Image Comics wants retailers to go bigger on initial orders for books:
We have decided to cease second printings of single issues of titles that are known over-performers in hopes that it will help initial sales find their proper level. That’s marketing-speak for “You know this sells, so you’d better make sure you order enough!”This isn’t meant as a punishment or some weird scheme to drive up prices of single issues on eBay. The weeks of delay in waiting for the second printing cost you sales. Knowing you can count on reprintings has encouraged caution when none is called for, and that hurts you as much as it does us.
I find myself torn on this. On the one hand, framing it, as Image’s email does, in the example of Saga – which is on #7 and a proven hit – makes a lot of sense to me. The demand for this series is proven, and I’m sure orders can be bumped up at least a little to meet demand the first time around. So, you know, sure. But then the announcement suggests three books that retailers should consider bumping their numbers, and they’re all second issues:
CHANGE #2 — Orders presently are 38% lower than orders for the debut issue. If you haven’t read CHANGE #1 yet, please give it a look. Its writer Ales Kot had a breakout hit with WILD CHILDREN this year, and CHANGE taps into the same sensibility.
THE LEGEND OF LUTHER STRODE #2 — Orders are 21% less than orders for #1, which has sold out. This is a known seller by creators whose traction in the industry is growing — Justin Jordan, who also writes Shadowman for Valiant and Tradd Moore, who has drawn a variant Deadpool cover for Marvel and a story in the digital Legends of the Dark Knight for DC.
NON-HUMANS #2 — I know. It’s late, and lateness is a death knell for sales numbers. But! This is the return to Image by Whilce Portacio, and a 33% drop in orders seems a mite steep, considering that NON-HUMANS #1 sold out.
They’re second issues! There isn’t the sales pattern for these books that there is for Saga, and in one case – Change – the first issue hasn’t even been released yet (It’s out today), so retailers don’t have any real idea what sales are like. How do any of these titles meet Image’s own criteria as “known over-performers” with only one issue (or less) of sales to go on? What if that issue was a fluke?
December 12th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Image is making itself into the new Vertigo, outside of Fatale, why wouldn’t you just wait for trades? If they want more single issue sales, they should follow the Fatale route and give you something you can’t get in the trades.
December 12th, 2012 at 11:45 am
You mean like the letters column in the single issues of Saga that aren’t/won’t be reprinted in the TPB?
December 12th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
“in the example of Saga – which is on #7 and a proven hit – makes a lot of sense to me. The demand for this series is proven, and I’m sure orders can be bumped up at least a little to meet demand the first time around.”
It certainly appears that they did — SAGA #6 sold a reported 40,584 copies, while #7 sold a reported 46,971 copies — about a 16% increase. Data is here:http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/1850.html. #7 is Nov ’12, #6 is Aug ’12
When Jennifer complains about a 4% drop on #8, math would suggest that this, as well, would be over 10% on #6 as well.
(SAGA #8 is *effectively* “arc #2, ISSUE #2″ — a mere 4% drop for a second issue is PHENOMENAL)
Also: SAGA is (at least here) breaking a lot of rules right now — I’ve been selling since the day of release an average of 1.1 copies of the TP each and every day. That simply doesn’t happen — even WALKING DEAD doesn’t sell that explosively here.
-B
December 12th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
If all the exclusive content you have to offer single issue buyers are letter columns (which is also the case with all Marvel and DC comics), then don’t complain when people buy more trades, especially when the trade for an arc comes out the month after the last issue of the arc.
December 12th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
If I ran a comic shop, that snotty announcement would prompt me to order one extra copy and hang it up as toilet paper.
December 13th, 2012 at 3:37 am
I wouldn’t consider Luthor Strode to be a new property.
December 13th, 2012 at 3:40 am
The demand for this series is proven, and I’m sure orders can be bumped up at least a little to meet demand the first time around.
December 13th, 2012 at 7:55 am
I would point to the reply by Mr. Hibbs. Retailers did account for Saga’s popularity, despite the hiatus, and you have to regard #8 as issue #2 of a new arc, series, whatever. This statement just reflects Image’s displeasure at the fact that Saga has a Direct Market audience of 40,000 readers. They want more orders, try some persuasive advertising to the rest of the consuming public.
BTW, if one more publisher or creator tells me or a retailer or to “believe” in or “support” this industry when they won’t do it themselves, I’m going to gag. You are selling a commercial people, you want more customers, advertise. Other than that, it is what it is. Ms. Guzman’s “Field of Dreams” marketing tactic of “If you order it, they will come…” betrays that something is going on at Image (and this industry at large) that none of us really wants to know about.
December 13th, 2012 at 7:57 am
It should read “You are selling a commercial product, people, you want more customers, advertise.”
December 13th, 2012 at 11:37 am
If your shop can’t figure out how many copies of Saga to sell by issue #7, then your shop deserves to be scolded by the publisher.
December 13th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
I’m sorry but I’ve spoken to publishers who are not Marvel or DC, they know or can make a reasonable guess about print runs. If Image doesn’t want to overprint because of the risk involved, then they should say so. Oh wait, that’s exactly what Eric Stephenson said they do and why. They are clearly afraid of having the same “belief” in their product that they want retailers to have, and it’s easy for them to ask the retailers to take on more of the risk because they share in none of it. If Saga #7 sold 46,000+ copies, Image got paid for each and every copy sold, the same can’t be said for retailers. If Image wants retailers to act as their defacto sales force, pay them a commission or something, but don’t create the false equivalency that Stephenson creates between publisher and retailer. The risk is not the same and the reward is not the same. That’s the whole point of the direct market and why publishers love it so much. Publishers who can’t adjust their print runs to exceed retailer orders in anticipation of perceived consumer demand should be equally scolded. They suffer from the same deficits, whatever they may be. Stephenson and Guzman miss the point that whatever complaints they lob at retailers can be made about them. The point is they want others to do as they say but not as they do.
December 13th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Stephenson said that for second printings of Saga #1, they doubled what they normally do for a second printing and the actual demand was not even half of the print run. Here’s a hint. Let’s say the demand was 25% of that second printing. Since you doubled your typical second print run, take 50% of what you normally do for a second printing and print by that much more in the future for your initial print runs. But that would mean more math for Ms. Guzman and company.
The point is publishers who are not Marvel and DC can figure out retailer ordering patterns, and thus consumer demand, the same way retailers can figure out consumer purchasing patterns…by observation. Once you observe a pattern, have the guts to make an educated, risky guess. If you can’t, then you shouldn’t be publishing.
December 13th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
I presume that’s the same Eric Stephenson who a couple of years ago wrote a remarkably arrogant and offensive piece about going into a comic-and-other-stuff shop that didn’t have some Image book. Funny to see him climb down so fast over this.
December 13th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
@”I presume that’s the same Eric Stephenson who a couple of years ago wrote a remarkably arrogant and offensive piece about going into a comic-and-other-stuff shop that didn’t have some Image book. Funny to see him climb down so fast over this.”
Yep.