• mcherm@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    One.

    I’m thinking of a comic made to tell the story of a relationship, culminating in a wedding proposal.

    The definition of success is different for different cases.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    So let’s allow A to represent the cost of producing the comic.

    Let’s let B represent the amount you’re selling each comic for.

    So, C will be the amount of profit made.

    So:

    B - A = C

    If C is zero you’ve broken even, if C is less than zero, you’ve spent more money than you’ve made, and if C is above zero you’ve turned a profit.

    So C being above zero would be a “success.”

    • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      While that is a great summary of reaching a profit, breaking even or a small amount of profit is rarely considered a success especially if that is the criteria for sequels/continuations/similar products.

      So a one off single comic that has zero expectations might be a success if it makes a small profit, but as a test to see if it should become a series a significant amount of profit would be needed.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        It was mostly sarcasm (a la Fight Club recall/no recall equation), but thank you for the compliment and the more detailed writeup of what actually matters.

        • Archelon@lemmy.world
          0·
          3 months ago

          So with adjustment:

          If the goal is to make a living wring a serial comic, success would be having C>=A so you can afford to keep making and publishing more comics.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    All of them.

    The size of the first run is calibrated to expected sales, production, and marketing costs. If the first run sells out, it met whatever expectations led to the decision to print it.