There have been Developments over the past few months – a few reprinting requests here, a plaudit there, and that wonderful PC World piece – that have me thinking it’s time to get more serious about Noise to Signal. The cartoon is finding its audience, I’m hitting my stride… flame on, people.
A year ago, I took a big step and reached out to the nice people at ReadWriteWeb; they’ve been carrying Noise to Signal every weekend ever since, and the response has been tremendously gratifying. (You like me! You really, really… okay, that commenter not so much. But you mostly really, really like me!)
Now I’m thinking about my next move. And as part of that Big Cartoon Think, I’m going to be sharing my research into the way the cartoon business works with you – along with what I learn about how it’s changing.
First up: syndication.
This is the traditional holy grail for cartoonists: a syndicated daily cartoon. Newspapers pay a syndication company to subscribe to your cartoon; the company, in turn, pays you. You’re saved the work of trying to sell to every individual paper, and newspapers like to deal with syndicates because they’re presumably more businesslike about deadlines and such than – well, not cartoonists in general, or even most cartoonists, but a small cross-section that, sigh, just ruins it for everyone.
There are a number of syndicates out there, but a handful dominate the business. Each of them has its own submission process, but it boils down to this: you send them a stack of cartoons – on paper (copies, not originals) or electronically. They want several weeks worth, so they can judge your consistency. And then you wait to hear if they think you’re their next Charles M. Shulz or Lynn Johnston.
And because there are something like a gazillion cartoonists out there also hoping to grab that ink-stained brass ring, you can expect to wait quite a while:
- Creators Syndicate says you’ll wait at least six weeks. They want to see four to six weeks worth of daily strips, and at most two Sundays, and they’re in the hard copy camp.
- King Features wants to see 24 daily strips, period. No Sundays – they’ll ask if they like your dailies. Also all about the hard copies. (King, by the way, tells you openly that they split the newspapers’ subscription fees with you 50-50.) Start checking your mailbox for a reply after eight weeks; stop after 12.
- Tribune wants hard-copy submissions. They’re upfront about representing only the best of the best of the best. Of the best of the best. Still think that might be you? I forget an “of the best.” Moving along.
- The Washington Post Writers Group swings both ways: paper and electronic (as a multi-page PDF). Just be sure you send at least 24 cartoons, and while it may (i.e. will) take a while, they promise to get back to you.
- The Universal Press Syndicate is the company that distributes Doonesbury, which automatically earns them major points at this end. Send four to six weeks of samples on paper or as a multi-page PDF and you’re off to the races.
- The United Feature Syndicate gave the world Peanuts and Dilbert. And as befits the home of Dilbert, they want to see your work as a PDF: all 18 to 24 samples.
- One last venue: Uclick, sibling to UPS, which distributes syndicated content to web sites. On paper or PDF – or even an URL where they can browse you stuff – they’d like to see four to six weeks of your material.
Now, if you think your content may be more suited to a Canadian audience, you may want to look toward a homegrown agency like…
- Torstar Syndication Services, which is, as you might guess, associated with the Toronto Star. Paper only, 24 strips, 50/50 split. They represent King Features Syndicate in Canada.
But in every case, this is pretty much the same process your grandma might have followed with her cartoons (other than the electronic options and the photocopies). The power is all in the hands of the syndicate; they have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of eager new cartoonists submitting material, whereas you have only a few places to turn.
And it’s not like once you’re syndicated, you’ve got it made. As the cartoonist behind Clear Blue Water found out, it can be a roller coaster of anxiety – waiting to see who’s dropped you and who’s picked you up while you stew over whether the syndicate’s sales rep is even taking your strip out of their briefcase to show editors.
Yet the newspaper business has changed drastically since the syndicates first gained ascendancy. And even more dramatically, there’s now a huge body of work available online where cartoonists have disintermediated with a vengeance: cutting out not just the syndicates but the newspapers themselves. More than a few have amassed audiences large enough to attract enough ad dollars to support their creators… but thousands more are still labouring in obscurity, or with dedicated niche audiences.
And those folks are the subject of my next investigation.
