Post by Deleted on May 31, 2015 22:59:23 GMT -5
May 31, 2015 22:49:09 GMT -5 @mrp said:
Floppies have print runs of tens of thousands, trades (unless it's something that catches the zeitgeist like Walking Dead, rarely break 10K print runs for Diamond and the book trade combined. They are not enough to sustain the industry or a shop. They are a supplementary piece of the industry. It's apperently enough to sustain the shop I now frequent, which sells essentially nothing but trades. Those print runs you quote are only for the first printing. Make quality comics and it will go to a second printing. You think Maus only had 10k copies printed? Persepolis? DKR? How about Elfquest? They've been bragging about 100k units of their Father Tree Press volumes sold, 30 years ago. Elfquest volume 1 is STILL IN PRINT, and although I love Elfquest, it's not exactly popular.
May 31, 2015 22:49:09 GMT -5 @mrp said:
Brian Hibbs compiles the Book Scan numbers every year for trades sold in the book market (i.e. non-Diamond sales) in his Tilting at Windmills column and the Diamond numbers are available. Trade sales overall are shrinking not growing. That includes the spike in sales from Walking Dead and encompasses manga sold in bookstores as well. Floppies are growing marginally, but trades are shrinking, particularly manga which is down a significant percentage in sales from its peak a decade ago. The data is out there if you want to check numbers before you make assertions about what sectors of the market are growing and shrinking. I am not sure what data you are using to put forward the idea trade sales are increasing because available data doesn't bear that out.
Shrinking compared to when? Also, exclude manga from the equation and how do the numbers look?
May 31, 2015 22:49:09 GMT -5 @mrp said:
As for NEw York Times bestsellers and how they affect the market. The first softcover trade of new52 I, Vampire was a NYT bestseller, and the book was cancelled a few months later because those sales were not enough for the book to make a profit and keep getting published as a floppy.
It wasn't a NYT bestseller for a hundred consecutive weeks though, was it? Mainstream comics squeek in there for a week or two at a time, maybe five weeks if it's tied to a movie, and that's it. Also, the expectations of the mega corporate comic companies is different than other publishers, probably because of the number of executives and shareholders with their hands in the pot, but anyway, other companies thrive with sales numbers like these.
May 31, 2015 22:49:09 GMT -5 @mrp said:
Also one major factor you seem to not take into account when looking at sales of comics between your 1985 period and current-prices of comics in that time have increased at a higher rate than inflation. Price affects sales a whole lot more than quality when the price increases higher than other goods on the market. That price increase rate has nothing to do with trades vs. floppies or legacy numbering, but it is one of the primary reasons sales on comics are down and shrinking relative to past levels of sales. These things matter and without considering them, comparing current sales and sales from past decades is just comparing apples and oranges. There is no correlation between the two.
-M