A few days ago, you may remember my article Stacks of Late Indy Books Rot in Diamond’s Warehouse? where Harry Markos stated on the Markosia message boards several of their comics have been delivered to Diamond’s warehouses yet haven’t been shipped to retailers.
Chuck Satterlee, director of operations for Markosia updated us on the situation.
Thank you again to all who are interested in this but please do not feel as if Diamond is out to get us just because we didn’t sign an exclusive. We are certain that they are not punishing us in any way. We appreciate your ongoing patience in waiting for our books and as of tomorrow, some of that patience will be paying off. A number of books are shipping to stores tomorrow. Look for OF BITTER SOULS V.2 #2 (JUN063256), DONE TO DEATH #3 (JUL063304), PROJECT EON #3 (JUL063294), SCATTERBRAIN #4 (APR063252…this one was our fault), SMOKE & MIRROR V.2 #1 (all four covers…JUN063249, JUN063250, JUN063251, JUN063252), STARSHIP TROOPERS: DEAD MAN’S HAND #2 (all covers…JUN063257, JUN063258) and STARSHIP TROOPERS: DEAD MAN’S HAND(JUL063292).
If retailers are still looking for these books, they can contact Satterlee directly and consumers can order directly from their website at www.markosia.com.
I have yet to confirm if any stores received Markosia books in this week’s shipment. Readers out there can either leave a comment in our blog or contact me and let me know if you have any luck finding the books at your local comic shops.
October 5th, 2006 at 10:58 am
MacGuffin (http://macguffinalley.blogspot.com) received Starship Troopers, Of Bitter Souls, Done to Death, and Smoke & Mirror yesterday…don’t know if they had the others on order at all or for certain if they got those others.
One thing that was discussed is how WONDERFUL it is to wait for a bunch of late books from a publisher just to have them all come out at once…yeah…that helps sell ‘em all…
October 5th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Once again, I’m glad to hear that at least one place got DONE TO DEATH #3, but as far as I can tell, MacGuffin’s in the minority for stores that received their Markosia order yesterday. My local shop didn’t get them, and I got a flurry of e-mails from friends all over North America yesterday asking what was up because their stores didn’t get them either.
On the “multiple late books shipping the same day thing”, at this point, I’m wondering if Markosia has any say whatsoever over when any of their books are shipped. I can’t speak to the other titles, but DONE TO DEATH’s lateness is entirely down to Diamond–the third issue was delivered to them in August and the fourth issue is already with them.
Me and my creative team have bent over backwards to hit or beat our deadlines. I’m now wondering why we bothered. The Big Guys don’t seem bothered about delivering their books on time and suffer no significant consequences, while we get our books in on schedule only to have the distributor sit on them for weeks on end, reinforcing the stereotypical image of the flaky independent comic creators who can’t keep their promises.
Obviously, I’m frustrated, and growing more so with each passing day.
Andrew Foley
DONE TO DEATH Diamond Order Codes
#1: May06 3281
#2: Jun06 3248
#3: Jul06 3305
#4: Aug06 3443
#5: Sep06 3452
Retailers can order DONE TO DEATH and all Markosia titles at a discount direct from the publisher. Please contact chuck@markosia-enterprises.com for more information.
Readers can order DONE TO DEATH and all Markosia titles direct from Markosia’s online store: http://www.markosia.org.uk/comic/m-shop.htm
October 5th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
We ceartainly didn’t mean for retailers to get dumped on with a lot of books. That was not our decision. If you check my previous posts, you’ll see I saw that coming and addressed it, Sir. Again, Markosia is sorry for the problems, but they are simply out of our control.
Every store I have checked with did NOT receive our books yesterday. I have sent a letter of inquiry to Diamond and am awaiting a response.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Oops…please don’t take my ramblings as speaking for MacGuffin. What I expressed here…as a customer of that shop…is in no way meant to speak for Sam Hobart.
Personally, though, I think Diamond is abusing its place as a virtual monopoly to screw with smaller publishers who offer to sell directly to retailers or some other thing they might have against a publisher like Markosia.