Thanks for your interest
in submitting to Indie Voices!
Hi, comic creator! Thanks for considering submitting your recent masterpiece to INDIE VOICES!
If we haven't been acquainted yet, my name is John Yeo Jr – I’m the co-owner of Screaming Monkey Comics. I’ve also been self-publishing comics and novels for a few years now. For some time now, I’ve been thinking about a way to bring these two passions together – and INDIE VOICES is the result. One of the most challenging parts of creating your own comic is to convince comic stores to put it on their shelves. With this project, I believe we can help each other.
INDIE VOICES is not a distributor like Lunar or Random House – it is an initiative of our retail store to shine a light on independently published comic books in a way that minimizes any risk for both us and the creators. Here’s how it works.
If we accept your comic, we're offering the following:
• Three months of inclusion in the Indie Voices catalog. We'll hold on copies of your comic to sell in-store or on-line.
• For the first month, you may have a half page ad, a full page ad, or a double page ads in the catalog.
• For the second and third month, your book will be listed in the back of the catalog in the
"Still Available" section.
• Half Page ads are free. We charge $5 for a Full Page Ad, and $10 for a Double Page Ad.
This fee isn't paid up front. It will come out of the sales of your books, if any.
• During this time, your comic will also be listed on our website's Indie Voices page, where customers can look at the cover, see some of your interior art, read the description, and hopefully purchase a copy. When they do, we'll ship it out to them.
Here's the good part. We are not charging any money up front for inclusion in Indie Voices.
Back before we had established comic book stores in every town, back before the direct market came into existence, back in a time we called the 1970s or earlier --- comics were given to dealers on a more-or-less consignment basis. Dealers got comics every week at no charge from the publishers. If you sold a copy, the publisher's portion was sent back to them and the dealer kept the rest of the money as their profit. The copies that didn't sell were either destroyed or returned to the publisher.
Today's Direct Market is more efficient in many ways -- but this earlier method would still work on a smaller scale. Such as representing independently created comics.
The business model we're proposing is that you send us 10 copies of your new book for us to
represent for three months. If we sell a copy of your book, we'll keep 30% of the cover price to help with the costs of printing the monthly catalogs.
At the beginning of each month, the remaining 70% of your books sales for that month will be sent to you.
At the end of three months, any copies that we couldn't sell will be returned to you.
In addition, if we sell all copies of your book before that three months is over and we think there's a good chance we'll sell more, we'll offer to pick up more copies for our inventory. Then we'll extend your presence in the catalog and on the website for a little bit longer..
And that’s the grand plan. If this really takes off, perhaps we could distribute these catalogs at other stores. We could possibly set up booths at local cons. Maybe you have an idea that we haven’t thought of yet.
Want to join us on this journey? Here's how you get started:
STEP ONE:
Send us an e-mail to screamerboy23@hotmail.com (please put INDIE VOICES SUBMISSION in the subject line) and tell us a little bit about your book. Cut and paste this questionaire to your e-mail and send it back to us with these questions answered:
1. Your name and contact information
(Mailing address, e-mail, phone, etc.)
2. Your preference for which ad you get
(Are you wanting a Half Page, Full Page or Double Page ad?)
3. Full title of book (including issue number, if this applies)
4. Writer(s)
5. Illustrator(s)
6. Cover artist(s)
7. Type of comic (Standard size, Magazine, Digest, Trade Paperback, other?)
8. Is your book full color, black & white, or black & white with one color?
9. Retail cost of your book
10. How may pages is your book?
11. Appropriate for who? All Ages, Teens, Teens+, Mature, Adult/NSFW
12. Synopsis of your book in 50 - 75 words.
(This is the description of your book that will be in the catalog and on our website. This is the sales pitch to potential readers - let them know what the book is about!)
13. What is your book's genre(s)? Super-Hero, Action, western, fantasy,
romance, pin-up, sourcebook, horror, humor, etc....
14. Publisher name
15. Is this a one-shot, part of a mini-series, or intended to be an ongoing series?
16. If this is NOT the first issue of a series, are the earlier books still available?
(If this is the second or later issue in a mini-series, please consider submitting the FIRST issue instead. We can always add the later chapter in a future catalog.)
17. Do you have a website / social media? (When your books sell, we'll let the buyers know how to find more things you offer.)
18. What will be the retail price of your book?
19. If you are using A.I. in your artwork, what disclaimer will be included?
(If you are using A.I., you should include a disclaimer. Such as "Some art in this book was created with minor assistance from OpenArts A.I. tools" or "Sora A.I. was used to create the cover and the back-up story for this issue." We can help suggest the proper wording if you want our advice. Obviously, if you don't use A.I. tools at all, just skip this question.
Also, don't forget to include an attachment of your cover and four interior pages of your book. These images will be what we use in the catalog and on the website, so choose what you think will grab attention the most!
STEP TWO:
Give us about a week to take a look at it. I will respond to every submission - so if you don't hear from me in over a week, there's a strong chance it might have gone to spam, so just contact me directly and I'll see if I can locate it.
If this is a book we wouldn't be interested in carrying, I'll do my best to give you our reasons why.
But if we do want to promote it, we're get in touch with you and make arrangements for your consignment deal. Once we come to an arrangent, you'll send ten copies of your book to:
SCREAMING MONKEY COMICS
Indie Voices Dept.
11 Ridge Road
Munster, IN 46321
And that's it - we'll get to work on selling them for you!
So let's move to what the interior pages of the catalog are going to look like, and the difference between our ad choices!
Quick disclaimer - most of the comics shown in these illustrations have no current arrangement with us at this time. We just loved how they looked, and we're using them for illustrative purposes.
On we go!
HALF PAGE ADS
With a Half Page ad, your book will get a prominent
listing in the catalog where customers can see your
cover and the book's information.
• Fee for inclusion: Each month, we'll keep 30% from the sales of these books.
• Your book's Half Page Ad will be in Indie Voices for one issue.
• Your book will appear in the "Still Available" section for an additional two issues.
• If your book sells out before that time, we'll request additional copies and extend the listing.
• After three months of minimal sales, any unsold books left will be returned to you in the same condition we received them in.
FULL PAGE ADS
With a Full Page ad, your book will get a prominent
listing in the catalog where customers can see your
cover and the book's information. Two thumbnails of your interior pages will also be shown on the page.
• Additional Fee for inclusion: Each month, we'll keep 30% from the sales of these books plus an additonal one-time fee of $5. This $5 fee is waived in the event of no books being sold.
• Your book's Half Page Ad will be in Indie Voices for one issue.
• Your book will appear in the "Still Available" section for an additional two issues.
• If your book sells out before that time, we'll request additional copies and extend the listing.
• After three months of minimal sales, any unsold books left will be returned to you in the same condition we received them in.
DOUBLE PAGE ADS
With a Double Page ad, your book will gets the best treatment. A prominent listing in the catalog where customers can see your cover and the book's information - and four interior pages were readers can really get a good luck at what they'd be buying.
• Additional Fee for inclusion: Each month, we'll keep 30% from the sales of these books plus an additional one-time fee of $10. This $10 fee is waived in the event of no books being sold.
• Your book's Half Page Ad will be in Indie Voices for one issue.
• Your book will appear in the "Still Available" section for an additional two issues.
• If your book sells out before that time, we'll request additional copies and extend the listing.
• After three months of minimal sales, any unsold books left will be returned to you in the same condition we received them in.
STILL AVAILABLE
SECTION
For the second and third month, your book
will be moved to the "Still Available" section
at the rear of the catalog. (It's presence on the
website will stay the same.) After these three months end, your book will be removed from the catalog to make room for newer titles.
Unless......
....we sold out of the copies you gave us, and we made an offer to purchase more copies from you. If that happens, we'll extend your listing in the catalog's "Still Available" section and on the website.
We'll keep doing this until two months goes by
without selling ANY of your books, or you just don't have any more to offer us. But by that time, you should have another masterpiece to offer to the world anyway!
Thanks for your time! Now I'm sure you probably have some more questions.
Keep scrolling down and see if any of them are answered by our list of....
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE REASONS YOU MIGHT NOT ACCEPT MY BOOK?
We're here to help promote comics, not to judge you on your writing and artistic skill, or whatever genre you want to work in. But there are several reasons why we might pass on your book. There's no way to make an all inclusive list, but here are some of the reasons:
• Unprofessionally printed. Your book should at least look like it belongs on a comic book stand with other books. You should strive to have your book produced by a competent printer. A comic photocopied on one sheet pages and stapled together like a high school book report isn't going to cut it.
• Extremely amateurish effort. We're talking about extreme examples, such as word balloons with such poorly written letters that the dialogue is indecipherable, or full pages that looks like it was done with crayons in five minutes, or books with pages that are clearly out of order.
Look, I don't want to discourage anyone from adding artwork to the world, but we do have a good sense of what would sell and what would be ....well, embarrassing. If we don't think your book is ready for an audience, I'll at least try to tell you what you can improve on before your next submission.
• Books with a price point that's not competitive with similar books. No one is going to pay $15 for a 12-page black and white digest-sized comic. Your uncle, maybe. And that was just because he's trying to make peace with your mom after getting trashed at last year's Christmas party. But not someone who's never heard of you before. Keep your expectations reasonable.
• We believe in books for all tastes, ranges and ages. But books that promote hate, contain excessive amounts of graphic gore and sexual themes just for the sake of shock value might get turned down. See the section below on NSFW themes for a bit more clarification.
• Use of copyrighted characters. I know it's tempting to sell a book by creating a cover featuring your original white-haired hot female character in a Black Cat costume and simply defend it by saying "Hey, it's not Black Cat.....it's my original character in a Black Cat costume. With her boobs hanging out." It's not fooling anyone. Please don't submit any books featuring characters that don't belong to you, we don't want to be in the middle of any issues if that character's owner starts complaining.
If we ever run into any other examples of books that will probably not be accepted (and I'm sure we will) we'll add it to this list. Let's move on!
DO YOU ACCEPT COMICS FEATURING A. I. ARTWORK?
There are a lot of mixed emotions across the spectrum about A.I. artwork. I'm going to speak for myself only here, but I have a mixed opinion on it. On one hand, I strongly feel that no legitimate professional publisher should be using A. I. artwork. There's too many good working artists out there who will do the job a hundred times better than any computer ever could.
As a counterpoint, I also feel that a self-published, amateur artist who has trouble selling more than fifty copies of their books shouldn't be held to the same standards of an organization who can afford to pay a professional artist. If your book is only earning a lifetime gross of $500, I don't think you're actually stealing any jobs from anyone. Professional artists don't work that low. So If you're comfortable with any backlash from any readers that you might receive for using A.I. art (and there will be) go ahead and submit it.
We will accept comics used with A.I. assistance as long as your book specifically acknowledges that it did. The disclaimer you use will be included in the catalog, and must be included within the pages of your book.
DO YOU ACCEPT COMICS FEATURING NSFW THEMES?
Yes, depending on the comic. There's a lot of great graphic novels out there tackling adult themes, and the average reader of comics these days are adults anyway. But there's a big difference between books that would get an "R" rating (which we'll carry) and a book that contains absolutely stomach churning graphic depictions of violence, torture, sexual imagery. (which we'll judge each on a case by case basis.)
DO I NEED A PUBLISHER NAME?
Having a publisher name does make you look more professional, but it's not required.
IF I LIST WITH INDIE VOICES, CAN I PROMOTE THE BOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE?
Of course. This is not an exclusive arrangement, please feel free to list your books anywhere that also offers comics, including your own personal website and social media feeds. We are a retail store that wants to put your books on the shelf, not your exclusive publisher.
DOES MY BOOK NEED TO HAVE A PRICE ON THE COVER?
While it's recommended, this is also not a requirement for us to carry. But please tell us your retail price so we can let our customers know how much it is!
DOES MY COMIC NEED TO BE IN COLOR, OR CAN IT BE BLACK & WHITE?
Your choice. Color books DO sell better. It's always been that way. But they're also more expensive to print - and there's a lot of very amazing black and white books on the market. That's a personal choice.
WILL MY WEBSITE'S NAME AND SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS BE LISTED IN THE INDIE VOICES CATALOG and ON YOUR WEBSITE?
No. We're trying to sell your books for you - and listing your website in our catalogs may guide readers to your website instead of ours. However, do include that information in your finished book. And on that note.....
IF I GAVE YOU BOOKMARKS, FLIERS or OTHER PROMOTIONAL GOODIES WITH MY WEBSITE and SOCIAL MEDIA INFORMATION, WILL YOU MAIL THAT TO BUYERS WHEN YOU SHIP OUT MY COMIC?
Yes, that we'll happily do! And even if you don't have any goodies to hand out to them, we'll still give them a copy of the most recent issue of INDIE VOICES. Any promotional materials you give us that are left over at the end of your books' listing will be returned.
HOW DO I GET PAID, AND HOW OFTEN DO I GET PAID?
We can use either PayPal or Zelle. If you live locally, I'm sure we can pay you in cash. We will pay for any sold books that you have the first week of every month. If we need to replenish copies of your books, we'll buy them at that time too.
WILL MY COMIC BOOK BE ON YOUR COMIC BOOK RACK?
While we can't guarantee this, our plan is to try and keep the most recent additions to Indie Voices on our INDEPENDENT COMICS rack in the store for a few weeks. Certain titles (such as small digest sized books, trade paperbacks or NSFW titles) may just be available from the webstore only.
COULD YOU EXPLAIN AGAIN HOW MUCH OF EACH SOLD ISSUE I EARN?
Sure! Let's say that you gave us 10 issues of your great new comic, GHOST DIMENSION.
The cover price for this book is $5.00. And after one month, we sold FIVE copies of this book.
If you just opted for a regular half-page ad, we would pay you 70% of the sold book.
70% of $5.00 is $3.50. At the end of the month, we would pay you $17.50. The remaining $4.50 would be our consignment fee, which goes towards the costs of printing the Indie Voices catalog.
In the same scenario - if you opted for a full-page ad, you would be paid $12.50 at the end of the month. The extra $5 is the fee for the full page ad.
If you opted for a double-page ad, you would be paid $7.50 at the end of the month.
The extra $10 is the fee for the double page ad.
That extra $5 or $10 is a one-time fee, it doesn't carry over to next month of sales from your book. Unsold books will get returned to you.
Please contact me if there's any other questions about our ad offers!
WHAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH BOOKS TO FILL OUT THE NEW
INDIE VOICES EVERY MONTH?
It might happen, especially in the early days. INDIE VOICES is planned to be a humble
20-page catalog - there's going to be room for about 12 - 16 new releases every month. If we're short on new entries, the double page ad you have in March might re-appear as a full page ad in the next issue. If that happens, it's a gift - there's no additional charge to you for remaining in the main portion of the book.
WHEN DO I GET PAID?
Any money we owe you will be paid out the first Monday of each calendar month. If we want to replenish our supply with additional copies of your book at this time, we'll contact you for a re-suuply.
IN WHAT ORDER WILL OUR BOOKS BE LISTED ON THE WEBSITE?
Be default, books will be listed in the order they were added to the website - newest titles first. But site visitors can adjust the settings to display them in alphabetical order or by price.
WHO PAYS FOR THE SHIPPING OF THE BOOKS?
• For the initial batch of 10 books you send to us, you pay the shipping.
• To purchase copies of the book and having it shipped to the buyer, the buyer pays.
• To return unsold copies to you, or if we want to get a replenishment batch of books, we will pay.
HOW ARE YOU PAYING FOR THE PRINTING OF INDIE VOICES?
Proceeds that we earn from our portion of sold books each month is used to pay for the printing costs of Indie Voices.
WHAT IF I HAVE VARIANT COVERS FOR THE SAME BOOK?
People love variants, especially if they look awesome. If you have a book with variant covers, we can include options for the customer to choose.
HOW WILL YOU DISTRIBUTE INDIE VOICES SO CUSTOMERS CAN SEE IT?
They will be available at the Screaming Monkey Comics retail store for customers to pick up. We'll also include a copy to every person who purchases a book from our website. If this project takes off, we'll explore other avenues such as distributing them in other comic stores, opening tables at small cons, and so forth.
MY COMIC ISN'T FINISHED YET, BUT I PROMISE YOU IT'LL BE AWESOME! CAN I STILL SUBMIT IT?
First off, good luck - and keep working on it! However, submitting what you have so far would be premature. If the book isn't printed and ready to be in our hands, please hold off submitting it until the book is ready to go.
MY COMIC WAS SOLD ON KICKSTARTER A YEAR AGO, SO IT'S NOT REALLY BRAND NEW. WOULD YOU STILL BE INTERESTED IN CARRYING IT?
Sure. In all likelihood, your book will probably be new to the majority of people who might see it on our website. It may not be brand new on the market, but the whole point is getting your comic promoted as widely as you can. This is just another way for you to do just that.
MY COMIC IS ACTUALLY A 120 PAGE HARDCOVER TRADE PAPERBACK.
DO I HAVE TO MAIL TEN COPIES TO YOU?
We will be more flexible on our terms when you start getting into trade paperbacks. In these cases, we can start small if you'd prefer. Maybe 3 to 5 copies to begin?
I ACTUALLY DON'T HAVE A COMIC TO SELL. I CREATED A 3-D PRINTED STATUE OF VENOM THAT I HAND PAINTED. WILL YOU SELL THAT?
You think I'm kidding. That's actually a legitimate question I recently got. First of all, Venom is a copyrighted character. We are a retail store that has a cozy relationship with Marvel Comics that would be jeapordized by offering unlicensed products. Your work belongs on Etsy, Craigslist or perhaps that sketchy flea market down the street.
But even your collectible doesn't infringe on anyone's intellectual property rights, we're starting this project by focusing on independently made comic books --- not independently made figures, toys, statues, crafts, games and so on.
WHAT ABOUT MY ORIGINAL NOVEL, OR TEXT-HEAVY FANZINE?
We're a comic book store.....but not a book store. In general, customers will not be coming to our store and to our site to look for a great new sci-fi epic, a fantasy novel, self-help books or coffee table books featuring photographs of tasteful nudes.
We'll consider fanzines and magazines as well on a case by case basis. It's not what we're looking for right now, but you may have something our readers won't want to live without.
As this project develops, we may later begin considering carrying magazines, books and other content. But for the time being, we're going to mostly pick the indie comie book lane and stay within it.
And that's basically it! Thanks for your time - now if you still want to share your book with us (or if you have additional questions) please contact us today!
Keep being creative, you guys!
John Yeo Jr
Screaming Monkey Comics