{"id":4925,"date":"2023-07-03T05:43:56","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T05:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qinprinting.com\/blog\/?p=4925"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:21:05","slug":"design-self-publish-and-sell-manga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qinprinting.com\/blog\/design-self-publish-and-sell-manga\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Design, Self-Publish, and Sell\u00a0Manga"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Based on over 25 years of success printing manga for mainstream and independent publishers, we share how to design, publish, and sell your manga comics<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Manga Printed by QinPrinting<\/a><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Are you an aspiring mangaka\u2014a manga<\/a> artist or writer\u2014eager to bring your stories to life, share them with the world, and make a part-time or full-time income from your work? One of the best ways to achieve this dream is to design, self-publish, and sell your manga as an independent artist. While it may seem daunting at first, with some research, creativity, and hard work, you can create a professional and engaging series of manga that will resonate with readers, build a fanbase, and generate income. While we can’t guarantee your success, drawing on over 25 years’ experience in the industry, we can help you get off to a great start. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the following important topics:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Planning and storyboarding<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Before diving into the world of manga creation, you need to plan out your story and characters. Start by brainstorming ideas for your plot, setting, and characters, and make notes on their backgrounds, motivations, and appearances. The same principles of storytelling and narrative creation that apply to a short story, a novel, or other forms of fiction, apply to comics, graphics novels, and manga, too.<\/p>

So, you need a well-defined protagonist who has a clear aim, a powerful motive, and a burning desire to achieve something. You then need to figure out what they’ll try to do to achieve their goal and create an antagonist (which could be a person, an idea, or an external force) which places obstacles in their path. The plot comes out of what they do to overcome those obstacles, why they repeatedly fail at first, how they change as a person in response to these experiences, and how that process of change ultimately leads them to win. This will give you a solid foundation to build upon when designing your manga.<\/p>

Once you have a clear idea of your story, it’s time to create storyboards. This involves sketching out the panels and laying out the action. Remember that, while you may have written a lot of words when figuring out and planning your story outline, manga is primarily a visual medium. Try to tell your story as entirely as possible in the images.<\/p>

Focus on the flow of the story and how each panel contributes to the overall narrative. This process will help you visualize how your manga will look and make it easier to move on to the next steps. But don’t expect to get your storyboard right the first time. You’ll probably need to change it, re-order some events, take different perspectives, and alter aspects of the story as you go along. That’s why you shouldn’t waste time and energy on detailed artwork at the storyboarding stage. Rough sketches, or even stick figures, will do at this stage.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Writing and scripting<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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After storyboarding, it’s time to write the script for your manga. This includes crafting the content of speech bubbles, thought bubbles, captions, descriptions, and any other text that will appear throughout your work. Make sure each character has a distinct voice, and that any dialogue is trimmed to its essential impact and always helps to drive the story forward. Also, consider how the text interacts with the visuals and ensure that it doesn’t obstruct or distract from the artwork.<\/p>

In fact, once you have the textual elements of your manga clear, go back and incorporate them into your storyboard. The positioning, size, and shape of speech and thought bubbles, narrative, links, and captions need a lot of thought. The text should become an integral part of page design, not something “tacked on” after the artwork.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Character design and artwork<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Once you have your story and script in place, and you’ve decided on the layouts of each frame and page\u2014including the text and dialogue\u2014it’s time to focus on designing your characters and creating the artwork. You can either draw the art yourself or collaborate with a professional graphic artist with experience in the genre. If you’re working with an artist, communicate your ideas clearly and establish want you want from each aspect of the artwork, such as drawing, inking, or coloring. The relationship between writer and artist should be a productive and creative one, based on a willingness to be open to ideas and engage in a purposeful collaboration.<\/p>

When creating the artwork, try to express the diversity of your characters and changes in atmosphere and location without losing an overall sense of cohesion. If it’s the first time you’ve created a manga, take time to try experimenting with different techniques, such as shading or coloring, perspective, close-ups and wider scenes, silhouettes and shadows, montages and splash pages, to make your work stand out and tell your story with as much clarity and emotional impact as possible. If you’re doing the artwork yourself, you’ll need to invest in quality materials, such as sketchbooks, pens, pencils, and graphics tablets, or use professional design software like Adobe Illustrator or Clip Studio Paint Pro.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Manga Printed by QinPrinting<\/a><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Benefits of offset printing for manga <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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With printing your manga, the best option is traditional offset printing. This method offers several advantages over digital printing, including:<\/p>