Prone Studio presents Prone Books!

Hello! Thanks for tuning in to our first blog post. In the past, Prone has focused on animation production, but we’re thrilled to step into the wild world of publishing, where we intend to promote the work of fantastic artists, disseminate high-quality books, and probably lose tons of money in the process.

In my journey of researching the road of self-publishing, I realized how difficult it is for cartoonists and people with way out-of-the-box concepts to get their work published. I also started to wonder how much the traditional publishing route (agent > publisher > bookstores that people rarely visit anymore) benefits these artists. I think the sad truth is that a lot of people try to go this route, fail to get an agent or publisher, and just give up because they mistakenly believe their work isn’t worthwhile. But there’s no way this is true in many cases. The truth is that people entrenched in the traditional publishing routine are only interested in hits, because it is after all a hit-based business model, just like the music and film industries. So it makes sense that they are only looking for things that have worked before (but are different!) Or have mass appeal (but is edgy!) Or has a famous creator attached (but we eschew nepotism!) Large publishers have huge overhead costs and reputations to maintain, so I’m not trashing them for being risk-averse. It just makes it harder for new people to break in. 

The truth is, despite all the handwringing and scrutinizing, these folks don’t have any idea what will take off with consumers. The perfect storm of timing, talent, and luck has struck many writers and artists who were overwhelmingly rejected by the mainstream gatekeepers. And for someone in a labor-of-love niche like comics, it’s hard to find the time and money to take on the enormous task of creating, promoting, formatting, and figuring out how the goddamn keywords on KDP work. 

Small press publishers take in some of these artists and publish astounding works. Even though there’s a huge number of these, they are overwhelmed by submissions and can only release a handful of books every year, and each release is most likely a big financial risk. The obvious solution to me is that more small press publishers exist to help artists find a road to publication. That is why we are establishing Prone Books: as a way to help other illustrious illustrators of comic books. 

So far, we have two releases planned for this year. The first book in my graphic novel series, Pig Wife, will be released through Prone Books in the next couple of months. Next, we have a new comic anthology called Finger Cakes featuring some truly extraordinary comic artists and illustrators from around the world.

We plan to open our door to submissions shortly, once we have a small but solid catalog under our belt. We want to make sure we don’t screw up before we start cradling the soft, tender newborns of other people’s work.

To stay updated on all our releases, please be sure to sign up for our mailing list. Just think of how cool you’ll look to be the first to know about all the hot content we have planned. 

See you next time!

Sincerely, 

Abbey

Creative Director