[Resource of the Day] – Publish or Perish, or Publish AND Perish?

Today’s article: Publish And / Or Perish
by: Brian Hibbs
via: CBR’s Tilting At Windmills column

I read Brian Hibbs’s column fairly regularly; it’s a good resource if you’d like to know more about the innerworkings of the comic book direct market. This recent column talks about TOKYOPOP’s decline as of late. TOKYOPOP has been the darling of the manga category for a decade now, but suddenly, the company is slashing production and letting work-for-hire folks go. What gave TOKYOPOP its competitive advantage was its ability to produce books that required very little work; since the company simply localized Japanese comics for the American market, all it had to do was hire some translators and re-letter its books. TOKYOPOP did release some original material as well (including the poorly done World of WarCraft books), but the company has had most of its success rooted in localizing manga.

Hibbs discusses the fact that the bookstore market itself is nearing saturation for manga and comics (which I would say is probably true) and that the days of growth are over. TOKYOPOP is feeling the sting the most because it’s spent so much time courting the bookstore industry and trying to get preferential treatment. But since TOKYOPOP has focused on the major stores (Borders, B&N, BAM!, Amazon), if those stores face problems, it does too.

Hibbs then goes on to outline a formula for success in the comic book “direct market”:

1) A quality product
2) Delivered in a Timely fashion (both in the sense of “on time” as well as “at the right time”)
3) producing material that is not identical to material already on the market
4) with an appropriate amount of promotion, advertising, and publicity to let interested audiences know that the material is being produced
5) at a profitable margin for retailers.

It is possible to only hit, say, four of these five points, and still succeed, though your odds drop precipitously. And there are a handful of examples of books only getting three of five right out of the gate, though they fixed their flaws later on. But if you want to make it in the Direct Market, that’s a formula you’ll want to follow.

Hibbs goes on to explain these points in detail; you can read his explanations here. But what I think is most interesting about his column is that he ends by talking about the mistakes that Marvel and DC have been making lately that have held them back. For example, Marvel prints books to order, and releases second printings instead of extra copies. Marvel also isn’t very good at keeping a backlist of bestsellers. The “Marvel Way” isn’t the right or the best way, but it’s still better than what DC’s been doing as of late. Though this inequality will eventually fix itself as Marvel starts messing up and DC takes the ground back, it’s sad that these icons of the industry are more concerned about doing things their own way than they are about running a smart business.

Writing Scraps

by Sean J. Jordan