So, my superhero novella "The Place Between" was published today by Timid Pirate Publishing as paired with Erik Scott de Bie's "Eye For An Eye" into "Cobalt City: Double Feature"
Packed to the brim with superhero adventures of magic and technology, Cobalt City Double Features brings you two exciting novella length stories written by some of Cobalt’s favorite authors! Your recommended blockbuster reading for Summer 2012.
The Place Between by Minerva Zimmerman (“Muffin Everlasting” and “Apples and Arrows”) breathes life into the world of the Norse Gods. In 1975, Cole Washington returned home from the U.S. Army bearing the mantle of Thor. Taking the name Midnight Thunder, he waged war against Loki for the soul of the West Key neighborhood, if not all of Cobalt City, for over a decade. Now it’s 2012, and it’s time for the title of Thor to be passed to his daughter Tera as she forges her own identity as Tempest. But this time, the battle lines are not so clear. And Lucky, one of the aspects of Loki, might be her best chance of surviving her trials.
Eye for an Eye by Erik Scott de Bie (Shadowbane, “Vengeance on the Layover”) shakes up the happy family life of Cobalt City’s brightest star, Stardust. Injured, on the run, and without a friend in the world, Lady Vengeance returns to Cobalt City. Stardust can’t be sure which is more dangerous—the murderous vigilante chasing her, the dark secret which grants Lady Vengeance her powers, or the threat this dangerously sexy bad-girl poses to his family life. Is it a team-up or a free-for-all? And is Cobalt City big enough to contain the sheer firepower all sides are willing to unleash to assure victory?
Timid Pirate is a small indie publisher and Cobalt City is their shared superhero world. I'm building off of the character Midnight Thunder created in The War At Home (timidpirate.com) by Nathan Crowder
it is available for Kindle (The W at Amazon) and Nook (as soon as B&N gets it up, which hasn't happened yet, I'll edit this later with info) or in Kindle/Nook/PDF bundle directly from the publisher (timidpirate.com)
If you enjoy non-traditional superhero stories and Norse Mythology humor, you'll probably dig my story. If not, I'm happy to have you buy the book to pan my story too.
Originally posted by CHAPLOW Me and my friend are actually looking to publish both novels and comic books, any advice? (edited by CHAPLOW on 3.8.12 1122)
I'm not really involved on the publishing end of things, but from talking with many people who are, I think the best advice is assuming that you won't make any money at it. Most print books don't make money, and many don't even break even. The trick seems to be to go slow and steady so that when you DO finally put something out that makes money you can capitalize on the success, and hopefully break even/make money over the long run. Digital books still cost money to make, and even if you're doing absolutely EVERYTHING in-house (which depending on skills might not be the best idea for the things outside your normal skill sets) they still take a lot of time. More time than you think they will.
Diversify. Try lots of different things. Smaller publishers are more flexible and more adaptable than the big houses and with the industry in such huge flux right now, it's probably a good time to check out various kinds of publishing options.
As for comics, personally, I think doing a free consistently updated webcomic is the best route right now. Even if you want to put it out in print or a digital collection for sale at a later date, you can grow your audience and use the webcomic as a kind of advertising for your freelance graphic work. If you grow your audience first, you will sell more later. If you grow your audience you can even do a Kickstarter to pre-sell the collection and not have to front the money yourself. Trying to do it the other way around will be more frustrating and have you lose more money, earlier. That's just my two cents, though. It's what I would do now if I was doing comics.
(And for an example of a web comic I find to be FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC and would buy every print version put out is http://www.unsoundedcomic.com/ but doesn't put up ads, doesn't sell print, and funds it only by putting up a donation box between chapters and saying the hiatus will be 2 weeks if it meets the goals, or 4 weeks if it doesn't. She also does stuff with the page around the comic that would be hard to duplicate in print (changing the darkness of the UI, effects in the UI, etc)
Not sure why, but I've gotten really back into the Harry Potter series this past month. Maybe because of the previews of the next movie that have shown up.