What's in a comic pitch?

Since our upcoming graphic novel was announced a while back, I thought it'd be a good time to talk a little about the pitching process! All of the included art is pretty old at this point (and not even relevant anymore), so bear with me haha!

There are so many ways to pitch a book - I'll try to provide some broader context, but keep in mind that I'm not an expert! I'll be speaking from my own experience, but hopefully it will be useful or interesting.

(PS, you can find all previous posts that discuss my approach to making art here!)

Where do you even start?

Scenario #1: Let them come to you. Sometimes an artist is directly approached by editors who are interested in their work and would like to know whether the artist has any ideas. This is actually what happened with The Sprite and the Gardener; I had done a little work with Oni Press on one of their monthly series, and after that was done, I was asked to pitch. Sometimes editors will contact artists they see on social media, too.

Anyway, while this may seem ideal, if this happens to you and you don't have an agent, start querying. Learn from my experience: you'll want an agent before you agree to anything. This is actually a good opportunity to go agent searching, too, since it signals that you're in demand.

Scenario #2: Go to them. This is what we did with our current book, The Netherlings, and in my experience you'll need an agent for this.

In our case, we tossed the idea out to our agent who felt that it was worth pursuing, worked on putting a pitch together under her guidance, and then had her send it to editors that she felt would be receptive.

So, what's in a pitch?

There's a huge range here. A pitch can be a single idea. It can be a synopsis, or an outline. It can include character and concept art. It can include a few sketched pages, or even a few complete pages. In rare cases, it can be a fully completed work (this typically happens with webcomics that were later picked up by publishers). It just depends!

Our PDF included, in this order:

• A cover sheet with the title, our names, and the name and contact info of our agent.

• Drawings of the main cast and a short bio for each. We wanted to keep it snappy and to have the vibe of the book come through - so a little sincere, but also a little silly. Here's one as an example:

• Sample pages. These are to help the editor visualize the final form of the book, and in our case, to try to "hook" them. Our agent felt that it would be best for us to include... the first 30 pages of the book as samples lol...! Most were sketches, but we did throw in a few colored ones!

• We then included a summary of the rest of the book. It was one page and covered the major plot beats all the way to the end.

• Artist bios. After introducing yourself, there's a lot of wiggle room here depending on what you have behind you: you can include where you went to school, past projects, any publicity (articles you were featured in, exhibitions), etc.

  A lot of things that might not cross your mind can be relevant. Do you work in a library, and therefore have a good grasp on what's popular / a network that ensures a better chance of getting your book on shelves or holding events? Do you have a large social media following that could potentially translate into greater reach? Etc.

• Short ideas for potential sequels. 1-3 sentences, nothing too wild - this is more just to show that you're open to turning your book into a series and that you've considered how that might look.

• Lastly, we actually included a more in-depth book outline that was 4.5 pages long. I don't think this is necessary, but we figured we would give them the option to dive further into detail if they were interested. But if not, it didn't distract them from any previous sections.

• While we didn't include this ourselves, it's very common to include a couple of "comps" - basically, list a few books that you feel are similar in spirit/style/subject/etc that the editor can refer to. This helps them understand the general vibe of things, but also lets them consider how well those books sold and whether there's room in the market for more.

What's the timeline like?

Who knows! There's a huge range. In our case, though, from casually pitching our book to our agent to actually signing our contract and getting to work, it took nearly TWO YEARS. Wild, right!?

Even after that, we actually hit a snag during scripting where things just weren't working out in a way we were all happy with, so we rewrote the whole thing. We pitched this book to our agent in September 2021, and I've only just begun drawing it in the past month!

Granted, The Sprite and the Gardener was much quicker. It was pitched in late 2018 and fully completed by the end of 2020.

All this to say: there are a lot of factors! Every book will have a different timeline, whether that's due to page length or complexity of the art, whether it's part of a best-selling series and they need the next book RIGHT NOW, whether it has multiple people working different roles (writer, artist, letterer, colorist) or one person handling everything, etc.

In all seriousness, though, I wish we all had longer timelines. Making a book is hard work!!!

Misc, etc

Hopefully this was a little illuminating! Maybe it wasn't a very fun read, though. Here are some (very early) character sketches for anyone who made it this far, haha!

Anyway, to anyone hoping to get their story out there, best of luck!!!!!! I hope I get to read it someday!