F.A.Q

Do you have any tips for people who want to get started making comics?

Make short comics! Start with four panel comics, then one page comics, then maybe three or five pages, then maybe 15. Short comics are a great way to experiment with style, storytelling, and familiarizing yourself with telling a story through the comics medium. It’s also much easier to finish a short comic than a 300 pages graphic novel, which feels pretty good.

How did you find your agent?

Maybe a little unconventional, but my agent found me through Twitter. I had been posting short comics regularly and mentioned that I had a book pitch, which led to her reaching out to me. It’s not a very helpful story, I know, but maybe it says something about the importance of sharing your work where people can see.

How do you get a graphic novel published?

In my case, finding an agent was the crucial first step. After that, it was the standard process of pitching the story to different publishers.
You will need a clear, thorough pitch package to introduce your story. I’ve seen different GN creators include different things in their pitch packages, but here are the things I tend to include: story summary, outline, script, character designs (main characters, and important side characters), and sample pages (I usually do 10-15 pages, depending on the scene(s) I choose to draw). As far as I know, writing the full script isn’t required for pitching, that’s just the way I prefer to work! It is recommended to include sample script pages, though.
Being on submission is an incredibly exciting and nerve wrecking time. You might be staring at your inbox everyday, waiting for that special, special email to come in, telling you that an editor loved the story and wants to publish it immediately! You might also receive some rejections first. Don’t worry, that’s a normal part of the process! It’s simply a lot faster for an editor to decide to pass on a pitch than it is for an editor to go through the process of moving forward with a pitch, which means the rejections will always come rather quickly, while the good news can take a while to arrive. So hang tight, try to forget the fact you’re on submission, and keep your hopes up!