02/20/2022
UNITED COMICS SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES
Welcome! We at UNITED COMICS are looking for new, interesting and inspired material for our
three publishing imprints [UNITED COMICS, SIMPATICO VISUAL BOOKS and UNICORN COLOR COMICS]. Here are some general guidelines that will help expedite things and improve your chances of getting accepted.
1. Please send in complete material. Do not send in half complete work or proposals that are not finished.
2. Stories must be 8, 16, or 24 pages. Though some exceptions may be made depending on circumstances.
3. Color material is preferred, but we will also look at b&w material for acceptance.
4. Image size must be equal to 6.25” x 9.5”.
5. Send as JPEG, PSD, PNG, TIFF or PDF. Minimum 300 dpi. We will ask for higher resolution if we accept your submission.
6. You allow UNITED COMICS and its employees to review your material and give your consent.
7. EMAIL submissions only. DO NOT MAIL. DO NOT MESSAGE ME. All submissions to be sent to TC FORD at [email protected] Be sure to use COMICS SUBMISSION in the header.
8. We are also looking for cover artists as well. All possible covers must be complete and in color.
9. WE DO NOT OFFER A PAGE RATE. Payments are based on a royalty basis, with Dollar One participation. Here is how it is calculated:
GROSS SALES x 20% royalty (3000 copy sales or below) / number of pages = page rate
if sales are over 3000 an additional 1% royalty is added per 1000 copies sold up to 25% maximum.
EXAMPLE:
$5000 gross sales x 20% = $1000 / 32 pages = $31.25 per page
so the higher the sales the bigger the “page rate”.
Work vouchers must accompany any payment.
Payment is usually made 30 days AFTER date of publication release. If the project is re-printed, the same payment rules apply.
10. If accepted for publication it may take a while for it to see publication. A basic publication contract will be sent to secure the work.
11. All creator owned material will be retained by creator.
12. All UNITED hired work will be owned by UNITED, unless otherwise noted.
13. DO NOT SEND ORIGINAL ARTWORK!!!
14. Be original and creative.
15. NO NUDITY or GRAPHIC S*X
16. NO FOUL LANGUAGE. It must be for all ages.
17. ALL ORIGINAL CREATOR MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED TO THE ORIGINAL CREATOR UNLESS OTHER ARRANGEMENTS ARE MADE.
Stuff you never hear:
“Hey, we are doing a movie, and we need actors and actresses. Anybody want to apply?”
Response: “How much does it pay? I can’t possibly do any film for anyone for less than say $15 million. Any respectful company could pony that up easy…I’m not here to get ripped off..”
“Um… That’s not how the film industry works. Plus…who are you again?”
So how did the comics market become so mercenary?
Right off the rip, and we’re very clear about this… United Comics DOES NOT OFFER A PAGE RATE. The concept of the page rate comes from a time when creating material was “work product” and was paid for on a piece-by-piece basis.
This does not mean we don’t pay our talent.
We also don’t believe in “back end deals” either. We believe if we make money you should make money too. We call it “dollar one participation” . Here’s the problem… Until the comics come out, we generally don’t know how well a project will sell. Being an independent publisher, it’s probable that we will not be selling material at Marvel or DC levels. So we establish a project budget. That provides an advance upon submittal of completed work, and if the book sells beyond our expectations, we would offer a percentage against the advance. We don’t expect anyone to work for FREE, we offer contracts, so you get this in writing. We’ve been here since 1993, and we’re not going anywhere anytime soon. But we’re not in the business of going out of business.
As a creator, I recognize that most others feel underpaid for their work through a lot of channels. But, you have to build your reputation and the following for your work. That, in turn, increases your market value. You may WANT 200 dollars a page, but if the demand for your work isn’t there, and we sold say 1,200 copies, we lose money. Risk in publishing must be mutual. The most successful material is helped by the creators going out to promote their work. Store signings. Con appearances. Podcasts. YouTube. Fan press interviews. It isn’t all just drop off the work and pick up a check…then, on to the next!
Why do you think actors do talk shows and print interviews? Con appearances? Visibility helps ticket sales. Likewise, visibility helps comic sales. Don’t think of Comics as a job… More as a career. Careers require hard work and flexibility. A flat rate doesn’t identify your true ability.
Can you draw 12 pages in 2 1/2 weeks? With a reasonable level of quality storytelling and illustration skills? This career may be for you. If not, you can always be one of those guys that says, “I put out a comic book, once…” - nothing wrong with that… just that if it takes you four months to get an issue done, don’t expect big bucks from the publisher. Every month they’re not releasing your Comic, they’re losing money.
Just sayin’.
Thanks for the submission…we do appreciate that you are considering United Comics for your project. But before we move forward I do have to give what I call our disclaimers…which are things you need to understand about United, indy comics and the comics market. We believe in full disclosure when it comes to these matters.
1) We are a small indy comic book publisher…while we have been around since 1993 we do not sell millions of copies of our releases. In the industry today selling indy books is tough especially through the current distribution systems. Many “best-selling” books sell about 4000 copies and typically our new indy titles sell between 400 and 1200 copies. So if your expectation is to take the market by storm, it is very very difficult.
2) While we do pay based on royalties as you can see the royalties on most books is not great. The good news is if you can get traction on your book and market your book to your fans it may result in a decent payback. We just don’t want to sugarcoat any expectations.
3) There is no funny stuff in our contracts. Unless you are working on our properties as work for hire, YOU own the book and the property - we are a creator owned company and we believe in creator rights. We will not interfere in any outside sources of revenue you generate on your book (if you offer an Indiegogo or kickstarter version on your book it may affect some distributor sales but we look past that). We will not own any part of your creation.
4) There are no payment shenanigans with our contracts. It is a straight royalty, Dollar One participation. Some companies deduct advertising, printing fees etc…for creator owned books and we do not do that. We also always pay our bills and while a creator may not get a king’s ransom you will never see that we do not fulfill our obligations.
5) Since we are not a large company we do not have an endless advertising or marketing budget. While we do have some presence in distribution and online we are limited in that regard. We would encourage any self-promo that you can perform
6) Despite these disclaimers our calendar is full…we plan our schedule in advance - so while we may like your project it may take a bit of time to get it out. If you do not have the time to wait we would never interfere in you taking your creation elsewhere. We try to expedite releases but as we speak we have multiple books in the pipeline and a limited amount of space to release those books.
Don’t get us wrong…if we like your book we want to get it out but we have constraints which limit our ability to get all these great creations out.
So if we did not scare you away then we can get your book into the editorial pipeline and see where it ends up.
FAQs:
SO, HOW DOES THIS UNITED COMICS THING WORK, ANYWAY?
Well, it starts with a project. YOUR project.
We look for professional level material. Once we accept material for publication, we discuss the details with you as to format, imprint, payment structure, etc. WE DO NOT OFFER A PAGE RATE FOR MATERIAL. Payment is ultimately based on sales on a project to project basis.
NO PAGE RATE? IS THIS A “BACKEND DEAL”?
No, not in the traditional sense. A “backend deal” involves splitting profits after all production and promotional costs have been recouped. In the current comic book marketplace, independent publishers have a hard time selling books at profitable levels. Oftentimes, comics don’t turn a profit. We pay based on total sales, with dollar one participation.
So, even if the book is not profitable, you will still make something. Nobody gets rich if the comics don’t sell, but this way the publisher and the creators share in the success or failure of the book from the beginning. We find this program benefits everyone, as the creators tend to promote sales of the book more, rather than just dropping off the artwork and expecting a payday.
I’M JUST A WRITER/PENCILLER/INKER/LETTERER/COLORIST. DO YOU HAVE NEED OF MY INDIVIDUAL SERVICES?
We’ve put together a “talent bank” of ready to work professional level creators. Occasionally, we will draw from that pool for special custom projects or short stories in our anthology projects.
However the majority of our books are projects by creators with their own creative teams in place.
DO YOU PUT CREATIVE TEAMS TOGETHER FOR PROJECTS?
No. We prefer that each creative team come to us already in place. However, if a writer is looking for an artist, or an artist is looking for a writer, we may suggest people from our talent bank from time to time for them to contact.
DIAMOND WOULDN’T CARRY OUR BOOK. IF WE GO WITH UNITED, CAN YOU GET US IN?
Diamond has its own rules with regard to distribution. We can never guarantee that we can get a book through Diamond. Only they can make that determination. We can however, review your project and suggest changes that may make the comic more acceptable for distribution. United Comics uses more than one distribution network to distribute our books to market. INDYBOX Comics Network will be our primary distribution source.
