More and more up and coming Japanese and French auteurs and Design artists from the international anime, manga, and art community are turning to self-publishing through sites such as Lulu and international self-publishers. Even some famous artists like LeSean Thomas are doing it. The Japanese prefer to refer to this genre and medium of comics as "Dojinshi" and the artists/writers who produce it as "Dojin".
I predict that within the next ten years in Japan, America, and Europe, we'll be seeing more and more self-published Dojinshi comics and art books. Self-Publishing is nothing new to America (We don't generally refer to self published art as "Dojinshi" in America, but on a technical level, in many ways it's the same thing, an entryway to bigger things in comics and manga), but I don't know if international self-publishing actually has a history or if digital self publishing in Japan is a new phenomena. I sense a potential publishing trend there. Self-Publishing is also popular with webcomics artists, like myself and Raynart, whose work (Rayart's) I love and have already bought off the Lulu.com site and cherish my copy of. Raynart is an anime pioneer. The artist's real name and gender is unknown, but I'm pretty sure Raynart is a girl right around my age. He/She's always been one of my DeviantART friends. I'm a big fan.
But a few notes on publishing in Japan, my experiences with it.
True, I've never sold any copies of my book in Japan, but that doesn't upset me at all. I publish (or should I say "self-publish"?) for the privilege of being published anywhere legitimate really. But here's some advice to aspiring art and writing comics and animation publishing pros of the future:
Publishing traditionally through mainstream American and Japanese publishers is great, but if everyone rejects you as they did me, you have options. You can self-publish and still receive international distribution through online bookstores such as Amazon. and Amazon of Japan. That's what I did. Japanese Amazon caries my book just like the American Amazon does, because I use Amazon CreateSpace, which is something young and new authors might want to try that isn't just Kindle or Lulu.
Some Decent Digital Self-Publishers that are worth checking out if you want to self-publish:
I can think of 2.
http://www.lulu.com
http://www.createspace.com (in association with Amazon)
To the potential Japanese readers in this blog, there is a distinct cultural difference between traditional American self-publishing and Japanese Dojinshi self-publishing. New school Japanese self-publishing leaves out two main traits found in traditional Dojinshi. With newer Japanese self-publishing, much of the eroticism and fanart qualities found in traditional Dojinshi are both missing for the most part, and are replaced with a higher amount of original work that's considerably less pornographic, if at all. American readers never grew up associating porn or fanart with DIY self-publishing, but instead associate it with books such as Cerebus, Scud the Disposable Assassin, Spawn, and Bone, which historically have been intended in a Western context that is considerably more literary and commercial.
A WHOLE LOT of artists that hope to be published in Japan fail and never succeed at it is because they only want to publish their manga or whatever if SOME ONE ELSE does the publishing and business and promotional marketing work, where you have to format your own book using digital files and PDF documents.
Some artists say "Why should I have to do all that? Why can't someone else? Man, I'm an artist, not a BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR! MAN! I JUST WANNA DRAW/PHOTOSHOP DOJINSHI FANART!"
But the truth is, if you want to reap the real rewards, you DO need to go the extra mile (see Dave Sim's biography for starters. As he was one of the first successful comic book self-publishers back in the day, and still is as he runs the Aardvark-Vanaheim publishing company, a self-publisher he founded over 30 years ago.
If you want to publish your art and succeed in any legitimate way, you need to understand the PUBLISHING and BUSINESS / MARKETING aspects of Japanese and American comics, NOT just the drawing process. More knowledge pays off eventually.
Self-Publishing is not the most popular or thought of thing by young Japanese and American and French artists, but it IS an option. Even if you only sell copies to your friends and family, that's still a wealth more than most aspiring writers and artists. You have your name, pride, easier distribution, and dignity. Sweet, right?
But if you do want to be taken seriously by retails, my advice would be, ALWAYS have an ISBN number. NEVER misplace or mistype your ISBN number. This is very important as a self publisher. If you want your work carried in retailers, whether online or in actual stores, the latter of which my work pretty much isn't, you NEED an ISBN I.D. It's a business thing.
HOWEVER, if YOU DO decide to venture out into the world and universe of SELF-PUBLISHING, you must always remember: DON'T PUBLISH SHIT. Only publish your best, and most detailed and appealing work. You've got to be you're own harshest, but also most realistic critic, and be self aware of when you DO make good art and writing. Self-Publishing MUST HAVE self-objectivity. Because there WON'T be an editor and publishing house there to hold your hand and tell you this or that drawing sucks and isn't ready to be published. Autonomy of Aesthetics is an absolute requirement. You HAVE TO do your own thing (not mine or someone else's) and YOU HAVE TO HAVE A HIGH STANDARD of REAL QUALITY ARTWORK. You have to HONESTLY answer to yourself, if I saw this book i did, and it was made by someone else, would I honestly shell out my own money to buy it because of my burning passion for good art that wanted that good art book or comic so bad. Does it "Look Pro"? If your honest answer is "yes, I myself like my work and I do not honestly believe it sucks and no one would by it or edit/publish it" then you're on your way. BUT ONLY if you honestly like your own work. If you hate your own work, you're screwed, man! In publishing, the honest, truthful answer about what's REALLY APPEALING IN ART is "No one else is ever going to objectively like a piece of art that you honestly OBJECTIVELY don't like yourself." Remember that.
