Expert: Brad J. Guigar - 1/8/2005

Question
Based on material and subject, what can a new cartoonist make
with his publication of a new comic strip? What is the average
pay for small newspapers, compared to larger markets. Also, I'm
thinking of going with a childrens book first, comic strip second.
What do you know of the publishing process and where do you
start?     Sincerely John  

Answer
Hiya John! :)

I really wish I could give you a concrete answer on *any* of your questions. Unfortunately, it's not so easy.

Syndicated cartooning is an extremely competitive business. Syndicates receive thousands of submissions each year and launch two or three comics from that batch.

Additionally, the vast majority of those new titles fold in the first two or three years.

That's because the cartoonist only gets paid by the newspapers that pick up his or her comic.

...And fees haven't seen an increase since the 70s.

...And those fees are on a graduated scale. Smaller newspapers (ones that might be more likely to take a chance on a new title) pay less than big ones.

...And some newspapers are trying to work deals in which they don't pay for their comics at all!

...And the revenue that comes in must be split between cartoonist and syndicate.

Most fledgling syndicated cartoonists are forced to find other work to bring in a living wage while they work on their comics in their spare time. The pressure gets pretty high. And it's no way to produce comics that are going to attract more newspapers.

Syndicates are somewhat guarded when it comes to their fees. Some comics get offered to newspapers for free, and the most I've heard of a newspaper paying for a comic is $30 per week. So, you can probably figure there are some papers paying a top price of $40-per-week.

Given those guesses and assumptions, I guess you can figure a weekly scale of around $0-10 for small newspapers; $10-20 for mid-sized papers; and $20-40 for large newspapers.

One mid-sized newspaper, paying $20 per week for your title will pay $1,040 per year. (gross).

All you need is 8 more papers and you'll be up to the poverty level! (Unless you have a spouse... or a child... or more children... in which case you'll need to snag a few more papers.)

http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/threshld/thresh03.html

Now look at your daily newspaper. (You *do* look at it every day, right? No? It's likely that you don't. Neither does your neighbor in all probability. It's one of the reasons syndicates can't charge more than a few bucks a week for comics.)

;)

Well, assuming you have it around the house, look at it. I'll bet I can guess three-quarters of the titles on the page:

Peanuts, Blondie, Hagar, Dilbert, Doonesbury, Luann, Garfield, Baby Blues, B.C., Beetle Baily, Cathy, Funky Winkerbean, Crankshaft, Frank & Ernest, For Better or For Worse, Hi & Lois, the Lockhorns, and Zits.

See any new faces? Not many. Most of the comics you see on the page have been produced for decades. Some of them are the works of people who have died and are now being produced by people hired by the syndicate to continue it. Others are being produced by entire teams of people who are "supervised" by the original cartoonist.

There's precious little room for new strips on that page. And, changes are, when a newspaper *does* choose to drop one strip in favor of another, it will not choose a strip in its first few years -- it's going to choose one of those strips that have been able to hold on for a mere 10 years or so -- Non Sequitur, Curtis, Jump Start, Herb and Jamaal, Zack Hill, The Middletons, Willy 'n' Ethyl, etc.

Like I said: Extremely Competitive.

Now, before you accuse me of being the Grand Poobah of Downerism, let me clue you in to the wonderful world of webcomics -- self-publishing your comics on the Web. There's virrtually no money in it, but, then again, as I've already proven, that's no different than being a syndicated cartoonist.

Here's a related post on webcomics:
http://www.allexperts.com/previousqv.asp?QuestionID=3109770

I can't comment as thoroughly on children's books. I have done a little work and research in that regard, and I've pretty much found it to be every bits as competitive as syndicated comics.

The current trend in the industry is children's books by celebrities. If you're a celebrity, this is great news. If not, you've got your work cut out for you.

Also, publishers tend to want writers to write and illustrators to illustrate. If you're a cartoonist, chances are, you've done both. I'm not saying a publisher won't bite, but the chances are, they'll opt to use the story and hire an illustrator to do they style of drawing they prefer. Or maybe they'll pass on the story, but consider you to illustrate another's story. So be prepared to stay flexible.

There are several great books out there to help you out, like the  "Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market." You can get a lot more info there.

I hope this helps. Don't hesitate to write back if I can help out futher. :)

--Brad

My comic: http://www.greystoneinn.net

My book: http://www.everythingcartooning.com