Has anyone here ever tried to publish your book as a graphic novel? if so, what was your experience doing it? Also, anyone know the sales figures on graphic novels vs regular novels?
Are you thinking of self-publishing, or finding a publisher? (I don't have numbers for either, but I'd think that self-publishing would be REALLY tricky, because it would cost so much more to print a graphic novel compared to a print-only book).
I have a co-worker who's self-published graphic novels and comics. It's more complicated as you have to find and hire an artist that shares your vision, and come to an agreement, usually a price for the artist's services--unless the artist would believe in the project enough to consider sharing in the future royalties. Artists that can create a good graphic novel are not a dime a dozen. There is a lot more to it than drawing pictures. If an author has the skill to both write and produce the art for the novel...that solves much of the problem. As for sales? I cannot say. You could go on Amazon and get a rough estimate by checking sales rankings. It may cost more via Amazon (what they charge) for each download of an ebook, version, as compared to a text version, as a graphic novel would be a larger digital file. From my understanding, (I have only read and heard a little about this...so don't take my words as the way things definitely are) an author would submit to markets that do graphic novels with the text of their work, and if the publisher accepts it, they would match it with an artist...and obviously pay for the art and everything else that goes along with the project.
Just out of curiosity... I don't read graphic novels, but I knew one called Bone was pretty popular a few years ago, so I looked it up on Amazon - $7.34, 144 pages, 6" x 9" trim. Then I went to CreateSpace and entered those dimensions - https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/ In order to just break even, you'd have to be charging $18.25 per book. One of the advantages of self-published books is they can generally be priced lower because most sales are e-versions and people are willing to take a chance when a book doesn't cost much. But graphic novels are generally going to be sold via print versions, right? So at that high price, with no distribution channels? You'll be hand-selling most of your books, I imagine. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it'll be a lot more challenging to successfully self-pub a graphic novel rather than a text-only novel. Are you definitely against trying to find a publisher? ETA: This is all based on the assumption that the primary market for graphic novels is print. I could be wrong on that? I don't know...
You make a good point. I am not against finding a publisher though. But I wonder how it works when you pitch your story to a graphical novel publisher. Just send in your script like normally? Maybe it is even easier to get noticed that way because maybe they don't get flooded with admissions like text publishers are.
I have one that I've partly story-boarded. Hiring a good artist to do the whole thing will be expensive.
Hmm I'm interested in the answers here because I have a brother that has been wanting to publish a graphic novel for the longest time. He wrote a very good story/concept and also does the artwork but he wants it done professionally because he has only drawn the book on white sketch paper. Any guidance is welcome!
