Creating and writing a book or graphic novel is no small feat to be sure, but it is not in many cases, complete when the prose or script is finished. Preparing a pitch for a publisher or preparing your book for self-publishing is so much more than a compelling an original story. Communications, Marketing, Digital Art, Graphic Design, navigating your country’s copywrite and ISBN/ISSN systems, Being your own Advocate, and Believing in yourself are just a few of things I have discovered as part of the job when you are making a professional impression on the literary, comic, or publishing world. Please check back periodically for information as well as my personal experience with each of these topics, and how I was able to navigate them to an end that I was pleased with.
The Digital Artist's Toolbox
Artistic endeavours have been slowly migrating across the plain and into the digital frontier as fast as good tech will allow. As someone that has always felt most comfortable with a pen and paper, or ink and brush the transition has been challenging at times, but in the end, the digitalization of art is a necessity. I have used my artistic eye for web design, and page layouts, and most recently digital inking via iPad and Apple Pencil. With a great number of artists finding their comfort with Wacom based systems paired with industry standards like photoshop, the iPad and Apple Pencil were a far less expensive and comparable in features that I needed for the hand held digital art experience. I love the sleek design and portability of the tablet-based system, and when paired with my desktop, to use Procreate (on the iPad) and Pixelmator (on the desk top) (both can produce and read photoshop files) the transitions and shareability for those that use Wacom and photoshop systems is seamless…thus far. All that said, I have never used a Wacom system because price has kept it out of my realistic tool box. In my use of photoshop, I have found it wonderful, but not superior for the price differential. At the end of the day, being able to ink comic pages on the go, colour pages, received files from artists, and update website posting while on lunch is a great asset and has already afforded me the time to focus on other things during uninterrupted creative time.
