Originally Posted by
MRP
That's where opportunity costs comes in. Image has a small staff that can only do so much work in a day. If you take up their time and effort on one title, you can't put them on another. The flat fee is per issue (trades are slightly different) and it is less work to keep selling a successful title than to continuously launch new titles. Retailers know what to order on established titles, less so with new books, especially if the creators don't have a track record. Also, failing titles can be a disincentive for future clients. If a book doesn't sell enough to cover the fee, the creators get nothing for the book, which is not a good situation for the creators or for Image themselves. Having a successful track record brings more creators to Image looking to publish there. Having a rep for quality books goes a long way with getting retailers to order new titles as well. Building some kind of customer confidence (and the real customers for publishers in the direct market are retailers who order the books and those orders determine success or failure of a book) is essential to success in the direct market where retailers buy books on a non-returnable basis. So taking the fees and just publishing whatever might have some short term appeal in terms of making a quick buck, but it's not a sound long term strategy for building a successful business plan and a publishing house that continues to attract both creators and retailers.
-M