Do you think I can turn my Inktober story into a book/product?
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Hi! I'm Heidi from Egypt and I have been sharing my Inktober submissions in the forum. I shared the thumbnails together as 1 image but here's the full project on Behance https://www.behance.net/gallery/72138247/Inktober-Challenge-To-Tell-A-Story-Without-Words
I wanted Inktober to be an opportunity for me to write my first story, based on the random official prompts, and do it without adding any text. so basically to put everything I learned into a sequential art project for my portfolio since I had none, and do that while showcasing what I learned from gesture drawing, composition, character design and storyboarding.
I still need to polish the work, then color it BUT do you think it can be turned into a book/product? you know, because SHIP HAPPENS!
if YES, what is the best route for an independent book to be published from start to finish?
if not, what's missing? so i can work on it.
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Wow you have done a lot of work on this! Fantastic! I think you have really great expression and gesture in each of the figures, and some of the frames are really strong with a great value pattern like the one with the clock tower and the cactus. I really love the angry alligator, that is such a wonderful character!
Since I really didn't follow inktober this year, I will say that upon first blush the story has some gaps in it that are hard to link together without text. The part with the old man seems very strong and makes sense, but the first part of the story feels very random. Will you be including the prompts in your book project for context?
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That's a lot of effort put into this project. Congrats on getting all the way through inktober
My thoughts regarding making this into a book.
'Can' it be made into a book? Yes. Anything can be made into a book.
'should' you make it into a book? Depends. What's your goal in publishing this project?
If you want this to be something that you can keep on your shelf and use as a portfolio piece, then absolutely go and get this puppy published.
If you want to sell thousands and thousands of copies and make tonnes of money then... still yes? Watch some of the videos on how to make kid's books on SVS and follow their lead and publish away. Because you're right. Ship happens.
As for your best route, I'm certain some googling will lead you to some cheap(ish) small run publishers. There may even be someone local who can print and bind books fairly cheaply. Once you've got the books, it's all salesmanship and legwork.
There are companies that specialize in taking your book and doing everything for you (from sales and marketing to editing) but in my experience you should keep your distance from these kinds of operations as they are more interested in luring into a 'premium service package' of some kind than actually selling your book.
Good luck! It's always awesome to hold a book you made in your hands and see its spine on your shelf
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@heidigfx Yes.
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@jeanebean I think I should do that (add the prompts) or add text or both, since it's going to be for children not for adults. the first 12 panels are done as an animatics, sort of, with sound fx only if you want to have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K6B32swVQc let me know how you think I can convey this in still images. do I repeat the images at different crops for example? put some next to each other?
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@marsha-kay-ottum-owen thank you!
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@art-of-b thank you! I'll look into that
and yes I'd love to see it published to use both as a portfolio piece and make some money of it if possible, not necessarily a ton of money. I put so much effort in preparation, drawing, and will still color it, so i would love to see it get some attention, would even be better to say "it sold several copies" rather than "it was decoration in my bookcase"!