Indy Comics Writer

All throughout my freelance writing career, I’ve operated with one clear assumption: People pay me to write for them. I don’t pay them to publish me.

And, under no circumstances, do I write for free. I’ll write for the monetary equivalent of peanuts, sure, but I do have to get paid something for my efforts.

But in the world of comic-book writing, it doesn’t quite work that way. What I’ve discovered — and what every would-be writer who wants to pen comic stories finds out, too — is that new writers are pretty much the peons of the comics industry. Think about it: Comics publishers and editors are bombarded with countless blind scripts and series ideas from novice writes, most of which are awful. Then there are the hopefuls who send in suggestions for Spider-Man and Batman. Do they really think Marvel or D.C. are going to entrust their top properties to an unknown?

And there is the problem: There are countless writers out there who’d give anything to work in this field. For that reason, the dollars don’t often flow from publishers to new, unproven writers.

The best route for new comics writers to make it in this business is to somehow wrangle some writing work from one of the many independents in the business. Problem is, the vast majority of these companies don’t pay their writers upfront page rates. They don’t have the budget. Any payment to the writer comes out of back-end profits. In the world of independent comics, most books don’t sell enough for their to be any profit.

So, if you do want to make a go of it in this field, be prepared to go without much money. You need a second job. I’m fortunate in that my main job is writing and editing newspapers and magazines. I’m not stock working in a gas station or a fast-food restaurant. I can support my family with my writing.

But any writer who thinks he or she is going to make an instant splash in this business is fooling themselves. There are very few overnight successes. It takes a whole lot of quality, low- or no-paid output to get any of the bigger names in this industry the slightest bit interested in you.

That’s just the way it is.

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