Consider Hiring a Comic Book Editor

"It's better to hear it from your editor than your reader."

That's a saying that I live by as a comic book editor and one that has served me well. It's why I am trusted by my clients to deliver high-quality feedback and advice, as well as any necessary corrections.

Unfortunately, in the independent comic book publishing industry, comic book editors like myself are one of, if not the least hired members of a comic book team. This is predominantly, if not solely due to budgeting reasons. After all...

Making comics are expensive.

Worse, on the subject of budgeting there is a drawback to hiring a comic book editor. First is that an editor's work is invisible or otherwise not apparent on the printed page. Comic book editors are not like comic book artists or letterers, where their work is on every page of every comic, so an editor will not help the sales of a comic. In short, editors are an additional expense for something will show up on the printed page.

So why hire an comic book editor?

For three reasons, starting with:

Editors make your script better which ultimately makes your comic better.

Secondly, editors can also help you stop losing sales over the long term.

How?

As Jim Shooter once said, comics books are essentially relationship marketing.

The comic book business model is predicated on repeat customers each and every month. For example, when a monthly reader buys a Superman comic, it's because they they became invested in the character of Superman, his supporting characters, the world they live in, and the adventures that they have. They can't wait to see what happens next with - or to - Superman this month. It’s really all about them loving Superman and wanting to know what’s going on with Superman.

In short, they have a relationship with Superman.

So, if they miss an issue and they don’t care, you lost. It's harder to get a lapsed reader to come back than to get a new one.

With that in mind, how do you get a reader to have a relationship with your comic? You've got to them to experience your comic and that experience has to make them want more.

It's not easy. In fact, it's downright herculean in difficulty. The independent comic book market is saturated.  It's hard enough for high-quality, professionally made comics to sell, meaning that it's hard enough to get a first time buyer to buy your comic. Of course, you can get by on this alone if your comics simply looks good or if you did a fantastic job marketing it - or both!

But we're not talking about first-time buyers, are we? No, you need repeat customers, ones who have a relationship with your comic. To get them to come back and continue investing their time, money, and energy, they need to experience your comic positively. For this, your comic has to actually be good.

Good comics are expensive to make because you generally need a pro-caliber writer, artist, colorist, letterer, etc. to make one. The better that specialist is, the more expensive they will be. Trying to cheap out without them is like making a cake without your measuring cups. You add the flour, sugar, eggs, etc. and bake it, but it probably would not come out well, much less professionally done.

You might even be able to get a customer to buy a bad cake, but good luck getting them to come back.

Like a good to great artist, a good editor may help elevate the quality of your comic from amateur to professional. Professional, high-quality comics exponentially increases the chance that the consumer will have a positive experience with your comic.

After all, from story, characterizations, continuity, dialogue, art direction, etc. editors are there to help your comic be even better so that readers will more likely experience it positively. Good ones, anyway.

If readers read your comic and they don't care or want to buy the next issue, you most likely didn't have the quality for them to connect with it to begin with and that means you will have lost future sales. This can be prevented.

Secondly, your mistakes on the printed page will be immortalized. Once they're out in the wild, you can't take it back.

Comic book readers are notorious for having a long memory and many will stop taking you seriously if mistakes continue to be made issue in and issue out. A reader that stops taking you seriously will most likely stop buying from you.

That is why it's better to hear it from your editor than from your customer.

A good editor prevents these mistakes from making it to the printed page. A good to great editor could change the quality of everything you produce from there on.

Sure, you can be cheap and choose not to hire an editor as they don't necessarily affect your bottom line - at least with first-time buyers, but not doing so means you are choosing to take the risk of affecting your future and long term bottom line. Of course, making comic books is an expensive endeavor even without hiring a comic book editor, so there is risk involved, but cheap and risk are also historically cozy acquaintances, too, and I know which risk I'd rather take.