There have been only two instances I can personally recall in which anybody has clapped in a cinema. The first was at the beginning of yet another Harry Potter movie. A gang of teenage girls heralded the opening theme with whoops and cheers, whilst even my five-year-old brother cringed, along with the rest of my family, at the thought of the next three hours he had to endure. As Daniel Radcliffe appeared on screen my mum started sobbing quietly into her coat at the realisation that ‘family time’ would forever be associated with torture.

So your comic is finished, it's beautifully written with gorgeous art and a fantastic eye-catching cover. What's next? Well, you have two choices – either you can go straight to a printer and get a couple of hundred copies knocked out to sell through your website and at conventions. Or, alternatively, you could hold fire on the printing and approach Diamond about getting your comic distributed to direct market stores all over the UK, ROI and North America. If it’s your first attempt at publishing a comic, it might be an idea to wait a while before approaching Diamond. That isn’t to denigrate your efforts but, let’s be honest, your first attempt isn’t going to be anywhere near as good as, say, the fourth or fifth books you publish. In 2002, I sent Diamond the first book I ever wrote and published – Devilchild Volume I: Hell Is Round The Corner – and they rejected it. Back then I was a bit upset but now I can see that they were absolutely right; my comics needed to improve in every area before it would be good enough to sit on the shelves alongside books by actual professional writers and artists.

So, you want to try this self-publishing lark but could do with a few hints about how to go about it. Hopefully you’ve come to the right place for a bit of advice – not because I’m some kind of expert but because I’ve made loads of mistakes during my self-publishing voyage of discovery and therefore know many of the pitfalls to avoid. There are 10 pointers for all first timers below – they aren’t commandments just ideas and things that have worked for me over the five years I’ve been doing this. Take from them what you will…

For the first ever IndieInterviews article, we asked indie favourite Ben Dickson some questions about his work, and the UK indie scene. The great creator of Falling Sky and artist and writer for other indie works gives us his time here.