Feedback Thread: 2007-11 Comics

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:20 pm

I was wondering why Dark Horse seemed to be doing so much better than Image nearly every month this past year - 25% of their sales are due to Buffy. Without Buffy, they'd be right around Image's numbers.

Thanks for clearing that up.

PS: I've been listening, I just haven't been commenting. Sorry for that.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:08 pm

Buffy has been doing amazingly well for Dark Horse. The reorder activity on that series is far beyond what anybody could have expected. It is kind of shocking just how big of a difference a single title like Buffy can make for a publisher...

Just Bill · Post by **Just Bill** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:42 pm

Have they solicited any trades yet for the season eight stuff? I've been buying them monthly, but I've been considering switching to trade format for the series... I just don't know if there ARE any just yet.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:54 pm

Just Bill wrote:Have they solicited any trades yet for the season eight stuff? I've been buying them monthly, but I've been considering switching to trade format for the series... I just don't know if there ARE any just yet.

Yes. The first trade for Buffy is out and collected the first five issues of the series. It came out in October and was the top ranked trade on the Diamond list. In November it had some reorder activity but the reorders for each of the first four issues paced those reorders of the trade by about 3 to 1.

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:51 pm

While returnable product would be great for LCS, it would probably take a lot of small publishers out of the game.

Rumor has it that Crossgen died when it was buried alive in returns from Borders & B&N.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:01 pm

Lobo wrote:While returnable product would be great for LCS, it would probably take a lot of small publishers out of the game.

Rumor has it that Crossgen died when it was buried alive in returns from Borders & B&N.

Agreed. While returnable items is great for retailers and not a bad idea in theory, in practice it could be exceedingly damaging to publishers. There was another publisher that nearly went under a few years back when the bookstores dumped huge returns on them or their book distributor. I forget which company that was but the ended up doing a massive campaign for orders direct with them at one point explaining that if they didn't get a cash influx that they would probably go out of business.

An ideal solution would help retailers and publishers, not one at the expense of the other. Personally, I think that a shorter cycle time between a retailer placing an order and getting the item would help a lot. I also think that Diamond needs to rethink the "back order" process and streamline it such that it is practical for them to place orders with publishers in smaller increments. Nothing stinks more than retailers being unable to get items that publishers have available to sell them only to have the Diamond process in between them preventing it.

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:38 pm

I'd love to see publishers make trades available for pre-order every month that the issues it contains are solicited, shipping after the last issue ships.

This is the easiest way for a publisher to gage if low sales are due to customers waiting for the trade.

I know it sounds crazy, but what do you expect?

Lord Shaper · Post by **Lord Shaper** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:20 am

Lobo wrote:I'd love to see publishers make trades available for pre-order every month that the issues it contains are solicited, shipping after the last issue ships.

This is the easiest way for a publisher to gage if low sales are due to customers waiting for the trade.

I know it sounds crazy, but what do you expect?

Isn't that basicly waht Vertigo has been running for a while now tho?

Lobo · Post by **Lobo** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:42 am

Lord Shaper wrote:
Lobo wrote:I'd love to see publishers make trades available for pre-order every month that the issues it contains are solicited, shipping after the last issue ships.

This is the easiest way for a publisher to gage if low sales are due to customers waiting for the trade.

I know it sounds crazy, but what do you expect?
Isn't that basicly waht Vertigo has been running for a while now tho?

Not for pre-orders.

In other words, since publishers already know what the trade is going to contain (including extras) and how much it's going to cost, let the public know when those issues are solicited, so that they can plan accordingly.