Creating Comics: How Traditional Book Publishers Decide Which Graphic Novels to Acquire

By John Freeman on March 22, 2024

Curious about the inner workings of traditional book publishing? In a new video, Janna Morishima, an American literary agent specialising in graphic novels and visual storytelling, founder of Kids Comics Unite, offers a quick breakdown of how books are acquired by publishers. It’s an introduction to a longer resource but has some good tips.

Janna outlines the Acquisitions Process, Getting an offer, Advice for managing production deadlines and more and it’s a great introduction to the whole process, and includes some great suggestions for graphic novelists lucky enough to be offered a publishing deal.

Janna Morishima is a literary agent specialising in graphic novels and visual storytelling. She currently represents a diverse range of comics creators, including Misako Rocks, Shauna Grant, Andi Watson, Debbie Fong, and Rivkah LaFille.

Janna started her career at Scholastic, where she co-founded the Graphix imprint. Later, she was the director of the Kids Group for Diamond Book Distributors, and launched and ran the NYC Department of Education’s “NYC Reads 365” literacy initiative.

Kids Comics Unite is a free online community for graphic novel professionals who create work for kids and teens. They help creators connect with each other, share resources, and learn both the craft and business of graphic novel publishing. Join them at kidscomicsunite.com.

Kids Comics Studio is a membership program for creators who are serious about levelling up, and this video is an excerpt from a Kids Comics Studio workshop. The full, one-hour version of this workshop is available in the Kids Comic Studio video archive. If you’re looking for accountability, critiques, and in-depth workshops on all aspects of comics craft, check it out at kidscomicsunite.com/studio

• Find out more about Janna at jannaco.co

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.