The Comic Book Industry needs Innovation, PRONTO!
Today, Diamond Comic Distributors raised the “threshold” for orders for comic book publishers, from $1500 to $2500. Now, these don’t seem like large amounts, but it will spell doom for many independent and small comic book publisher’s current and future titles.
Now, this does not affect me, I have long abandoned the Diamond system for my own works and have done really well on the web selling directly to my audience. It’s hard work, but it’s doable, and many webcomic authors have been doing this for years. In fact if you talk to a webcomic guy who doesn’t know the Diamond Distribution system for comic books and explained how it worked, he’d either laugh or not believe you. For those who don’t know, the current system in a nutshell has been this (for the past 20 years!) — For the consumer– If you want to order a comic book title that your store is not carrying or some new indy book you heard of, you are given a Diamond Catalog and you pick and choose the things you want. Sometimes retailers request you pay upfront, or something down on the order. You then wait 2 or 3 months for the books to come in. That’s right the things they are buzzing about in the catalog with the blurbs and special promotions won’t be in the store or in your hands for 2 months. This doesn’t matter to many retailers or comic readers who just “subscribe” to titles and the new issues just show up.
For indy publishers, this system is used often so that you can see how many preorders you got on a title, and use the money from the sales to go toward printing or production. And often times, much more often than not, costs aren’t covered at all on the low orders most Indy books receive. But for some actual independent creators or small publishers with a small team, they can make ends meet. But the burden for a new project and a relatively new publisher or indy creator is… the only way you can get their book or preorder is if you get your audience to go into a comic shop and preorder your book and wait 2-3 months for it to come in. After all is said and done, publishers are making on average around a buck a book that they sell through Diamond. I know the numbers vary. I also know there are some cool online subscription places, but the general facts remain the same. Sell 1500 copies, you’ve probably made about 1500 bucks as a Diamond check. Sell 2500, you probably made a $2500 check. Go and do the math on printing, or paying a team— you’ll see how painful those numbers can be. And in Diamond’s defense, it’s probably not worth their effort to make the itsy amount off of those orders.
But it’s not because the books are bad. (some are!) – it’s because this system is screwy, old and broken. It’s almost being run the same way it was run in 1989, with very few improvements.
So there… again I have complained or yammered about what a stupid system it is. I’ve used it, I’ve put up with it– but the bottom line is it doesn’t serve the consumer, publisher or retailer at all. Especially in 2009.
I’m good at imagining things, so here is my dreamy Utopia for the Comic Book Industry to fix it’s shit before it’s all finally flushed down the tubes. Here’s how I can envision things working. Let’s start with a very Scott McCloud vision….
Creators direct to the readers. - Get rid of as many middlemen as possible. Period. Webcomics and digital distribution is GREAT for this, but it’s not enough to rest on those laurels. Creators will work a bit harder to handle a bit of their own merchandise, and if you were to get super duper crazy busy, there are other groups who can help you with distributing your books, shirts, etc. They exist, believe me. I won’t waste time listing them here so you can gather them for your own “data”, and because if this is a surprise to you, you haven’t done the HARD work yet of running your own webcomic or shepharding an audience online. It’s hard, but it’s so much more rewarding. — When people are surprised by this at shows and want an example of how this worked for me in the past, I tell them about YIRMUMAH, and how in January 2006 I put out a comic on my own, and broke down the numbers so I was making TWO dollars a book and not one dollar. I sold double what I would have through Diamond, and made double. But that doesn’t happen overnight. Let it inspire you, sure. Let other webcomic successes inspire you, but remember most of them have been at it for quite some time.
Distributors – Diamond doesn’t need to die. But they better adapt to be more like “distributors” and an AID to publishers and creators and their audiences. Distributors should get the product to the stores as quickly as possible. Not preorder waiting periods to see if you meet “thresholds” –
Retailers – You don’t have to die out! And there should be more of you! Everyone loves a cool comic book store!!! Or do they? Look around your shop? What has changed in your store in the past 10 years? What technology have you integrated into the reader experience? Even the BEST comic book stores I’ve been to aren’t really cutting it. They should start thinking along the lines of APPLE stores or the small Gamestop shops. I want to walk into a comic book store and see not only books ready for the selling, not only old school collectable stuff— but I want to see displays, large screen plasma tvs with keyboard terminals featuring “displays” about historical comic book figures or series of books. Invite readers to delve deep into a sort of built in store-wiki— the ultimate comic nerd inside a shop should be computers. I want to be able to sit down in a small area of the shop and browse a book, but also have WIFI, and some suggested “webcomic” links to read. Imagine being able to read some Penny Arcade or PVP right in shops, and then right below the little LCD screens are the collected books for sale. — For god’s sake, I can order super duper sandwiches via touchscreen menus when I go into a SHeetz convenience store, comic book shops should have these built in. You should be able to have this system connected to not only ebay or auction services, have LIVE auctions from your store terminals, and connected to a distributor that knows its ass froma hole in the ground… say if every retailer were connected to an online distributor like HeavyInk.com and boom, for 99 cents you could have a batch of back issues and GNS sent to your house, and you got it discounted in the store you ordered from…. the retailer has a special deal with this distributor to offer this “shipping” service discount only in their shop. — In store signings? What about having instore webcams or exclusive live streams with favorite creators? Each week someone like Joe Quesada doing a special direct web-chat show beamed into a special store or the store’s website. — Have stores compete for who wins this chat by selling X amount of something? — the ideas are endless. — The whole point is, the comic book shop should be an enhanced experience celebrating comic books. It should be a place you look forward to going to and hanging out for a spell…. like APPLE stores. If you’re a retailer, you better start thinking this way, and SOON.
And maybe stores should start cutting out as many middlemen as they can too. Your store could be known as the place that connected the reader to the creators, and remembered and supported forever. Not just the place that people come in on Wednesday’s and pick up their orders.
I went to a Gamestop recently with my kid in tow to spend his 100 bucks of christmas money he collected. The place was booming. Yeah, video games are big, I get it. But there was a unique enthusiasm and fun in this specific store at the time. You could try out the new games, etc, you know the deal. When I got to the register to buy myself a copy of LEFT 4 DEAD, this stranger register jockey who I had never spoken to asked me if I have Xbox Live. For a minute, I thought he was going to try to sell me a deal, but instead he was excited saying that this game was amazing on Xbox Live and how he and another employee of their store were 44th in the world on Xbox live. — they made the experience sound fun and interesting. This anecdote doesn’t really match my overall point about the innovation in the comic book system, but it seems in my mind to point out some little X factor that is lacking in the comic book field. The Comic book industry is very insulated, hermit like, and pretty thick headed and cant’ see the forest through the trees very often until it’s too late, or until someone else proved a good idea worked. I wonder if anyone can see that these big comic book conventions are being swallowed up by video games and other media. But it’s there for a reason…. that stuff has become MORE FUN.
I guess in closing that’s the thought I’m left with. Comics have lost that X-factor about them as far as an industry goes. They are overpriced, antiquated bits of pop culture. I think the solution for all sides is to focus on what’s FUN. I hope they do it in a hurry, because I sure would like to walk into a COMIC BOOK STORE 20 years from now. Know what I mean?
But none of this really matters to me. I’ll be creating comics whether the “industry” dies or not. There will always be the artform and storytelling. I’ll go on leading by example that you don’t need ANY of all that to make comics and be successful at having an audience or making money or happiness in the process.
I’ll be sad if it doesn’t fix itself though. Sad in the way when you enjoy something a great deal and it fades away as a happy memory of one’s youth. Sad in a way of watching other people or entities squander a good thing or take it for granted.
18 comments18 Comments so far
Is it good or bad that I always feel guilty after having read your blogs?
3!LL
I can give you a big example of how bad the Diamond system is.
I pre-order my comics every month through mailordercomics.com (a great retailer). I’m usually on the road at least four hours a day. I’d like to be able to do my pre-orders while I’m on the train with my laptop. However, I really can’t. Why?
The Diamond monthly catalog (Previews) isn’t really online. Sure, I can get a text file of every book offered, or I can scramble to individual sites to look at what’s offered from the big companies. But I can’t get a PDF of Previews. Retailers can, of course, but not consumers, even though I’d like to use to, y’know, BUY comics.
So I can haul around a 400-page catalog in my bag- no way- or just not order while I’m on the train, which tends to be what I do.
Thanks, Diamond! (Ugh)
How would one feel guilty? hah!
I had a lot of similar ideas over the last few decades, and got shut down at every turn. Of course, most of this was pre-blog, even pre-Internet.
I’ve had a retailer in the same conversation complain about how rising comic prices were killing sales in the stores, and yet if I proposed less expensive comics publishing projects (or pointed out that he wasn’t ordering cheaper comics from other publishers), he would balk at the idea of carrying them, because he’d make more on higher priced comics(?).
Go figure.
I really hope things turn a corner. Maybe a new distributor that caters to Independent Publishers, or retail/online stores that are willing to work directly with small publishers.
Hey Ray – Trust me, us retailers also have to lug around a copy of Previews to get our info. And it gets better when Marvel and DC completely change the contents of the book with just a blurb in an email, like the Obama Spidey fiasco.
DJ – In a perfect world, we’d be able to have the kind of technology in the store you are talking about, but my first thought is why would I put in a system to have someone buy a product from some one else? And big plasma screens and extra computer terminals cost a pretty penny. Not to mention the cost of floor space. Which product do I no longer carry to find the space for a system that some kid is going to sit at for 2 hours and make me no money?
Now, to be fair, I have never been in an Apple store and I am horribly pressed for space right now. If you ever get a chance, stop by sometime. I’d love to flesh out this idea to see if such a thing can be feasible.
- Colin
I disagree with DJ on the point of “Diamond doesn’t need to die”. Yes, if ANY business doesn’t adapt to changing times, better yet, be the leader in MAKING that change, it should and DESERVES to die. Changing and adapting only when forced is a poor business concept, but many businesses due exactly this. I am amazed that it has taken this long for most comic artist to move direct marketing of their product. The tools exist out there, you really don’t have to get a million people following you to make a buck. If you get popular enough, the big marketing guys will come to you. (and most likely, you probably should tell them to screw off, cause if they come, then you probably don’t need them) There are many cases where business exist merely to “suck” profit off some creative person in the name of marketing and higher sales. I’m also sure there are some good companies, but man, you just don’t hear about them very much and I don’t think they are hiding.
well I’ve been coloring comics full time for almost 3 years now. I’ve worked with a TON of indy publishers, and it’s not a coincidence I think that this news comes out now, after I’ve heard the following from at least 3 publishers in the last 8 months that I’ve worked for.
“I’m REALLY sorry, but your check has been delayed because DIAMOND is late in paying US our money.”
If this happened once, I was likely to believe it was the publisher feeding me a line of bull. After the 3rd time this happened, I started to take them at their word. If Diamond is now increasing the benchmarks for indy publishers, it’s because THEY are hurting as well trying to be a real distributor and not just a company that ships out books for Marvel and DC. It’s because THEIR internal systems are broken or malfunctioning. Fans have to wait FOREVER to get books they order already, and now publishers (and at least 2 retailers that I’ve spoken with locally) are having to wait on the money to come in from Diamond. So they control not only the entire distribution market, but now they aren’t paying retailers or publishers in a timely fashion either, which is hurting their businesses, and at the end of the day the creators and fans as well.
No one EVER mentions that kind of thing. No one. They’re scared that their checks will stop coming altogether, and with Diamond being in the position they are, can you blame them? One company you’re forced to rely on, that is basically the only way for you to survive. If you don’t take what they give you, you don’t get anything. It’s sad really. Because you CAN make a living as a small publisher, or a comic book creator, without relying on Marvel and DC, I’ve been doing it myself, and I know several others that have as well. When you can’t make a living, is when the ONLY company responsible for the product you help CREATE for them to produce, starts stiffing everyone outside of the Big 2. There are very few people NOT hurting from their mismanagement of their company. It sounds strikingly similar to how the rest of the businesses in this country are being run actually.
I’m glad that jobs are so easy to come by these days, because there is going to be yet another SLEW of people looking for work in the next year I think.
Colin, I’m not sure how big your store is. Perhaps you have back issue racks or quarter bins? I haven’t been to a store that didn’t have a section they could get rid of and better utilize. How do you find the space? Hey, have a sale in that section and be determined to sell everything in that space to open it up for a digital center in your store. — Your argument is part of the problem though– why off a space for a system you think will cause a kid to sit for 2 hours and not make you money? Why sell a service through someone else? All fears that are keeping you from innovating. Look up stores like James Sime’s Isotope and see what he’s done with his small store space and the cocktail parties he throws for instore events. (just an example. — I now see your name was a link to New Dimension!- If anyone could actually make the kind of stores I’m thinking of work, it would be Todd with a little dreaming. And i’m sure he’d LOVE to have a way to offer a service where HE was that back issue service that everyone else was selling from. New Dimension aside though…
Most comic stores have those tables of 25 cent issues which take up a lot of space. Sure they make a few bucks, but I would argue you could make so much more with a cool digital interactive display that changed up every week or two with a new featured product or creative team or publisher.
And the technology isn’t THAT much of an investment. Let’s say you have a media center PC running the system, connected to the internet, and also then running to a Plasma tv. I reckon just the hardware to get up and running you’re looking at under 2k, less (than advertising costs for many publishers!) And possibly paying someone to design and maintain like an inhouse web designer to have the pages dynamic on the screens– and it’s not just a screen and a computer, it’s a HUGE instore feature which could also house a nice little rack of the works of the creator, publisher or webcomic you’re currently featuring on that display. Just sit around and dream a little… wouldn’t it be cool if comic readers saw the new trailer for Iron Man 2 debuted in their comic shops? And right under this, Iron Man GN and trade paperbacks? — The tie ins and innovations are limitless if we start thinking outside the box.
If anyone wants ME to innovate for them, they can offer me a pretty penny to come in and do it.
“Hey Ray – Trust me, us retailers also have to lug around a copy of Previews to get our info. And it gets better when Marvel and DC completely change the contents of the book with just a blurb in an email, like the Obama Spidey fiasco.”
Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought I had heard something about a Previews PDF. If I’m wrong, I apologize to any retailer I’ve offended. Then I’ll wonder why the hell Diamond doesn’t put out a PDF. I mean, if I have to, I’ll pay $1 for a digital PDF. Are the $3 catalogs really some sort of profit center for Diamond? I just can’t see it.
There was a time when I’d have told DJ that he would have to take the quarter bins out of my hands only when I was dead. I *loved* quarter bins. And if properly utilized, they can be used to motivate new “full price” purchases. But is that the best use of space anymore? I dunno…
Okay. 4 somewhat angry retailers emailed me asking for solutions, which puzzles me. Not sure why this post would anger anyone. If you want innovative solutions from me, I am available for consulting at $200 an hour, 5 hours minimum.
Ray – I doubt any retailer was offended, just say you have exactly the same sales tool I have to try to figure out what the heck to order each month. A small picture and a couple sentences really doesn’t do it. I don’t think it makes that much profit for Diamond.
DJ – I think I discounted the idea a little too quickly. Creating a site with links to specific pubilsher sites and the like could certainly be beneficial. Having previews and such on it would be great. Linking to other retailers selling the same stuff I have for less or to eBay auctions doesn’t work to well for me. Its the same reason I don’t link through my website to CBR or Newsarama articles. Why throw the fact that you can buy the same things I sell for less of an internet retailer in their faces? I personally think that half the fun of buying comics is looking around to see what all is out there. Now Todd would love to have someone link to him to buy back issues, but the fact that I am meeting complete resistance in trying to move him from cash registers to POS systems tells me that his embracing technology won’t happen soon.
Isotope is a unique case, so don’t be too quick to ascribe that model to all. Jason at Riot in Harrisburg wasn’t able to do it. Maybe in the strip or in Oakland, but not in the South Hills or most of America. But certainly his attitude can be copied and modified. And should. We do need to find a better way to create excitement about coming to the store and about comics in general.
You have stuck the germ of an idea in my head, but I am going to have to finesse it to make it work better for my situation.
Yeah, each situation will be unique in some way.
When I said Auctions– I kind of meant say, if you had a REALLY awesome or rare product in your store, and you had it up online for auction as well, and the little touchscreens or instore stations for bidding on the item. It increases the WANT or the “got to have” factor when something is in front of you that you know people around the world are bidding on or possibly could, impulse bidding in store! hah. I’m sure Todd would get that! hahahah
Also, expand the ideas to this fact… say you WERE linking to Ebay shops in your store, you know Ebay has an affiliate service? You can make a nice percentage everytime someone buys anything through your instore keosk. Or offer to buy it through you, as “want” lists, etc. think about this… there are dudes who teach “how to use ebay!” and everytime they get someone to sign up, they make 100 bucks a user. Alright– I’m done blabbering into cyberspace! Hope this has planted seeds in some minds.
I dunno why a retailer can’t get your point from what you wrote here. You basically stated that retailers should put more “flash” in their stores. A store full of comics will not attract the MTV crowd. They want pop and flash and instant entertainment. Sure you will get some kids hanging around without buying but you also will get people with money to come in and look. The old marketing game of “whatever gets them in the door” still applies. Depends on what client you want to sell to. But… if they want to pay you to come around and tell you in detail what you just described here, more power to you DJ.
All that being said, I’m not sure if “comics” can stand up in a storefront market. I really suspect they are going to be an excellent internet and/or convention sale item. Comics are going to be collector type items. I can read HBN on-line, but maybe I want the print copy to get autographed and save as a collectable.
Good post. It’s true, some comic shops are quite overwhelming too, while its cool walking through 2 foot wide pathways with comics stacked to the roof – it’s sometimes hard to navigate and I can imagine that if you don’t know what your doing when you go in you will be quite lost lol.
Linked you over at Webcartoonists.com
I always thought that setting up the comic shop more like a chain bookstore would be a cool idea. Have the reading area, maybe a gallery space for original art, etc.
I like the whole in-store wiki/ordering idea. It sounds more like a software app that, if created, could run on touch screens placed in key spots around the store. It can be internal and tie into the POS system.
Comic shops definitely need a make-over. I haven’t set foot in a comic shop in years, because they just don’t offer any variety. I can’t remember the last time I found a comic shop that carried more than Marvel, DC, Image, some White Wolf games on a spinning rack, a hodge-podge of display cases with HeroClix, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokemon cards…with a bunch of old comics in boxes that they just can’t get rid of anymore. In the past 15 years or so, I’ve lived in three different states and seven different towns and cities in those states, and the comic shops in every location was just the same old thing. Over and over again. It was like walking into Wal-Mart. Soulless mediocrity.
There was one shop in a little college town which I found about fifteen years ago, and, after I moved, would drive over a hundred miles to visit/shop as often as I could. The owners of that shop had a great selection of independent books and other, weirder things. It was a place to go and *discover* things, not just a Wal-Mart for comic books.
The owner of this shop had her old, boxed comics stored in the back, with a printed-out checklist of what was there. She’d put the list on the front counter and save herself a lot of room. She used the extra space to set up a revolving slew of independent titles, hard-to-find stuff, and whatever else struck her fancy. It was great.
Everytime I ask a shop owner where the real independent comics are, they always give some variation of “independents don’t sell” as their excuse. If Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that you can sell dog shit on a stick if you hype it enough. And the lady who owned the little college-town shop was always exited to show you the weird thing she’d discovered since the last time you were in. I spent upwards of fifty bucks in her shop every time I walked in, and not a penny of that was spent on guys in tights beating the shit out of each other *again*. I wasn’t the only one, either. The best part about this story: that shop is still in business and going strong.
I wonder if the problems comic shop owners are having are because they’re selling the same tired old junk month after month.
Comic shop owners: make your shops *fun* again. Make it a place where people can come in and find something they didn’t know existed.
Make it about discovery.
Well it’s fun to dream about what might replace Diamond after March when the vast majority of independent and adults only titles will no longer be available in comic shops. But it’s very unlikely that the ideas mentioned above will be up and running in 2 months. So if you are a fan of stuff by Top Shelf, SLG, Eros, Carnal, Radio and many other indie publishers – most of them will have to “Go Dark.” You’ll still be able to buy their old stuff online, but their output of new stuff is going to drop like a rock until some other viable distribution system gets up and running. Be prepared to wait years rather than months for something like that to get going in any meaningful way.
Though I hope I am proved wrong…
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