Publishers, Why Do You Hate Yourselves?

This weeks shipment is a massive one. About double the number of titles shipping as usual. Now the months are usually heavy at the end. In order to not be late, the books must ship sometime during the calendar month, so the end of the month is normally heavier than the rest. This one just happens to be exceptionally heavy. The problem I have with this practice is that, while I can expect it, it really hurts the smaller titles.

Lets look at Marvel. Along with big books like X-Force, Hulk, Fantastic Four, New Avengers, Punisher and Secret Warriors, they are also shipping a bunch of their mid-level titles, like Nova, Incredible Hercules, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers Initiative. And throw in 2 Dark Reign List one-shots (sure wouldn't want to space those out weekly...) 3 Wolverine books and the kick -off of the next X-Men storyline (X Necrosha). Plus 2 of the 3 Ultimate Comics titles. Then they think that the small titles like Spider-Man Clone Wars, Anti-Venom Models Inc and Marvel Holiday Spectacular will have a chance. Even the most devout Marvelite isn't going to be able to pick up all of their books this week. So what get dropped? Its easy to say people will just pick the books they can't this week during a slower week, but it doesn't work out that way. People will make a decision this week to stop getting certain books. Its going to be those books that they really aren't enjoying. Or that are in a storyline that they don't care about. Where they would normally keep getting it out of habit, Marvel has helped them make the decision to stop getting it. So, how does this help anyone involved? The head of Marvel sales, when confronted with this problem, continuously states that the schedule is set evenly, but some books get behind. Since it happens just about every month, you'd think they could adjust for that.

DC is no better, shipping both Blackest Night and Green Lantern the same week. The main story is going through 3 books. There is really no reason for 2 of them to come out the same week. Plus we are getting Detective, Batman and Superman all the same week. I remember back when I was getting ready to open and DC would schedule Superman, Action, Detective and Batman for separate weeks. 3 in one week is crazy. Space them out over the month, please.

The other thing that frustrates me from all of the publishers is late books. The last issue of Kick Ass was so late that people have given up. I sold 17 less copies of #7 than I did of #6. How can I plan for that? Had the book shipped on a regular schedule, that wouldn't have happened. And to make things more fun, Marvel has manipulated the system so that these books are not technically late, so I don't have the ability to return unsold books. DC, while playing with the same system, still makes late books returnable.

But late books really hurt the small publishers. I realize that they need the money and have to get the books out as soon as they are done, but I really wish that they would have all of the issues of a small series done before starting to ship. And this isn't necessarily just small guys. Image is notorious for late stuff. Bad Dog was at least 6 months late. I have no idea where Four Eyes is, but I doubt anyone that was reading it will care when the next issue comes out.

My only real requirement for telling if a book is good is "Do I want to read the next one?" Unfortunately, out of sight out of mind. I might be loving a book, but if I forget about it, I am less likely to grab the next issue when it comes out. And if it were to come out on a week like this one, it really wouldn't stand a chance. "Do I want to get the next (insert big event tie-in) or get this book that I think I liked but its been so long I really don't remember what is going on in it?" So they kill their own sales and wonder why the market won't support them. And for every small company title that gets abandoned and never finished, the entire industry loses the trust of a customer and store in ordering small company stuff. That is wasted time and money for all involved.

So, please, don't ship all of you books at once. And if you can't hit some sort of schedule, please wait until you have most of the work done before sending it out.

Your readers and buyers will thank you.