Bully the comic-loving bull has more reports from the BookExpo America; check out his day two and day three reports. On day three, he chatted with BOOM! Studios’ Ross Ritchie, and after seeing BOOM!’s sales sheets, he concluded that Ritchie is a guy who “gets it”:
There’s a lot of information on these sell sheets, and it’s exactly the sort of information I didn’t see Marvel offering visitors to its booth: sales handles and selling points, marketing, descriptions, comparables, author biographies, and full book descriptions: absolutely everything a bookstore buyer or manager needs to get up to speed on a Boom! trade paperback. Ross also showed me an advance copy of the second Hero Squared trade paperback, which was beautifully done: great trim size (6″ x 9″), excellent price point ($14.99), beautiful color and intriguing back cover copy. Boom! also is now distributed to the bookstore trade by publisher Perseus, a smart move which will increase Boom!’s presence in bricks-and-mortar chain and independent and internet booksellers…exactly the audience who is attending BEA. I don’t care for every single one of Boom!’s comics, but I’m exceptionally impressed by their business plan and BEA presence, and I wish Ross and company all the best. I think that he “gets” it in ways some bigger companies…and I’m not even talking specifically comic companies…don’t. And that, as I like to say, is a very Good Thing. In the end, it’s what makes BEA worthwhile: not just the parties, not just the freebies, not even the chance to see Stephen Colbert…but a great place to meet bookstore managers and buyers and promote and sell your books. Getting a wider and more extensive range of graphic novels into general trade bookstores is definitely a good thing, and that’s what BEA is all about.
The Beat and Colleen Doran also have reports up.
