Loathe, Need, Ignore, Rinse, Repeat
by ryankl
I see a weird cycle permeate indie comics – here goes 🙂
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People submit their newest comic to ComiXology Submit, their hearts aflutter with excitement.
People lament how long the approval process takes.
People shit on ComiXology for taking so long.
People get excited that their book is approved.
People gleefully share the link to their book on ComiXology.
People lament the lack of sales (against their lofty expectations).
People shit on ComiXology for offering this free global publishing option.
People submit their next comic to ComiXology Submit.
Rinse.
Repeat.
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I cannot understand what people are expecting will happen. I heard of one person who thought it would/might be possible to make a full time living from Submit Dollahs. Some people carry on because ComiXology did nothing to promote their title.
I cannot stress this enough — ComiXology gives up this privilege for free. They accept your comic, they change it into Guided View, and they put it out globally on the same front page as all the other titans of the publishing world, and they do it FOR FREE*.
I remember when this was announced, so I remember when it wasn’t an option. Trust me, this is good for indie books/creators. This is global outreach. Will you make much coin? Nope. *Will ComiXology take a big wet bite out of what you do earn? Yep. Should they? Absolutely. See above what they do/offer. They aren’t a charity, they need to have some reason to put someone in front of the screen to change your file to Guided View.
I’m not saying this is the future of indie books and we should all put down payments on yachts with quality names like “Wave Goodbye” or “Yacht Kippur” – this is just another avenue, but in the indie game, you need as many avenues as you can find. And you need to be grateful for every single one. And then you also need to pimp it out. Get the word out, send people there. It’s a huge international market, with convenience of readability.
And as for people complaining about their PDFs being knocked back. Yeah, that’s not ComiXology’s fault. Fix your PDFs.
All I ever want to hear from indie creators are two words for this service – thank. you.
Without Fear 
I would love to agree with you, but since I have firsthand experience that counters your position, I can’t. I was part of the first open group to submit my all-ages educational comic Solution Squad, and it sailed through on the first try. No problem with the PDF. It was the same one I used at the printer. After a brief waiting period, it was uploaded and ready to go. Again, no problem.
I started sending out review copies as gifts since I knew I would only be paying for half of the charge. The rest would be kicked back to me after I had made the threshold of sales that was required. Then I started getting quarterly reports. My gifted copies weren’t showing up. In one quarter, I had actually gifted more copies than they reported I had sold in all, so I KNEW the numbers were wrong. I contacted ComiXology, and got bounced around their accounting department for a month with contradictory statements one after another, being scaled up and up and up within that department. First, they told me I hadn’t been charged for them. I had the PayPal statements that said otherwise. After further research, they told me I had been charged for them. No kidding. Finally, after two months of this, they said, “Oh, well, then there’s a problem with PayPal. Thanks for helping us discover this.” My response was , “Um, you’re welcome. Where’s my money?” They still don’t consider those gifts sales until they’re redeemed, so I never received credit for those sales and that money is just gone…to ComiXology, where they say it will sit in their account until “x number of years” (direct quote; they don’t actually know) and then be returned to “the state” as all other unredeemed gift cards are.
So, I suppose I can say thanks to them for providing a platform by which my comic is available, but frankly I don’t think there’s any transparency on their end and I no longer trust their accounting department or their practices.