Therefore, what Diamond is doing seems reasonable to me. It seems patently unreasonable, in this time of economic uncertainty, to expect Diamond to assume extra risk. If this means Diamond redefines its business as “frontlist only”, so be it.

Don’t stores have access to wholesalers like Ingram and Baker & Taylor that do carry backlist–and that limit their risk by carrying it on consignment? I’ve been out of the business for a long time, but when I was in the business, store-owners who needed to restock backlist titles have other options than Diamond.

In short, I am in complete agreement with Matt High.

Josiah, I think you’re probably right about the vizbigs. I know when I worked in a comic store we didn’t stock the individual volumes of series that had omnibuses (Battle Royale being the one I remember), as we just didn’t have enough shelf space.

Viz might even be allowing some of the above titles to lapse in favor of new, (potentially) more marketable formats.

Case in point: the two Vizbig (3-in-1) editions of Vagabond aren’t in the list above, so maybe Diamond (and/or Viz) feels like the 600-pg. omnibus could be a more viable format.

Now granted, I’m not a comic shop, so maybe Diamond doesn’t even touch the Vizbigs to begin with, but…just a thought.

but my god, WTF, the Viz Spinner and rack are on the list as well?! It’s PROMOTIONAL PLACEMENT guys, stores using those racks are likely to ORDER BOOKS TO FILL THEM.

Now of course, due to the tough times Viz might choose to discontinue that themselves and it just got grouped in, but either way, yikes.

I personally love to hold a book in my hand read it. But I’m getting older and my eyes are starting to go. So I’m interested in electronic versions of novels and manga too. The ability to zoom in and out on a page is great.

However I’d still like to be able to get print copies of stuff like art books and of course posters to hang on the wall. Electronic picture frames are still to small and pricey to take the place of coffee table book and wall hangings. But maybe someday! Hmmmm, maybe it’s doesn’t make ecological sense though. Lithography may still be the most efficient way to distribute visual joy!

Pb

The Drifting Classroom is rad, and it’s a shame that it’s not in more stores already, and Cat Eyed Boy is fun too, but with Diamond scaling back like this, it has to affect which “new” Umezu-penned series Viz will publish in the West.

They might be less likely commit to printing one of his later, long-running series like Fourteen or Left Hand of God, Right Hand of the Devil.

Also, I had no idea that Diamond considered a comic like Vagabond dead weight. I thought it was the seinen series which could appeal the most to fans of Bleach & Naruto.

Diamond shouldn’t be ‘forced’ to carry all of those books, diamond should want to carry all of those books, out of a sense of professionalism and customer service.

Sonic2nd- This affects anyone who tries to order these books through their Diamond account, regardless of what type of actual retailer they are.

Why should Diamond be forced to continue to carry these books? Based on my own experience at Cold Cut, these are all slow-to-no-sellers – most of the books on this list we would sell 2 or fewer copies *per year*.

Sorry, but you gotta draw the line somewhere. Not everything can be kept in stock and carried forever. Yes, there are plenty of ‘good’ books in this list, but critical acclaim does not pay the bills.

Slow-to-no-sellers? Depends on your clientele. We do a lot of business with public and school libraries, and kids’ titles like Beet, Prince of Tennis, Whistle!, etc., make up much of these orders.

Having the backlist in stock is especially important, because a) even in this enlightened age, many libraries are just starting to add comics or need to flesh out their collection, and b) unlike individual fans, who might buy a volume or two at a time, libraries buy when they get funding — which is more sporadic, and depends on the local political climate. Some order regularly to “top up” current series, but many might be buying, for example, a full run of Beet, four copies of each. Like Chris said, it’s a good thing we have other sources than Diamond!

Seems to me that Diamond is purposely changing their focus – away from a “offer everything, carry everything” model to a much more time-sensitive distribution model.

Essentially, Diamond is chopping off their “long tail”.

Which, considering they’re a monopoly, is pretty irresponsible to their clients and bad for the future of the market, isn’t it? Remember what we talked about in class last Wednesday?

Stupid Diamond.

PS) Chris, please delete my prev. comment in moderation; I fucked up the HTML, this is the good one.

Sorry, but you gotta draw the line somewhere. Not everything can be kept in stock and carried forever. Yes, there are plenty of ‘good’ books in this list, but critical acclaim does not pay the bills.

And while we haven’t heard of any mass delistings from other publishers, I have no doubt the same thing is happening across a wide swath of Diamond’s backlist. Can we expect to see a similar “last chance” list from other publishers in the near future?

One of the news bits to come out of Diamond within the last month that seems to have been almost completely ignored is the fact that Diamond is discontinuing offering reorders on comic book issues (e.g. periodical pamphlets) that are more than 60 days old. They will still accept reorders up to 60 days after the initial release, but after that they lock down the code and reject all reorders.

Seems to me that Diamond is purposely changing their focus – away from a “offer everything, carry everything” model to a much more time-sensitive distribution model.

Essentially, Diamond is chopping off their “long tail”.

Simon, you mind going further with that statement? The way I’m seeing it–obviously, it’s not like Viz will disappear or anything, I’ve always been half as dependent on Amazon even being a NYC based buyer anyway, this just makes them more attractive–but doesn’t the official dilution of manga supply for direct market stores pretty much operate as purely bad news? (I’m not trying to be contentious–i’ve read enough of your stuff at Icarus to know you aren’t being flip.)

Retailers already have plenty of options outside of Diamond for Viz books. In addition to book market sources, AAA Anime carries practically all of their in-print books.

Not saying that Viz shouldn’t consider Haven or any other distributor, just that Viz does not face a distribution problem. A setback for sure, but retailer who want those books enough can still get them with relative ease. Actually, depending on one’s perspective, this may not be bad news…

Blast you Diamond

But seriously, what’s going on with Diamond?

- Chris