Coming in November from Image Comics is the Chew: Taster’s Choice trade paperback. Ordinarily, a collected edition being rushed off the presses a little quicker than usual because of high sales numbers on the floppies wouldn’t be all that interesting–but in the case of Chew, arguably Image’s most successful new title launch since The Walking Dead, the solicitation also touts a “special introductory price.” The paperback, collecting five issues of the comic, is $9.99, which means that even after tax many direct-market customers will pay less than $10 for the book once their discounts are factored in.
Given that Boom! Studios’ most popular non-licensed title right now, Mark Waid’s Irredeemable, got a similar $9.99 treatment for a four-issue collection (along with the simultaneous release and 99-cent price point for the series’ fifth issue), one has to wonder if publishers besides Marvel and DC are seeing smaller price tags on the first trade as a good way to hook potential new readers. Given the serial nature of comics, it’s a well-known phenomenon that readers will stick with books for long periods of time, because of a relationship they develop the the characters or creators. For many books, the secret is just getting those fans to open up their first issue in the first place. Once they’ve done so, books that remain good for long periods of time–like Starman, Preacher or The Walking Dead–develop substantial cult followings and have potential for licensing and longevity that’s rarely matched in the creator-owned or non-Superman/Batman/X-Men market.
What do you think? Would a $10 price tag make books like The Life and Times of Savior 28, The Perhapanauts or Jennifer’s Body more attractive? Discounting your personal preferences (I think we’d all like to pay less for our books), do you think a lower price point will be an effective selling tool for some of the more obscure titles? And if it catches on, what “Big Two” titles would benefit from a discounted rate on the first trade just to convince people to try them? I’m thinking $9.99 volumes would be a great strategy for marketing the collected editions of DC’s new “second feature” titles.
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Price was definitely a factor in getting me to pick up Dynamo 5 and Irredeemable. And yes, I’ll probably try Chew given the price point as well.
Given the rising price of singles, I’m becoming more and more drawn to high-value items. Yesterday I got the first Noble Causes Archive — twenty bucks for almost six hundred pages. I like knowing that I get more for my entertainment dollar, especially on these kind of high-quality projects.
-J
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Doesn’t Vertigo already do this? Or is that just for Brian Wood titles (Northlanders, DMZ)?
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Vertigo’s been offering the first collections of their new series at $9.99 for a while now, and it’s a great idea. It’s definitely gotten me to pick up a couple of books I otherwise might have passed by.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I’ve bought the first volume of most recent Vertigo series in large part because of the $10 price point; some of them would have been great deals for even so-so comics ($10 got me 8 issues of “Northlanders”, which was far better than mediocre!).
It seems like a no-brainer; I suspect the reason that it’s not common practice outside of Vertigo and things that became hits quickly is that publishers are afraid that more people will do like I do with Vertigo: Hold off my sampling until the first collection, hardly attractive if you’re looking to make money off the single issues, or, worse, use their sales as some sort of barometer of the title’s success.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
You know, the funny thing is that because I read DMZ and Northlanders in singles, the only Vertigo trades I’ve bought recently have been YOUNG LIARS and the TRANSMET and Y: THE LAST MAN reprints. So I never made the connection that it was a strategic thing, and just thought that YOUNG LIARS was cheap.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
It has definitely worked on me in the past, so I’m happy to see promos like this. It will likely get me to pick up Chew.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
The Walking Dead was the first one that I saw doing this, with the first Trade for $9.99.
Top Cow has been offering the first Trades of Ron Marx’s 6 issues of Witchblade for $9.99 and the first 6-issues of Phil Hester’s Darkness for $9.99 too.
But all of these are expensive when compared to Madame Xanadu’s 1st Trade, collecting 10 issues for $12.99.
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
The great word-of-mouth grabbed my attention, but it was the price that convinced me to ask my Comic Book Guy to get me a copy of the Unknown Soilder trade…
Price is a huge factor.
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Price is definitely a factor. I mean, a higher priced one would make me think 4x before buying it but if it is cheaper, then I only need to think 2x before purchasing a copy.
September 4th, 2009 at 6:33 am
Madame Xanadu was relatively cheap for a 10 issue collection. And DC started off their Showcase line of reprints with an introductory price of $9.99.
Cheers,
B
September 4th, 2009 at 6:37 am
$10 first trades seem to be a good way to hook people – like a lot here, I tend to try out Vertigo trades, and that’s how I get hooked.
As far as the DC back up material, I’m still not convinced a lot will ever be traded if it doesn’t arc back to the main feature (like Blue Beetle/Booster Gold, Captain Atom/Action and Ravager/Teen Titans). Even at $10, how many 8 page segments would need to be collected to get to even a 4 issue trade equivalent? About 12? I can’t imagine one trade per year of a series would be attractive to buyers.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:07 am
@Rich – I fully disagree with ONLY the last part of what you said. While I’m not certain we’ll ever see that stuff collected, I think one trade per year could be a really appealing formula for casual readers–especially if they’re turned around a little faster than the average trade so that you know it’s once a year, around the same time, you’ll always get your book. It never bothered the HARRY POTTER people.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I am a HUGE supporter of the low priced first trade. I pretty much get every first trade of a new Vertigo book, even if it’s not interesting to me on the face of it. I’m always looking for something new and only having to spend $10 (or significantly less, with online discounts) makes it easier to do so. Sometimes it works out very well (I love Scalped and Unknown Soldier) and sometimes it doesn’t (neither Air nor Dynamo 5 did anything for me), but in neither instance do I feel like I wasted money because I tried something new. I will be checking out Chew, that’s for sure.
Marvel, of course, doesn’t do this ever. In fact, they often do the opposite. Case in point: the Captain Britain and MI13 vol. 1 trade, collecting four issues (plus two reprints of earlier CB appearances – Sarcastic Yippee!) initially cost $17.99 ($4.50 per issue, not counting the reprints). They subsequently changed their minds and decided to charge ONLY $15.99 ($3.99 per issue, again not counting the reprints).
I guess when you’re the Top Dog publisher, you can afford to act like a bully.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:23 am
@Matt Halteman – I’ve actually been wondering, since the comics TPB market has its own specialized pricing, if we’ll see the Disney acquisition change anything. You know, bring the prices of Marvel’s trades more into line with the pricing on Disney Publishing’s children’s books. I’m sure if it happens it’ll be a long-term thing.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:53 am
It works on me–I’ve sampled a number of Vertigo books for the lower price (and am currently following four, all in trades) and Dynamo 5 (still buying it). The $5 Witchblade collection I only bought to see what early Mike Choi art looked like, but in many cases, it’s a successful tactic.
Inexplicably high pricing on the first trade has stopped me from buying series, like with Matt Halteman’s example, Captain Britain and MI13.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:26 am
@AO – thanks for mentioning the Witchblade and Darkness trades, which you can actually get the 1st volumes for only $4.99 at your LCS. They are priced $9.99 for the mass market (still a good price for a full color 6 issue trade).
We’ve definitely seen a positive impact from the introductory priced trades both in people buying those first volumes and then picking up later full priced volumes.
Take care,
Filip Sablik
Publisher, Top Cow Productions
It will change the world.
http://www.getthejett.com
September 4th, 2009 at 10:31 am
@Filip: Yeah, I’m a cheap bastard myself, but love Ron Marz, so knowing that will allow me to get around to finally checking out those books.
September 4th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I for one REALLY want the Blue Beetle backup stories collected into trade. The available Blue Beetle trades are VERY popular in public libraries – with the teen readers.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:59 am
@ Filip Sablik,
You’re very welcome, though I am sorry that I wasn’t aware if the $4.99 price, obviously that is even better. TPB’s aren’t my specialty though, I’ve been buying both titles by the singles since the start. I just recalled that they were available for a very good bargain.
@ Russ Burlingame,
Imo, as someone who has been buying Witchblade since #1, then under Ron Marz the title has never been better. Much better than the majority of Marvel and DC’s releases (and I’m not just saying that, I actually do read most of Marvel and DC’s releases every month). No pressure though.
September 5th, 2009 at 8:44 am
@AO – I don’t doubt it; I love Ron. I’m just really cheap. And moreso since I started writing for Comic Related and Newsarama; if I don’t get a comp copy of most things, I won’t give it a chance, because I’m spoiled by free review copies of things in addition to being both broke AND cheap.