How To Pitch to a Comics Publisher

The article is live!

At the end of January, I was invited to write an article for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. In a new initiative to introduce their membership to comics, they were releasing a seven-part series to act as a resource for their members. I happily said yes, as I am always game for introducing new people to the comics industry. I was to write the article on how to pitch to a comics publisher, and I would be among notable comics professionals such as Barbra Dillon, Madeleine Holly-Rosing, and others for the series.

I decided to write the article in a general way, meaning that my description on creating a pitch would be suitable for any comics publisher who accepts submissions.

Click the pic to be taken to the article!

After I wrote the article, I became acutely aware of how I reviewed pitches. I say this as someone who reviews them on a weekly basis, usually on Wednesdays, as this Substack is going live. And I wish everyone who is thinking of submitting would read this article, as it would make things so much easier on the editorial side! I realized as I was writing the article that a lot of things I was listing that should be included in your pitch are questions that I continually have when reviewing it. Most pitches only do some of what I mentioned; they rarely do all. That’s a very curious thing. I chalk it up to not knowing what to include, thinking they’ve included it all already, or knowing the project so well that their mind fills in the blanks.

I also had a max word limit of 1,000 words. As I was typing it, I thought to myself that there was no way I would hit that max. And then I went beyond it. So, for all you writers out there, whom I have slashed away at your scripts, know that I did it to myself as well. And, I had an editor! I managed to get the word count down to exactly 1,000 words, and when I turned it over, my editor pointed out that I had left out a significant component of pitching! Arg! How could I have missed that? So many more words! What more could I possibly cut?!

I’m hoping this sounds familiar to many of you. I want you to cackle with glee that I faced the same situation as most writers when their editors made notes. I would also love for you to read the article and see how I did with making a ton of cuts. Let me know if you can tell or if limiting the word count made it more succinct and easier to read.

That’s it for this week! If you haven’t heard, I am on a podcast! If you subscribe to The Superfan Podcast’s Substack, you get access to kick-ass recipes related to our guests' fandoms! Last week, we recorded Kelly Sue DeConnick, so make sure you check out that post when it goes live. A reminder that the podcast has not yet been released; the episodes will start coming out soon! Subscribe to the Substack to be in the know.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to my new subscribers! You can also find me on Instagram as @geekchic_promos, and on Bluesky as @kris10simon. There’s also the Editor Girl website. If you’re on Cara, you can search for me using @kris10simon. See you next week!

Onward,

Kris