Off Panel is seeking niche comic strips!

(Update: I asked Kevin and Tom to look over the info in today's Blathering to make sure I wasn't misquoting info, and they've provided some clarification. I've added their info below in bold. -- Debbie)

In yesterday's Blathering, I asked who dropped off our Mystery Package on the weekend. Found out the culprit...thanks to our pal Ray for the crackers!

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. This week's column topic: "Freelance writers and e-mail: keep it professional." If you have any of your own e-mail pet peeves, please do add them to the WWFC comments section for this week.

Off Panel Productions is seeking new comic artists for their site, by the way, and I get a finder's fee if they sign anyone up because of me. So heck, here's a basic overview for those interested:

Off Panel is looking for comic artists (or people who have comic artist friends :-)) who also have knowledge and appreciation of a specialized field. Mine, for example, is freelance writing. Other comics so far include HCI/UX/usability, paleobiology and managing tech.

They let you keep all rights to your work. You can publish elsewhere at the same time, if you'd like.

You keep 80% of any advertising income. There are no fees, and you're not locked into any time commitment...as long as you give four weeks' notice, you can opt out anytime. (From Off Panel: "The 80% is for any revenue generated through Off Panel. Currently, that means advertising and paid syndication (if someone wants to put the latest
WWFC on their site every week, we have tools for that). Anything made not through our system is 100% yours. E.g., if you made a commission deal.")



Off Panel will provide hosting space, software tools and other infrastructure to upload comics and a blog entry with comments section. Your commitment: one comic strip and blog entry related to your niche topic a week. (From Off Panel: "Weekly is the minimum schedule we'd like to see but people are free to do more frequent schedule, so long as it's predictable and regular! =)")

You can opt for a more frequent schedule if you prefer, but weekly is the minimum. (From Off Panel: "The blog entry can be more than one and we don't actually require the blog entry per week but strongly recommend it. It's the main reason our site managed to grow so fast.")

Warning: You need to do your own marketing/PR as well as find your own advertisers (except for Google AdSense, which they'll set up for you). If you do find advertisers, they'll handle your revenue stream re: payments, etc. (From Offpanel: "We have a self serve system for advertisers and the 'you need to market/pr/find advertisers' is true but the context is that you know and love your subject so you know which sites and vendors are related to your audience. We simply can't tell you that because you're the expert =)")

I'm not expecting to make a huge amount of money off Will Write For Chocolate anytime soon, though eventually I may publish a print collection. But as Jeff pointed out, why not try to make a little money off something I feel compelled to do anyway? :-)

Reasons I signed up with Off Panel:

- They let me keep all rights. This was a biggie.

- They handle the revenue stream. I'd rather focus on the creative part and not the technical/revenue infrastructure building/maintenance. The latter was a time vampire when I worked on Inkspot.

- They're constantly working on ways to improve the site to help their artists.

- I like the weekly deadline.

- I love the idea of gathering niche comic strips in one place. I think this project's going to be pretty successful, and I want to be a part of it.

- I like Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi, the two guys behind Off Panel...though I've never met them, they seem very easygoing and helpful through e-mail and live chat. They collaborate on their own comic OK/Cancel from different continents; Kevin lives in London, UK while Tom lives in Seattle, WA.

You can see a recent CNet article on one of their cartoonists here. There's also info about Off Panel on the second page.

You can see their current strips here. If you're accepted as an Off Panel artist, then you need to come up with six strips before launch. (From Off Panel: "Creators don't have to have samples before contacting us as sometimes, we can help them find the topic to work on before they've started drawing. Samples of previous work help of course but not necessarily samples of the strip they'll be doing.)

If you have other questions, please let me know or you can apply here.

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