I wanted to talk about how I make books of my webcomic
I started my webcomic in 2017 and made the first collected issue of those comics the following year. I did my own research and found out things through trial and error.
Always wanted to show how I make these books and now that I’m putting together my fourth book I thought I would document the process in a series of videos.
(You can check out my Amazon books here - https://amzn.to/3qzSNdL)
How many episodes of my webcomic do I make?
I try to draw a comic every day if I can. But I will miss a day from time to time. But when I put these together I assume it’s about 365 webcomics. Even though it’s slightly less but it’s pretty close.
Where do I get the inspiration?
I sit down at the end of each day and think about what happened that day. That’s why I call the series "Then this happened…"
It first started out as a cathartic thing when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. The first book is of the year going through that. The second book is about when she was said to be free and clear and how our lives had changed.
My main reason was I had just started Instagram and I never think to pull out my camera to capture something. So I draw what I remember.
I think about how I would draw it in my head before I sit down. Never spend more than 15 20 min on it to keep the diary style. Imperfect.
Using Google Docs and Google Photos to arrange the webcomic book
I came up with a way to use google docs and google photos to put these together. I back up all the drawings I do on google photos.
This was actually a happy accident I wanted to just have that year ago today reminder it gives you to look back on what I’ve done.
I download the book template from KDP and added it to google docs.
At first, I would go comic by comic on my website and in google docs add the image from the image URL on my website.
Then I realized I could go into google photos and add the backed-up comics to an album month by month. I do that each night that I draw them.
I also really just thought I would be doing this for myself. Making a book that I and my family could get. But when I started actually promoting it there were people that would email me on my website saying they really did enjoy reading about the stuff we went through.
Getting author copies
I was able to get my own copies of the book at cost. I was able to order and sell in public. I also got the opportunity to have them added to extended distribution through Amazon where it was put into bookstores and libraries.
I’m going to set up more pages for the book and I’ll talk more about that in my next video.
You can check out the books and e-books I have so far on my Amazon author page.
Next Video...
In the next video, I talk about choosing the size of my webcomics and books, creating the book cover, and more!
Check it out here - Part 2
https://www.tomrayswebsite.com/2022/01/making-book-of-my-webcomic-artworkbook.html