Cartoonist (and self-publisher) Mason wants you to buy his book.
Publish it yourself
His DIY advice
The best way to keep costs low is to not pay other people. Layout, design, order fulfillment: You can do it all.
Make as many books as you think you can sell. Use pre-orders to gauge interest and finance your first round of printing so you don’t end up in the hole, money-wise.
Don’t be shy. The only people buying your book are the people you’ll tell about it. So don’t hesitate to talk about it in every way possible. And then tell them again. And again. Hey! Want to buy my book? Go to www.portermason.com/store.
PROFILE. Porter Mason is a cartoonist, writer and actor who wanted a collection of his “Bassist Wanted” comics published. So he decided tack on another job title — publisher.
“I didn’t even consider [going to a publishing house],” the 31-year-old says. “I knew enough about design and publishing that I just did it.”
Mason created his own company for the design and then outsourced the printing to Web publisher Lulu.com. “I didn’t want my book to be one of 1,000 books a publisher would be selling; it wouldn’t get any attention and I would get a lot less money.”
His final effort, “All Local Bands Suck (Except Ours),” is a collection of two years of “Bassist Wanted” cartoons (which is about two different bands) that appeared in East Coast alt-weeklies and his own site, www.portermason.com, where you can go to buy his book.
www.portermason.com/store.
