How do I
get my comic book carried in comic stores?
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Advertising, offers of
free books (to catch customers).
-- Donna Barr |
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The first and foremost way to do this is to get carried by
the major comic distributors, or really the dominant distributor,
Diamond Comics Distribution. Once they agree to carry you, literally
every comic shop which carries Superman can order your work.
You "solicit" your book several months in advance,
the distributor puts it in their catalog, stores order it, you
get a purchase order from the distributor, you print the books
to fill the order, shipo them to the distributor, and the stores
get them. A month or so later, the distributor pays you. The
big trick to all of this is to convince the store owners to pick
your book out of all of the ones in the catalog and include it
in their orders. Unless you already have fans who will demand
your book from their stores, your main marketing efforts will
be directed at store owners.
As far as convincing the store owners to order the book:
Attending the Comic Book Expo, a trade show for store owners
which is held before the San Diego Comic Con, is a good way to
introduce your work to dealers. You can distribute ashcans, sample
issues, etc. at the show, and get firsthand info on how retailers
like the work.
Ads in Comic Buyers Guide can help, as well. A successful
ad in Diamond's Previews catalog will help. Many publishers send
postcards, flyers, free books, etc.
--Mike Meyer
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Who are
the comic book distributors?
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| Diamond Comic Distribution |
The dominant distributor for North America,
with several exclusive agreements with major publishers like
DC, Marvel, Image, and Dark Horse. Their Previews catalog is
extensive, and they sell books to over 4100 comic shops. |
| Cold Cut Distribution |
Specializes in reorders, e.g. books which
have already been published. For most small publishers, gets
books on consignment. Pays out consignment sales quarterly. |
| FM |
Fairly new, though owners were active in Diamond's
last major competitor, Capital City Distribution. Does handle
advance orders for companies not covered by exclusive agreements. |
| Syco Distribution |
Relative newcomer, they do handle advance
orders like Diamond. They handle a lot of Manga material as well
as independents and whatever larger companies aren't covered
by exclusive agreements. |
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How do I
get Diamond Distribution to carry my book?
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Prove to them that the
dealers will carry it.
--Donna Barr |
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First-time publishers submit photocopies of the first
three issues of their book to Diamond, who will review it with
a group of retailers and their internal staff. The purpose of
the three issue rule is to prove that you can put out work consistantly.
If they feel the book can sell to dealers and retailers, they'll
put it in the catalog.
You can help this process by putting out the most professional
product you can, naturally, and also by making sure they have
information about any following you might have, minicomics sales,
fan base, and your plan for marketing the book.
Diamond has a new publishers packet that has complete instructions
on this process.
--Mike Meyer
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Who makes
the decision to carry or not carry a book at diamond?
|
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Mostly the brand managers, with the help of an advisory board
of retailers. In a recent Q&A session with Diamond at APE
V, Diamond's Bill Schanes commented that this board of retailers
is a pretty tough crowd. Diamond often carries books that the
retailers have rejected -- store owners are very unforgiving
of work they feel isn't ready for the marketplace. I figure that
the market has proved them wrong often enough that Diamond has
decided to give new books more slack/room for growth.
Mike Meyer, Twist and Shout
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How do I
get a "Spotlight On" listing? How much does it cost?
Do I have to buy an ad?
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Previews Spotlights are picked by Diamond's editorial staff,
based on their opinion of the marketability of a book. No money
changes hands for this, and a publisher doesn't have to buy an
ad to get a Spotlight listing. Indeed, buying an ad won't guarantee
that you get one. It's strictly Diamond's opinion of the books
that are going to be hits. The criteria for choosing a spotlight
can be the presence of well-known creators, a fun premise, great
artwork, a cool title, or any number of intangibles.
While you can't buy one of these listings, you can increase
your chances of getting your book spotlighted by keeping in touch
with your Brand Manager, sending him advance peeks at the book,
and making sure he is aware of the scope of your promotional
efforts. You want the Diamond folks to fall in love with your
book enough to spotlight it. It's kind of a popularity contest,
true, but you won't win it if you don't play.
Just as there is no way to guarantee that your book will be
spotlighted, there's no guarantee that a spotlighted book will
get high sales -- it's not clear that these listings have a lot
of effect on retailers per se. Indeed, I've heard retailers comment
that they think the publishers pay for the Spotlight listings,
so they ignore them.
Your best bet is always to write a listing that makes your
book sound really good.
Mike Meyer, Twist and Shout
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Do ads in
Previews increase sales on your book?
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The consensus here on this list seems to be that a Previews
ad doesn't generally pay for itself in increased sales. Indeed,
one list member said that his recent ad in Previews got him all
of two orders above those of his last book.
Are Previews ads worthless, then? Maria Lapham of Stray
Bullets says 'no.' If nothing else, buying an ad in Previews
is good for demonstrating to Diamond that you are serious about
your marketing efforts, she says.
I think that many ads in Previews are unsuccessful because
they are simply not good ads. Ad design is tricky, and many small
publishers fail to put together ads that print well on Previews'
4-color newsprint. Many ads look like they were faxed, quite
a lot are done in greyscale but not adjusted for the dot gain
of newsprint, so they look really dark, and few of them have
compelling copy or graphic design. Some of the ads just don't
look like interesting books, or the art looks boring or amateurish.
We have seen people on this list who have had good sales after
running Previews ads. Most of them are using the Previews ad
as just one part of a broader publicity campaign, so it's harder
to tell if the ad helped. I suspect that's no accident.
Seeing as Previews is read by all retailers and lots of fans,
you'd think that it would be the single best place to advertise
your book. To pull it off, however, you have to design an ad
that catches attention, looks good despite the limitations of
the printing in Previews, and that represents your book as something
that people want to buy. If you aren't sure your ad fits that
criteria, do what real advertising agencies do -- test it. Ask
readers and retailers for their opinion on your ad designs, and
pick the one which the most people like.
Mike Meyer, Twist and Shout.
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How do I
get my book "Certified Cool?"
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| Like a spotlight, this is something
Diamond's people seem to decide for themselves. You can't buy
it, but you can ask your brand manager to consider giving you
the designation. Again, because your brand manager has hundreds
of book listings to sift through, it's your responsibility to
make sure that he gets enough information to fall in love with
your book and recommend it as "certified cool." |
If my book
gets "Certified Cool," will it stay certified?
|
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It seems like once a title gets Certified Cool, it should
keep having that designation, but that hasn't been my experience.
I don't think that any of our issues are less cool, but that
the catalog folks and the brand managers forget about the designation,
or maybe they run out of room. I wouldn't mind having a bit of
confirmation from Diamond on this, because it seems that they
have indeed stepped up their promotion of Certified Cool books
in the catalog, with a special index of all the "cool"
books, etc.
The only thing I can think of is to make sure that you remind
your brand manager that they have given you this designation
before.
Mike Meyer, Twist and Shout
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Why don't
I ever get reorders for my books? Shop owners say that their
reorders aren't being filled.
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I've been told that Diamond has changed its reorder system,
and indeed the number of reorders I've been getting has dropped
shortly. In short, when a dealer places a reorder, Diamond holds
on to it for a period of a couple weeks. If during this time
enough reorders have come in for each issue in the order, the
orders are placed with the publishers and filled. If not, they
are cancelled, and the dealer is told the book isn't available.
The threshold for these reorders is 5 copies of each issue
ordered. No, it doesn't count if someone orders 1 copy each of
Dirtbag 1-5. For most small publishers, this means that retailers
are being told that your books aren't available any more, and
many retailers are taking this to mean that you are out of business.
Diamond has promised to rectify this somewhat, by letting retailers
know that the order is just being cancelled because it's too
small, but I don't know if this has happened.
All I know is that where I once would unfailingly tell people
writing us to order the books through their retailer, to support
the retailer and distribution system, now I have to sell them
directly.
Right now, the best way to get reorders on small press books
is through Cold Cut Distribution, who stock the books on consignment.
Their minimum orders, however, tend to ensure that reorders only
get placed when a retailer has a bunch of books they need.
Mike
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I'm told
that I have to sell a certain number of books, or Diamond will
drop me. What should I do?
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Yes, Diamond does have a policy that they want books
to sell at least $1000 per issue, which comes to about 900-1000
copies. Their official policy is that they will drop books which
haven't acheived these sales, or at least shown sales growth
approaching these sales by the 6th issue.
Unofficially, Diamond has been very lenient about this policy.
They will work with you, particularly if you are demonstrating
that you are committed to the book, are actively promoting the
book, etc. You have to work with them. There have been cases
where a less-than-friendly relationship with Diamond and a publisher
has caused them to hold to the letter of the policy, but for
people who aren't hostile about what is usually a business decision
they seem genuinely willing to help.
One high-profile pending cancellation right now is Joe Chiapetta's
Silly Daddy -- they've given him one more issue (#18) to increase
his sales or be dropped. They have, however, run the book listing
with a Spotlight and a color graphic. Joe has a good reputation
in the small press community, and actually gets about half of
his current sales outside the comics direct market, so there's
a good chance he'll get a repreive if sales increase enough.
How should this affect you? Well, since you need to sell about
900-1000 copies of your book to break even anyway, you shouldn't
worry about it too much. Market your book well, keep Diamond
in the loop and lobby them for color graphics, Spotlights, good
coverage, etc. They want the same thing you do -- sales that
make a profit for you and for them. If you end up in danger of
cancellation, you've got bigger problems than Diamond, anyway.
Mike Meyer
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How do I
get my book distributed outside of comic book shops?
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Talk to Book dealers.
--Donna Barr |
Depends on the book.
Adult-oriented material seems to have quite a few distributors,
and they will actually deliver more sales than comic shops. You
will need to work with book distributors to crack the overall
bookselling market, but large chain stores such as Virgin Megastore
and Tower Records order trades and even single-issue comics.
If you have a specialty book, say a book about cats, you'd want
to work with distributors and large retailers in the pet arena.
I think there's a lot of room for publishers to get creative
with new realms of distribution, but it's largely uncharted territory,
so you will be on your own here.
--Mike Meyer |