In the business of art, you have to balance the frequency with which you release new work with the perceived value of each iteration in the eyes of your customers. This is a delicate balancing act, and many get it wrong. I learned this lesson from webcomics. Like many people, my first real webcomic was Penny Arcade, but the first one to grab me by the throat and draw me in was Megatokyo. Now I hardly read Megatokyo anymore, and the reason is instructive. Let’s compare Megatokyo to...

If all you see in an industry are weak stories, look at its business model. Where there’s systematic weakness, it probably means there’s a system that’s broken down. The anime and American comic industries are good examples. They’re totally broken. It’s not that there aren’t animators, writers, and directors who want to make wonderful anime, it’s that they’re beholden to the BD/DVD-buying demographics that determine their profitability. Likewise, the writers and artists of the American comic industry are shackled to endless...

As a fledgling content creator and future ebook author, I think it’s appropriate to discuss my position on piracy. I don’t think digital piracy is evil, but it’s not exactly right either. It’s true that if you pirate something, you’re taking something an artist has worked hard on for free, and there’s an element of theft in that, or at least unfairness. You’re not depriving anyone else of their copy though, as would be the case if a physical copy...