This article is not specific to manga – it is for ALL artists no matter what type of drawings you create.
So if you’re a talented manga artist, or artist period, and are looking to learn where and how to sell any of your drawings online, manga, or comics; there are a few ways to go about it.
Here I’m focusing on ways to sell your drawings online only, so you’ll need to scan or take a high-quality photo of your drawings if they are not already in digital form.
The approach you’ll take will be slightly different depending on whether your artwork consists of a full comic book or just stand-alone drawings and artistic renderings.
Make Money with Drawings
The easiest and fastest ways to try and make some money with your drawings are with print-on-demand marketplaces and freelance services.
Print on Demand (POD) – You can sign-up for print-on-demand marketplaces for free, create a profile and storefront, then upload your artwork to have them printed on t-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, socks, phone cases, mousepads, mugs, posters; basically anything you can think of.
For example, let’s say someone sees your t-shirt design and buys it for $12, the site keeps around $3, and you get sent $9 to your PayPal or Payoneer account. It’s that simple. You have no overhead costs whatsoever.
If you have a social media following you can promote your products there. Pinterest is a great place to post your designs and get sales. The POD marketplace you sign-up with will have integrations with other online marketplaces as well, such as Etsy and eBay. That way when you post a new product listing, it automatically gets posted on all sites to get maximum exposure.
My top recommended online marketplace to start your print-on-demand adventure is:
Drawing & Graphic Design Services – Now I’m not sure how in-demand manga drawings are specifically, but the fact that you can draw manga means you can practically draw anything, like characters, logos, fonts, scenery, anything that a potential customer could ask for. Think of it like you are getting commissioned to create art for someone just like famous artists.
Same deal here, create a profile, a listing with the services you’re willing to offer, at what price, and every time you finish a job you’ll get paid out. Easy huh. Just go on fiver and search for “need an illustrator” or anything relating to the drawing. I bet you can do any job that is under the ‘Graphics & Design’ category.
My top recommended site to provide your services for drawing characters or logos, designs, etc.is:
I’ll get into how to go about publishing and selling your manga comics down below (as everything ties in together), but first I want you to be aware of the concept of creating a real online business for yourself as an artist, no matter what you draw.
The Best Way to Sell Drawings Online For Money
In order to make good money from your drawings, you’re going to need to:
- Make a name for yourself. This can be your own name, a nickname, or a made-up brand name.
- You’re going to need an online presence. You’ll need to have a website (with a store and a blog).
- You’ll also need to have social media accounts – Instagram, Pinterest, and/or Twitter, etc.
- You’ll need to have your drawings available to purchase on online marketplaces.
The most important factor for establishing your brand name within the art world is to have a website. You would also use it as your storefront where you’d sell the drawings, art, comics in pdf format, etc.
To get traffic (visitors to your site), you’ll write some blog posts about art-related topics. Also, get social media accounts Instagram and Twitter in your brand name linked back to your website and start following other artists, artistic stuff, then share your stuff, etc. basically anything related to your genre or subject matter.
Another thing you can do is create training videos and offer a course that you sell right from your website- How to Draw Faces with Pencil. How to Create Your Own Manga Comic. How to Draw Manga Characters, etc. You could show how to draw characters or blog posts showing the steps.
Then you’ll be joining affiliate programs so that you can earn money from recommending the different types of supplies you use, pens, pencils, software/hardware used to draw digitally, etc.
As you go through the free lessons in the community mentioned below 👇 , you’ll learn how to set all this up.
Make Money On Manga Drawings Specifically
I’ve come to find that there are some really fantastic artists that draw incredible manga, yet are still not well known. Because it’s difficult to get publishers to notice you and your drawings, more and more are wanting to know how they can make money from their drawings. Let’s get into…
If you’re asking how to sell your manga online, I’ll give you an example of what my buddy does. He’s obsessed with manga and is darn good at drawing. He showed me all he’s learned in order to market and sell, not only his drawings but also the comic books he creates.
Fascinated by all the ideas for products he had; I showed him the free WA online business community he needed to be a part of to learn to get his art out to the masses and get the training needed to sell more products online.
IMPORTANT: Even though you’ll be creating your products, artwork, graphic novels, courses, or listing your services, you’ll still need to learn how to market yourself and promote your products/services. This is where the WA online business community comes into play (link above)👆.
As a member of WA, you could also learn to create a business where you’re teaching this obscure, hard to learn drawing technique. Either by creating an online membership site with courses or manga tutorials for beginners e-book that teach everything step-by-step.
You could also earn by helping others quickly learn the styles and details that make manga drawings perfect for creating your own comics and selling them online as well.
The Best Place to Sell Your Manga Comics and Graphic Novels
Self-publish your comic book series or graphic novel on KDP- Amazon Kindle eReader. You can self publish them to Amazon.com, offering them on Kindle digitally as well. Price them around $10 because I think Amazon will take around $3.
You should have your own website too though. It will be integrated with the online marketplaces. From there you can also sell print-on-demand merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, posters, whatever… with your art on it like mentioned before.
Once you have built a following (you should also use social media to promote your links), you’ll be able to earn a consistent income and grow your business into perhaps even a print-on-demand business where you would sell your images that are printed on different items.
*BONUS*
What would it take to create an online manga drawing course? Another income stream and way to make money on manga.
You could create a series of lessons such as the topics below…(if you want to learn how – join the community at the bottom.👇
Learning How to Draw Manga Eyes
Probably the most interesting and captivating aspect of Manga characters is their eyes. You need to master the critical aspect of capturing emotion. The best part about creating a course is it will teach beginners to draw realistic yet highly stylized manga eyes.
Some points to touch on could be:
- Small line details along the eyes will change a character’s mood dramatically and will allow you to portray any expression you’re looking for
- Most artists struggle with this area but you’ll know how to draw a vast array of eyes to incorporate among other skills such as drawing hair.
- By learning all of these elements you will be able to come up with many different characters of various ages and genders.
How to Draw Manga Hair
There are a plethora of hairstyles that you could choose when it comes to your Manga character, that’s why you’re going to need to use various techniques. Most like the ‘big hair’ style and it is becoming more and more popular. The tutorial should go into great detail because of the importance of how the hair makes the character look.
Some of the chapters could be regarding the following:
- If you’re having a hard time with the hair then this is what you need to get it right and have multiple styles that you can use. Drawing crazy hairstyles will become second nature to you and will allow forming more creativity.
- You’ll be learning advance cartooning techniques to give your characters life and movement as well as objects to interact with.
- The 3D aspect is also discussed and guides you through to take notice of the subtle differences between body shape, male and female, and will help with being able to put your characters into all sorts of positions such as jumping, shouting, punching, sitting, walking, running, crawling, and attack mode.
Draw Your Own Manga Series
After you’ve acquired the skill set to be able to draw freestyle Manga, you’ll eventually want to create longer stories. You can let your imagination run wild because you not only will be able to draw the characters any way you like but also any accessories, weapons, backgrounds as well as various font types.
- You’ll be equipped to create scenarios unique to your characters and the lives they lead through an elaborate series.
- When you can capture a scene that is pleasant to the eye as a whole, then you’ve become a true Manga master. People around you will think you have graduated from an expensive art school.
Writing Your Own Manga Script
The lessons also should go into scriptwriting and how to write a full production comic strip. Another facet you’ll make creators understand is how to sequence and place panels and edit, as well as format it into their very own comic book.
Some other tips include:
- Structured layouts and dialogue that pull the reader in.
- Creating a brand/ comic name. Character names.
- Drafting techniques that make your script easier on the eyes.
- Captivating text balloons with punchlines that excite.
- Good use of humor to entertain and connect plot lines.
- Employ the use of symbols to amplify meaning and depth.
Publishing A Manga Comic
The next major step is sharing your work of comic book art with the rest of the world and establish yourself in the manga industry by becoming self-published. Like I mentioned before you can’t go wrong with KDP – Amazon Kindle.
If you are able to employ the things I showed you above & learn online marketing techniques to get more readers and develop a following, you’ll surely make money from your drawings or manga artwork.
One of the best places I’ve found to learn how to earn a living from your passions is this WA online business community. It is FREE to join and there are hundreds of artists who learned how to market their artwork there and create an online business out of art.
You’ll learn how to sell drawings, manga, or any genre, distributing through marketplaces such as Amazon.com and Kindle. There are hundreds of more channels that you could utilize for getting your work out to the masses to earn good money.
So do yourself a favor and become a member to take your drawing to the next level by making money online while doing something you love. If you would like to ask me questions go ahead and leave them below.
P.S. I am also mentoring in the community 👈 here if you would like personal 1-on-1 coaching (at no cost to you).
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