I started playing in bands when I was seventeen years old. They were mostly punk and hardcore groups, never really going anywhere beyond a seven-inch or a small tour.  Almost all of them however clung to an ethos that believed this: if you worked hard enough, made your own music and produced your own material, a record label would eventually take notice and pick you up.

A few of my peers really stuck to their guns with a more DIY philosophy, but most were willing to let someone else foot the bill for their production, distribution and marketing. Some got signed, put out records, made videos and toured relentlessly. Not many are still at it.

When I decided to create comics, there was a similar economic model floating around, written on message boards or spoken between tables at comic book conventions. The process worked like this:
 

1. Create your own comics.
2. Network and be known for your quality and professionalism.
3. Eventually, a publisher will notice all of this and offer you work-for-hire.

For the first few years I have been making independent comics, this concept has sustained my hope of making a full-time career of it. The end goal looks something like the current status of most of Marvel’s recently announced “architects.” Those guys write 2-4 monthly books as work-for-hire and often squeeze out another creator-owned book on top of it. This earns them enough money for a sustainable lifestyle. It also allows them to still put their own, original work out there.

Lately, I’ve begun to question how feasible that model still is. Webcomics, digital distribution, the state of the comics market and crowd-funding all complicate the simplicity of the old “work hard until you make it” adage. The music industry’s been feeling similar growing pains a few years ahead of comics, so I was especially struck when I read Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music, despite democratization by Stefan Goldmann.
 
In this post, Goldmann questions assumptions about making a living as a musician, the same ones I’ve started to wonder about regarding comics. If you replace the word “music” in his post with the word “comics,” most of his assertions remain true. Here’s a few I deciphered:

• If all you want to do is make money from comics, you are better off investing in Disney and Warner Brothers than you are in struggling to get work-for-hire gigs.
• The shelf life of a creator is far shorter than it used to be. You have to constantly keep your name out there and be unique to keep an audience interested in your work.
• To succeed independently, you either have to be exceedingly clever about your business strategy, or already come from wealthy means. Evan Dorkin mentioned this elephant in the room on Twitter a month ago when he said:

“Keep in mind there are some folks who don’t need to make a living off their art - they have a spouse/partner w/a job/maybe benefits some lucky souls were born into $. I don’t begrudge anyone this, but it never gets mentioned & gives a false idea of how some get by.”

• When anyone can make and distribute comics online, there is a huge signal-to-noise ratio that requires a lot of self-promotion to surpass.
• This brings me to the most important insight I gleaned from Goldmann. The more time you spend marketing, producing and distributing your own comics, the less energy you will have to actually create them.

Goldmann’s ideas brought me to a new conclusion. Since I’m not independently wealthy, in order to foster a sustainable career making comics I am going to need to be smart about my business strategy. Already knowing a little about social media crowd-sourcing (and that a lot of people out there are smarter than I am) I posited 7 models for success earlier today on Twitter. With some feedback from people like Ben Towle, Anthony Ferrante and Ian Struckhoff, I’ve added an eighth and changed some wording. This post serves to gather those thoughts in one place, hopefully generating more discussion that can help us all be more successful in these dynamic times.

Struckhoff rightly pointed out that these models are not mutually exclusive. One can combine ideas to create something like a “Shortform Bendis Kick.” If there are models of success that you think I’ve missed, please comment and share your thoughts. I genuinely want to learn how to make this work.

1. The Bendis: Publish creator-owned work until you are offered sustainable work-for-hire from a publisher. The publisher then handles your distribution and production. You are still able to publish creator-owned material, sometimes with assistance from said publisher. This is the model I mention above, so named because Brian Michael Bendis is a successful example of it. It could also be called “The Architect” as all of Marvel’s recently titled writers seem to operate from this model.
   
   
2. The Work-For-Hire: You either pitch a story or show off your portfolio and are hired by a publisher to make comics featuring their properties. For writers this appears to have a low-rate of success as publishers usually want to see your work first.
   
   
3. The Doctorow: So named for writer Cory Doctorow and the philsophy he argues in his book Content. Publish creator-owned content for free online, but allow a publisher to handle the production and distribution of that content in print, for a price.
   
   
4. The Dischord: Do-It-Yourself. All of it. Named for D.C. punk label Dischord Records and their strong business reputation. You create the content, handle the production, manage the distribution and also market the product. Remember, with less time to make comics, there is less product to sell and earn a sustainable income from. Another iteration of this might be “The Kirkman,” where you begin your career with The Bendis method, but once you’ve established yourself, you focus entirely on creator-owned content, becoming an executive with your own publisher.
   
   
5. The Xeric: Apply for grants, fellowships or patronage. Or, somehow earn enough of a passive income elsewhere to sustain your comics production and career.
   
   
6. The Shortform: Produce quick, strip oriented webcomics that are free online. Your site is full of ads that generate your income. Having recently ventured into Project Wonderful advertising, I saw rates as high as $40 per day per ad. That can add up quickly. But this model limits your narrative possibilities. Other than Freakangels, I don’t know of a single longform webcomic whose creators live off of it.
   
   
7. The Kickstarter: This is similar to the Dischord model in that you’re doing all the work. The difference is that your funding comes up front from donors who you promise rewards to. Since I’m in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign for my comic THINK OF THE CHILDREN, I can tell you from experience that it requires an immense amount of attention and marketing effort. In essence it’s pre-ordering and it can be very gratifying to see your support before you invest in the product.
   
   
8. The Day Job: Take The Dischord method above. Now add a full-time job to it. This is a surefire way to sustain yourself while creating the things you love.