Years ago, in a middle school science class, I remember learning about the concept of Simple Machines, and how there were only a limited number of mechanical “components” which basically made up every mechanical device Man has ever built. As a homework assignment, we were given a sheet which both explained and gave a very generic representation of what that “machine” looked like and how it functioned and we were given a task- go home and find a mechanical device that worked using machines not on the list. All of us took the challenge and wandered around our houses looking for devices that didn’t use one of the machines on the list to function. The next time we were in class, we all came in with a handful of items we were SURE had some “new” device which made them work- one by one, our science teacher shot our devices down as he explained that those simple machines in combination were actually at work in every case. The whole exercise was designed to teach us one principal- that no matter how big or complex something may look, underneath there are usually simple ideas and processes making it work…

Today’s Lesson in Failure is: Even When You Know, The Battle Still Has Another Half.

In the world of comic books, there are two basic models of getting your books into the hands of the public- you can either sell the books directly to someone (commonly known as Retail Sales) or you can sell your books to someone who will then re-sell your books to the public (known as Wholesale). While there are quite a few variations and wrinkles to both Retail and Wholesale models of sales, just like in the world of Simple Machines, there are only a handful of base concepts which make up the Sales world.

Any discussion on Selling your Comics needs to start with acknowledging the direct selling of Comics to Fans- the underlying mechanism of doing this is as simplistic as you can imagine, in that you make a product directly available to the end user. In doing so, you take in the full cover price of your Comic during the transaction and you directly service the Comic Fan by giving them your book in exchange. While that aspect of sales has it’s pros and cons, most Comics (and most products in general) are sold Wholesale to a Retailer who then re-sells them.

What most people getting into Comics for the first time don’t realize, however, is that on the basic level, selling your Comics Wholesale isn’t any more complicated IN THEORY as selling your comics direct. While, from a taxation and legal standpoint, the Government looks very differently at Wholesale and Retail sales, the underlying mechanism is the same- the person who makes a product sells that product to someone, but in the Wholesale case that person will buy that product at a discount with the intent of re-selling it to a customer at full price or below. While that is pretty straight forward, there are a few options in the Wholesale Comics world which can be a little confusing- mostly because the average person doesn’t know that options are available at all.
 
The reason I say that, is that distribution of Comics to the Comics Retail business has become a virtual monopoly in recent years, with most of the major Comics distributers either going out of business or being swallowed up by Diamond. Yes, believe it or not, there was a day when Diamond wasn’t the only game in town- in fact, depending on what area of the Country you were in, your local shop may not have dealt with Diamond at ALL!

Without getting into the politics of that or sidetracking endlessly on whether or not that is a good or bad thing, I think we need to discuss the situation for what it is. Fact- the overwhelming majority of Comic Shops in the US get most or all of their comics from Diamond. Fact- Diamond is a company that, like any other successful company, is looking to make a profit. Fact- They have rules and guidelines as far as what they will take. What that adds up to is simple- if you want your book to be offered to just about every Comic Shop in the US as something they could order through Diamond, you have to play by Diamond’s rules. As “unfair” as that sounds, it’s their company- when you run your own company, you can run it how you think things should be and you will quickly find that the more people you deal with the more likely someone won’t like something you are doing.

On the other hand, you as an Indy Comic’s person needs to understand 2 things- A) What playing by Diamond’s rules actually means and B) That there ARE other options.

Before I go into the ever tantalizing Letter “B,” I want to discuss briefly what some of Diamond’s “rules” are. I say some because everything I am about to say is common knowledge- to get all the minutiae of what it will take to get your book distributed through Diamond you need to contact them, and if they are interested in carrying your book, get a contract from them. (In a spirit of full disclosure, I do want to say that nothing Blacklist Studios has produced has been distributed through Diamond and we have no immediate plans for doing so.)

What are Diamond’s rules? First off, you need to go into things realizing that Diamond will pay you a MAXIMUM of 40% of your cover price per issue. Why so little? To understand that, you need to look at the “simple machine” of Wholesale again. In the case of Wholesale, the intention is to end up selling a product at the same base price no matter which store you go to. If the “suggested” base price was also the price a store paid for that item, they wouldn’t make any money. And remember Waaaaaay back when I told you how to price your Comics, when I explained that the minimum target was to double your cost? That concept is what Comic Shops operate under as well. If they pay $1.50 for a book, they need to charge at least $3.00 for it, so Diamond has to pay you LESS than $1.50 for the same book. And keep in mind- 40% is the MOST you’ll get from Diamond. They may pay you less. How much less? How is that determined? I could toss out information I have gleaned from talking to other creators, but that would be hearsay. All I can say is that 40% is the most you will get from them, and you need to find out the specifics as they apply to YOU by contacting Diamond and asking.

That isn’t the only “rule” you will have to contend with using Diamond- there is also the matter of their minimum order. What “minimum order” means in the context of Diamond is that the announced last year that they would refuse any order which invoiced from them to a publisher that was less than $2500. How does that break down? Say your comic has a $3.00 cover price and Diamond pays you the maximum 40% of that ($1.20 a copy)- that would mean you would have to sell at least 2084 copies to meet this requirement. While to some that number might not seem very high, a good number of established Indy books have already been cancelled because of the new minimum and a good deal more books have decided not to work with Diamond at all because of it. Also keep in mind that you need to PRINT that many books, which means you have to front the cash for those books while you wait to be paid by Diamond. And that brings up another issue- IF you can live with 40% (or less) AND can Print and sell enough copies to meet the minimum, you also need to know that you have to pay to have your books shipped to Diamond’s warehouse, and that you can expect extended terms on being paid by them…

You may ask, “What is the “bright side” in using Diamond?” There is one thing, and that thing is a BIG thing- As mentioned earlier, Diamond is the one distributor that sells to almost all comic shops in the US and a good number of those shops ONLY buy books from Diamond. That means that if you want the POTENTIAL of your book being carried in every Comic Shop in the US, then Diamond is the way to go. I stress “Potential,” however, because you need to understand that just because a book is in Diamond’s catalogue, doesn’t mean a shop will order it. As I mentioned in last week’s 2 part Failure extravaganza, Retailers need reasons to order a book and you need them to Pimp your book for it to become successful… Meaning that you may go through all the effort and not have orders to show for it and your book will get cancelled anyway.

Is it “worth it?”

Can’t say. It wasn’t worth it for Blacklist. It may be for you- that’s up to you to decide.

Now on to the infamous Part “B”- What ARE the options if you don’t go through Diamond? As I see it, there are 3 main alternatives. You can use a smaller Distributer, you can hire someone to Pimp your books to Stores as a salesman for you and you can become your own Pimp and contact stores directly.

When it comes to smaller Distributors, there are a few that have sprung up in recent years to fill the gaps that Diamond wasn’t reaching, most notably Haven. While I can’t speak for anyone else’s experience, I do know that when I was contacted by Haven back when Robot 13 first came out we were made an offer than was roughly equal to Diamond but without the order minimum. Again, I can’t say how much (if any) room for negotiation they have or if other small distributors have more flexibility or offer different deals. What I can say is that the target for Retailers is paying a maximum of 50% of cover, so there is only so much that can be done in terms of how much you will be paid.

Again- Should YOU use a smaller Distributor? They are a viable option and many Indy creators do use them and seem to do well. My advice is to contact the Distributor in question and get information in writing from them and use that to base your decision.

If you aren’t going to use a Distributor, or if you want to supplement using one, then your other viable option is to deal directly with individual stores. That can be done either by hiring a salesperson on commission and having them Pimp your books on your behalf or you can try doing that yourself. In either case, the benefit you have is the personal touch of having someone speak directly about YOUR book with the person who orders for a particular store. Depending on who is giving that pitch, it can be exponentially more influential than being in any catalogue. Also, in going direct to a store, you usually will get a better deal at the end of the day monetarily than you will with any distributor because you eliminate the middle man. The down side to doing things that way, however, is that there are only so many stores willing to buy direct and you can only deal with just so many of those personally because there are only 24 hours in a day. Blacklist does the bulk of it’s business through this type of selling- about 70% are sold though a commission salesman and the rest of the stores deal directly with me. While it IS a lot of work and is time consuming, it is definitely a viable option ESPECIALLY to anyone doing Indy Comics on a small “startup” scale.

But then again- you could always start out the way we did with Blacklist. To be 1000% honest, we thought everything through from the beginning except how we would sell our books to stores. Sure, we eliminated Diamond as an option right off the bat, but we had no real plan. What ended up happening was a series of happy accidents putting us in contact with stores who wanted our book and with a commission salesman who was interested in selling our books to his existing accounts. But things just as easily could have gone the other way and I’d have an apartment filled with books instead of a series that has done well for itself. Forgetting the other half of the battle, the HARD WORK half, could have lost the battle AND the war. Thankfully it didn’t, but knowing that it could have shows how close failure and success are to each other…

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