The State of Comics Anthologies 2024 Survey
I launched my first comics anthology Kickstarter in 2021 – Turning Roads – and it was very quickly funded. The same thing with Down Below in 2022. After that, social media algorithms became more challenging, and all manner of other issues presented themselves, to the point where Fractured Realms was slow to fund and Wish Upon a Star failed on its first attempt on Kickstarter. I’ve attempted to figure out the reasoning behind it all in the past, but one person’s perspective and insight isn’t going to be enough. With that in mind – and inspired by day-job related activities – I launched the State of Comics Anthologies 2024, a survey to discern the motivations and thought processes of Backers, Contributors, Editors and Publishers.
Comics Anthologies Survey
The first part of this needs your help: please complete the survey. (Linked in case the embedded form doesn’t work.)
When the survey is closed, I’ll begin the work of compiling the results and writing a report out of it.
The Report
There are four parts to the survey, and so the report will look at each of those areas in turn. The aim of the report – which will be free for all to read, and given early to those who request it as part of the survey – is to shine a light on:
- What backers look for
- How much backers are willing to pay
- Why people choose anthologies to back
- How people find anthologies to back
- Why creators choose anthologies to pitch to
- How creators find anthologies to pitch to
- Whether creators prefer to assemble their own teams or not
- How editors decide upon themes and genres
- Editors’ preferences for open calls and self-selection
- Publishers’ experiences with crowdfunding
- Issues with social media
- And more…
A presentation of the report may be made available at some point in the future to make things easier for people who can’t or don’t want to sift through a written report with graphs and commentary. (I may make a version for online as well as present it live at conventions – who knows?)
What’s next?
The report will be the first step into planning for future books. At the moment, things are in limbo – not because there are no ideas or interest, but because I don’t know why the last book struggled to fund. I imagine there are others in that situation, and people who back books regularly who want to know why creators and publishers stop putting out new work.
The unfortunate reality of this is that comics cost a lot to make, people only have so much money to go around, and a lot of people were burned by the as-yet unfulfilled quarantine comics anthology of 2020. Trust has been broken, and people are tired.
I am currently waiting on a funding decision before I can announce the next book. That and the report will be the biggest factors affecting how things proceed next year. (I personally think the idea slaps hard and people will dig it, but that doesn’t make it easier to get noticed.)
So there we have it. Please go complete the survey. Please help to shine a light on the strange goings on with comics anthologies.
Go raibh maith agaibh,
Paul
