Creating Comic Success: Time Management | Having a Plan

“It’s all… part of the plan.” – Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Happy New Year to you and welcome to the first post of the New Year. Now that 2009 has arrived, and bringing an end to procrastination and better prioritization skills are at the top of your resolution list, it’s time that we dive right in and talk about your plans. Experts will tell you that the most important component of managing your time is the planning stage. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Quite often when I meet people at conventions that tell me they want to create, or are creating, a comic book, I will ask them what their plans are? More often than not I will either get a “deer in the headlights” look or a confused remark like, “Um, my plan is to create a comic.” No, no, no, I mean what are you planning on doing after you create it? How will the book be printed – Offset Press or Print on Demand (POD)? Will it be printed? Will it be digital? How are you planning to market? Who are you planning on marketing to? What are your plans for distribution? Will you be exhibiting at conventions? Which ones? You see, by answering these questions – i.e. making a plan – you will be ahead of 90% of everyone else attempting to enter into the comic industry – including a lot of those already here. It is staggering to see how many people in the world of comics walk blithely around with no game plan whatsoever. The last thing you want to be is one of them. So how do you prevent that?..

It’s been said “If you build they will come.” And it’s true.. in the movies.

However, the world of comics is an entirely different animal. Sure you can build it, but when you look around and all of the seats are empty what then? This is where planning is so crucial to your success. Too often brilliant ideas and incredible story telling go unnoticed because creators fail to promote their ideas – a concept often overlooked, but easily rectified by putting together a plan.

This stage of the creative process is extremely critical. Planning out the specifics of your comic, and how you will promote it, will create a better chance of success. Will your comic be 24 pages or 32? Will it contain advertising? Will it be Non-Bleed or Full-Bleed? Will it be in color or Black & White? What size will it be, traditional or ashcan? What will you charge? Will you advertise in print, or on the Internet? I know, I know, your a creator and not prone to thinking about these sorts of things. Which is exactly why most comics never really get off he ground. Hopefully by providing you with these necessary insights you and your creation won’t be one of them.

As you begin to put together a plan around these types of questions ask yourself this, “How am I going to be able to stand out from the Big Boys (Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, etc.)?” Like or not, this is whom you will be competing with. Hundreds of titles are available every month vying for the attention of retailers and fans alike. There are a lot of talented writers and artists out there. If you’re basing your potential success solely on these attributes you will be in for a rude awakening.

“Great, I don’t have a chance,” you might be thinking. Well, not so fast. You see, if you are going to run with people that are faster than you are, you need to find a way to optimize the skills that you do have so that you can not only enter the race, but give those you are running against some stiff competition.

In my latest article for WIZARD Magazine I wrote:

“The truth is, in the entrepreneurial world – which is where Independent comics lie – we are ahead of the game. As entrepreneurs we can shift our focus, learn new skills, address new markets, alter our strategies, marketing and price points and take advantage of the current state of things.”

In the 1990’s it was fairly easy for someone to create a comic and have it distributed to retail shops. Nowadays it is much harder – especially in our shaky economy. However, the good news is today we have resources at our fingertips that were not available to the 90’s crowd. We have the capability to have our creation seen by folks around the world in the blink of an eye. But we have to be smart. We have to have a plan in place so that we can take advantage of these resources. By having a well thought out game plan you will have saved yourself countless headaches and potentially thousands of dollars in wasted time and costly mistakes.

So let’s put together a list of things that we can plan:

• Size of Comic
• Non-Bleed or Full Bleed pages
• Color or Black & White
• Will it be printed or digital?
• If Printed, Offset Press or POD?
• If Digital, Web-Based or Downloadable?
• Price Point
• Is this a One-Shot or a series?
• How often will you publish?
• Who is your audience?
• How will you market to them?
• Will you exhibit at Conventions? If so, which ones?
• How will you distribute?

Be honest now, have you asked yourself any of the above? Or were you planning on making it up as you go? If the latter is your answer it’s a recipe for disaster. Not only will you create countless hours of frustration for yourself, you will come across as unprofessional and unreliable. This may sound harsh, but this is a harsh industry. If you jump into it without having a plan in place you will find out how harsh it can be. Don’t believe me? Go ahead, jump right in, the water’s warm.

To help you along I will be addressing each and every one of the above points separately in future posts. In the meantime, take some time and go through each one. As you do you will find that more questions arise as you begin to answer them. As you answer those you inevitably begin formulating steps that will be required to fulfill each and every item on the list. You will begin to see a roadmap take shape and you will quickly realize how irresponsible it would have been had you gone ahead without it. You now will have a clear idea of where you are heading. And that, my friend, is the real beauty behind having a plan.

Now remember, having a plan does not mean that you are locked into it. Every day we meet new challenges. Sometimes having a Plan “B” is all too often a necessity – and a “C” and a “D” and so on. But here’s the thing, you cannot change the plan if you do not have one to begin with. Make sense?

So when the day comes that your comic is on top and the lines of fans anxiously awaiting your autograph wrap endlessly around the convention hall and a member of the press asks you “what do you feel helped make your comic so successful?” You can confidently answer, “I had a plan.”

To Your Success.