Hedrick Newsletter #40
My submission guidelines! Because why should publishers have all the fun?
Hi Everyone! 👋🏼
If you participate in Thanksgiving Day festivities, I hope you had a splendid and joyous time. Same goes to those who don’t!
Before we dive into this newsletter, let me clarify that I am not accepting submissions of any kind. I’m only a “publisher” by default as I self-publish my creator-owned titles. Rather, I’d like to discuss what I look for in a publisher prior to submitting a pitch to them or agreeing to a work-for-hire gig.
I may only have about 7 years in this industry, but I’ve had a lot of experience in that short amount of time with small press publishing houses. But you won’t find any juicy gossip or insider baseball in this post though because I’m not naming any names. Sorry! Instead, I’m going to lay out FIVE guidelines that a publisher (or even an individual creator) must meet before I agree to pitch, sign, work, collaborate, etc., with them.
Just like when you’re interviewing for any job, the potential employer should be explaining why you should work for them and what they can offer that sets them apart from their competition. They have their standards, so do I, and so should you!
Without further ado, here are my submission guidelines:
1. A Social Media Presence 🌐
Love it or hate it, social media is baked into our lives and it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future. Everyone has their personal favorite platforms and some of those apps work better than others from one person to the next. As discouraging as it can be sometimes, I stick it out and try to post regularly on these major sites: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter (X), BlueSky, and Substack Notes.
I would expect a publisher to, at the very least, post regularly (i.e. minimally once a week) on Facebook, Instagram, and one of the microblogging platforms (ex. Threads, Twitter, BlueSky). This is a bare minimum effort, especially since you can cross-post something from Instagram to Facebook and Threads simultaneously with ease.
It’s really not that hard. I know not many publishers have a designated social media department, but you know what? Neither do I! So, if they can’t do it, why should I give them 50% of the profits of my intellectual property?
There’s a publisher who’s name I won’t mention that just returned from an extended absence. As of the drafting of this newsletter, their last post on Facebook is from 2022 which is long before they went dark. In my opinion, that is not very reassuring.
I’ll say this, there are plenty of mid-sized publishers doing a great job on keeping a strong social media presence. For example, Boom! Studios is constantly on my feeds across multiple platforms. They post engaging, thought out, purposeful content and they do it consistently!
2. Email Marketing Campaigns 📧
In conjunction with a solid social media presence, my ideal publisher should also have a strong email marketing plan. If their wise, they’ve been collecting emails for a while through online sales/traffic, convention appearances, marketing within their books, and other avenues.
A good way to get to know a publisher is to subscribe to their newsletter. I do this for each of them that I’m interested in working with. And I’m shocked at how many just don’t have an e-mail newsletter at all! E-mail marketing is a great way to land in front of your audience that might have missed out on information that was lost amongst the algorithms of social media. Additionally, e-mail could be the preferred source of information for a good portion of your clientele.
My ideal publisher would be sending out at least one e-mail a month to their subscribers. It would be disconcerting if they didn’t have anything new to share on a monthly basis. That would tell me they don’t get books out regularly (see guideline #4) and they don’t promote their titles that already exist in their catalog. At a minimum, they could have a monthly creator spotlight (see guideline #3), or revisit previous titles published and offer a discount on that particular title for the month, for example.
I usually get one email out a month to my subscribers, so if a publisher can’t do it, then why should I give them 50% of the profits of my intellectual property?
A previous publisher I worked with seemed to only send an e-mail when they had a deep discount sale. One time, the discount was higher than what us creators get! How are they making the creators any money by doing that? How are they making any money by doing that???
A publisher that does a good job with e-mail marketing is Dynamite. Sometimes I get 3 or 4 different emails from them at the same time! That tells me they have a ton of subscribers and aren’t worried about losing any from frequent e-mails. If I sent that many e-mails regularly I’d have no subscribers left after a few weeks. 😅
3. Promoting Their Creators 🫱🏼🫲🏼
This is one submission guideline that is near and dear to me. Far too often I’ve been left feeling like a publisher just needed my title to fill a slot in their release schedule and had no intention of promoting me or my work. Now, I won’t even support a publisher that leaves out the creators from their marketing (i.e. not crediting them in posts, not tagging them to help share, etc.), let alone work with them.
And my biggest bugaboo is those publishing houses that can only seem to promote the work of those in their C-suite. 😡 I get it! Most of these companies began with one person who had their own comics and then expanded upon it. But I’ve experienced more times than I’d care to admit when someone in charge at a publisher put their books in front of mine. Their titles mysteriously never seemed to be delayed or have any issues at the printer. And they magically would get more variant covers and store exclusives. And somehow a larger spread in the Previews catalog (RIP). Funny how that works, huh?
Another bad experience with a publisher occurred when I was running a separate crowdfunding campaign at the same time as the company who publishes the project I was running. I reached out to suggest we cross-promote our projects and they agreed. My next update included a shoutout to their campaign (which still doesn’t look like it has been fulfilled yet, by the way) but they never did the same for me and had plenty of time do so. It’s really unfortunate because their project got A LOT of eyes on it as well as extra support from the platform. Oh well. 🤷🏼♂️
Ideally, a publisher I’m working with would at least help promote the same titles that are under their umbrella. But going above and beyond by sharing any of my work shows a true sign of awareness that “a rising tide raises all ships.” I’m going to promote my work regardless! So if you can’t help me in that department, then why should I give you 50% of the profits of my intellectual property?
One publisher that comes to mind that does a great job of promoting their creators, no matter if it’s a title they publish or not, is Mad Cave Studios. I’m always seeing their CEO & CCO
celebrating fellow creators’ success. And despite it being his company, he doesn’t take all of the fun jobs for himself. He opened the doors to creators to be published with their creator-owned projects and even hires out others to work on the licensed properties.4. Do They Get Books Out? 📚
This should be a pretty obvious guideline! When was the last time they had a title released, or have they ever released a book at all? Every publisher has to start somewhere, but I’m not too keen on them working out the kinks with my creator-owned title. And even if they do have experience publishing, has it been consistent?
Most comic book enthusiasts are familiar with the recent turmoil involving the Diamond distribution company and its bankruptcy. Publishers who were well prepared weren’t left with their pants down. Now, the rest are scrambling to find another distribution channel to get their titles into the direct market. With less comic book shops taking chances on crowdfunding retailer tiers, it’s become more difficult for indie creators like myself to get our work on shelves. So, if you can’t get my books into the direct market, then why should I give you 50% of the profits of my intellectual property?
I’ve been locked into contracts before (and currently am) with publishers that failed to bring my books to the direct market. That means no printing it myself or distributing it digitally on my own until the contract runs its course. It also means no crowdfunding campaigns to help make up for the loss of income put into the project (unless of course I give them a cut after doing all the work 🙄). This is something I consider going forward before working with anyone. If we’re in a car together and it runs out of gas, are they going to get out and help push?
5. What Can They Do That I Can’t ? 🤔
One of the many things I like about crowdfunding is the flexibility it gives me as a creator and what I can offer the backers. If I want to make prints, patches, stickers, temporary tattoos, iron-on decals, and the like, I can do it and don’t need to ask anybody for their permission beforehand. That means, I not only look for a publisher that; 1. has a social media presence (because I can do that), 2. sends emails (because I can do that too), 3. promotes creators (because I can also do that), and 4. gets books out (because I can do that as well), but what else can they offer?
For example, do they offer T-shirts, because I do not want to do that. Clothing merchandise is a monster that I’m not ready to tackle myself, but I’d appreciate a publisher that can!
Another example, are they making contacts with Hollywood? This isn’t a top priority for me, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t interested in my work being adapted into a movie, TV show, or even an animated series. I don’t have the connections for that and if a publisher does, I’d be willing to hear the rest of their pitch!
With all of the being said, I have worked with a publisher before that did all of those things and it was great…at first. T-shirts, posters, and even shoes were available for my creator-owned IP! Then, when it came to my second title with them, I had to ask multiple times for shirts and other merchandise to be prepared. These were all done via a print-on-demand service so it wasn’t like the publisher was dropping a ton of money (or any at all) upfront to mass produce this merch. Afterwards, my third and final book with them took so much hounding on my part to have something prepped, that the series was long out by the time anything was available and the opportunity to capitalize on merchandise like that had already passed. 😔
Closing Thoughts 💭
As I stated before, I’ve been fortunate enough to be published across several companies in my short, but expanding time as an indie comic book creator. All of them gave me invaluable experience despite the good times and the bad times. What I’d like to leave everyone with is this: Don’t look at where I’ve been. Look at where I return.
What I mean by that is, not everyone knows what they’re getting into until it’s too late. A movie could have record breaking box office sales, but are people going back to see it? A new restaurant might have an amazing grand opening, but are people going back there to dine again? A lot of people bought that book, but are they going to read anything else by the author? See what I mean?
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That’s it for now! Talk to you soon. Until next time,
Great article and a great POV from the creator's perspective. I also see, and you emphasize this repeatedly, that if creators can do it themselves, what value do publishers bring? Publishers need to recognize that creators want someone who will champion them as if they are their only focus – that's what's missing in this space: a champion for the creatives, not just the brand.
Thanks for putting this together, Jonathan. There are some good indie publishers out there, but so many are seemingly incapable of doing any of these basics AND want to lock creators into predatory contracts at the same time. These are good tips for us all to use as litmus test when dealing with publishers.