#I’m thinking about starting to sell physical copies of my zines as well cause I’ve got nice paper and a decent printer

[sanguinaryrot]

I went to a zine workshop last week and made a silly zine about how datable I think the Universal Monsters are. If you like it you can find it here on my Gumroad, where you can find my other zines about Dracula, identity, and love! :3

This is the first time I’ve made a physical paper zine as a master copy and scanned it into the computer so there are some kinks to iron out but I’ve done my very best to make sure this is as good as it can be! :3

[sweet-teeth-mfs]

Fuck fuck it was ME! I forgot to sign as ME again lol 😂 sorry! And yess I would like to know more! It’s your blog post ad much non-fic as your little adorable heart desires! I’m sorry to hear about your headache go chug some water! 😘😘everything will work itself out! I’m currently writing an essay on feminist social theory and you would think it would be easy but there’s just SO much information:( but I BELIEVE in YOU and ME! 🥰 -🦊

I thought it might have been you my dear M,I’m feeling very overwhelmed in general this week - its been complicated and stressful and exciting…but I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing today and feel quite out of place. Anyway. 

Soooo…the exciting part is that I have started talks with some independent print-workers in London regarding getting a zine version of the blog made. We had a big skype call on Monday for about an hour where we discussed different ideas for the packaging/design and what would be included etc. I’m hoping to keep the price point between £7-15 depending on what it ends up costing to make/how good it looks. 

I’ve been trying DESPERATELY to get an illustrator/fan artist involved, but that’s been really hard so far. I’ve sent out several emails but have been either getting no reply or people show interest then ghost me, or people just don’t want to be involved in something NSFW… it’s been so difficult, especially when there are SO MANY great Kpop illustrators/fan artists. If anyone who reads the blog knows someone to recommend, or is an artist themselves, please feel free to contact me! I want to pay you for your art!!! 

My idea is to start with a BTS only zine, and it would have say 26-36 pages, would include new and old fics (depending if any are up to scratch). If I can get an illustrator it will also have 5-6 illustrations within, as well as hopefully a fold out poster. I’m still undecided on where I’m going to sell them but it will probably end up on Etsy as well as some other outlets. I’m still tossing up the idea of whether I get a twitter account for the blog and try to do some pre-orders there. We will see, that’s all stuff to worry about later in the project. 

I hope people support the project, but I mainly want to do it so I can make a really nice ‘physical’ version of the blog for myself, because I love making zines and I think it would be a fun thing to have/make/do. I totally get that a lot of people won’t want a copy cause they’ll not want to have smut around the house, but hopefully it does well enough to at least cover costs and maybe make it possible to do more - I’d love to do not only an EXO one but also single character collections (just imagine if I did full sets and you could have one for every member!!! 😲) and NCT & everyone else. 

Do let me know if you’re interested/want more updates. I will let you all know if any progress/stalling happens in general but its going to be a long process I think. 

Thanks for asking babe, and I hope your essay is going well! I believe in you! 

[salarta]

I just made a post about Giant Size Zine, but in the process I decided I'm ready to do something I’ve been thinking about for a while: post some pictures of my actual offline collection tied to Polaris!

First, the highlight: my copy of X-Men #49!

It’s not in perfect condition, obviously. Yet even in this condition, I was incredibly fortunate to meet someone who was willing to sell it at a price I could afford at the time.

Next, a few collectibles.

Not pictured: my copy of Lego Marvel Super Heroes (having trouble finding it), and the Super Hero Squad figurine for Lorna.

Women of Marvel there is a calendar I bought solely cause Lorna was included in it. I’ve never even opened it. I just wanted to buy it for Lorna.

I’m not a big collectibles person. The only thing I’ve bought collectibles for besides Lorna was Final Fantasy IV, for which I imported tons of stuff.

I don’t count collector’s editions of video games. If I get those, it’s usually either cause I feel the price isn’t too much, or I really support what it’s doing (e.g. Wolfenstein II).

Now for a bit of where my fandom started!

I’ll retell the tale. I discovered Polaris by happy accident when link-hopping around the Marvel wikia. After I found her, I immediately went out to a nearby comic book shop for the sole purpose of buying stuff with Lorna in it. I grabbed anything I saw with her on the cover, because at that point, I had no concept of what depictions of her were good, bad, whatever. I just wanted to read her.

I honestly don’t remember when or how Jeff Parker’s Exiles volume came into my hands. Maybe I bought it at the shop. Maybe I got it later. Maybe I knew some titles in advance before I went, or maybe I thumbed through to see if this random green-haired woman was Lorna before I picked it up.

In any case, these were among the first things I read with her in them.

Next, progress!

I bought every issue of All-New X-Factor. I could swear I bought two copies of ANXF #14, but I can’t find my second copy.

I vaguely remember what happened surrounding X-Factor #243. At the time, I wasn’t reading X-Factor. I expected the worst from Peter David before I gave him a fair shot, so I didn’t want to give him any money. When X-Factor #243 came around, though, I... still expected the worst. So I didn’t preorder. But it did grab my attention.

When it came out, and people spoke well of it, and I saw pages and panels to back it up, I went out and bought a copy. I would’ve bought two, but it was the last copy. I know because I talked with the shop owner about getting a second copy. That convo led to finding out there was a lot more interest than usual, and maybe Marvel would put out more copies with a variant cover because of it.

Never happened, because Marvel doesn’t have the kind of respect toward Lorna needed for such a thing to happen. But I held out hope for such a thing back then.

I gots one last picture.

When Secret Wars hit with some version of Lorna in multiple places, I started buying double copies to really show my support for more Lorna. The cost for these right here alone is $24, and it’s not all I bought. I bought all of SW:HoM, all of the final Magneto arc, and stuff like Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde too. In most cases, I also bought digital out of pocket. Meaning I basically bought three copies of the same book just cause Lorna was in it.

Then Marvel put Lorna into forced limbo for two years. That ended me going out to buy physical copies of comics.

I saw no reason to do it because first I figured any appearance she had would be a minor cameo. Something so they could say they technically used her before sending her into forced limbo again.

Then she settled on Blue, but I didn’t want to go out and buy physical yet because of how she was treated in Blue #8 and #9. I wanted to see improvement before I went and did it. Improvement never really came. Either it would be far too little to justify going to buy physical, or it would be undermined by Bunn putting Havok on a pedestal and making any progress for her into just a footnote or a boost for Havok’s story.

I have more comics featuring Lorna since 2009, but these are the highlights for me. 

[faeuniblog]

Script for Visual Essay

This is the script for my Visual essay for Overview of the Industry. This version will have my old edits and parts I've had to leave out. Parts that have been left out will look like this.

Hello there fellow melons, hope you’re ready to be entertained cause at least one of us is gonna have fun with this essay! I’m gonna be educating you guys on the joys that are the publishing industry!

Self-Published Vs Published!

 -So, what is it to publishing something?

Publishing is the broadcasting of literature, music, and information and making it available to the general public.

-  “So, Melon Sandy, I see you have your book there!

If you’re a writer that’s just written the best story ever, you’ll probably want to share said book with the world so you can make lots of money and be really famous!”

-“But almighty voice in the sky who sounds super amazing and cool, like it really sucks that this is a written visual essay and not an audio one, I here you cry!”

“How do I go about share my creation with the world?!”

-“Well, you have two options little Melon Sandy. You can go to Publishing Company or Self-Publish your work.”

Now let’s talks about what a Publisher is and does.

(draw like a picture of some cool printing machine or something)

Publishing Company – Basics, Pros and Cons.

If you decide to go with the Traditional method and get published by a big publisher, you’ll need to have your work accepted by a literary agent first. Once you get an agent, they will take care of selling your manuscript to the big publishers. By going through an agent you’ll be paid an upfront advance for your work. The advance could range from £1,000 to over £100,000. You also get royalties at around 3%-6%.

Having an agent take care of shit is nice, but its damn hard to get an agent to take your work and even then, there’s no reassurance that they’ll even be able to sell your manuscript to a publisher.

If you're lucky enough to get a publisher interested.

The publisher will take care of editorial, copyediting, and design work, as well as invest in sales and marketing. Depending on whether you’re with a small or large publisher, the budget on these things can range from £15,000 to £50,000.

-You, as the writer Melon Sandy, will not have to pay anything towards these costs!-

However, one down side is that Publisher might make you edit you story in ways you don’t agree with, so you do lose a bit of control over your work.

Your book will be released both in physical and digital shops (such as Amazon and iTunes)

You probably won’t get a moving or TV deal but you stand a much higher chance by going with the traditional method. So, you get a load of support from a Publisher and Agent but in return you will have to give up a percentage of your earnings and control.

Edit: (The publisher may also tell you to remove, cut down or add content to your story if they see it as unfit, so you do lose a bit of control over your work.

Your book will receive national distribution for its physical version in physical stores while also being distributed digitally in online shops such as amazon and iTunes. )

(It’s unlikely you’ll get a movie or TV deal but they are more frequent for authors you used the traditional method. So, you get a load of support from a Publisher and Agent but in return you will have to give up a percentage of your earnings and control.)

Let’s look at J.K. Rowling as an example for publishing with a Company!

(Drawing of cool witch J.K. Rowling)

J.K. Rowling

J.K was rejected by the first literary agency she applied too, and to add insult to injury, they didn’t give back her folder! She would luckily be accepted by the next literary agency, Christopher Little. Little sent the manuscript to 12 different publishers (who all rejected it!) before finally ending up with Bloomsbury.

As when you go to a publisher, J.K was told to change the title of the US version from ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone’ to ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone’ as they didn’t think America’s would know what a ‘philosopher’ was would think it sounded boring.

Edit: (A notable change that J.K Rowling wasn’t happy about was the changing of the title ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone’ to ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone’ in the US version.

It’s said that the publishers for the US version didn’t think America’s would know what a ‘philosopher’ was and think it’s boring; so they change it to ‘Sorceror’ which sounds much more exciting.)

 -“Hopefully, Melan Sandy, you won’t have a much trouble getting you book published as J.K. Rowling did.”

Self-Publishing – Basics, Pros and Cons

If you decide to go with Self-Published, there are two types of self-publishing: Digital and Old-fashioned.

One of the great things about the modern day, is the internet! (woooop Internet!)

Anyone can be an artist or writer with the internet around. Amazon charges nothing for you to upload your work to its worldwide audience or you can just post your art and stories on websites like Tumblr.

By Self-publishing, you have complete creative control over your work, meaning it can be about anything with no one to stop you! And all the money you make, is your money, no sharing with a big company!

 With online shops like Amazon, you won’t get a money advance like you would if you’ll with a publisher. Your book won’t be in bookshops and you’ll still have to face some costs like editorial and copyediting.

Remember, Amazon has over 5,000,000 e-books in its store and your book will simply be one of them, so it might be hard to get attention.

 If you used Amazon, you will get no money advance like you would do if you’ve with a company but you can still make money, if only a little. Your book will not be in bookshops and you still have to face some costs for stuff such as editorial and copyediting work. Amazon has over 5,000,000 e-books in its store and your book will simply be one of them, so it may be hard to achieve sales.

 With free websites like Tumblr, you’re not going to make any money unless you go to separate sources such as Patreon or ko-fi and you have basically no limitation on what your work is about.

 An example of the Old-fashioned method would be making, printing and selling Zine, at conversions or online. A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small self-published work made up of text and images and is usually reproduced via photocopier. They can be made be a single person, or a small group. An example of some popular zines are ‘Aint-Bad Magazine’, ‘Home Zine’ and ‘Record Culture Magazine’.

 Example of people who have done shit is Self-Publishing

For Self-Published, I’m going to look at The Martian and Homestuck. (awesome drawings).

 The Martian is a science fiction novel written by Andy Weir in 2011. Weir started writing the book in 2009, and was rebuffed by literary agents when trying to get prior books published. Weir decided to put the book online on his website in a serial format.

Fans of his book later requested him to make an Amazon Kindle version for 99 cents (the minimum allowable price he could set). The Kindle version sold 35,000 copies in three months, quickly rising to the top of Amazon’s best-selling science-fiction list.

Podium Publishing an audiobook publisher, signed for the audiobook rights in January 2013 and in March 2013 Weir sold the prints rights to Crown for over US$100,000. In March 2, 2014, the book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list in twelfth position.

Homestuck is a webcomic written, illustrated and animated by Andrew Hussie and published on MS Paint Adventures. The comic is a combination of static images, animated GIFs, instant message logs and games made with Adobe Flash. Homestuck arguably has the largest fan community out there, which has said to reach in the millions. Unlike the other authors on this list, Homestuck never got involved with publishers, this may be because it’s the only one on my list that’s a comic. If you go almost any conversion, you are likely to find a Homestuck fan there either cosplaying or selling zines or art.

   (gonna have to leave this part out for now)

Example of both publishing with a Publishing Company and Self-Publishing. (we are all in this together)

Introducing hard-core Beatrix Potter, who refused to put up with shit from anyone! (insert badass drawing of Beatrix Potter!!!)

‘Peter Rabbit’ was Self-Published! Beatrix Potter applied to a least six different publishing houses and with her book ‘The Adventures of Peter Rabbit’ but was rejected by all of them. Beatrix Potter then went on to printer 250 copies of her first book herself. It was printed with 41 black and white woodblock engraving and a colour frontispiece (yes I do in fact know what that complicated words mean!). The book was so successful that within the year, it had been picked up by one of the six publisher who had originally rejected it (HA).

Beatrix Potter stuck again with her next book ‘The Tailor of Gloucester’ after failing to reach an agreement with ‘Frederick Warne & Co’. So, Ms Potter got on her broom took the skies again and published 500 copies privately! (I AM thinking of the right person, right??). By the end of the year, Warne had given in, cementing their relationship with Potter, saving the publishing house from bankruptcy and creating the standard for how children’s book were marketed and sold!

(Reading from paper in hand image) Beatrix Potter later went on the serves fanatically loyal to the dark lor- (confused) okay I'm definitely reading into the wrong wiki! (angry! Paper turns over to show picture of Bellatrix Lestrange and Harry Potter)

Just to clarify, apart from her not being a Harry Potter character, she really did all the book stuff. She might have been a witch though, so I don’t wanna rule that out just in case.

 (gonna leave this part out too)

  ~~Tangent Time!~~

You may be wondering why, as a comic’s student, I would be looking authors of written work rather than comic witters. I mean look at Homestuck, as I said before, it arguably has the largest fan community out there, but I don’t think you’ll find a novel version in real life.

This is partly because, for some reason, writers of ‘word’ books generally get more attention and success then comic writers. Other reason for Homestucks lack of physical novel might be the fact that Homestuck has a lot of animations, moving visuals, sounds and music, so I can imagine that might be had to put into a book format. (But it could be done! It just hasn’t.)

I could probably write an entire other essay on these points and I feel the need to acknowledge them, but I have neither the time nor energy to do so effectively (and I’m not a masochist)…so yeah…

~~Tangent Over~~

Both methods have their pros and cons and work.

Going straight for Publishing company can be really difficult, as they may not be interested in your work to begin with and you lose a fair amount of your creative control and profits. But is the support they give worth it?

Going for Self-Published can be cool because of all the control and full profits but you need to gain the attention from the public before a publisher will even look at you. Almost all Self-Published work end up with a publisher so is this just an extra, unnecessary step?

 But hey, whatever way you choose, just go for it man. Should be fun.

Ending

“So Melon Sandy have you decided how you’re going to publish you awesome book?”  (I turn to look at Sandy)

(There is a crushed Melon in the floor)

“Melon Sandy?” (Confused)

(It have bow like Melon Sandy)

(I look down to see a knife in my hand with Melon blood on it…)

(Camera movies to show my face. It is coved in Melon juice…)

References

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/24/jk-rowling-tells-fans-twitter-loads-rejections-before-harry-potter-success

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/25/jk-rowling-harry-potter-posts-letters-of-rejection-on-twitter

http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/How-To-Get-Published.html

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13059054-homestuck-book-one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestuck#frb-inline

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(Weir_novel)

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-18387,00.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling#Subsequent_Harry_Potter_publications

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter

https://www.patreon.com/

https://ko-fi.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Potter

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/dec/17/beatrix-potter-peter-rabbit-self-publishing

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/self-publishing-vs-traditional/

https://www.scribendi.com/advice/traditional_versus_self_publishing.en.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing

https://www.format.com/magazine/galleries/art/11-cool-artist-zines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine