Well, that didn’t last long. A couple of days after announcing that it wouldn’t be reprinting Saga #7, nor any other single issue that it believed had been under-ordered by retailers originally, Image Comics announces a reprint of Saga #7:
Image has reversed its no-reprint decision on Saga #7 and will be offering the second printing at promotional discounts to encourage bigger orders, Image publisher Eric Stephenson announced today. Retailers ordering over 25 copies of the second printing will receive an 80% discount, and orders under that quantity will receive the normal max discount on Image titles. Stephenson also said that if Saga #8, which has already passed the Final Order Cut-off Date, also sells out, it will also be reprinted.
If this sounds like a complete reversal based upon the reaction of retailers to the initial announcement… Well, it is:
He apologized for the tone of the original announcement that reprints would be curtailed. “For those of you who found the tone of that newsletter condescending or abrasive–you have my apologies. In communicating my frustrations to Jen, that inadvertently got passed down to you, and that shouldn’t have been the case.” He also apologized for the lack of notice on the new policy. “We also should have given you more of a heads up on how we were handling this, so that you weren’t completely blindsided by a sudden change in policy and again, that’s on me,” Stephenson said.
December 14th, 2012 at 8:52 am
Any retailer that is using second printings to meet the predictable demand for a book in their store is simply doing it wrong and deserves to sell out and miss sales. If you don’t have enough copies of a book to sell, you are driving customers away, either to other stores, or, increasingly more likely, digital.
That enough retailers apparently can’t figure out how to order and then blame Image for that says a lot about the state of comic book retail. That Image would instantly cave in says a lot about them.
December 14th, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Ordering is such a crapshoot with comics in retail… I get why (although I’d disagree from personal evaluation) some retailers might drop orders on something like Saga in theory. The book finished its first arc. It then took a couple months off. The book had rising numbers, which is great, and yes, some people might come in to try it based on reading it in the trade. But then a lot of those people might also just wait for the next trade (a popular concept). And some people may make it through arc one and decide, then, the books not for them (so unlikely with a book this good, but it can, and does, happen). And the time jump in-between issues six to seven can get a book to drop off readers, and even retailers, radars.
I’m very grateful that none of this seems to be really affecting Saga’s demand. Love the book. Buy the single issues for myself, and I’m buying the trades for a friend. But all those factors I mentioned, and a two-to-three month ordering window, it adds up to uncertainty for an uncertain business.
In the end, my respect for Eric Stephenson as a publisher (already looked up to him in a big way as a creator) just grows and grows. Everything he talks about, everything he puts out and does, it comes across that he just wants to make (or help make) the best comics possible, and he truly values the retailers in their part of that. Where other companies seem to go against retailers at nearly every turn these days, treating them with limited respect, and breaking promises made, Image is one of the ones that still treats them with value. Eric could’ve stuck to his guns on this. He made a solid case as to why he was making the change. But he turned around based on reaction for the retailers, how much it would affect them. Maybe Eric’s plan was the right way to go. It’s possible. But he wants to work with his partners in the field, and that speaks volumes to me about him and Image as a company. If I was a retailer in charge of ordering, I’d be very encouraged to support them and their product in return.
December 14th, 2012 at 11:56 pm
Any publisher who can’t come up a print to meet predictable demand deserves to miss out on sales opportunities. They shouldn’t blame retailers for their own lack of faith in their product. This was issue 7, Image had just as much information to accurately estimate demand for Saga #7. And they had just as much historical data to estimate a print run that would meet demand for Saga #1. If Image doesn’t want to cough up the dough to do print runs to meet the overwhelming demand that they claim exist for their books, don’t expect anyone to do the same, especially not retailers. The retailers’ risk and reward is not the same as Image’s risk and reward. And to say otherwise betrays your lack of understanding of how this industry works and the true dynamics of forecasting in this industry.
December 15th, 2012 at 12:02 am
Eric Stephenson apologized for how the matter was handled and that is great but his case was anything but solid precisely because estimating demand in the comic book industry is a crapshoot. Why is it a crapshoot? There are no sell-through numbers. Period. Even the sell-in numbers are estimates. When you are operating with not less than perfect information but imperfect information, I find it amazing that so many people believe the retailers should somehow better equipped to estimate demand in this industry than the publishers who sell the product and have access to more perfect information. If the direct market ever goes under, you all are going to miss these guys when they’re gone. Based on that press release, Image ought to have the balls to do more than second printings, they need to do larger intial print runs. Show the same faith in your own product that you demand of others.
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