rmorrill's blog

New Author - Erika Moen brings DAR volume 1 and 2 to Dead Tree Comics

Submitted by rmorrill on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 04:02

Dead Tree Comics is proud to announce that Erika Moen has signed on with Dead Tree Comics for DAR Volume 1 and Volume 2. From Erika's web site she states:

Where we will be Next in 2010

Submitted by rmorrill on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 06:54

We will be at Kumoricon as visitors over labor day - if you want to hook up some time to talk about your comic book ideas, drop us a note and we can arrange time on Saturday or Sunday.

We will also be checking out a brand new to Bellevue Washington convention, Akicon in November of 2010. If you want to meet up there and talk abut your comic book ideas, we can arrange time throughout the entire weekend.

Our First Regular Book Published and into Amazon

Submitted by rmorrill on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 05:51

We have our first regular book published this week via Amazon Kindle, this is not our regular comic books, but a true book on ADD/ADHD. This is a departure for us, but well worth exploring if you are interested in doing ebooks as a low cost alternative to a basement full of the minimum print run that no one wants to purchase or take the risk on. The book is the “Stimulus Driven Brain” and discusses all aspects of learning and ADD/ADHD.

We will be at Sakuracon 2010 Stop by and say hello

Submitted by rmorrill on Fri, 04/02/2010 - 04:22

We will be at Sakuracon 2010 in Seattle this weekend if you want to stop by our booth is in the corner Number 731, by the men's bathroom and next to the the sword maker. This is another opportunity to meet with us and talk about getting published. Feel free to stop in, talk about your book, and see where we can take you in regards to being published. In the mean time we have a ton of interesting things in the booth that would be worth checking out.

Why Ecomics are going to change how authors make money

Submitted by rmorrill on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 07:16

: Image via Wikipedia

We are not going to talk about the consumer here, but with the modern state of lock in on the Sony, Barnes and Noble reader, Kindle, and the IPAD, ebooks are going to rock for publishers and artists. The reason – no secondary market, you cannot resell an ebook, you cannot trade it, you cannot loan it, and you simply cannot do much with it at all other than read it. If you lose it, then you have to go buy another copy new rather than try to pick up a cheaper copy on the secondary market where no one in the food chain, publisher/artist/distribution network makes a dime off the book.

Robot 6 and Forbes wrote a great review on the priorities of the Apple Book store, and honestly, comics and graphic novels make sense, this is a high priority product and one that will make a huge difference with ebooks. I have said for years that ebooks need to have a color screen, and with Ipads hitting the consumer on April 3rd, 2010, the game is on. The kindle while not dead and the Sony reader is not dead either, they are in for a huge run right now, the Ipad is simply a black and white screen killer.

Citing findings by the Busted Loop mobile media research firm, the website states that Apple's iBookstore will designate about 20 main categories, including "Fiction & Literature," "Reference" and "Cookbooks." Below those will be more than 150 sub-categories; "Manga" will fall under the comics section. Source: Robot 6

This is one of the biggest reasons for the recent pivot that we have made as a company; we need to start publishing ebooks because realistically we see the comic book market changing. The comic book market is going to fall into two tiers, which we describe here. This is the reason for Dead Tree Comics, and why we need to start getting the smaller comic book artists into these systems now, this is the future of comics. The color screen changes all, add to that the lock in on specific devices means someone who owns a kindle and an Ipad will have to purchase two copies of the book. For some it might look like a never ending gravy train, for others it might be the only income after the fall from popularity and mega sales.

While the problem is going to be in the secondary market and a lot of second hand comic book sellers are going to go out of business over the next 30 years as back catalogs get digitized, there is an opportunity for smaller publishers to truly crack open this market. The entry right now before all the larger publishers get into the game, the Marvel’s, DC’s, VIZ and Tokyo Pop is phenomenal for a company that is willing and able to get licensed copies of brand new authors into the system. We have a sweet spot right now in the market because these companies are so huge they cannot move fast. Smaller printers who are more agile stand a chance of having a market segment to themselves for a while, meaning new authors and authors that are willing to license their works have an opportunity for readers to discover or rediscover them again.

If you are interested in being published, Dead Tree Comics is simply for you, if you are interested in waiting for the larger publishers to get on board, then enjoy the wait. In the mean time, the competition for comic book artists just got hot after a decade of the same old thing. In the longer run

We will be at Emerald City Comic Con

Submitted by rmorrill on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 11:00

We will be at Emerald City Comic Con along with our Parent Company Alternating Reality Books. . We will be showing off our brand new printing business and look forward to working with you to become a published comic book author.

Open call to independent comic book artists:

Have you ever thought about ebooks and where ebooks are going or how you can use ebooks to support yourself and your art? Alternating Reality is a Seattle based comic bookstore with many years of experience in ebooks, ebook formats, and selling online and we would like to take your comic to the next level via ebooks. Our Imprinter Dead Tree Comics is a route for you to start getting published via ebooks.
We are actively seeking comic book artists that we can promote and sell their ebooks for online.

We would:

Take your original comic book, digitize it and format it for Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Sony, and Apple store formats

Take your comic book and promote the ebook version of it heavily on the internet to engage sales across Amazon, Barnes and Nobel and when available the ITunes Store

Pay you monthly based on the number of sales that you get for your ebook

Provide clear transparent accounting every month on your sales – projected sales, and efforts we are taking to market your product

You can visit us here, and check out our sample contract right here.

New Items Added Today

Submitted by rmorrill on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 07:33

We added a couple of new site items today.

A couple of Anime Swag cards we got from our distributor, these can be found right here.

We also started working on getting our other inventory online here at Dead Tree, these are not titles we directly publish, but titles we sell at other venues. We are working out the process now and linking people back to our Amazon store for right now. You can see that page right here.

In the mean time - the great Amazon $14.99 sale on comic books seems to have gotten everyone's attention - Bleeding Cool has the story and it is very entertaining to read. You can read the story right here .