Getting Your Name "Out There"
by Xeric Awarded Author and Illustrator Gary Scott Beatty, Aazurn Publishing
Even though I'm a one-man show over here at Aazurn Publishing, I've been putting in the hours over here to keep my name in front of comic fans and professionals. So far, every thing I've attempted has come through, starting with the news release program in 2008 to announce each book's release, leading to coverage through blogs, online reviewers and print.
Editor Brent Frankenhoff of Comic Buyer's Guide, accepted an article by me. "Going for the Grant: Xeric Foundation Submission Strategies," for CBG #1660, shipping October 2009. I refuse to boast my article writing skills for this one (Although I've been writing magazine and newspaper articles for 35 years) and will mark it up to luck.
Even more fun, I was asked to participate in CBG's Top 10 Favorite Comic Covers section. I made sure my cross section of favorite covers included a nice sampling of quality indies. Info here: http://www.cbgxtra.com/
Earlier in 2009 I was accepted into the Side B: The Music Lover's Comic Anthology with a punk rock story by me, illustrated in a late '70s, "ransom note" style to match the tale's era. (The story is rumored to be autobiographical.) More about it here: http://www.poseurink.com/sideb/
Side B contains 232 pages of lost lovers, rocking out, spirit guides, ghosts and dinosaurs. It's like an action adventure comic for the music lover. The artist line up includes well known, indy comic icons like Jeffrey Brown (Clumsy, I Wish I was Small), Brandon Graham (Multiple Warheads, King City), Ryan Kelly (Local, New York Foul), and Jim Mahfood (Grrl Scouts, Clerks).
I joined David Peterson (Mouse Guard), Jason Howard (Astounding Wolf-Man) and Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics) on a comic book creator panel at the Michigan State University Comics Forum March 28, 2009, discussing everything from writing to illustration, from creating to marketing to careers. If you missed it, you can hear it, moderated by Jay Jacot (Comics Obscura), plus a couple of other spiffy MSU Comic Forum panels, online at: http://www.comicsforum.msu.edu/?p=216
A couple of works from "Jazz: Cool Birth" are still making the rounds in the Eastern Michigan University Michigan Comics Exhibition, on display at the University Gallery and moving now throughout the country. Michigan Comics: Mirth, Mockery, and Mayhem info is online at http://www.emich.edu/fordgallery/
Meanwhile, if you haven't seen them, "Jazz: Cool Birth," "Seductions" and "Adam Among the Gods" are available ON LINE at Aazurn.com.
Who set all of this up, you ask? My Hollywood agent? My publisher? My mom? No, it was all me, looking for opportunities to put my books and person out in front of the public. There appears to be no magic formula here, just keeping your ears open in your area and, well, writing, writing, writing!
Next blog, more nuts and bolts about publishing, I promise.
- Gary
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