I think this essentially kills floppy comics for indies. And I think that it increases the likelihood of low-risk, homogenous stuff being shipped to the shops.

The thing that outrages me isn’t that a lot of comics which weren’t making money will have to cancel, it’s that some of the best stuff we’ve seen come out in the last ten years from the self-publishing camp would never have been made under these minimums. A book needs a time to gain an audience. Some great stuff isn’t going to get the chance now.

I do think self-publishers and committed writer-artists will find new ways to get their material to readers, it’s just a shame that the DM is dead for them.

This just increases our up front costs but we’ve got to try something and are doing our best to promote new European talent ahead of 2 planned one shots this year which without the anthologies profile wouldn’t have been possible.

Fingers crossed

Our first release last year, Danijel Zezelj’s Rex, sold enough copies with it’s initial order that it would have met Diamond’s new benchmark.

When we solicited a second book by Zezelj, the orders came in lower. The book met the old standard of $3750 (in retail sales) but far below the new benchmark and we ended up cancelling it even before Diamond made their recent changes.

We publishers are going to have to get a lot more creative in how we market our graphic novels. If there was ever a time to strengthen our relationships with indie-loving retailers it’s now.

Chris I wish the North American comics industry had 500 more shops like yours. I guess that’s what makes The Beguiling unique and why I make sure to visit your store whenever I’m in Toronto.

And why not? Of the roughly 3,000 comics retailers, only about 300 have been receptive to alt-comics anyway. Surely Haven could service 300 shops effectively, and by focusing on this sub-market, working with progressive retailers such as yourself, start growing that sub-market carefully and intelligently? Diamond isn’t in a position to do that even if they wanted to.

And it’s no good to say, “Diamond seized power in a time of uncertainty, eliminating all other national and local specialty distributors of comics and graphic novels by signing prohibitive exclusivity agreements ….”

Diamond didn’t “seize” anything. It offered the exclusivity agreements and the publishers took them — because this is a dying market. Period. And Diamond is now down to amputating limbs.

The direct market was a life raft after the newsstand market sank, and it’s amazing it has held up this long.

Is the market failing because of Diamond’s actions, or is Diamond acting like this because the market has already started to fail? Are massive price rises and a drastic cutback in the product line signs that the market is already collapsing of its own accord, and that Diamond can’t think of anything to reverse it?

With regards to FCBD, my understanding was that the decision to carry books was not solely, or even primarily, Diamond’s. Specifically, the quote

“[A]ll three titles were rejected by Diamond on the advisement of their FCBD committee. The reason given was ‘no core title being currently published, or the current books sales not warranting the FCBD promotional support.’”

indicates unwillingness of retailers to support non-top 300 titles as well. Unfortunately, I believe Diamond’s customer base (Diamond doesn’t sell to readers, after all) could make a difference but taken as a whole*, those retailers have voted — with their money — for less diversity of content than stores like The Beguiling offer. And they have done so in good times and bad.

Jim

*It’s important to emphasize the “taken as a whole” aspect. Meaning, the people who are likely to read this are probably already running or shopping at stores that offer a range of titles well beyond the front list of the front of Diamond’s monthly catalog. They’re important to me as a publisher and a reader, and I’m lucky to have a couple within walking distance of my home and work. Really lucky. But when we look at the Direct Market in its entirety, which is what I as a publisher and Diamond as a distributor sometimes have to do, those stores are thin on the ground, and they always have been. Diamond’s latest decision will make it harder for such stores to appear or evolve. No question about that. But they weren’t appearing or evolving rapidly years, or decades, ago either.