Webcomics and money
from buddy_scalera
In a webcomics forum, I asked a question to find out if there are anyone who is already earning some money from their webcomics.
It is a valid question, because to me, the future of webcomics is really dependant on whether is it profitable or not.
Webcomics and money
The result is this, almost everyone who replied were not earning money directly from their webcomics; many of them claim that because people liked their artwork, they are offered jobs instead.
What are these jobs? Some of these are as follows:
- Drawing a cartoon for an ad, a postcard or a flyer.
- Design a mascot.
- Editors of some magazines, websites or business newsletters wanted to use some webcomics from the webcomic artist’s website.
- Designing special gifts for someone special.
- Drawing an illustration for a book.
Now these are just some of the jobs that I have come across; there may be others out there. As you can see, a webcomic artist do earn some money indirectly from their webcomics.
However, it has a bad effect, because webcomic artists spend less time on their webcomics and more time making money by drawing for other people instead.
Also, there are webcomic artists that earn directly from advertisements at their websites, but usually they only earn enough to buy themselves a cup of coffee and not enough to earn a living.
This is rather sad to me actually.
Is this statement true? “If you’re doing a webcomic for the money, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.”
Personally, I don’t believe in that statement.
A webcomic or a manga artist must make enough money to support a family and enjoy life, to produce a great storyline and artwork for people to enjoy.
Imagine having a working person that can only work on their comics or manga after their work.
He or she cannot focus in their passion for webcomics, as other responsibilties such as supporting the family and maintaining a livelihood.
As a result, they are prone to commit errors, some of which are listed in “How to start a webcomic: Top 10 mistakes to avoid“, and it destroys their readership.
That is why most people, especially parents, discourage and even forbid their loved ones from indulging in creating manga or webcomics, because it is impractical for life.
And they are not far from the truth.
There are so many people who think little about artists, just because drawing isn’t a very profitable trade for many people.
Hence, so many people give up on creating their own webcomics or manga, and who can blame them?
Does money destroy creativity and originality in webcomics or manga?
That’s some of the concerns that people have, because they fear that the motivation of money can kill creativity when webcomic artists are too focused on trying to please their audience or employers for money.
In my opinion, money does not necessarily destroy creativity and originality; it is down to different individual’s beliefs.
It is as good as saying, the rich is proud because he has alot of money, and the poor is humble because he has no money. That’s a sweeping statement which may not be necessarily true.
Some webcomic or manga artists are able to stand their ground in their creativity and originality, without bending towards money, while others may not be able to do it.
However, this is surely not a reason to discourage people from making money directly from webcomics. It is just down to different individual’s belief system.
Final words for this post
As I am doing my own manga journey, I will be looking at options of how I can make money from webcomics directly.
It is not because I am just money minded; its just that a good webcomic needs alot of time and devotion for quality and recognition.
And if I do come across anything substantial, I will try to share them to you.
So what do you think? “If you’re doing a webcomic for the money, you’re doing it for the wrong reason.” Share it at the comments below.
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Comments
2 Comments on Webcomics and money
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Cannon on
Thu, 31st Dec 2009 1:57 am
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r2moo2 on
Fri, 1st Jan 2010 4:29 am
I am going to agree with the statement, but not for any of the reasons you might think. My argument seems purely semantic in nature, but it is decidedly important in how you view your business model.
The very nature of a webcomic is FREE. You can’t make money off of something that you are giving away. That would make it NOT free. The webcomic content is the hook, or the reason people are looking at you. You are using your content to buy attention. When you have the attention, then you can give people a chance to give money to buy a different product.
You don’t make a webcomic to make money. You may take your content and embody it in a different format, such as a graphic novel, pdf download, kindle format, etc., that is something you do for money. You may take the attention you’ve gleaned and direct it toward the t-shirts you’ve designed, or the “special” subscriber only content, or prints of a particular strip, posters, wallpapers, whatever, these are things you do for money. But you shouldn’t, and unless you are using a micropayment system you can’t, make a webcomic for money.
You make a webcomic to grab attention, and for that reason, you make the very best comic that you can. You make sure your content is spectacular. Then you take the attention you’ve bought with your content, and you turn that into money.
The argument may seem minor, but, in fact, it is a different mode of thinking that the webcomic creator needs to enter if they really want to provide a living from their creative activities. It is fundamentally a mind switch that allows you to understand what your streams of revenue really are.
Pick any comic that actually makes money and see where the price tags are. What are they actually selling? I would submit that it’s not their webcomic.
Nobody makes money off of webcomics. They make money off of ads, and embodiment of content.
One example of Awesome webcomic that currently provides great content, but makes zero dollars off of it. “Irregular Webcomic” http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/ Who does it just for fun. No ads, no t-shirts, no streams of revenue. He has great readership, and lots of attention, but he does not turn it into cash. Not good or bad, his choice. The point is, that if webcomics made money, he would be doing great. But it isn’t the content that makes money. It’s what you do with the attention you get that makes money.
@Cannon
You’re right that the nature of webcomics is free and you can’t really make money directly of what you are trying to give away.
Only through indirect methods, like ads or whatsoever, can we actually earn from webcomics.
I guess my argument was more about stereotypes and mindsets toward webcomics, that webcomics should be free for all, and whether if it is just wrong or not for the webcomic artist to pursue webcomics for money.
It’s a double-edged sword to me, where it benefits readers but it limits the author to truly express his talent, especially when he is tightly-strapped by money.
We all need to generate consistent money for the upkeeping of our family and livelihood, and there’s no doubt about it. Webcomic artists should be rewarded for their work.
That’s why webcomic’s standards don’t really measure up to paid comics to me, in my personal opinion. It’s just difficult to juggle both passion and our jobs at the same time.
That said, I totally agree with you that because webcomics’ nature is free, hence its purpose is to get attention, and its about what we do with the attention that makes money. I second it whole-heartedly.
And to me, webcomics is free only because it is just almost impossible to monetize webcomics while trying to generate popularity and readers’ interest at the same time, as “free” is itself the most powerful advertisement for virtually almost everything.
I have been pondering for months about how to make money from webcomics, if I really want to do it semi-professionally. And I have not found any answer yet.
And I guess I will continue to experiment to find out how it can be done consistently.
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