No longer confined to small stands at train stations, comic books are big business as their characters make their way into highly successful films.

Comics are big business, but not simply as entertainment, because comic books are also making a name for themselves in education. Statistics show that the market is growing in many ways, including in elementary, college, and medical education. I don’t think anyone wants to believe that medical students or pre-med students are studying anatomy or any other aspect of medicine from a comic, but they are.

Teachers have been utilizing comics in the classroom for more than 60 years. The teachers who use comics in their curricula say that they raise student engagement on an individual basis and make studying easy.

In the United States, comic book and graphic novel sales reached a new high of over 94 million copies in 2021. The year’s sales were higher than any previous five years combined for fiction book sales, and they were nearly identical to the 99 million copies that were sold to comic book stores in 2016. Comic book retailers have purchased about 881 million comic books over the past ten years, or an average of 88.1 million copies.

Markets like this are desirable for those with artistic talent, imagination, and grit. The last one is of utmost importance if anyone producing a comic book wants to sell copies of it. Remember, these can go via e-book or printed versions, so the market is worldwide, and that enlarges its potential. But how does anyone begin?

Of course, story ideas can be fed to illustrators and edited for impact and clarity, but that will turn into a major financial effort. Most printed comic books run about 36 pages with one or more illustrations per page, and that can mean many graphics that must meet specific production standards. However, some guides can be used for newbies desiring to get into the field, and they are free for anyone who wants to jump into being a comic book author.

Although Amazon’s KDP has usually been restricted to ebooks, paperbacks, and hardcover books, they are also producing comic books. All of the details, from production to promotion are outlined on their website. They even have special software (Kindle Create) that handles formatting, which is a major plus since this area of book production can be one of the most pesky ones. A Kindle Create tutorial is also online.

The fee to produce a book on Amazon KDP? Free, but Amazon takes a portion of any royalties from book sales, according to how you set it up and where the book is to be released.

One of my favorite software developers, who also creates numerous tutorials for all facets of book categories, production, and promotion, has provided additional guidance. You can find it on the Publisher Rocket website or YouTube, where they uploaded a tutorial specifically to outline how to get an ISBN for your book.

The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) identifies your book and is used by everyone in the industry, from publishers to booksellers to librarians to the Library of Congress. They aren’t free unless you publish with Amazon, and Amazon KDP will supply a free number for you, but that carries with it some additional concerns.

When you utilize Amazon’s free ISBN, the ISBN becomes their property; you do not own the ISBN, and you are unable to use it to distribute your book outside of Amazon. Want to distribute on many platforms outside of Amazon? Then you need to buy your own ISBN from R. R. Bowker who is the only one selling them. And they can be expensive. One ISBN is $125, and 10 of them are $295. Yes, there are many internet book platforms you will find by doing a Google search.

Important questions include: where do they distribute, what percent of royalties do they take, do they produce both e-books and paperbacks, do they charge you for any edits you make to your book, and how will they assist with book promotion?

This isn’t a complete rundown on how to get your comic book published, but it’s an important start. Read and re-read everything carefully, prepare your storyline fully before you begin to plan illustrations, and then proceed with caution.