You may have seen the new message on the publishing services page: ITCH is no longer accepting submissions. Sad face.

This was a difficult decision to take because, like everyone, I’m interested in new books, and in hearing what people are up to. Putting a new book out is costly though, both in time and money, and as I am very short on either of those I’ve decided to limit myself in terms of making more new books. The new Leek and Sushi is coming, and perhaps I’ll have something spooky for October, but that’ll be it this year.

Best of luck with your own manga and comics, please don’t think that ITCH was your only hope and now you have no chance, there are lots of other ways to get your work out there, and you’re smart enough and creative enough to find them. If there’s anything I can do for you in terms of giving advice on publishing, or in looking over your work as an editor, do get in touch.

Thanks for all the fish, and please support your fellow creators by buying independent comics and manga. Like these for instance.

Happy new year everyone, and, yes, this is also ITCH’s birthday. Two years ago, I started my little publishing business as a way to help artists get their work into print and into the hands of eager readers.

I kept meeting these great scribblers, you see, who for some reason didn’t manage the step from finished comic to printed book. I wanted to help them, on a small scale and in a principled way: it is important to me that creators own their own creations, and are in a position to profit from their own work.

In the last two years, ITCH has grown a lot: more events, more books in print, a better website with growing visitor numbers and a bigger audience.

More recently, I’ve been coming up against the limits of this growth, though. I am still only one person, and my resources are limited. By resources, I don’t just mean money, I mostly mean time, or even practical things like suitcase space. The number of books I can get printed in a year is limited, and so is the number of books I can carry when going to events. I look at the folder of submissions I haven’t responded to yet (I’m sorry!) and I know that I’m going to have to turn some of these people down, even though they are very good, because I just don’t have the capacity.

That kinda sucks.

Another issue is that, embarrassingly, ITCH is kinda running low on money. That’s because ITCH doesn’t make any money, and doesn’t pay for itself. It’s financial fortunes are tied to mine, and I’m in a place right now where I really have to keep a close eye on my spending. And that includes my spending on ITCH. Ya, I know. Sucks. I’m not out of money, but I now need to be a lot more selective about what books I print, how many, what events I go to, etc.

So… I’ve been thinking about what my mission really is, what I want from ITCH and what you guys need. My mission is still to help bright, skilled, talented but inexperienced artists to get their work into print and into the hands of people who will love it. That’s still what I want to do; it makes me feel meaningful. But I’ve been looking for a different way to do it, because my current way of working has reached the limits of its usefulness.

Perhaps, when it comes to publishing, you don’t really need me (or anyone else) to do it all for you. Many of the books (not just comic books) I read last year were self published. The authors had done it all themselves, by gaining the skills they needed and/or hiring expertise where necessary, and doing their own unique thing, start to finish. And they were a success.

They didn’t have any super powers or secret knowledge that allowed them to do this. And let me be very clear about this: I don’t have any super powers either. No angel came down from heaven and anointed me a publisher. I just started doing stuff. I did a lot of dumb stuff, and I learned, and now I do slightly smarter stuff. But I’m still not special. And everything I’ve learned, I can teach you. Everyone I’ve met, I can point them to you. If some of the technical stuff, like building a website, is daunting to you, I can do it for you. Rather than trying to publish all the cool stuff out there myself, I can give you the tools and knowledge to do it, and then get out of the way so your audience can easily find you, and get the awesome sauce straight from your brain.

This would allow me to stay true to my mission and principles, potentially help far more of you than I currently can, and it also means that if ITCH were to ever completely fall on its butt, you can say, “thanks for all the fish” and be fine. That’s important, because ITCH is a one-person business. I get sick — nothing happens for a week. I fall off my bike and crack my skull open — nothing happens again, ever. I’m young and healthy and doing just fine thank you, but still.

Now, this doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing what I currently do. As you may know, I’m in the middle of putting Leek & Sushi 2 together, and there’s a couple of other books currently in the works (like The Pariah’s Urn) and they’re not being scrapped. There are some events I may have to skip this year, but I’ll definitely be at the London Expos. And yes, you can still send submissions, as before.

I’m expanding the definition of what I do, not announcing a radical change of direction. But you may notice some ongoing adjustments, and occasionally new services or… other changes. I hope you’ll stick around to see what I’m cooking up for you.

Here’s to you in 2010.

No, this illustration isn't relevant. I felt like having a picture, dammit!

First off, to anyone who’s reading this as a feed, sorry, it went a bit funny there! Should be all right now. Thanks for you patience.

So you may have noticed that the ITCH site looks a little bit different this week. This is because, erm, it broke. I tried to update my theme, and then I tried to do some other stuff, and then all of a sudden my site was gone and I had to reinstall it. At least I’m getting faster at that as time goes on.

Second important point is that if you sent me your comic for Leek & Sushi 2 by the deadline of the 25th of November, you should by now have word about whether you’re in or not. If you have a hotmail account and you didn’t get word: 1) get an e-mail address that works already and 2) drop me a line.

If I got your entry late, I’m considering it. You’ll hear from me soon.

Work is under way to make Leek & Sushi 2 the biggest, bestest, most widely distributed ITCH book yet. It will have a high level of sweet and uplifting, with healthy doses of funny and the occasional profound. Super double plus thanks to everyone who submitted something, or encouraged other to submit something, or talked about the book, or got the first Leek & Sushi etc. etc.

Seriously guys, I wouldn’t be doing this if not for your support and enthusiasm, big thanks. Keep an eye on the blog for updates and word on how you can help Leek & Sushi put on their best show yet.

I thought moving house would be hassly, and might involve a couple of days without internet access, but I didn’t count on three weeks without internet access. O_o That’s what I’m getting though, so I thought I should let you know.

What this means:

Not a lot. It means I can’t do a lot of the stuff I was planning to do in November, but that’s my problem, not yours. I will be harder to contact, not being able to check my e-mail regularly, but I will still try to get my mail and get back to you. You can also PM me on Sweatdrop if you’re a forumite there, because I have access to the forum from work.

But I wanted to submit my Manga Jiman entry for Leek and Sushi 2!

That’s OK, you can. I’ve enlisted my faithful sidekick Karen Yumi Lusted to receive submissions and answer questions. Have a look at the submission guide, or some general questions and answers, and if you’re still stuck, mail us at leeknsushi@itchpublishing.com. It may be a little later than I promised some of you before I can let you know if you made it into the book or not. Don’t assume you didn’t if you don’t get an e-mail, I will let you know either way. And I am truly sorry for making you wait.

Can I still buy books from the shop?

Yes. You won’t even have to wait longer than you otherwise would for the books to be posted. I’ve set up the shop so it notifies me in work when someone purchases something, so no problems there. Unless my boss finds out. Anyway.  Shop away!

So, hey, you may have noticed that DIY Manga didn’t really happen this Wednesday. The reason is that (somewhat unexpectedly) I have some family visiting. This, on top of my preparations for the MCM Expo, and the fact I’m moving house in a few weeks is really quite enough to keep my days happily filled. ^_^;;

I think this is a good occasion to step back from my completely disorganised and off-the cuff tutorial series for a moment and see if there isn’t a better way to organise and publish my accumulated wisdom/nonsense. So Manga DIY is hereby on hiatus. Please expect it back around mid-November or possibly later.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss anything, you can subscribe to this blog by e-mail or RSS. It’s a spam-free signup system run by feedburner, unsubscribing is painless and no one will even know who you are (except Google, but they run your life anyway, so why fight).

Thanks very much to everyone who has been following the series, especially if you told me! It’s so nice to hear my work is appreciated. ;__; I will be back, better, stronger, and more elastic. See you then.

When I started ITCH, I thought the hardest thing about having a business would be the technical stuff, like keeping records and filing taxes.

Ha ha! Um, no.

OK, so the taxes thing is a little bit scary, but if you pay attention and just sit down and do it it’s really not a big deal at all. So, anyone out there who wants to do some kind of freelance thing and is worried about that part: honey, no.

The hardest part is this: to constantly come up with fun and creative ways to fall flat on my face, and then going ahead and doing the thing anyway, whatever it is, that could fall flat or not. Weirdly, when I actually do screw up, it’s generally no big deal. Someone will point out I’m being an idiot (OHAI Dock! THXBTW!) and then I backpeddle and try something else, and it’s cool.

But constantly taking that leap not knowing whether there’s any water in the pool, ach, it is doing my head in. But enough about that.

So, this page actually went up yesterday, but Wednesday is DIY Manga day so I’m announcing it today: you can hire me to draw some stuff for you. The page is pretty simple, and not at all the perfect thing I wanted it to be really, but perfection takes forever and I don’t have that kind of time. So it is what it is, and maybe it will get me some work, and maybe it won’t, and maybe some of you will have some clever things to say about how to make it better in the comments, and maybe you won’t, and that’s all OK.

I’m just learning. By cheerfully falling on my face.

PS: Thank you guys so much for your wonderful comments on last Friday’s post. I really appreciate it, and I could not be doing this without knowing you people believe in me, and care, so thanks. Uh, let’s end this cheezy moment: CONTEST! You better believe it. At some point. (Give it time.)

If you’re a regular visitor here, you’ll have noticed that the page still looks a bit weird. I’m working on a fix, but rather than patching up my already rickety layout files, I’m starting from scratch and building a new layout that will have room for growth. This is taking a little more time than I’d hoped.

I’m working with a piece of software that promises to be future proof, which I hope means I won’t have to spend a weekend patching up my website every time WordPress decides to upgrade itself, and possibly (dare one dream?) even means I won’t have to completely redesign my site in a year’s time. Even though I probably will anyway, because I’ve redesigned my site roughly once a year now since I started GothBoy. That was 2002.

What is my point? There will be a new, spangly and shiny new look for the ITCH site soon. Until that time, there may be some stray lines and images, and background colours that don’t quite work. Thanks for your patience.

Moving some of the furniture around here at the ITCH site. Sorry if the page looks a bit messed up today. All will be well come Monday, hopefully.

Willie

Update: Hurray, Leek and Sushi are back and looking better than ever! They look forward to meeting you at the Bristol Small Press Expo, or the MCM Expo in London!

___________

I have to admit something embarrassing. I have run out of Leek and Sushi’s, and I’m having some slight difficulty sourcing more. You can still order the book, but please be aware that it may be a week or two before I can send it to you.

This problem is due to the unexpectedly big success of the book, so in a way, there is good news behind the bad news. I just wish my printer wasn’t currently on holiday in Haiti. (That’s not the real reason.)

That said, Leek and Sushi will be represented at the upcoming events: the Free Comic Book Day event at the Reading Central Library, and the Bristol SP Expo. But they may not be their chunky book-shaped selves. Update: ah, my printer’s not in Haiti after all, and I’ll probably have more books soon. So no need to worry.

On the left, my first ever concept sketches for Leek and Sushi, when they were still called Bob and Sakura (no, that’s not true). I did them in work, hence the ballpoint pen on lined paper look. Don’t ever submit artwork drawn on lined paper, guys, it gives me hives, OK?

I’m working on getting the books back in stock as soon as I can possibly manage, so don’t despair, Leek and Sushi will return!

I am SO sorry I didn’t make it to the award ceremony for Manga Jiman. I hadn’t won anything myself, but I was really looking forward to meeting the people who did, and talk to the contributors to Leek and Sushi, and hand them the books!

I dragged a bag full of books all the way down to the busstop, waited an hour, and then had to drag it all the way back up because it turned out the coach was stuck on the wrong side of the Severn, and was never going to make it in time for me to attend the party. The jam my coach was in actually made the news, so that’s something.

To make up for my disastrous non-attendance, I tried to post the books to the contributors, and the first set of orders, as soon as possible. It took until Tuesday morning to send them all, though, as there were slightly more orders and packages than I anticipated:

But now, they’re all on their way, and will hopefully make the recipients happy when they arrive. Feel free to use the comments section here as improptu customer review space or other outbursts.

Thanks all for your patience, and once again, I’m sorry I didn’t make it.