Happy November!

Yeah, I know I am a couple days late, but I am happy to be past the election. Random thoughts this morning:

A Marvel Digital Comics Online person recently referred to actual comics books as "dead tree editions" in comparison to the online versions. This was in a Comic Book Resources article and has clumsily been edited out, but it certainly shows Marvels direction and maybe some of their ambivalence to the Direct Market (ie Comic Book Stores). I'm sure that there has been a lot of research done to show that this is the wave of the future, and of course I am very biased, but I just don't see it. I don't see all of the people who currently buy comics suddenly switching to reading them on their computer or on a fancy handheld device. Some of the hip kids who have every gadget known to man, sure. And supposedly there are already tons of people illegally downloading them. So there is a market. But is it a viable market? Are those people reading for free suddenly going to start paying? Or maybe one will pay and then send them out to their friends anyway.

There aren't that many comic stores out there. Under 3000 according to the last thing I read. These stores have been out on the front line, taking the heat for Marvel's publishing woes. Late books and bad books get blamed on the stores. The customers know its not our fault, but they can't complain to Marvel. So how does Marvel thank the retailers for being there, ordering and promoting their products? They decide to cut us out of the loop and deal directly with the readers. I can understand their thinking, but not their understanding.

Back in the early 90s, Marvel decided to eliminate the middleman in the distribution area. Why pay some other companies (yes, there used to be more than one distributor) to get their books out to the stores. So Marvel went exclusive with Heroes World and it was a disaster and nearly killed the comic book business. Marvels bankruptcy was partially a result of this decision.

I understand their thinking of cutting out the middleman, but not theeir understanding of what all was involved and what the repurcsussions would be. I was getting ready to open my store at this time and had to setp back, not because of the potential distribution problem, but because I would be getting my product from 2 sources. At the time, discount was based on the total order amount. Cutting that by a third would decrease my discount from both distributors and I was not certain I could make it with the loss of money. Marvel didn't think it through completely for everyone involved. Maybe its my lawyer training to look at both sides of the issue.

Right now Marvel is looking at saving printing and shipping fees by eliminating that part of their business. And, sure, it looks great. "I can eliminate 25% of our publishing expenses." But you again have to look at the entirety of it. Are they going to make the same amount of money from just publishing online? They are still going to have the talent fees, editorial fee and everything else involved with putting out a comic, just not the printing expenses. But is the monthly subscription fee going to cover all of this? They are in a tough position right now. Their online thing won't take off until they put the books online at the same time as the new books hit the stores. But when they do this, they will lose the business in the stores. While I would still carry the books, I would make no effort to support the books. I'd order just enough to sell out quickly and I would be pushing everybody else. Why would I help support my biggest competitor? And presumably Marvel would stop publishing actual "dead tree editions" and go exclusively online. And then went the novelty of the online thing wears off, I doubt that the stores that are left would be very receptive of Marvel coming back.

People have been bemoaning the downfall of the Direct Market for years. "The should go to a Graphic Novel only format and get rid of monthly comics." "The bookstore model is the way to go." Well, last I looked, bookstores aren't doing too well right now. From a Grand Rapid Press Article in May: "Borders is in the midst of a turnaround plan aimed at returning the company to profitability after reporting two straight years of more than $150 million losses."

Now a large part of this is lost sales to online sellers like Amazon.com. And recently Marvel had an ad in every one of their books for an online discount service. Now I understand that full page advertisers are hard to come by rigth now and that defrays a part of their publishing costs, but it was a bit annoying having Marvel actively promote my competition is frustrating. It would be like the inside cover of every books saying "You could have bought this for less at Amazon.com" Or the back cover of every CD saying "You could have downloaded this for half of what you paid."

The other, very confusing part of it is this: Marvel sets the price for their books. I don't have a choice on what to sell the books for. Right on the cover. And now Marvel is trying to dictate that I sell their product for less than that. If they think the price is too high, they should lower it, not point my customers to someone who has no overhead and takes no stock position on their product and is simply an order taker.

More to come