There’s something about the Engine that apparently helps interesting news to leak out. Take, for example, this thread that ends up being about what Image does to help its creators. Matt Fraction, you start:
I’m a little boggled that image doesn’t do any better if my books there do better, that their piece remains fixed whether it’s FELL, WALKING DEAD, CASANOVA or TEXAS STRANGERS; it seems both fair and equitable to both of us that a high tide raise both our ships. But, you know, what do i know?
Heidi MacDonald’s response:
I hear this is in the works.
Tom Spurgeon’s response, on behalf of many others:
Whoa.
So, is the Image business model about to change…? And if so, for the better or worse…? Later in the thread, Rich Starkings gives some more background info about Image:
IMAGE do do better if the book does better — because Erik and Eric started realizing that the trade market was where the money was a long time ago and raised IMAGE’s cut on collections… GØDLAND sells between 4 and 5,000 singles each month but the first trade has sold in excess of 7,000 copies. Numbers on books like INVINCIBLE and WALKING DEAD are way higher and once you have four or five trades under your belt your single numbers rise and your income is generated not by monthly profits on singles alone but your biannual accrual checks. Just a few years ago IMAGE would have killed GØDLAND on its single sales, but healthy interest in the trades has given it the life it deserves.
Much more in the link, so go and read.
