Why I'm Self-Publishing My Graphic Novel (And 5 Steps I'm Taking First)

I've made the decision to self-publish my graphic novel. Here are my reasons why.

Hello friends!

I’ve already made the decision to self-publish my graphic novel but I wanted to outline the specific reasons why. However, self-publishing wasn’t always my first choice.

In 2019, I began drafting an adult historical fantasy novel set in medieval Ireland. It had everything I loved - vampires, dragons, druidic magic, political intrigue, and Irish mythology. I poured my heart and soul into this book, rewriting countless drafts of it until it was ready to be submitted to literary agents. I sent over 150 query letters to various literary agencies and even small indie publishers but they were all rejected. Here’s why I’m now self-publishing the first volume of my Irish YA superhero graphic novel series:

1. Writing what I want to write is more important to me than fame or money. Trying to keep up with the ever-changing book market simply sucked all of the joy out of writing for me.

2. Capitalism sucks and I refuse to let a big publisher’s profit margins dictate how publication worthy my book is. I always welcome feedback and criticism but I won’t fundamentally change my story to ‘please the market’ or to make it a ‘better market fit’.

3. Traditional publishing involves a lot of waiting around, rejection, disappointment, and straight up ghosting. Signing with a literary agent is only a small part of an uphill battle and honestly, I have no more strength and patience left in me after 5 years of querying (with 3 different books.) Being in the querying trenches is exhausting as you don’t know whether your book will be accepted or rejected. The waiting period is tiresome to say the least.

4. I believe in my story and I know my readers are out there. Will it be a New York Times bestseller? Absolutely not. But I’d rather have a small handful of readers than no readers at all.

5. I’ve let the idea of “being chosen” and having to ask literary agents and publishers “for permission” dictate my self-worth for far too long. I think the only way for me to heal is to choose myself and my story so I’m doing just that.

Before I Publish, Here Are 5 Steps I’m Taking First

• Focus on finishing my project and getting it up to a publishing standard

I want my graphic novel to feel like it meets the standards of traditional publishing. I think I’ll find the publishing process to be much smoother if I’ve improved my craft to the point where I have some confidence in finishing projects and knowing those projects are decent. It doesn’t mean everyone is going to like my book but I’m more likely to pick up a small group of fans at least if the quality of my graphic novel is up to a certain publishing standard.

• Figuring out what kind of indie author I want to be

I think this step will inform my strategy going forward. There are 3 types of indie authors: 1) those who write to please the market, 2) those who write to a long-term brand, and 3) those who write whatever the hell they want. I’m pretty sure I fall into the “write what the hell they want” category.

Also, personally, I don’t think my graphic novel would be a good fit for any of the bigger comic book publishers out there like Dark Horse, Image, Scholastic, etc. I think I may also fall into the “writing to a long-term brand” type of indie author too because I like to write stories that are not super popular and trendy but I could perhaps build a fanbase for them down the line. That will require me to be consistently delivering in order to bring more and more readers into my series. It’s definitely a long-term investment but it’s a dream I want to build up at some point.

• Researching the market

I know that I said that I don’t want to write to please the market but it’s also super important to do this step regardless. If you want your book to sell, you need to invest some time in researching the market. It’s still a good idea to check out how other indie authors are marketing their books. I think observing books that are similar to mine will be a great way to find comparable titles because most readers look for books based on other books they’ve read or movies/TV shows they’ve watched or video games they’ve played.

• Designing a cover that communicates to the reader what the book is going to be like on the inside

Based on the research that I’ve gathered on indie publishing, cover design is extremely important. Indie publishing has a very specific language. When you see the way indie books are being marketed, the way the cover is designed tells you exactly what you’re going to expect from that book.

For example, if you see a brightly coloured illustrated cover with two characters looking at each other lovingly with big bubbly pink font splashed across the middle, it usually means that it’s a small town contemporary rom-com novel. Or if you see a photographic manipulated cover with a dark eerie house surrounded by fog with big red lettering at the top, that will usually indicate to the reader that this is a murder-mystery crime thriller novel.

Often a cover will tell a reader what the genre and tone of the book will be. The same goes for the type of colours used on the cover and the font choice. All of those things communicate subtly to the reader what the book is going to be like. I think it’s important for me to learn the language of indie book covers before I start designing my own cover. Since I’m planning to self-publish a YA graphic novel, I need to research YA graphic novel covers and how they look.

• Building up my marketing presence

When it comes to marketing and building an audience online, I’m mainly focusing on these 4 social media platforms: Substack, Bluesky, TikTok, and Instagram. These are the main platforms I use when it comes to marketing and promoting my work. I think if you’re getting started, building an audience on one or two social media platforms is enough. Personally for me, I enjoy using platforms like Substack and Bluesky in particular because they provide a more warm and welcoming environment to build a community.

I still do plan on setting up my YouTube channel at some point because I have seen many authors building up successful brands on there. I personally really like YouTube because it caters towards long-form content which I prefer. This is why I set up my newsletter here on Substack last year because it acts as a hybrid between a blog and a mailing list, and so far, it’s really helped me to build connections with so many other creatives while at the same time helping me slowly build up a small audience of readers.

I don’t think you need to be super savvy at using all of the social media platforms out there but it is a good idea to be using at least one of them. Just pick the one that you like and focus on that. Like many other creatives out there, I hate marketing. I usually tend to under-market myself a lot of the time. It’s really hard to strike that balance between posting consistently in a natural way and straight up marketing yourself. I think if you’re having fun, your audience will respond to that much better than if all of your posts just feel like you took a social media course and you’re hating every minute of it.

These are just some of the things I’ve been thinking about before I take that big leap into indie publishing. If you’re new here, my name is Laura-Louise and I am a writer, illustrator, and cartoonist from Ireland currently working on my very first graphic novel. Here on Redhead Pinup Reader, I discuss comic books, art, writing, and the creative life in general both from a craft perspective and a psychological perspective.

As always, thank you so much for reading!

Love,

Laura-Louise xoxo

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