Diamond and the Small Press Situation

The more I think about the whole Diamond restructuring order minimums thing, the more I think it will help me in the long run. Instead of just blindly ordering from the publishers in the Diamond previews catalog, I am going to have to look on the web for more information about the different companies. I am already getting set up with a small press distributor and there is another that I need to look at more closely.

Now will it hurt these publishers, at least initially. Sure. They are going to lose a large chunk of the people who may order their books. But I know there a lot of stores that don’t even bother with back of the Previews stuff anyway. I love that stuff. It’s what makes me different from the grocery store.

The thought of having to keep track of multiple orders from multiple distributors at first seems like a big hassle, but hopefully it will end up making me more organized. (And hopefully my new POS system will do some of the work for me as well)

The funny part, for me, is that Diamond had this ginormous “monopoly”. (I don’t think it is legally a monopoly, under the true definition) There was literally no reason to get your books anywhere else. They had the big companies (Marvel, DC) and you could get all of the rest there. But recently, stores have been going through book distributors to get graphic novels that Diamond was spotty about keeping in stock. Or at a better discount than Diamond was offering. And I have recently had to go direct through the publishers to get some books that Diamond was not restocking, or stocking at all in the case of hack Slash. I am opening an account with Haven Distribution. They have some books in stock that I have had on back order with Diamond for a long time. Now, their list of publishers is pretty small right now, but I sure expect that to grow in the near future.

I realize that Diamond was losing money on some of these publishers. I just question the 70% jump from in publisher order requirements. Seems awful big all at once. But maybe this is the kick in the butt those publishers needed to make changes to improve themselves and the industry as a whole. Who knows, maybe this will even help the entire distribution chain in the long run.

It is definitely making for interesting times.