Saturday Deep Dive: Kindle Direct Publishing

Today's Saturday Deep Dive comes from January 2011, when we discussed Kindle Direct Publishing:

As a follow-up to an earlier post about formatting for the Kindle, I thought it might be helpful to do a quick overview of the rest of the process. Using Kindle Direct Publishing, you can upload books to be distributed through Amazon to tablets and other mobile devices. Here is their Terms of Service.

Getting started looks pretty straightforward. But here are a few issues you will want to be aware of.

Read the entire post and comment there.

Friday Archive Dive: DaFont

Today's Archive Dive comes from January 2013, when we discussed a font-distribution site.

Recently, DaFont came across my radar and I checked it out. At first glance, I was troubled. It looked as if people upload fonts to the site and then others download it for free. Many of them are marked "free for personal use," but then, when you dig, you get this information about the licensing:

Read the entire post and comment there.

Best of December 2013

For only $30, you get access for 12 consecutive months of information, tutorials, critiques and intelligent discussion among serious cartoonists. (And you don't have to wade through a couple dozen lame self-promotional pitches every day to get to the good stuff!)

Of course, you can always buy my new book -- out in digital release right now. The Webcomics Handbook is the sequel to How To Make Webcomics, and it's based on some of the best information from Webcomics.com, and you can read it right now. Of course, members of the site get it for 50% off.

Remember to follow @Webcomicscom on Twitter for site updates, trending topics and more information.

Best of the Site

Web Hosting Basics: What's the difference between free, shared and dedicated hosting -- and which is best suited for you? This post lays out the basics.

Adding Analytics to SendOwl / Gumroad

Scheduling Posts for Your Facebook Fan Page

Webcomics Confidential: Zach Weinersmith: Webcomics.com members got to hear this podcast before it went public. Zach and I covered issues of business-growth as well as his philosophies on social media and comic conventions.

Correcting an Unfair Review

Using Gmail to Handle Custom E-Mail Addresses

Mean, Insulting, Degrading... and Funny? Is there an element of cruelty in all humor?

Time to Start Planning 2014

The Christmas Break -- Are You Taking It?

Removing the Hexagram Endorsement (Formerly Scribol) I strongly endorsed the native-advertising app, Scribol. Since they've been sold to Hexagram, I've had to rescind that endorsement.

Best of the Private Forum

Chargeback dispute from a Kickstarter backer -- any advice?

Acrobat PDFs vs Photoshop PDFs

Are some genres a tougher "sell" to webcomic audiences?

Has anyone paid to boost a Facebook post?

Get Photoshop CC for $9.99/month

Tapastic: How's it working out?

Calendar length of long-term story

Starting the New Year off right

Happy New Year, everybody! Now, let's get started on making 2014 the best year in webcomics ever. And here are some suggestions...

A Little New Year's News... and the New Year's Eve Archive Dive

First and foremost, I want to wish you all a happy, healthy New Year. Thank you for your support of this site, and for your participation in the ongoing discussion of webcomics. I've got some truly awesome things planned for this site in 2014 including a complete, top-down redesign of the site itself. We're trying to roll this out in the first part of 2014, and it's going to make everything here more user-friendly, accessible and enjoyable. I think you're gonna love it. Stay tooned for more details.

Archive Dive

And now, here's one of my very favorite posts on writing. It's the centerpiece of the writing chapter in The Webcomics Handbook, and I think it's a tremendously effective way to improve your writing -- humor, drama, sci-fi... you name it.

Writing humor is something many of us grapple with. In the past, I've discussed a method that I advocate called Fermentation. And in many critiques and discussions, I've found myself advising writers to push or push further or push to the Funny. And every time I write those words, it occurs to me that the phrase is somewhat ambiguous and my advice may be missing the mark.

So I'm going to try to refine the Fermentation method, and I've love for those of you who are working in humor to try it out and let me know how it worked for you. (More on that later).

The Fifth Panel

Before I begin, I guess I'd better make it clear that the title is merely a colloquialism. I realize many of you work in fewer than four panels -- or in many more than four. That's really not the point. 'Fifth Panel' simple has more pinache than 'One More Panel.' ...

Read the entire post and comment there.