Distribution of self published comics

[Anomic]

Hello All,
I???m starting to do some preliminary research into printing and distribution of self published comics, so I can factor these in to the launch and marketing side of my miniscule budget.

Does anyone have info on the best way to distribute comics nationally or is it a case of contacting individual comic book stores and negotiating some kind of percentage/commission deal?

What is the going rate mot comic book stores will skim off the sale of an item (15-20%) ?

What???s the best way to assure your comic is well stocked on shelves across the nation is it really relying on disaffected staff over the phone?
(see other thread for full rant on this)

[douglasbot]

Distribution is the killer. Best way i can see is...make an anthology that encompasses creators from around Australia...then get each of them to be a spokesperson for the book in their town. That way it's also not a favour from friends...it's a vested interest.
Make sure to keep an eye on book levels everytime they go into their local shop and don't be afraid to approach retailers.

Most comics stores take about 20 - 30%

Good luck.

d.

[Egofreaky]

For distro you've got 2 methods:

Getting a distributor or going it alone

If you go it alone, they're going to want 40%-50% of the cover price, and it'll be on sale or return. The bright side is, you actually get back the copies that don't sell.

With a distributor, unless it's Diamond, you're not even going to get the copies back. The actual thing is sale or it gets binned. A dsitributor is going to want 50%-70% of the cover price, however, they will be able to get it into so many more stores.
I seriously recommend havinga crack at going through Diamond, and telling them you've only got a budget for X number of copies. Chances are the order will max out, and provided you an get it to them on time, it's on a sale only basis, which means that you are gauranteed that many sales and don't have to worry about returns.

[David Bird]

Anyone out there know exactly what the threshold for solicited copies is with Diamond, before they actually take your book on?
(That's assuming you've satisfied their criteria for a slick enough publication in the first place)

Cheers

[Daren White]

They'll want to see revenue of US$1000. They take around 60% and so you'll need to gross US$1667. So based on US$2.95 cover price they need to think you'll get orders upwards of 565.

[David Bird]

Thanks Daren

[Anomic]

Given the large percentage skimmed off point of sale has anyone tried to offset this through advertising I am particularly interested if anyone has struck deals with major comic book chains i.e. if I advertise your store on the inside front cover will you reduce the percentage?

[Egofreaky]

Well, there are no major comic chains in the country. The only chains I can think of Phantom Zone, and Comics R Us, and both only have 3 stores.

I've noticed a lot of the comics from the mid90s that got newstand distro also featured ads for comic stores.
I think a lot of comic stores don't want to advertise in stuff now cause it DOESN'T get the newstand distro... People are going directly to the comic shops to buy a copy, so they already know it's there. It's kinda like preaching to the choir in that respect.

I've tried to get advertising for OzTAKU in the past. The problem I came up against was that a lot of large companies, such as Atari and Nintendo, wanted the advertising at rock bottom prices... One media buyer gave me a figure that he expected to pay that was actually below the cost of what it would have been to print the actual page.
One problem is that your comic isn't going to have nearly the audience capacity that a professional magazine will. Why bother giving you $500 and get 1,500 viewers, when they can advertise in Nintendo DS mag or whatever for $12,000 and get 150,000? (that's the way MadMan put it to me, although, they're still giving us dirt cheap printing rates).
You really need to capture a large audience if you want advertising. You have to be able to sell your audience. The bigger the audience, the easier it is to sell. It also helps if you're willing to go part in to bat for the advertising company as well. OzTAKU is offering to do product placements in certain comics designed to be advertorials for our global release, anda number of companies have thought this a VERY itneresting concept (some had no idea what the hell we were talking about... "Who would pay attention to the cartoon character?" "Ummm, everyone reading it. They bought it because it's a comic book, so they're paying attention to the comic characters..." "ohhh... I still don't get it.")

The long and short of it is, unless you're going to have a readership of at least 10,000, you're going to have a REALLY hard time trying to sell advertising space. A couple have managed to do it with recent releases, but it's going to be a hard push.

[BMB]

Hi,
I know this threads been dead for a while but I only recently discovered this site so I've been reading all the posts ( and learning heaps, thanks all! )

As I have seen written elsewhere here, you've all heard many people talking about their intentions to do this or that but not much of this talk bearing fruit, so I'll spare you my plans to take over the world....MUHAHAHA!

This thread has answered my own questions regarding comic specialty stores distrubution, but I was wondering if any of you could give me details about Newsagent distribution, looking through some of my mid-90's comics I saw a few with credits to two separate distributors, one for the comic specialists, and the other for the newsagents (usually Gordon and Gotch)

I'm very keen on getting anything I do into newsagents, because as a teenager I lived a couple of hours from Melbourne ( Warragul ) so if it wasn't in my local newsie, I only rarely got a chance to know of an Aussie comics existence. Is it still a viable option? I went overseas for a few years so I'm out of the loop, any info would be great!

[Anomic]

Hey BMB
I asked a similar question a while ago??
http://forums.pulpfaction.net/viewtopic.php?t=882

might be worth asking those that popped their heads up

[BMB]

Thanks!

[BMB]

Thanks!

(whoops, I must have pressed submit twice, soz! )

[Egofreaky]

Gordon & Gotch refuse to touch comics that aren't from a [i]MAJOR[i/] publisher these days.

[BMB]

I rang them earlier today and asked for any info on what criteria I would have to meet, and she said she would e-mail me their guidelines factsheet right away..............I think I'll call again tomorrow!

[Laocorn]

"I rang them earlier today and asked for any info on what criteria I would have to meet, and she said she would e-mail me their guidelines factsheet right away..............I think I'll call again tomorrow!"

If you get that email, any chance I can get a copy? laocorn_69@hotmail.com cheers.