- Joined
- Jan 16, 2008
- Messages
- 179
- Reaction score
- 5
So I've put together a thing about as valuable as a hairy apple: a critical and taxonomic theory of the 'superhero' and all related archetypes in literature.
Putting aside the question of whether the theory's as all-encompassing as I, its author, think that it is, the question becomes: what to do with it?
I can think of only three possible avenues for circulating the theory.
(1) Write and/or self-publish a book that sums up the theory. There's a small cottage industry for books about comics-creators, but at present there isn't a "growth industry" for books about comics theory, much less cross-media theories.
(2) Devote a blog to the theory. A blog has the advantage of being free, and it may continue to float around the Internet for some time whenever I pop off this mortal coil. But in my experience with other blogs, they don't attract that much of a readership if they're theory-oriented rather than oriented on nostaglia or humor.
(3) Devote a wiki to the theory. A wiki has the advantage that it's much easier to explain complex points via hotlinks than it is with a blog; readers are much more used to consulting matters in depth on wikis than on blogs. But some if not all wikis cost money, and they may go away once no one's paying the freight, so that all the labor is wasted. I know of one website, Toonopedia, that's still going past the author's demise, but the fellow's family eliminated most of the illustrations for reasons that may have to do with expense.
None of these options are likely to yield much money; Don Markstein of Toonopedia told me it took him years to break even.
If anyone has any advice, great; if not, I just needed to think aloud in print somewhere.
Putting aside the question of whether the theory's as all-encompassing as I, its author, think that it is, the question becomes: what to do with it?
I can think of only three possible avenues for circulating the theory.
(1) Write and/or self-publish a book that sums up the theory. There's a small cottage industry for books about comics-creators, but at present there isn't a "growth industry" for books about comics theory, much less cross-media theories.
(2) Devote a blog to the theory. A blog has the advantage of being free, and it may continue to float around the Internet for some time whenever I pop off this mortal coil. But in my experience with other blogs, they don't attract that much of a readership if they're theory-oriented rather than oriented on nostaglia or humor.
(3) Devote a wiki to the theory. A wiki has the advantage that it's much easier to explain complex points via hotlinks than it is with a blog; readers are much more used to consulting matters in depth on wikis than on blogs. But some if not all wikis cost money, and they may go away once no one's paying the freight, so that all the labor is wasted. I know of one website, Toonopedia, that's still going past the author's demise, but the fellow's family eliminated most of the illustrations for reasons that may have to do with expense.
None of these options are likely to yield much money; Don Markstein of Toonopedia told me it took him years to break even.
If anyone has any advice, great; if not, I just needed to think aloud in print somewhere.