[Resource of the Day] – 3 Golden Rules of Comic Book Retailing & Marketing
Today’s resource is a bit of a departure, because instead of focusing on a single article, I’m going to offer you a link to a section on a blog run by Publisher’s Weekly called “The Beat.” It’s written by Heidi MacDonald, and it’s one of the sites that many independent creators frequent; sort of the Boing Boing for the comic book set.
The section is called “Retailing & Marketing,” and it’s loaded with useful articles about the comic book marketplace. If you’re even thinking about getting into the comic book industry, you need to read this section regularly.
A lot of people who read comics don’t really understand how the comics industry works, and yet many of them dream about creating comic books. When they get into the industry, however, they often find that it’s a tough place to make any money.
I remember one year, I was at WizardWorld Chicago visiting a friend in the Artist’s Alley, and the guy sitting next to him was pathetically begging everyone who walked by to “Please buy my book.” I felt sorry for the guy and wanted to help him out, but his book was $10 and it looked awful. It was around 32 pages, Xeroxed, and stapled by hand, with edgy artwork that had lost some of its definition by being copied and letters that we so small I could barely read them. Buying the book would have been a disservice to the guy, because it would have encouraged him to produce a product like this again instead of forcing him to wonder whether or not this comic book thing was really for him, or just a pipe dream.
The truth is that if you want to be a comic book publisher or creator, you’ve got to follow a few golden rules:
- You have to create a product that has the same level of printing and production quality as the stuff Marvel and DC are putting out, because they set the pace for the rest of the industry.
- You have to price your books sensibly. $3-4 is the going rate for 32-page comic books. You can’t expect much more than that unless your book offers something really special, like a limited variant cover drawn by a major artist. And even then, you won’t sell a lot at your higher price, since the very idea of selling the book for more is because you’re limiting what you’re selling to make it collectible.
- You have to convince comic book retailers that your product is worth their non-returnable dollar if you want them to carry it. And unless you have an established track record or some major promotional ability, it’s hard to gain their confidence.
Retailers are up all sorts of trouble right now. Did you know, for example, that the primary distributor of comic books, Diamond Distributors, Inc., is requiring comic book publishers to include barcodes because they’re trying to get all established retailers set up on their Point-of-Sales system? Did you know that only about 10% of all retailers actually use a POS system, and that many don’t even keep track of their inventory? This means that comic book retailers aren’t ordering based on hard numbers and trends; they’re ordering based on their gut feelings about product. That might be part of the reason why many of these retailers over-order Marvel and DC and under-order everything else.
Did you know that the comic book retailers have a lobbying group called ComicPRO that’s trying to prevent indy publishers from selling their books at comic book conventions, because they’re afraid these sales are cutting into retailers’ sales? Never mind the fact that conventions are expensive and indy publishers need to recoup their losses by selling books. Never mind the fact that most retailers don’t carry these indy books to begin with. Never mind the fact that the big publishers, Marvel and DC, voluntarily don’t sell their own books at conventions so that retailers can benefit. ComicPRO represents a group of people who are frightened at the potential of losing their livelihood, and its perspective is that retailers should control the supply chain, not the suppliers or the middlemen.
Did you know that the sales figures for comic books published online are generally inaccurate? Since most sales are made through Diamond Distributors, many retailers and fans love to examine sales reports and compare numbers to see how well a book is selling. But since these figures are based off rankings and not off hard numbers, they’re not always accurate. What’s more, many small publishers sell their books through channels other than Diamond (such as direct sales, conventions, local retailers, and so forth), which means that their books are more successful than the numbers would otherwise indicate.
Resource of the Day | SeanJJordan | 
January 24, 2008 11:51 am
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