Just FYI, in case if you were somehow thinking Piracy was the only option.
The problem isn’t just that we have to get folks to buy [Captain Marvel]; it’s that we have to get retailers to order it. The failing of our distribution model is that our customer isn’t really the reader, our customer is whoever places the Diamond order at any store. So if there’s a perception that the book won’t sell, it gets under-ordered and it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here’s a thing that happens to every creator on Twitter on one Wednesday or another: an incredibly sweet reader who really wants to support you, writes to tell you that they tried to buy your book at their [local comic shop] and it was already sold out! It’s only noon, they say! The shop only opened at 10! Your book must’ve flown off the shelves!
And then the creator, not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings, says, “Wow! Thanks for your support — better pre-order the next one!” and then they cry into their coffee. Because, friends, selling out by noon on a Wednesday is not good news. Heck, selling out by Thursday is not good news. That means your book was under-ordered — if it was ordered at all. If the consumer wants the product and we can’t get them the product, our system is broken.
I hate the pre-order thing. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Ten years ago, I was complaining about it on the [Warren Ellis forum] — I’m a shopper. I looooove to shop. I will spend money. But I am not going to buy a pair of shoes that I’m expected to order three months in advance and am not able to try on! And that’s what we’re asking of our readers. It’s the dumbest system. No wonder we have problems! Is there another industry that works like this?
And yet, here I am begging you: if you want to read this comic, please, please oh please, oh please: pre-order it. If you want to see more female-led titles from the mainstream publishers, pre-order this book. If you’re not familiar with how to pre-order, or you’re not sure why it’s so important, check in with me on Twitter @kellysue or on my blog at http://www.kellysue.com — some time in the next couple weeks I’m going to do a step-by-step blog post. Maybe I’ll even do one of those Warren Ellis-style pre-order coupons.
Kelly Sue DeConnick on the dichotomous folly/urgency of pre-ordering comics, and her new “Captain Marvel” series, in an interview by Albert Ching at Newsarama.com. (via bowtiemoustache)
The fact that you’re engraged is amusing to me. Don’t worry pumpkin, one day you’ll come to terms with fangirl marginalization. Maybe, generations from now, your fangirl descendents will actually spend as much money on comics as The Men do. Of course by then it won’t matter because apes will have taken over the world and outlawed the works of annoying hack bitches like faith hicks, vanessa davis and all the contributors of womanthology (the book that charity created because no one who appreciates good writing would buy it otherwise). Female bloggers will no doubt live as mutants underground where their whining will no longer be heard.
So I made a post on my book blog recommending some graphic novels/comics for my readers, partially as a response to seeing a whole bunch of guys lately (more so than usual) insisting that girls don’t read comics and comics aren’t for girls anyway.
I got one comment. From this dude. And I had to share.
Some retailers got arsey with Dark Horse’s supposed plans to release their comics digitally on the same day as the print edition and a reduced cost. Some figures were thrown around the internet like 99c/$1.99 for the digital version, $2.99/$3.99 for the print. So these retailers caught wind of this and decided to cancel all of their Dark Horse orders as some sort of punishment to DH for daring to contemplate doing this.
DH have reacted by clarifying that their digital releases will be $2.99 for the first month of release but then reduced to $1.99 thereafter.
But still, this is how I imagine the news to go down..
Customer: Do you have any of the Buffy comic in stock?
Store: We are not stocking those comics because of Dark Horse’s digital policy.
Customer: So you’re saying I can’t buy this comic from you?
Store: Yes
Customer: So I have to buy it from somewhere else?
Store: Yes
Customer: You’re saying I should spend my money somewhere else?
Store: Yes
Customer: And you’re essentially telling me I can buy this digitally from my own home and never come back here?
***
Yeah, way to support the people who have been paying your rent for all these years, guys. Way to just alienate your customers.
So B&N yanked the printed editions of the titles you can get from Kindle Fire from their shelves and boxed them up outback…
Customer: Do you have Sandman in stock?
Store: No we pulled them off our shelves because the electronic version is avaliable on the Amazon Kindle and not through us
Customer: Urrm, I don’t want to buy the electronic version I want to give you money so I can buy the printed collection.
Store: Well, we can customer order it for you.
Customer: Right, so I can order it today and then come back in 5 days time to collect it? Instead of, y’know, you just selling me the book right now?
Store: Yes
Customer: Wait, so you’re saying you can’t sell me the book today but Amazon can?
***
I work in a bookshop part-time. There is one word I do not use. Amazon. You say that and you might as well be logging the customer into their Amazon account and pressing the checkout button for them because in their head you’ve already lost the sale.
I’m not being thick here though am I? If someone wants to give a shop money that’s good for business right? How are tantrums and empty threats helpful to anyone? Take the money, take all the money you can, because look retailers, when you close down and you moan about it’s all because of “digital” it won’t be, it will because of your ordering policy which is turning down sales.
Digital is here, it’s not going to go away. Nor is print. People still like paper.
There are developments in the industry to support digital and print at the same time, like this initiative from Marvel. Customers want a choice as to what platform to buy their comics and creators want that choice too. It seems the only ones who have an issue are some retailers who don’t want any one to have a choice that isn’t their own.
(NOTE: The number of good retailers outweighs the bad and not all shops would pull this shit. If it seems like I’m hating on all retailers, it’s very much not the case. Retailers have been very good to me over the years)
