Thread by @maciateto

#ComicsBrokeMe 🇮🇹 italian edition:
I'd have loved to do comics in Italy but that's pretty much impossible since the whole industry is based on exploitation.
That's why 🧵

The average payment for a GN goes from 1500€ to 3000€ (almost never) for ~120 pages (sometimes even more). That means 12€/page and includes EVERYTHING: writing, art, colors, sometimes even lettering. When there are 2+ people involved the payment is the same, just split up

All the comic industry is based on ONE comic convention (Lucca Comics, in October) so everyone just have to rush to hit that deadline, sometimes you have less than a year to do ~120 pages. If you miss that deadline publishers can decide to not release the book until the next year

Most of the GN don't have a proper editor. Most of them don't care much of your book if they think it won't be a big hit, so they just leave you alone during the making of it, mostly the same as being an indie creator.

Marketing is the same or even worst. If you are lucky enough to have your book out at Lucca, it could sell a few copies and the marketing it's just being there. Otherwise no publisher actually push much most of the books they publish and creators have to do that on their own.

Right now to publish comics in Italy you need followers on social media. That's because publishers rely on your own promotion with your followers to sell the books. What they do is just post on social media when the book comes out, and that's it

After that you are pretty much forgotten. Publishers bring most of their authors to Lucca Comics but for all the next conventions they just can't spend too much money so they don't bring a lot of people, meaning their books will have less visibility

Then there's almost no promotion on social media, because they're already focused on the next books or on few big names (like Zerocalcare). Most of the books have a print run of 1500/3000 copies and a lot of copies in the end go to the shredder

Editors ghost you all the time. They ghost you when you send them a project, they take months to give you a proper answer and sometimes they don't answer at all. When they decide to publish you they ghost you during the making, because they don't care much.

After the books is out they ghost you even when you ask something about promotion, conventions or anything regarding you book. All of this for 12€/page.

Also, in Italy they keep saying that comics "sell very well". There are plenty of articles about that, gaslighting all the creators that struggle to sell their books. The comics that sell "well" are just a few GN and most of the manga.

Luckily we have a strong indie production, with a lot of indie publishers that make incredible books. But that doesn't bring much money, it just showcase how many talented people there are in Italy and how much they get ignored.