backpack

If I had one word of advice for fellow webcomic artists: do some zines. Doing zines has like, quintupled my income. It's ridiculous. I'm finally earning something resembling a living wage. https://twitter.com/yamino/status/1574241349418725377

I love long-form comics, but they are hard to monetize. Printing them is a pain in the ass. Short, catchy comics in PDF form have been so much faster and easier for me to produce, at consistently high quality, and they can be priced affordably for a wide audience.

One of the reasons I love doing fanzines is that the audience already knows the characters and general story. You can dive right in to something more complex without spending tons of time worldbuilding or setting things up. They're also a lot easier to market with tags.

Marketing original short comics is harder but not impossible, especially if you have grown an established audience who will be interested in whatever you come out with next. I encourage fellow artists to not put all your eggs in one basket, and switch it up sometimes.

I have made a pay-what-you-want zine about How To Make Zines! I go over my entire process so you too can learn how to supplement your income with zines. Please give it a look, and share if you find it helpful! https://yamino.itch.io/beginners-guide-to-digital-zines