesterday I stumbled on an old (2005) article in Publishers' Weekly on the transition of webcomics to print and the web as an alternative income stream (although they kind of skimmed over this-- publishers don't like to think about such nasty things).
Okay, that is the end of the useful part of this entry! Here are my thoughts.
I don't make comics because I want to make money. Making things-- comics, drawings, stories, stuffed toys, cakes-- makes me happy and gives my life meaning. Without this, I feel like less of a person.
But I really, really like making things, and I have a day job which is not about making things. My job is about typing, and filing things, and organising things, and I kind of hate it. I get an office to myself and a pretty good wage and I know I'm very lucky to have it, and I'm certainly not thinking about quitting anytime soon. But I'd rather be making things, and I can't help feeling that this time that I spend in an office is a waste. I try to remember that this is what I do to fund my life, this is what pays for my house and my car and eating Korean food and buying books and all that stuff. But I don't want to do this for the rest of my life, and my ultimate goal is to live off the things I make. I really thought I could compromise and teach classes about people who made stories but I can't. This is what I feel passionate about. This is what I want to do. It's just hard when you get home after seven and a half hours at a desk to sit back down in front of a different one, and start working again. And it's frustratingly slow when you can only stand to do about an hour a night and a day on weekends. I want to be spending five or six days a week on this!
The article on 1,000 true fans really gives me hope. I think I have a few of these already (although many of them are my friends and may just be buying everything I do because they love me). Maybe if I spent more time producing products (t-shirts, prints, postcards) this number would grow. (I know I need to do this, but I find it hard to sit down and design products. I just want to make the stories.)
And then there's publishing. This seemed like a magic bullet to me a few years ago, but in reality most published writers and comic creators have day jobs. A lot of them are in the creative field (illustration, design) but oh man I would rather file meaningless documents all day than have some client send back my work saying things like "Can you make it a little edgier?" and "It's great, but it needs to be more energetic."
I'm not really coming to any conclusion here, I just felt like writing about my feelings and seeing what people thought.
