Artists Submissions!

How To Become A Full-Time Cartoonist: A Road Map by Harold Buchholz, Owner of Harold Buchholz Print Services.

For those of you who don't know him, Harold Buchholz runs an all-ages printing service that helps artists and writers put out professional-looking short runs of their comics and books, sometimes as low as 50 copies at a time. As a self-described "frustrated cartoonist", he's studied the different ways those who have printed with him have attempted to "break through"-- to get an audience that was willing to support their work. Steps 1-3 below are what Harold considers the best ways he knows of to get started; parts 4-8 are simply the best way he knows you can develop as an artist trying to gain an audience. There are many other ways, but this is Harold's best recommendation:

1) CREATE FINISHED WORK. Here is the secret to getting beyond 98% of people who want to do comics. Tell a story in a form that can be enjoyed by others in a finished form. Start small. But take something all the way to completion.

If you are bad at certain areas of the process, don't worry. The only way you'll get good enough is to first do it poorly. As GK Chesterton said, "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly." Force yourself to do the scripting, the lettering, the inking, and everything else you normally avoid until you have a finished piece. The only way to get to the good stuff is to go through the bad stuff and learn as you go. You are free to fail. You are free to be bad. If you question your talent in the process, remember that "talent is a species of vigor (Eric Hoffer)." Throw yourself into your work and you will become talented. You DON'T have to have a publishing venue for the work in order to do the work, but it helps to have one in mind so that the format you create will fit into some means of reproduction. Pick a format and create something to fit its parameters.

2) SHARE YOUR WORK. You may want to start with copies or printouts for family and friends. Listen to what they say, and try to be as open as you can to encourage honest feedback. Remember, you are free to make stuff that people don't like... yet. Learn from them what you might do to make your work more accessible and of greater worth to them. Your creation is not you, it's an attempt to communicate through ink on paper. I believe it was Picasso who said that if you successfully communicate 10% of what you tried to put into your work, you have succeeded as an artist with an audience.

3) NOW CREATE FINISHED WORK REGULARLY AND CONSISTENTLY. Once you've proven to yourself that you can do it, and that the world didn't end when you shared it with others, make a commitment to produce a regular amount of work, and then prove to yourself that it can be done by doing it! Okay. The next step is the biggest leap (after step 1).

4) BREAK DOWN YOUR WORK SO THAT YOU CAN PUT IT ONTO THE INTERNET DAILY (AT LEAST 5 TIMES A WEEK). You ideally need this level of frequency in order to get potential readers into the habit of coming back to see your work on a regular basis. Use a free service such as Keenspace if necessary to host your work. If it's a comic book story, break it down into a few panels at a time for the daily installments. The internet is an extremely low-cost, accessible, and dynamic advertising medium. Create characters that are ongoing in a storyline that will have emotional resonance with readers. This is extremely important. You want your readers to connect with your work in a deep way that makes them want to come back and visit old friends. This is connection point one. The second connection point is in step 6. From what I've seen, the comic strip creators got the internet right and the comic book creators got the internet wrong. Comic book people thought, "I can't post my whole book on the web. I'm trying to sell it to people. I'll complete an issue, print it out as a book, and then advertise the book's existence by allowing people to read the first 4 pages online. I hope they'll be intrigued and buy the book by mail or through a comic shop." Very few people can be so involved in 4 pages of story as to want to go out of their way to order a copy of your book. It's simply not enough information to make the sale. Comic strip people thought, "I'll pretend I'm creating a syndicated daily strip, and I'll send it out on the internet every day. I'll prove to myself I can do it, and I'll finally get an audience for my strips. How cool is that?" They offered their content for free on a regular daily basis and allowed visitors to read through their complete archive of strips, also for free! Visitors could read and read and read until they were connected to the work enough to want to come back daily. Those readers fell into a routine of visiting the site regularly to catch up with the strip. And those cartoonists who had such a following discovered something: that readers wanted a piece of that strip in some tangible form. They wanted a book collection. They wanted a t-shirt with their favorite character. And they were willing to pay for it. More on that in step 7.

5) LET PEOPLE KNOW YOUR STRIP IS AVAILABLE FOR READING. Tell family, friends, egroups, other strip creators, advertise online if you have the funds, send out press releases, just as much as you have time for. Ask the readers you already have to pass on the news about your web strip. The nature of the internet makes it easy for them to share their excitement about your work, and it only takes a bit of publicity to get the word-of-mouth going. There is an existing core of internet strip readers who will be happy to give your new work a try. From there, the quality of the strip and the breadth of its appeal will determine the rate of readership growth.

6) CREATE A COMMUNITY AROUND YOUR STRIP. Each day, briefly tell your readers how things are going, what you've been thinking, share prayer requests, something you read that struck you, etc. As much as you're comfortable doing, give them a picture of you as a person. Open a discussion board for readers to talk about characters and strips and to give you feedback on what they might like to see in the future. Let them know you appreciate their being a part of your life and your work. This tight bond of a community will accelerate the growth of your work because people have a little more invested in you and your cartoons. Know that you're being given a trust and stewardship because of this connection, and act accordingly with your readers.

7) DEVELOP WAYS FOR YOUR READERS TO BE INVOLVED AND SUPPORT YOUR EFFORTS. As your readers enjoy your work, many of them will want to support the continuance of your daily strip. Tell them their support is welcome and appreciated. When you have enough material, print a book collection of your work. This can be done for as little as $200-400 to start. I've seen a rule of thumb that 10% of daily readers of a good strip will wind up buying a book. Print t-shirts of your favorite characters, logos, etc. This can be done for $100-300. Create a large poster and sell it as a print. Offer original art for sale. Allow donations through PayPal. In time, you can offer other unique, fun things such as statues, hardcover editions, plush toys, or chocolate bars if you wish. This is a cross between selling merchandise and a PBS fund drive. You charge a bit more than what they would pay in the store, and you let them know their support allows the continuation of the strip. Reinvest funds into building your product line. Let your readers know when you need help in a certain area. If your readership is large enough, someone may very well step forward to help you go to the next level. Be open to those who might want to handle your merchandising or t-shirt creation and sales, or readers who would like to color your strip for you, or run your website. Be generous with them and share any income that arises from their involvement.

8) LET YOUR WEBSITE BE A MAGNET FOR LARGER MEDIA INVOLVEMENT. At one point, if you continue to create work that is designed for a broad enough audience, one of your readers will be someone with resources to take over the running of your work, and to publish it or adapt it for film or television, etc. You have to decide if this is what you want--if you want to run things yourself on a smaller basis, or to get outside media involved. At this point the audience you have built online will put you in a strong position with outside entities wanting to buy rights to extend the reach of your work.