Cindi Myers Market News's Blog

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” 

                                                                                                     ~Ray Bradbury

Today I’m looking at markets for comic books and graphic novels. Comics are no longer cheap paper magazines your brother hides under the bed. Comics, graphic novels and manga are widely read, stocked in libraries, and can be a rewarding career for writers and artists.

If you’re interested in writing for these markets, you should start by reading this article by Barry Lyga on writing for comic books.

Here are some markets to get you started. (Hot Links should open to the writer’s/artist’s guidelines for each company.)

AdHouse Books

Small, boutique publisher or comics and graphic novels. Wants complete packages with scripts and artwork.

Avatar Press

They want 8-12 page scripts featuring characters they already own – not original characters from the author.

Dark Horse Comics

They’ll accept synopses, full scripts and partial scripts from writers.

Drawn and Quarterly

It looks like they want artwork and narrative, by email in jpg format.

Fantagraphics Books

As the name implies, their specialty is graphic novels. They want a complete package – art and narrative.

NBM Publishing

Publishes all types of graphic novels, from general fiction to mystery, fantasy and erotica. They want a one-page synopsis of the storyline and some sample art.

Top Shelf Productions

They want to see 10-12 completed pages (story and artwork) along with a plot summary/synopsis.

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As always, feel free to share this information with others. All I ask is that you give me credit and provide a link to this blog. Thanks.　

“When I am dead, I hope it may be said: ‘His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.'”

                                    Hilaire Belloc

At Random House Children’s Books,  Allison Wortche has
been promoted to associate editor and Michele Burke has been promoted to editor.

Executive Editor  Tracy Farrell is leaving Harlequin after 25 years with the company. Most recently, Farrell has overseen the HQN and Luna publishing programs. These duties are being transitioned to Tara Parsons.

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If you live in the UK and write crime fiction, there’s a contest just for you. Alibi’s Search for a New Crime Writer 2010. British television channel Alibi, HarperCollins Books and the Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival are sponsoring the short story contest.  Three finalists win trips to the Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. The winner gets a Sony e-reader, a library of 100 crime novels and their short story published on the HarperCollins website. Enter your 2000 to 5000 word short story by May 16. Fine all the details at Alibi. The contest is open to residents of the United Kingdom only.

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Eternal Press is an e-publisher out of Canada which publishes erotica, paranormal, romance, gay-lesbian-bisexual and transgender fiction, BDSM and Young Adult fiction in both e-book and trade paper formats. The editors welcome stories from 20,000 to 140,000 words. They pay 40% royalties on net for ebooks and 25% royalties on net for print editions. See their submission guidelines for more details.

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Are you watching the Olympics? If you enjoy the Winter Games as much as I do, you might like my contribution to the anthology, Baby, It’s Cold Outside. My story, Melting Point, features Iceland’s first winter Olympic gold medalist and is set in that romantic land of geysers and hot springs.

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Dark Discoveries is an ezine featuring dark fantasy, horror, dark science fiction and dark mystery. The publication pays five cents a word for stories between 500 and 5000 words. See their guidelines for complete details.

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As always, feel free to link to this blog, or to pass on information from the blog. All I ask is that you give me credit.

“Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.”

                                                                                      Mark Twain

Avon Books is giving away $1000 to the person who comes up with the best idea for a collection of Regency-set historical novellas. The novella collection will be titled It Happened One Season and the novellas will be written by best-selling authors Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie D’Alessandro and Candice Hern. You job is to come up with the theme of the stories and three major plot points.

The deadline to enter is February 14. Find all the details here.

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At Dorchester Books Leah Hultenschmidt has been named Editorial Director. She takes over for Alicia Condon, who has moved to Kensington Books.

At Bantam Dell, Jessica Sebor is a new Assistant Editor. Ms. Sebor has been an Editorial Assistant with Bantam Dell for the past two years. To learn more about her, read author Winnie Griggs’ interview with her.

If you’re submitting to Avalon Books, send your submissions to  Assistant Editor Julia Weis,  Avalon Books, 160 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016.  Want to know more about Ms. Weis? Read Laurie Alice Eakes interview with her.

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Beckoning Books is the romance imprint of e-publisher Second Wind Books.
The editors are interested in completed novels, 40,000 to 100,000 words. In addition to romance, Second Wind publishes mainstream, crime and mystery and action adventure fiction. Send a query letter and first chapter to mike@secondwindpublishing.com. See their writer’s guidelines for more information.

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As always, feel free to pass along information from this blog. All I ask is that you provide a link and give me credit. If you want to be notified when market updates are posted, you can sign up with my yahoo group. Send a blank email to CynthiaSterling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to sign up.