A sample:
THE PULSE: Speaking of tough, in these economic times it must be a challenge to find the funds to self-publish your own work, especially considering how hard it is to get potential readers to try a new book. How long did it take you to save enough to collect your short stories "the road ...," Li'l Kids?
ALLAN: Well, the costing and expense tends to be a subtle thing. The main expense has been lost income as I gave up a full-time job to do art. So there's been part-time and freelance work, but I definitely lost money doing art full-time. I consider it an investment in my future, though, so that's not a big deal. In terms of actually self-publishing, though, I've done things in a bit of a different way than traditional offset printing. I printed "Li'l Kids" using Lightning Source (LSI), a print on demand company owned by Ingram. The reason I went with LSI over other POD companies like Lulu is that they have an unparalleled ability to feed data through a variety of channels. That's meant that my little book is available in many more places than it would have been if I had done it through anyone else. And what's amazing about it is that it's done in an extremely cost-effective way; in a nutshell, I'm using a short discount publishing model that's more closely aligned with academic book publishers than it is traditional small press comic book publishers. With very little effort on my part, my book is available through retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and also distributors like Ingram and Baker & Taylor. And on and on.
Where my book is not available is with Diamond and thus Direct Market retailers. That probably won't change anytime soon. Why I chose this model and my rational behind it is probably something we just won't have time to get into now. I do think, however, that the next decade or so is going to change fundamentally how graphic novels are delivered. While I'll never fault Diamond for what they do (they are a remarkably efficient distributor), the problems for small press that deal with them are daunting (discounts off cover to the tune of 60%-65%, short discounts to retailers (to the tune of 45% and lower), the re-order penalty if a retailer sells out, and the lack (for the most part) of any type of stocking support over and above initial retailer orders). The math is pretty simple and straightforward and it's not good. A publisher needs to really understand what they're getting into when working with Diamond and, on top of it, what Direct Market retailers will need to make sure they try a book (always remember that when dealing with non-returnable material at less than ideal discounts, retailers will always order cautiously if there isn't a proven track record and other clear marketing interest from their customer base).
The danger, I think, that both Diamond and retailers face is that other avenues of publishing and distribution have opened up over the past 10 years or so. Webcomics being an obvious example. By side-stepping the Direct Market channel and using a short discount philosophy for graphic novels, creators and publishers can be profitable by selling far fewer copies then they'd need to in comic shops. If new talent can't find a way onto store shelves, then the intelligent ones will look elsewhere. They'll develop their talent elsewhere and then, down the road, when they're more established may not look at the Direct Market at all. I think the danger of being stale is actually something that more retailers as well as Diamond should consider.
Hopefully I'm not yabbering like a mad man. :)
Von
- Mood:
calm
RSS Feed: Via Feedburner
Von's Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com/VonAllan
The road to god knows..., Von's full-length graphic novel, can be read online in its entirety right here.
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
vonandmoggy- vonandmoggy
- Von Allan
Comments
BTW, will you be coming to DC for the Small Press Expo next week?
Hugs and smiles,
Jean Marie
SPX: no, unfortunately not. Until we can figure out a way to make conventions cost-effective, we're going to be passing on them. We're still paying off the four we went to (two APE's and two SPX's) so it's definitely not in the cards anytime soon. Flying in from another country just makes it too expensive. Heh. Maybe they'll make me guest of honour one day (bwah hah hah!).
Von