Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan & Molly Ostertag has gained a nice following online, for its strong storyline and attractive art, and they ran a kickstarter to fund a graphic nvel edition which raised $60K just like that. The actual print edition will be coming out this December from Top Shelf, and it’s a nice addition to their line as well. The book will include first four chapters plus bonus material.
With superstrength and invulnerability, Alison Green used to be one of the most powerful superheroes around. Fighting crime with other teenagers under the alter ego Mega Girl was fun until an encounter with Menace, her mind-reading arch-enemy. He showed her evidence of a sinister conspiracy, and suddenly battling giant robots didn’t seem so important.
Now Alison is going to college and trying to find ways to help the world while still getting to class on time. It’s impossible to escape the past, however, and everyone has their own idea of what it means to be a hero…
— 220 pages, 6″x 9″ –Softcover graphic novel with french flaps –Black & white interiors (plus some full-color interior pages!) –ISBN 978-0-692-24618-4 –$19.95 (US)
The book is listed as being self published but presented by Top Shelf…while not a brand new business model, it’s an emerging one, as they say.
So what does that mean for Top Shelf? Was the Kickstarter a proof of concept for them to officially publish it (i.e., a preorder floor for a print run), or is Top Shelf giving them the benefits of a publisher (label, ISBN, distribution channels), but the print run is being financed (to a point) through the $60K raised through Kickstarter?
Looking for clarity as other potential self-pubbers might want to know how the arrangement worked out. Other creators have followed a model like this with publishers and had the publishing arrangement fall through.
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