Disclosure: Todd Allen is a long-time contributor to this site, so read the following as advanced log-rolling if you will.
That said, the book he kickstarted over the summer, Economics of Digital Comics is out. I have an early digital copy and this is really a book everyone in the comics business should read, especially people going into various digital models, from crowdfunding to subscription to pay what you want. Allen casts a cynical eye on most of this stuff, and runs numbers to show what works and what doesn’t. But he also looks at print costs, and the economies of other channels to give a strong overview of what we talk about when we talk about selling comics in 2014. The book has new interviews with digital players and statistics on what webcomics earn from advertising, how much it costs to print books, what the big players take out of various delivery methods and more. All footnoted. And an introduction by Mark Waid, who has become something of the spokesman for Generation Digital.
I’ll have some more to say about specific parts of the books (including some that I disagree with) but this is definitely a conversation starter for what I suspect will be a very long talk about making money making comics in 2015, as a lot of people look at the most optimistic outlooks and weigh them against reality.
And here’s where to buy it:
In print — $19.99, or digital $9.99
Or just go DIY with Gumroad in various digital formats (and yes the book talks about all of these) for $9.99
Interactive PDF
ePub3 for iBooks
ePub3 for Kobo
ePub2 for basic eReaders