Brutal Tips for Writers

STEP FOUR

STEP FOUR: Decide On A Plan.

This is the big one. If you have considered and still want the job, if you have assessed and found your work passable, and you have found your voice so that you have a unique thing to offer, then it's time to get serious.

The good news is, there are absolutely more ways to break in than ever. No question, no doubt about it. The internet means you can compete for visitors just as easily as a big corporation. And that's pretty much the end of the good news.

Most publishers have no open submission policy. And when they did, no one got hired that way anyway. I had one publisher say they'd hired ONE artist through the slush pile, and another publisher say they'd never hired even that many.

You need to bring the editor's eyes to you. There is no hidden doorway. You have to carve it yourself. But those ways are out there and there's a multitude.

I got hired because I wrote a free column on the internet that showed I could make people laugh. Matt Fraction made films. Scott Snyder wrote prose. Nicola Scott was hired primarily for a page of Wonder Woman art she circulated on the internet. I just recently worked with a great artist I found doing sketch cards on message boards. In short, their work was in front of editors.

Is yours?

If the answer is no, then you need to put down whatever else you're doing and figure out a way to get your work seen.

Make a PLAN. I return to Nicola Scott. Nicola is a top artist now, but she did it the hard way. She lives several continents away from where the comics industry is based. She knew no one in comics. She had no real resume. And she scrimped and saved to fly from Australia every year to go to SDCC to spend a few precious minutes with an editor during a portfolio review. And she got rejected several times. And every time she went back and did her portfolio OVER.

Even with all of that, it was a Wonder Woman pin-up she put on a message board that ultimately got my, Greg Rucka's, and Mike Carlin's attention. And that got her hired. One way was expensive, traditional and not supremely effective. The other cost her some time and an internet connection. I'm simplifying, but time and again we are seeing people get work because of things they've done on the net.

People give me comics at every con I go to, minicomics and self-printed things all the way up to expensive graphic novels they've printed themselves. I can't bear to throw them away so I stack them in a stack and try to read them, but I've spoken with several editors who just throw them away. It's a shot, but it's still a tough way to go.

If I were trying to break in now, I would forego the editorial line entirely. Do a webcomic, do a Tumblr, follow editors and creators on Twitter and Facebook. Show your best pieces. GET ATTENTION. Make them WANT to look. Don't spam or harass these people. But get your work seen.

If you don't listen to another word I say, make that your mantra. Get your work seen.

You can do a minicomic, a webcomic, a column, prose work. Consider hooking up with a big comic website like Newsarama or Comicbookresources.com for the traffic and exposure. Be polite, be professional, but be persistent.

Make a plan. You figure out a way to get your work seen. Put everything else aside. Follow the first four steps, take your best work and get it seen. Get it seen.

Get it seen.