How much sense does it make to try to syndicate a new feature?

[Lee Nordling]

I think each answer to this question will be a personal one. I don't think there's a right or a wrong, only a rationale for sticking with trying a new strip or abandoning the dream for a different medium (or delivery system).

This question doesn't really apply for those whom are comfortably syndicated; they've established their brands and should hold on (or grow) as well as the circumstances and their work dictates.

Now, I've puzzled about whether to post this question, because there really is enough (and probably accurate) gloom-saying going on.

So let's not beat the potentially dead horse with what others should do; let's talk about ourselves and how this increasing downturn in the market is affecting our current professional choices.

For my part, I've been easing away from syndication for a year or so now, and applying a lot of what I like to do toward children's books and graphic novels.

I don't think I have the sensibility (or fortitude) to be a web-cartoonist, but never say never.

--Lee

[Mike Cope]

The way I see it, there's always been competition in syndication. You compete to get in, and then you need to compete even harder to stay.

Is it tougher right now? So they say, but those of us who never lived in the Golden Age when anyone and everyone became a syndicated cartoonist don't really know the difference :)

Does syndication still make sense? So long as the syndicates are still making cents, I think so. Comic strips are not going to disappear overnight, nor will the world's appetite for them. I would truly prefer wearing just the cartoonist's hat, and let people far more experienced than myself help with the marketing aspects. Working from home and raising a baby forces me to utilize my time efficiently ... To the point that visiting cartooning forums gives me a twinge of guilt in my gut :)

I'm looking very forward to the end of June because my wife is a teacher and will be on summer vacation then. Although we'll be enjoying some family outings, I'll also have a little more time to finish my next submission package.

Syndication makes sense for those who accept the fact that you can't do everything yourself, while doing the best you can at what you're really good at.

[Frank Roberson]

I love the "grind" of producing a daily strip. I enjoy every minute of the week after week producing 6 dailies a week, and I am not syndicated. For me syndication is a goal, end of a quest and beginning of another.

I do it because it is something I love to do and have loved to do since I was a kid. The financial and other rewards come but that is not in the top five on my list of why i do this and hopefully will spend the rest of my life producing my strip.

Anything worth doing for a living is hard to achieve and so to should be syndication.

Frank

[Mike Cope]

Frank, I got a good chuckle from this one of yours -- Hilharryass :)

[Frank Roberson]

Thanks Mike...
lol

[ZingerSteve]

Syndication was once my big dream but it faded about 10 years ago, way before the current state of the economy/newspapers. In some way, I saw it coming. No, I didn't foresee the bind newspapers and thus, syndicates, would be in these days. Back then I wasn't following this sort of economic news or even the start of comics online.

However, after several syndicate submissions, and getting close once, I eventually decided that the system wasn't for me. I became disenchanted with newspapers and syndicates. I didn't think about it as deeply as I do now (partially out of naivete) but I just knew that my future wasn't in newspapers. I certainly didn't think it would be the internet either!

Part of it came from reading Lee's book. Part came from Bill Watterson's grumbling about the industry. Part of it came from reading comic strips on a daily basis and not seeing enough progress in the funny pages. (Legacy strips bothered me. They still do but I have mixed feelings about it.)

These days, I don't dream of newspaper syndication. I've turned my attention to the web. But I'm an entrepreneur as well as a cartoonist. The business aspects of having a comic strip online is not something every cartoonist is interested in, as already stated. This is the problem I am aiming to solve online.

I think the syndication system is broken in today's world. There is no perfect system and it's still one of the greatest accomplishments a cartoonist can achieve. I highly respect syndicated cartoonists and those shooting for that dream. But I don't think it makes sense anymore trying to get in. Not at all.

[Josh McDonald]

I agree with Mike; it makes sense, to me, to have a professional marketing and sales team handling those aspects of the business. I'm just not sure I have the skills or the temperament for the one-man web-cartoonist gig.

And I still have a deep love for the newspaper comic strip. To me, it's always seemed the most egalitarian of art forms. When I was a kid, comic books were always a special treat -- something I could get once in a while when I had extra money -- but newspaper comics were my daily staple.

So it's a lifelong dream, and something I'll continue to strive for as long as there remain syndicates to submit to.

[Jesse Cline]

Well I've already done the sensible route...did what I was told, got a good degree, a good job, etc....so I figured the non-sensible, hail mary route is worth a shot.

Someone once told me "anything worth doing isn't easy", obviously that person had never enjoyed themselves but I think there is a morale somewhere to be found in there.