RSSHardcover Graphic Novels?
Ugh. It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Sorry, all. It’s been a very long second half of 2011, between buying and selling a house, moving, and then moving in with my parents for the past 3 months to help with medical issues. Anyway, in between the freelance work and all that other stuff, I’m still working on getting the new graphic novel printed.
Along those lines, I have a random question for anyone planning to buy the RUNNERS: “The Big Snow Job” graphic novel: do you generally buy softcover trade paperbacks or hardcover editions? Just trying to figure out if I want to offer hardcover options, maybe in a much more limited quantity. And for any self-publishers out there, if you have worked with any graphic novel printers that you’d like to recommend, I’d love to hear about it.
Thanks everyone, and I’ll have more book updates soon…
Does this question include Bad Goods as well? I’d love to have a HC of both series on my bookshelf but would be quite content with a softcover of The Big Snow Job.
I rarely buy a hardcover, basically because of the price. Plus there is more involved in producing one. You could check out Jason Brubake’s reMIND GN – he did a beautiful hardcover. He had Xeric and Kickstarter money to plan it out with though. I bought the book, it is very sweet. He hired a book designer to help him though.
I usually buy soft-cover, but, like @Trip, I’d love to have a hard cover copy of The Big Snow Job on my book shelf!
Not sure I’ll be revisiting “Bad Goods” in HC form anytime soon, although if I ever re-released it in color, I might consider it. As for the reMIND GN, I did see his Kickstarter page recently as I was doing a little research into Kickstarter myself. Not familiar with the book itself, but having just checked it out again, it certainly does look amazing! May have to order a copy sometime soon.
I always buy softcover because it’s cheaper.
Softcover because it’s cheaper & takes a little less space on the shelf. I’ve only used Lulu to print books – they came out fine, but of course it’s cheaper per unit & you have more control with a “proper” printer, so I want to try it that way next time. You might check with the Boston Comics Rountable folks about their book-printing experience, or maybe the Mirage crew.
I usually buy softcover, it’s more affordable and tends to not be in odd shapes and sizes that refuse to fit on my shelf.
Hardcover, always hardcover, especially for an artist such as yourself, I buy the best edition of the art that I can find, usually hardcovers have better page quality than soft.
Economy-priced Softcover… but only for special titles. Everything else is digital these days.
I’d go for a softcover mos likely. It might be a good idea to release a special hard cover for both Bad Goods and Snow Job later. I’d probably buy that.
I buy softcover whenever possible, like others, because it’s cheaper. So I’d prefer a softcover of Snow Job to match my Bad Goods paperback.
Also, congrats on the new house – are you still in Western Mass or have you relocated?
I have very few graphic novels in hardcover. I genuinely prefer the perfect bound soft covers for them.
I have an extensive GN collection, most of which is in softcover. The few hardcovers I own are either special editions of my favorite series or things that were only ever released that way. So, I’d say softcover is the way to go.
kickstarter. then you can figure out audience and interest.
Yup! Been looking into Kickstarter as well. Right now I’m still checking out printers and quotes, but once I settle on that, I should have a better idea of what the project will cost me as a baseline. At that point, I’ll probably start something up on Kickstarter.
If it’s not too late to add to the survey: softcover
Mostly because they are cheaper and I won’t mind if they get a little wear and tear over the years, which makes them perfect to lend out to other people and share the fun!
Cool. Seems like softcover is the clear favorite, which is pretty much in line with my own personal preference as well!
Soft cover. And although I read some books digitally, I still like my comics on paper. Plus I’d like the two books to match. I bought Bad Goods long ago, and I’d like the two to look like they belong to the same set.
I am a sucker for matching books as well, so I will definitely be trying my best to ensure that the new book matches the first one. Plus, since I’ve done all the layout and design for the first book, it’s less work for me to stick with that instead of reinventing the wheel each time. So another good reason to match!
Joining in a little late here. Found out about your stuff last year at that comic thing in Noho, MA. I LOVED “Bad Goods”. I have not read any of “Snow Job” ’cause I’ve been waiting for the trade. I typically go soft cover because of price. But since “Runners” is so good, I’ll throw it in with my “Death of Cap” hc trades.
I cannot wait!
I prefer hardcovers but I also like matching sets — what to do? One of each? Have you considered a hardcover omnibus or would that be cost prohibitive?
Hi Don, thanks for chiming in. I’m tabling the hardcover option for now since most people seem to lean towards paperback, but I might entertain the idea of a hardcover for something special in the future, like the omnibus you mentioned.
FYI, I plan to launch a project on Kickstarter in June to drum up funding and interest in the graphic novel printing. So be on the lookout for that! I’ll be sure to post info on that here as well when it goes live.
I prefer softcover. But later a series of hardcovers could be introduced that contain 2 or 3 softcover volumes (with a new color version of vol 1)
I prefer hardcover, but if I could only get the first volume in softcover, I’d be tempted to go softcover for volume 2, because I’m OCD when it comes to my bookshelf.
Btw, Sean: Not sure if you saw that Ingram SLASHED it’s print-on-demand prices to “actually affordable by humans” levels. http://www.ingramcontent.com/MRKNG/2012/52856-29853/29853.html Seems like info that might be … handy?