Hello and welcome to Pesto Comics.
My name’s Adriano, and I’ve been making comics for a few years now. I’ve also been lucky to get my books into the direct market through Prana.
So I’m very, very fortunate when it comes to comics. And one of the things that happens when you run into some good luck, and you’ve had some fortune with all of the hard work you’ve been putting in, is you start getting a lot of people who ask for help.
I certainly don’t mind helping as much as I can, within reason.
So today, I’d like to expand on a thought from an article that was posted on ComicsBeat a few weeks ago. It kind of answers the question: how do you get your books out there?
If you’re new to comics and you’re trying to get a leg up, trying to find your way in, there’s a right way and a wrong way. I think this article on ComicsBeat really did get the idea, but I’m going to add my own points to it -- and I’m going to try to do so without sounding like a jerk.
People Asking for Help
I have had more than a number of people -- artists, writers, all kinds of folks -- reach out to me looking for different levels of help.
If you’re just asking some basic questions, I’m a very open person. I’m more than happy to share too much information about how all of this works, and how I managed to get so lucky and build a business out of nothing. Kind of.
I haven’t done it alone.
I’ve relied on the kindness of a few people who didn’t know me from Adam and were more than happy to give advice, share tips and tricks, and help me out when it really mattered.
And then artists who were willing to take a chance on a writer who had no proven track record at the time, and had not too much to offer in return except a willingness to really sweat and work and push to get the work out there.
I’m more than happy to share as much as I can, and I know a lot of my contemporaries are willing to do the same.
The beautiful thing about the comics industry is that we really do feel like we’re all in this together. Your success is my success, and vice versa. So we’re more than happy to push someone else’s book, to help them out, to make sure they have the most success possible -- in hopes that one indie win is a win for the indie comic book industry as a whole.
We always talk about the big two and how they kind of drive sales. If the big two didn’t exist, then no comics exist, at least in their current form. That remains true.
But at the same time, there’s a little bit of contention there. We are constantly fighting for market share between the big two and everyone else. And I would even throw Image and Dark Horse and the bigger indie publishers in there as well, because they just have a lot more muscle than us smaller publishers do.
So any time one of us smaller publishers gets even a little bit of attention, it’s a win for all of us, and we’re all happy to see it.
With that, we’re always happy to help each other out and provide advice.
The Line
And that’s where the line is drawn.
I’ve had all kinds of requests. I’ve had folks saying, “Hey, can I draw your next book?” when I hadn’t met them before. They haven’t shared a portfolio. They’re pretty much just looking for me to give them a job, as though I put a posting on Indeed and I’m looking for artists that way.
That’s not how I’m looking for artists, by the way.
Artists probably have the easiest path to ever working with me, which is: start posting your work out there.
I’ve gone to two specific places to look for artists, although I’m not actually looking currently -- but you never know.
Where I typically look is Connecting Comic Artists and Writers on Facebook, a wonderful group with some really talented artists and really cool writers. So maybe you won’t find work with me, but you’ll find work with someone.
And then of course there’s Reddit, r/ComicBookCollabs, where I’ve also found a couple of artists, and they’ve been great.
As far as new series or even variant covers at this point, I’m working with people that I trust. I’m working with people that I know can deliver and follow through.
We’ve been burnt a couple of times. We’ve had series that I’ve paid for where the artist then disappeared. Not something I’m looking to replicate.
And unfortunately, because we don’t know each other, that’s going to make it very difficult for me to take a risk on you.
Writers Asking to Be Published
So that’s just the artists.
When it comes to the writers, I’ve had more than a few come to me saying, “Hey, could you publish my book?” “Hey, can you make my comic?”
Without providing anything they would bring to the table beyond a script. Just, “Hey, I wrote something. Can you make it happen for me?”
Now, I’ve talked about this before. If you know anything about the history of this company, and the struggle it’s been to get comics out into the world, and the financial risk that I personally have taken to make all these books happen -- I need some incentive.
Could you sell this on your own if it weren’t for me taking you on? Do you have a name that I could put out there that is going to sell books based on your name?
If not, then I’m not entirely sure what you’re looking for, unless you’re looking for someone to break you into comics.
That’s not how any of this works. Nobody is looking for people to just pull up. They are looking for someone who can do something for them in turn.
So if you are looking to work with a publisher, they want to know you have a great book they can make some money on and get some return on.
They want a team that they know is going to do the marketing lift for them and push the book -- even if you’re within a publishing coalition like I am with Prana, or if you’re with Massive, or even a publisher like Image.
They want to see some proof. They want to see that you can actually follow through and get a series done, get a book done from end to end, and deliver on time, on schedule, and at the quality that’s expected consistently throughout.
If I don’t know you and you reach out to me and say, “Hey, I would like work, please give me money,” that’s not the best approach.
So I mentioned an article on ComicsBeat that kind of spawned this post.
Doing It the Right Way
I haven’t mentioned the article yet, because it kind of buries the lede. It’s How To Promote Your Graphic Novel, Hint: Make Friends.
Janna Morishima does a great job in the article explaining exactly what they mean by this, so I absolutely recommend that you go to ComicsBeat. I’ll leave a link in all of these posts here telling you exactly where you can find the article.
But I recommend you read it.
The main point is that the only reason Jana was able to get an article on ComicsBeat is because they were friends with the editor, Heidi MacDonald.
It’s not as though they reached out and said, “Hey, I have a course to push or a book to push. Give me an article.” They had a relationship that was already built, and they threw this whole concept out as a soft pitch.
It was something like, “Hey, if you ever needed something like this, keep me in mind.”
And frankly, all of the artists I’ve worked with who have reached out to me in that way usually end up being a situation like that. They’ve said, “Look, I don’t need work today, but maybe you could keep me in mind in the future.”
The few people that I’ve actually worked with always came out and wanted a relationship first.
They made sure they knew what Pesto Comics was. They supported the books in the past. They became a friend in some form or fashion, whether we’ve chatted online or met at the various shows I’ve been to.
But the point is: there is a relationship before the ask.
Now, I’m not saying you should be cynical and go make relationships with people just for the hope of getting work out of them. That’s a quick road to ruin as well, because people will see through it very, very quickly.
However, having friends in the industry does have its benefits -- whether it’s getting you work directly, or maybe they hand you off to somebody else, or maybe you’re just a good reference for them.
There are a number of benefits to trying to make friends in this industry, rather than just trying to extract business from them right up front.
I understand everybody has bills to pay. Everybody’s trying to make this all work. But the truth is, so are the people you’re asking things from.
So if you reach out to me or any of the publishers out there and you start with, “Hire me,” you need to follow that up with, “Here’s why.”
And hopefully, if you really were listening to me, that’s not the first email you’re sending. That’s an email you’re sending after months or years of other conversations with these creators, just letting them know that you appreciate their work -- and that you understand the position of the publisher.
I’ve made it very clear on pestocomics.com that we are not taking unsolicited submissions right now. So you could try your luck, but most of those emails go right into a folder that I probably won’t be looking at for a long time.
As I mentioned, we have books through 2029 right now.
But the point is, if you knew that about Pesto Comics, you’d be making friends right now. We’d be chatting a little bit about things that aren’t “Hey, I would like work” right up front. We’d just be friends -- and then maybe, just maybe, there’d be some work coming for you down the line.
Just keep in mind: that’s not where the relationship starts.
Thanks, Buddy
So with all that, I want to thank you.
You’ve been friends of Pesto Comics, some of you for years now, and I really do appreciate you. Those of you who chat with me in the comments or send emails -- I appreciate you for being friends to Pesto Comics.
And if you’re a creator, again, reach out. I’m more than happy to provide advice. I’m more than happy to chat, and I do that all for free. More than anything, to pay it forward for those who’ve done it for me as well and helped me get where I am today.
So with all that, I want to thank you again for being here. We’ll talk again next week.
Have a good one.
