Hello, everyone! As this blog post goes live, I’m en route to Concord, New Hampshire. As I’ve told you before, I very much want to start a full-time business designed to make and sell my comics. Unfortunately, my home state of New York is very expensive to live and work in…so I’m checking out other locations. I may also be checking out the states of South Dakota and Texas. But New Hampshire is my first choice.
Thanks to the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, I got some very handy guides all about the city and state. When I head there over the weekend, I have a specific motive in mind. I’m not going there to sightsee and I’m not going there for a vacation. I’m heading there to scout out the area as a potential business location. With me, I’ll have a digital camera, pocket tape recorder and a notepad ready to make notes of what I find.
One of the challenges of the business side of comics is that there’s not much support for it. Many of the how-to books out there on making your own graphic novels, comic strips, manga, etc. talk little about that. I hope that in some of the coming months of my blog, I’ll share with you some of the information I know and I learn about turning into a comics professional.
New Hampshire may be a viable location for a full-time working comics pro. Why? The state is very tax-friendly. There is no personal income tax and no sales tax. That means not as much red tape with the bureaucracy and getting to keep more of what you spend. However, I need to scout out this place to see if I can establish a personal rapport and to see if it has the vital services and vendors needed to support a full-time comics operation. I’ll be sure to share some of my findings with you next time.
I’m also preparing for Furfright 2011. It’ll be set for next weekend in Connecticut and this will be just as important as my trip to New Hampshire. Why? This will serve as a test market to see how viable my work is for sale. It’ll also give me a chance to practice my salesmanship for future events.
Thanks to the nice people at Ka-Blam, I’ve gotten copies of Sunnyville Stories episodes 2, 3, and 4 plus the Sunnyville Sketchbook to sell. I’m still waiting on my copies of the fifth episode.
This event will be the second major test of selling my work at a convention and to the general public. The first test market was Anthrocon 2011 back in June.
I’ll have a full write-up of my trip to New Hampshire on Wednesday plus a cool announcement about my upcoming trip to Furfright 2011. Stay tuned, loyal readers. If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed or via email.
