Jason Archives

I'm uploading new video podcasts every Friday to various sites (YouTube, MetaCafe, Crackle, etc, etc). Here are the first two I produced; check them out if you'd like to hear me talk about swastikas and failed relationships.

Labels: postcards

I have to be honest, here…I don't know everything there is to know about this subject. I know some things through experience but some of this will be a bit of guess work. If anyone has anything to add, or if you flat out disagree with me, feel free to chime in.

Ok. I have a representative. I actually just signed him. This is my second representative – I parted ways with the first guy amicably. I want to make books, right now, and needed a literary agent who could help make that happen. So I hired one. Bob Mecoy. He represents a lot of folks I like. We talked and we connected. I interviewed several reps and I felt like Bob was the one for what I wanted to do.

So, why Bob?

Well…he knows people in the book world, for starters. What good is a literary agent if he doesn't know anyone? A lot of folks sign with an agent to say they have an agent but their agent is incapable of setting up meetings and making things happen; can't close a deal. Hell, if I'm going to hand over 15% for that I might as well name my mom as my agent. She could use the cash.

I feel like Bob and I can work well together. We speak the same language. I talk about a book I want to do and his ideas on how it would do and where it would sell parallel mine. Also, he has some ideas that go beyond what I originally planned. An agent should be able to see the potential in your work – they should be able to see more potential than you currently see. I felt like I had that with Bob.

I feel like there has to be a symbiotic relationship between talent and agent. They work for you, true, but you also need to work for them. You need to give them a book that's going to sell for enough money to make their time worthwhile.

When I first went looking for an agent I was told by several different people that I would never be able to land a literary agent. This was despite the fact that I was bringing someone a deal – I was looking for an agent because Random House flat-out told me, "If we're going to go any further, you're going to need to hire an agent." The thought a lot of comic folks had was, "Comics don't make enough money for the good literary agents to get involved."

So I hired a manager – someone who's setup to take my comic projects and sell the ancillary rights. They can negotiate book contracts and some of the bigger agencies can even get you to meetings to find new work but, for the most part, their looking to set your work up with a studio and make you some movie money and take their 10%.

Once POSTCARDS came out, however, and we were receiving a ton of press in some huge publications (USA Today, for instance, the #1 paper in America), I quickly realized that I could certainly land a strong literary agent. I decided to focus my career in that direction and to my surprise, agents were interested.

So, what to look for in an agent...

Three of the criteria I used are noted above: client list, contact list, and creative connection. Another thing that I believe is important is history. I found during my searches that a lot of agents bounced around at several publishers before becoming an agent. Bob Mecoy, for example, was senior editor at Simon & Shuster and executive editor at Crown Publishing. That's a good guy to have representing you, right there.

Reputation is also a plus. When I asked a couple of publishers what they thought about Bob, they had great things to say about him. Same with his clients. So, his clients loved him and, most importantly, publishers loved him or at least knew of him and heard good things. How could that be bad?

With Hollywood agencies, it seems like their client list is the most important thing because it represents a package deal. They can bundle up this book with this screenwriter and this director and there you go – a full-package. With literary agents, it's really just you and your book they're selling. So, what I'm saying is, you can get away with an agent that's not in a big house but has a lot of connections and a solid reputation.

Where to find an agent? Asking people who represents them is always a good start. A lot of folks put their rep's info on their websites – ten minutes of sleuthing will probably come up with two or three people who're representing comic folks. Publishers Marketplace is a great resource for finding agents and looking up the agents that you're talking to. Use the "Who Represents" feature and type in the agent you're researching to see who they represent and what deals they've closed. You can type in your favorite cartoonist or writer to see who represents them and what deals they've closed for them. A lot of agents have bio pages on the site along with contact information and instructions.

Important! Follow the instructions carefully and do your research! Know about your agent and do not send form letters! Agents talk to each other a lot. You mess up with one and you'll likely mess up with a lot of them. Give it a bit of a personal note. Talk about their client list or where you read about them. Just make sure you're not sending the same query to twenty people. And, most importantly, sell yourself. You have to have a book and you have to have some attention turned towards you. If a publisher (preferably a book publisher) is already interested – great! If you've recently had a windfall of press – great! If you're a guy with an idea for a book come back when you have a book. If you still use the word "aspiring" come back when you drop it from your resume.

You don't need an agent to start making comics. You don't need an agent to sell your comic to a comic publisher. Chances are that any agent that'll look at you when you're just starting out is not the best agent you can get anyway. You need an agent to further your career, sure, but it's important that you have a career to begin with or, at least, enough people saying you have a potential career.

Ok, I'll cut this off for now and leave it open to questions and comments.

Labels: editorial-control

Every so often I get an email from someone asking me if I'm looking to work with any new writers. The short answer is, "yes." The long answer is, "Yes, but we probably won't work together for at least two years." The truth is – I have a lot of "new writers" that I already want to work with. Look at Postcards - the less-established writers, guys like Chris Stevens and Jay Busbee – I've known them for close to four years at this point. The second volume of Postcards currently has seven writers that I'd consider "new" and I've known each of them for over two years.

So, yeah, I'm looking for new writers. But that doesn't mean I'm looking to publish new writers starting with my next book.

I've met a lot of great writers over the past several years. Some of them came to me and some of them I've found. Some of them I've managed to get into anthologies I've edited (Western Tales of Terror and now Postcards) and some of them I've decided to edit their graphic novels or comic projects (like Eric Hobbs' Broadcast and JJ Khars' Rose Colored Crash). But they all have one thing in common – before I agreed to work with them in any capacity I talked to them several times, over the phone and usually face-to-face. I got to know them. I got a grasp on their limitations and their strengths.

It's important that an editor has a strong working relationship with a writer. An editor needs to understand what can be expected and how good a writer can get and the only way to have that understanding is if a) the editor is very familiar with the writer's published work or b) the editor is very familiar with the writer.

It's also important to me is that I become comfortable with how a writer conducts themselves in public. I have to admit, I'd be more willing to work with a socially inept artist than writer. A good artist is hard to find and if someone can put down some gorgeous work that's all I need. I don't ask artists to do any extra promotion. If they want to take part in some of the promotional stuff that's cool, but as far as I'm concerned – they put in their time when they drew their pages. They spent hours in front of that table rendering a single page of script. Once I get those high-res scans their job is finished.

The writer's job, however, isn't done yet. They're the ones that I expect to take part in interviews and signings. They're the ones that I depend on to participate in the podcasts and roundtables. The writers become the public face for the book if I'm not around. That's part of the job, in my opinion. I prefer any writer I work with be someone I can trust representing me when I'm not around. And that's not something I get out of one email. In fact, here's how it'll usually go down…

You ask, "Can I send you some samples of my work?"

Are the samples illustrated? If all you have is a script, come back when you have a comic. If you can't find someone to illustrate a couple of pages of your story it means: a) it's not good or b) you don't know how to work with people.  Neither of those choices makes you look all that attractive. I'd sooner read someone's short story than a comic script.

So I get your samples and I read them. I usually assume what you're sending me is the best you have and if the best you have is good but not great my answer will likely be, "I need to see more. Can you send me your new stuff as it comes out?" I'll also give feedback, most likely, just to see how you respond to feedback. You'll be surprised how many folks respond with a two page email explaining their artistic choices and telling me why I'm wrong. I could be wrong, sure. And I've confessed to being wrong many times. But if you go straight for a defensive posture and start lobbing grenades at me I don't care how wrong I may be, we're done.

If I don't like the work I'll probably just say it's not my thing. There won't be any critique. If I'm head-over-heals for the work, I'll set up a phone call.

We'll chat about a bunch of stuff, not just comics. I'll try to find out where you have an online presence. Blogs, social networking sites, message boards – I do a little snooping, yes. I also try to find out if we'll be in the same area anytime soon. Conventions are always a good rendezvous point. I also tend to travel a lot and, if you're coming to DC, I have no problem with grabbing a drink with you since I'll likely be drinking anyway.

As you can see, it's sort of like a job interview with me. And this is just so I can see if I want to work with you. If I decide I do, I still need to find something we can work together on. I have anthologies I put together, sure, but right now there's only POSTCARDS. I hope to get some more books started but even if I do we're talking limited real estate.

I tend to edit graphic novels on spec. Not an entire 140-page project, of course, but enough to get it to the pitch stage. At any rate, it's still work for me so I have to really love it and believe in it to sign on with it.

So saying that I'm looking for folks to work with doesn't mean I have something right now. It just means I believe in new blood. It means that you can certainly send me some samples. It means that one day we could work together on some project. But that's really all it means.

I think you need to go into it knowing that. I think you should establish a relationship before asking for work. And this goes for any editor, really. Maybe it's just me, but there are few things that burn me up more than a writer I've never met before, whose work I've never read, writing me an email and asking if they can be in some project they read about on the internet (right now that'd be Postcards: California Dreaming). It just feels like you think you're already there – that your stuff is as good as the stuff I'm currently working with, you don't need an editor, and you don't care all that much about where your work ends up as long as it's printed somewhere. It's insulting to me and my book.

Besides, don't you know it's harder for someone to say no if they like you? I guess what I'm saying is, plan for a couple of projects down the road, not the next one. There's no rush…

____________________________________

If you want to get an idea of an up-and-coming writer that's doing it right, in my opinion, you should get in touch with Elton Pruitt. He contacted me a little over a year ago just to introduce himself. He'd check in with me now and again and send me whatever short comic he recently completed and ask for some feedback. I soon realized that he was doing this with a lot of different editors. But he wasn't annoying about it. His correspondences didn't feel like auditions. He wasn't kissing my ass every time, either. He's a nice guy. The guy you cheer for. And he was listening – he was improving. I found that he was getting pieces published in various anthologies. His writing wasn't the Best Thing I've Ever Seen but it was certainly good. I thought he could benefit from a good editor. So when it came time to put together my pitch-list for Postcards 2 I included him. He never once asked for it – I just knew we could work together and I wanted to give him his shot to be alongside some great creators in a great book. And his pitch was good. His script, after several revisions, was also good. I imagine you'll see him in the book.

He took his time, improved his craft, and kept reminding me that he existed. By doing so, we're working together less than two years later. He'll likely be in a book that'll be great exposure for him and cut him a check for his creator-owned story. I'd say Elton's the kind of guy you should study a little bit.

Labels: editorial-control

My job is to support you. I help you pull a thought out of your brain. I help you nurture it. I talk to you about what we're going to do with it once we're ready to harvest it. I help you process it – I help you make it work. Together we package the idea – try it out – repackage it – repeat. We isolate what's right and we discard the rest. We build it up and we cut it down.

Repeat.

I live by the big picture. We chart a course and I keep you on it. You have a scene that's the funniest thing you've ever written and I tell you that you'll have another opportunity to use it. I let you know what doesn't belong and let you know when you're too afraid to go where we agreed you should go. I pat you on the back when you do a good job and will ask for a complete redo if it isn't working.

Repeat.

I go from idea to pitch to synopsis to outline to story to script to thumbnails to pencils to inks to tones to letters and give input at every step. I package it up. I guide the design. I copyedit and take care of the front, back and filler matter. I look at several potential covers and oftentimes suggest a different approach. All the while I listen to your inputs and stay in line with your vision. If we wander too far, we go back to the beginning.

And we repeat.

I get it to the printer and spend days repeatedly reading the proof. I come up with marketing ideas. I set up interviews and meetings and spend hours on the internet and in libraries looking up new contacts and new places to promote the work. I organize signings. Shake a lot of hands. Make a lot of phone calls. I make sure the book is well represented online and in print. I protect the brand – I understand what can be ignored and what can be harmful. I protect against the potentially harmful weeks in advance.

Repeat.

All the while I'm looking for new books. New talent. New ideas. I contact a new creator once a day. My contact list is filled with hundreds of writers and artists that I've been watching. I know their likes and dislikes, where they live and what's going on in their towns, their spouses' names, how many kids they have, their favorite teams, their pets' names, and their favorite comics. I know what their dream project is and I want to help them make it happen.

I'm the editor. People often ask me what I do and my answer is, "What do you want me to do?" This new column is going to go a bit deeper into that answer. It is going to be various musings on storytelling, deadlines, tools, marketing, production…the things I do everyday. I will be candid. I will say what worked and what I'll never bother doing again. I will speak from experience but also think about what's next – what I haven't tried yet.

I will be cross-posting this on several public forums. You can read it on the Eximious Blog, DC Conspiracy Blog, Art DC boards, my MySpace page, and my Engine Ning blog. Hopefully there will be discussions on all of those forums. Columns will be posted when I feel like posting, but it'll likely be at least weekly.

That's all for now – I look forward to talking to you.

Labels: editorial-control

Also posted on the Eximious Press blog.

I have plenty of pictures up over here – go check them out. Report time…

I got into town at around noon. Robin and I took a cab to the Sofia Hotel. The Sofia was remodeled In January 2007 and it's now a nice and swanky spot only seven blocks from the convention center and three blocks from Ralph's. We ran into James W. Powell and Jason Copland at the hotel – it's odd that out of all of the hotels in San Diego I book one at the same place that my assistant editor (James) and frequent collaborator (Jason) are in. It's even weirder that none of us even realized we were in the same place and that we showed up at the exact same time. San Diego Comic-Con may have had 140,000 attendees this year but it's still a small world over there.

After checking in Robin and I went to Sea World. I don't care if you laugh, I love Sea World. Love it. I can watch fish swim for hours (especially eels, barracudas, and sharks). I love how you can feed and touch the dolphins and the sting rays. I love how the park is owned by Anheuser-Busch and you can get free beers at the hospitality tent. You're only allowed two per visit but you get around that by visiting the tent every hour or so.

After Sea World Robin went back to the hotel to take a nap and I went to the convention center to check out preview night. I went straight to the Random House booth to see what kind of press they had out for us. They had a nice poster up at the Villard section, a preview copy of the book, and a flyer advertising the four signings we head set up. I can't complain about that.

I walked around the hall for a while. I dropped some books off with Gia-Bao Tran and the Gigantic Graphic Novel guys (Rick Spears and Rob G) to sell at their respective tables.

After the show I went out to dinner with a couple of folks: my fiancée, Robin, Josh Fialkov and his lovely fiancée (and POSTCARDS II history-editor) Christina Rice, POSTCARDS artist Tony Fleecs, screenwriters Marc Wheaton (THE MESSENGERS) and Gary Dauberman (DEADMAN), and Sam Cooke artist Rob Guillory and his wife, April. We went to a nice little Italian place.

We were going to head over to the Hyatt afterwards but first I had to take Tony to his hotel in Gary's car. I rented a POSTCARDS Crash Room for anyone that didn't have a place to stay and wanted to make sure that Tony could check it into it since he was the first one to use it. It took us close to twenty minutes to get to the hotel, the only street that passed by it was a one-way street that seconded as the off-ramp to a highway. By the time we returned Gary's car it was already past eleven and we were about a half-mile from the Hyatt and tired. Robin, Tony, Gary, and I went out for some drinks closer to our hotels.

The first bar we went to was alright. We were attracted to the outdoor patio and then they closed it. Some Santana cover band was playing the wrong songs too loud inside the bar so we bolted. We went to some dive bar on Tony's suggestion and it ended up being the greatest two hours of the convention by my recollection.

It was cheap, for starters. Two-dollar beers and well drinks all night, every night. The bartender was hysterical. When we commented on how cheap the beers were she proceeded to tell us the price of every drink behind the bar. She joked with us, made fun of us, took pictures with us. When someone came in with a big box of XL-or-larger restaurant shirts, she encouraged us to take them. Tony got it started, digging through the box and putting different shirts on. Eventually, everyone was wearing the free shirts. People would come through the door and we'd throw a shirt at them. Joshua Dysart comes in and I say, "Joshua! Where's your shirt?" It was a drunken mess but a good mess.

Ralph's, then hotel – Preview Night was over.

I had breakfast with Josh Fialkov and Christina Rice. While Josh and I talked about our futures, Christina read POSTCARDS. No joke – she cried, in front of us, after reading Phil Hester's story. Anyway, I think several decisions where made over breakfast that'll be playing out over the next several months.

Afterwards I went to the Horton Plaza mall to get some new sunglasses and hat – I already had mild sunburn on my bald patch from the trip to Sea World. Robin's friend, Julie, flew into town while we were shopping and the three of us went to Old Town together from some lunch. We had some decent Mexican food and caught up a bit before heading out to the convention.

I had my first meeting of the show with Paul Benjamin, one of the writers for POSTCARDS II. I stacked most of them during Friday and Saturday (huge mistake – I'll tell you why later). After the meeting I made my way to the Villard panel. It went well; I'd say about 60 people showed up. Kazu was insightful, as always, and Josh and I cracked jokes, mainly. The audience seemed to be entertained and at least four people came up to me and bought a book during one of my signings, mentioning that they loved the panel. Sales!

After the panel Josh and I walked around a bit before heading out to the Random House dinner. Good conversation and good food – horrible service, though. We were there for three hours, which is fine, but a lot of that time was spent waiting for stuff. Like drinks. And forks. But, hey, I'm not one to complain about a free meal – especially if it's good.

We headed over to the Circle of Confusion party after that and met up with Gary, Tony, Mark, Christina, Robin, and Julie. There were too many people there to recount each and every one but I did run into POSTCARDS contributors Stuart Moore and Michael Gaydos. It was a great party at any rate, and I took full advantage of the free booze and downed a combination of Red Bull-Vodkas, scotch, and beer before heading over to the Hyatt.

Being party night the Hyatt was kind of dead and I'm not going to complain about that. We met up with James Powell, Jason Copland, Caleb Monroe, Drew Melbourne, and Elton Pruitt and listened to Tony Fleecs tell stories all night. Tony can keep an audience attentive for hours on end – it makes me wish he'll hurry up and get to IN MY LIFETIME #2.

The bar closed and Robin, Julie, and I went back to the hotel (after a trip to Ralph's, of course). I was pretty sick but luckily the need to pass out was greater than the need to notice that the room was spinning.

I started my Friday with breakfast at the Marriott with Josh Fialkov, Christina Rice, Tony Fleecs, Mark Wheaton, Rob Guillory and wife, April, Kody Chamberlain, Phil Hester, Colleen Coover, and Paul Tobin. I got to check out Paul and Colleen's newest graphic novel and it's gorgeous. I headed out to get to my 10AM meeting. The convention, however, opened at 10:30 – making me a half-hour late and setting the precedent for late, missed, or canceled meetings. It's great that there're 140,000 people attending Comic-Con but those people make it impossible to keep a schedule. It's my fault, really, scheduling so many back-to-backs, but it was still annoying.

Luckily I had nothing solid planned after the first meeting – I was still able to catch some of the Image Founders Panel. It was fun but definitely didn't have the drama I was hoping for. It did make me appreciate Jim Lee more, however. His move to Image really shook the comic industry up. I can't think of a single person working today that could have a similar impact on the comic industry by simply moving to an upstart company.

I had a couple of short meetings before my Random House signing with Josh Fialkov. We sold a couple of books, signed them nice, and then went our separate ways. I had lunch with James Powell and Christina Rice at Dick's Last Resort. We talked about POSTCARDS II – where we stood and the way forward. There's work to be done, folks. Lots of it.

Lunch ended early and I had forty minutes of downtime. I sat in the convention lobby and started to read PULP HOPE. It's not the kind of book you read while burnt out and in a noisy convention center so I just salivated over the gorgeous artwork.

After the quick break I went to Comic Relief for another POSTCARDS signing. We had Tom Beland, Jason Copland, Micah Farritor, Antony Johnston, Ande Parks, Rick Spears, Rob G, Gia-Bao Tran, Matt Kindt, and Joseph Bergin III all signings books. A couple of folks bought some books, a couple of folks brought their own, and I had the crew sign a box of books I'll be using for promotion. There wasn't as many people as I would have liked but it wasn't horrible, at least.

After the signing I went out for a quiet dinner with Robin and Julie. We went back to the hotel and waited for my friend PJ to show up. PJ's a college buddy, now in LA, working for DreamWorks Animation. The four of us went straight to the Hyatt where we drank all night. Tony told stories, again, and the whispered discussion amongst me and several friends revolved around an interesting turn or events from the day before and what I should do about it. The answer was, essentially, "get paper" but everyone had a different idea as to how said paper would be getted.

I also introduced myself to Frank Miller that evening. Gary Dauberman and I walked up to Mr. Miller and his entourage…it seems like he has a bodyguard these days, by the way. Shook Frank's hand – he smiled and said, "Nice to meet you." When we started telling him what we did his eyes glassed over…I don't know, you'd think the fact that Gary's writing DEADMAN for Warner Brothers and working with Guillermo Del Toro would at least be interesting to him. I guess he's just too Hollywood for us.

Ralph's and then the hotel, as per usual.

Breakfast with Josh Fialkov, Phil Hester, and some guys from Harris comics. After breakfast I went back to the hotel room and napped until 12:30, canceling two meetings because it just wasn't worth trying to fight the crowd. The cancelled parties had no objections, and we agreed to chat at the Hyatt Saturday night. Comic-Con had already worn me down.

Signed at the Random House booth with Phil Hester for an hour. It went well; we sold some books and met some cool folks. Robin and Julie came to the convention afterwards and the three of us walked around – this was my first and only time really taking it all in. I picked up THE HOMELESS CHANNEL, BLACK METAL, SUPER SPY, and the absolute best find of the show. Let me explain…

Matt Kindt made signed-and-numbered, limited-edition Super Spy mini-comics called THE TREASURE. The comic is 70-some-odd panels long and each panel is on a piece of paper and placed into a hand-made box. Also in the box is a treasure map that tells you how to position the panels so you can read the entire story. The box is tied up and Matt put a little sketch on the back. Ten bucks.

FANTASTIC.

If you didn't buy it you really missed out.

At 2PM we had our second POSTCARDS signing at Comic Relief. This time is was Michael Gaydos, Stuart Moore, Phil Hester, Matt Kindt, Josh Fialkov, Tom Beland, James Powell, and Tony Fleecs. Much better turn out this time and we helped Comic Relief go through a chunk of their stock. I also got to meet up with an editor at NPR and talk to her a bit about the book. She seemed interested so even if it doesn't get on the radio it's nice to know it had a chance.

We went to dinner with around 14 folks afterwards, the usual crew – Chinese food. The crispy duck was delicious. One final romp at the Hyatt and I only spent an hours there before making my rounds and saying goodbye to everyone. I became really good at goodbyes – you just need to get in there, shake the hand, and run off before they can stop you. Josh started an hour before me and I caught up to him in the corridor in-between the two bars. Twenty minutes later I finished up the second bar and then I was gone. Just the hotel – no Ralph's. Robin and I had the room to ourselves Saturday night, after all.

Breakfast, packing, cab to the airport, and a comfortable flight to Chicago that allowed me to finish Harry Potter and sleep – two great things. An hour delay in Chicago, thirty minutes on the tarmac in DC, half hour waiting for our luggage, and another twenty minutes waiting for a taxi, however, got me home a little past 2AM. So – a horrible ending to a great week.

In case you want to see what Robin's signed copy of POSTCARDS looks like, here you go:

I know you wish you want one…luckily I have ten more just like it:

I'm going to start giving them out on this website every month-to-six weeks or so. First one this week sometime. Keep your eyes open for any upcoming promotions.

Labels: postcards