CreatorsWill ALWAYS Get Screwed By Publishers

 

It's 0130 hrs in the UK and in my sad empty life I've decided it's time to post a short piece.

The other day international small press artist Paul Ashley Brown (Browner Knowle, Laurie Bird, My Your Manners)called around to Castle Black Tower -have no fear we sat in the garden with a good 7 feet or 2+ metres between us. He mentioned someone who had just written and drawn a graphic novel, just under 100pp I believe, and for all of this work was paid...£1000 (so say $1000).

The style and quality does not matter. What does matter is that the person had to come up with the idea and script and then sit down and draw under 100pp. Being a usual 160-360pp graphc novel man myself (I really should not brag about size but I am rather wonderful) I know how much work it takes to produce 100pp. Weeks if not months and a lot is involved including redraws or changes. £1000 is, in all honesty. insulting to someone who does the work knowing that those doing the publishing will probably earn that or more in a month.

Writers always got a bad deal which is why so many decided to work for U.S. comics in the 1980s. For Fleetway I got £35 for each script page and a 4pp script netted me £140. The artist would then get (and what they were paid varied the the lowest was £135 per page) between £135-£200 per drawn page which is £540-£800 for a four pager. So you can see how the writer who has to come up with the story, write it and make changes to give it a good start, beginning and end and then sell the idea to an editor who has to fill pages created by an artist (and neither of whom can do much without the writer) gets short shrift.

If you have to write and draw a graphic novel then you would think a publisher might pay fairly (royalty deals tend to be lame and not earn anyone much (I know. I've been there) but most sit back and let others do the work as the sales revenue comes in and that, as far as 99% of them are concerned is THEIRS.

The problem is that people are not really buying comics. Social media and selling online is a big fraud that it has taken some people 20 years to catch on to! You self publish and hope in vain to make money. Then a publisher likes your work and offers you...a pittance.

In the year2021 creators are still getting the short end of things and as my Finnish pal Pekka Manninen put it "Comics won't make you money so do it for enjoyment". Hmm. I'd sooner skip the enjoyment and be able to pay bills and buy things.

So when you heathat so-and-so who is a small presser has just gotten a publishing deal cut back on the "Jammy sod is raking it in!" comments because very likely he/she is getting very little.